Amalfi Coast itinerary help

[mrsd2006]

Do you need a car here? We are looking at mid May, hopefully before it gets too crowded. 

We are looking to fly into Rome, then flight to Naples

Spend the first night in Naples. Or should we skip this? I see a lot of negative things about Naples, but we'll probably be tired after an overnight flight from ATL. 


Spend the next 3 nights in Ravello (there's a hotel here DH realllly wants to stay at) 

Or should we do 2 nights in Ravello and three nights in the next place?

Next two (or three?) nights in Sorrento or Positano? I can't decide. 

Last night- back to Naples for an early flight. 



Thanks! 

[dutchgirl678]

When I visited the Amalfi coast I stayed in Sorrento for several nights and then in a small town called Vietri sul Mare (because I attended a wedding there). Sorrento was great as I visited Naples for one day taking the train, visited Pompeii another day (also by train), took the ferry to Capri, and took the bus to Amalfi and on to Vietri. I wold not want to drive there, the roads are super narrow and windy and on one side there is a steep cliffside down to the ocean. Our hotel in Sorrento offered a shuttle service to drop us off in the center or at the train station.

[jwright]

We visited Amalfi Coast in May this year. We flew overnight from Atlanta through Paris and into Naples; we then had a driver take us immediately to Amalfi. We stayed in the town of Amalfi for five nights with day trips to Ravello (which included vineyard and some other small town stops) and Capri. We then stayed two additional nights in Positano. We spent the last night in Naples because of a very early flight out.

I would avoid staying in Naples if possible; several people warned us against it and our driver upon our arrival urged us to cancel our room and leave Positano at two in the morning to catch the flight instead. We ended up having a decent dinner and drinks and spent a lot of time resting in the hotel, but I would not vacation there.

We were in Positano May 22 and 23 and found it way too crowded. We would have stayed in Amalfi and just daytripped there had we known. My biggest piece of advice is to have a plan. Maybe it is just us but not having anything scheduled and getting swept up in throngs of people on the tiny streets of Positano was overwhelming and unenjoyable. It was fine in Ravello and Amalfi but Positano (and the entry port at Capri) were just too much. Highly recommend Da Paolino restaurant on Capri, awesome food and wine in a lemon grove and the winery Tenuta San Francesco in the town of Tramanti was excellent.

[mrsd2006]

Aug 30, 2019 8:16:09 GMT -5 jwright said:

We visited Amalfi Coast in May this year. We flew overnight from Atlanta through Paris and into Naples; we then had a driver take us immediately to Amalfi. We stayed in the town of Amalfi for five nights with day trips to Ravello (which included vineyard and some other small town stops) and Capri. We then stayed two additional nights in Positano. We spent the last night in Naples because of a very early flight out.

I would avoid staying in Naples if possible; several people warned us against it and our driver upon our arrival urged us to cancel our room and leave Positano at two in the morning to catch the flight instead. We ended up having a decent dinner and drinks and spent a lot of time resting in the hotel, but I would not vacation there.

We were in Positano May 22 and 23 and found it way too crowded. We would have stayed in Amalfi and just daytripped there had we known. My biggest piece of advice is to have a plan. Maybe it is just us but not having anything scheduled and getting swept up in throngs of people on the tiny streets of Positano was overwhelming and unenjoyable. It was fine in Ravello and Amalfi but Positano (and the entry port at Capri) were just too much. Highly recommend Da Paolino restaurant on Capri, awesome food and wine in a lemon grove and the winery Tenuta San Francesco in the town of Tramanti was excellent.

Thanks! We decided to skip the first night in Naples and do three nights in Sorrento and 3 in Ravello, then back to Naples for the night before the early flight. 

Do you recall the company that you arranged the driver through? It sounds like you didn't have a car. Did you find it easy to travel in the area on the bus or ferry? 

[jwright]

We did not have a car. Traffic was a nightmare; we were stuck in many congestions going between cities and it took hours to get from Positano back to Naples to fly out.

We used Positano Taxi Tony based on Tripadvisor and other online recommendations. He was great! On the way in, we got Tony himself and he was friendly, funny and informative. He can also set up other tours for you. We told him we wanted to stop for a glass of wine along the way and he was very accommodating. On the way back we had someone else from his company who was not as fun, but still got the job done. Our travel companions also used him from Rome to Amalfi and got a different driver, who was nice but not as outgoing apparently, but again got the job done.

Once we were in Amalfi, our hotel had a free shuttle into town and arranged for most of our transportation. We never tried the bus. We also did a private boat charter to Capri so we did not try the ferry. I would never try to drive, we had a friend get carsick and we were all a little nervous just being passengers.