A base to explore Paestum and Pompeii

Sorrento seems the obvious choice. It’s easy to get to Pompeii by train from there. When we went, we took a day tour to Paestum, because the train seemed just too cumbersome. You might also check out Salerno.

I highly recommend Salerno. We had a great stay there last year. We visited both places (Paestum and Pompeii) by train with ease. I talk about our stay here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/salerno-67b65651-b7f1-43eb-a5c0-b9b56c5c903c

Sorrento is a great place to stay. It's easy to catch the train and a wonderful city to return to each day.

We stayed in Napoli for 3 nights, one for recovery, one for Pompeii and one for the museum. In between time was spent exploring and enjoying the people of Napoli. Travelled by train to Paestum for one night. Paestum site come to life under the stars and lights. We really enjoyed the eats, you can not go wrong with a local eatery. We walked to the beach, probably would not return. You may need ear plugs if you stay a night. This is not a party town but there must be a night shift somewhere near! Having been in the area I would now stay in Salerno after a return to Napoli. Salerno has a beautiful light display for Christmas and Winter.

I love Sorrento and it is certainly easy to get to Pompeii from there on the Circumvesuviana local train. You can do a full day tour to both Salerno and Paestum from Sorrento, which seems like a really good idea, leaving the driving to someone else and making efficient use of your time.

hazelzomm, I myself visited Pompeii (and also Herculaneum) on a day trip from a Sorrento. Also visited Paestum ruins and museum) plus a stop and stroll through Salerno) on a day trip from Naples. All that by easy train travel. If you want to do all that and avoid moving from one lodging to another, you can do that from either Naples or Salerno. From Sorrento, according to reports on this forum, it would be a long, and perhaps expensive or difficult day if you tried to visit Paestum in one day from Sorrento. By the way, I had read that late afternoons showed off the Paestum ruins in the best light, and I found that to be true. Also the modest museum by the ruins is excellent, displaying art and artifacts from the ruins and showing how colorful the temples were, back in the day. Really added to the experience. The museum is closed one day a week, Monday I think, so confirm that schedule and don’t visit Paestum that day.

We went to Paestum on a day trip from Positano, on the bus, but on a subsequent trip we stayed in Sorrento. Much better place to stay. More to do, greater range of places to stay. And right on the Circumvesuviana, so it's easy to make excursions from there.

Look at a map and pinpoint Naples, Sorrento, Salerno and Paestum. Also add where you'll be before and after these 3 nights.

To get to Sorrento, you have to take the local commuter train, Circumvesuviana, from the Naples train station to Sorrento. The train runs about every half hour and the ride takes about 1-1.25 hours. Once you're settled in Sorrento, it's easy to get to Pompeii on the same Circumvesuviana line, about 30-40 minutes' ride. Getting to Paestum is not easy. You first have to get to Salerno - by ferry or by bus, then take the train or bus to Paestum. I'm told the bus is better because it's closer to the sight than the train station. I don't know if you can get a ferry that goes right to Salerno or if you have to change somewhere or how long it would take - provided you are going to be there in tourist season when the ferries are running. The bus line from Sorrento only goes as far as Amalfi, then you'd take another bus to Salerno. My guess is that it's upwards of two hours on the bus just to Salerno. With a private driver, and without traffic delays, it's about a 2 hour drive (not along the coast) from Sorrento to Paestum. In other words, this is only doable by car.

If you stay in Salerno, you can take the high speed train to get there. Then you are well-located for a day trip to Paestum. It's not as convenient to get to Pompeii as it would be from Sorrento, but it's a helluva lot faster and easier to get to Pompeii from Salerno than to Paestum from Sorrento. You can take the train to modern Pompeii, then a short taxi ride or a long walk (about a mile?) to the ruins. All in all about the same amount of time as from Sorrento, just more money (not that much more).

It will most likely be easier to take the train from Salerno than from Sorrento to your next destination.

Chani, what great advice. It applies to any ‘where to base’ question. Researching different scenarios is invaluable.

Your experience is so very helpful to us all. Thanks.

Chani's assessment is absolutely correct.

One point I will clarify. We visited Pompeii from Salerno. It is more like a 1/2 mile walk from the train station to the back entrance. It is VERY easy and a pleasant walk. I explained how to do it in the link I posted earlier in this thread. Truly, for convenient transportation to Pompeii and Paestum, Salerno is the place to be. Not to mention that it is a beautiful, friendly city. . . If Herculaneum is a priority to visit, than Salerno is not very convenient. We did it, but it was not easy.

It is not practical to daytrip to Paestum from Sorrento. This would be especially true in summer, when the single road from Sorrento to Salerno is packed with busses and cars, stopping as the busses ease their ways around each other and obstacles, and drivers pause to take photographs. I'm not saying it is impossible, it just leaves you will a microscopic amount of time at a large attraction.

You can't even get from Sorrento to Salerno on one public bus; it takes two, with latency in between!

Yes, the Circumvesuviana is very convenient for daytrips from Sorrento. But only for daytrips to places that the Circumvesuviana goes to!

We stayed in Sorrento last October and took a day trip by bus to Paestum - it was very worthwhile, inexpensive and easy. Goldentours, which was recommended by our hotel, runs the trip once a week on Tuesdays - i think it was 42 Eu for the guided tour plus the admission to the museum in Paestum.

clairems, October is an ideal time (if there is one) to be on the highway on the Amalfi Coast. But could you please tell us how much time you had off the bus in Paestum? Thanks.

Just to clarify, we did the Amalfi coast as a separate day trip from Sorrento and hired a driver from Moretti's Taxi - Rick recommends - in fact, our driver, Rafaelo, appears in Amalfi program with Rick - he was excellent, btw.

The bus takes the highway which is less scenic but more time efficient allowing more time in Paestum. We stopped for about an hour in Salerno before arriving in Paestum - I believe that we had about 3 hours total in Paestum which was a good amount of time to tour the ruins, have lunch and a guided tour of the museum before returning to Sorrento around 6:30pm.