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Amalfi, Capri, Pompei in July

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I would love recommendations for the time period that we (Family of 5, kids 18, 16, 12) are in the Amalfi Coast. We can stay a total of 5 nights. We are flying in to Naples. The tentative plan was to stay in Sorrento for at least 3 nights - Activities for the following three days do Pompeii, Capri (boat tour around island, maybe island) and the third day to do the Path of the Gods hike and take the ferry back from Positano to Sorrento.

Questions:
1-Do you recommend after the third night, stay in Positano or somewhere else on the Amalfi coast for 2 more nights?
2-After those activities, head away from the coast and crowds to another town between Sorrento and Florence? Any suggestions?
3-Head to Florence early and stay one night near the city?
3-We will be staying for 6 days in Tuscany (so we were going to see Florence 1 day during that time) then we will head to Rome

Thank you, exciting but overwhelming.
Stephanie

Posted by
2860 posts

We were on the amalfi coast in July a few years ago and it can be hot!! Get moving as early as possible. Pompeii has no shade to speak of and we ended on on a crowded not air conditioned train coming back to Sorrento.

I would spend 3 nights in Amalfi. The Path of the Gods hike is much easier from Amalfi than Sorrento. We stayed in Sorrento and went to Mt Vesuvius one day and Pompeii a second. We then took the SITA BUS to Amalfi. To do the hike, you have to take the bus to Bomerano. When you get to Nocelle where it ends, you can buy bus tickets to Positano at a convenience store that is on your left hand hand side. Much easier than walking down all the steps! We then walked to the waterfront and took a ferry back to amalfi. It was lovely.

So if you do the hike from a Sorrento you would first have to take a bus to Amalfi anyway.
And then a second bus to Bomerano. Of course, it may be possible to join a tour that provides transportation from Sorrento. We did it on our own.

You can take a bus to Ravello from amalfi. It is a lovely town and we visited a garden there. We then walked back through an agricultural area and through the town of Atrani, through a tunnel, and into Amalfi.

Posted by
17 posts

Following, we are planning a similar trip with similarly aged kids. We will be there at the end of June and are staying in Sorrento as a home base for our 3 day Amalfi Coast visit. We are staying in Naples later and will see Pompeii from there so hoping for a Capri day and a Path of Gods day while in Sorrento. Trying to figure out our last AC day and considering package tours for our stay after reading about summer crowds making public transportation less reliable. Read good things about Zia Lucy and may use her for Path of Gods day.

Would love feedback about reasonable, personable tour packages out of Sorrento. Private or small group tours to Capri that allow time for swimming and exploring? I want this section of our trip to be fun and adventurous for the kids. And know they will remember time spent in water.

And tips for managing getting around during high tourist season. Hoping utilizing ferries out of Sorrento is easy to arrange.

Posted by
8007 posts

I want to suggest to both the OP and the added poster that you will need to do much more research than you can get in a single thread on this newsboard. (The search box top center may get you a lot more data on a very frequently researched topic.) But there are so many unique aspects to Sorrento, Naples, and the nearby Amalfi Coast that you are way behind in planning for a complex (I'm not saying "to a remote place", but it's not that easy to get around) trip.

Just a dusting of issues are savage traffic that will delay a private car as much as it does a SITA bus, small pebble-only beaches, fully-booked ferries, advance discounts for non-changeable (long distance) train tickets, physical characteristics of Capri, need to book Sorrento hotels six or more months in advance, hundreds of stairs in Positano, appropriately high prices for taxis and private car-driver journeys that take an hour or more.

Since these are not "new" issues, you might wish to go to the public library and look at any Amalfi Coast guidebook, but especially our host's, because it is so easy to read.

Posted by
17 posts

I do have the guide book which brought me here plus 5 other books from the library. And I already have booked all accommodations. I have a tentative booking for one travel day to path of gods.

Thanks for tips!

Posted by
847 posts

The key will be getting up early. If you get to the bus stop in Sorrento about a half hour before the first bus and get on line you will hopefully be fine in terms of getting on that bus ( and getting a seat on the right side). I have done that on several trips (in July - but the most recent was about 5 years ago, it's possible it's gotten that much more crowded. But typically people sleep in on vacations so showing up at the bus stop around 9 or 10 is when you are likely to run into such crowds that you might not get on the bus.

As noted above, it is easier to do the Path of the Gods if you are based in Amalfi than Sorrento but if you get that first bus it is certainly doable. Another great hike is from Ravello down to Atrani (and then on over to Amalfi). You take the bus UP to Ravello. You can tour the villas up there before you start the walk down. Another good one is the hike on Capri down the Phoenician steps ( again, bus us, explore the town up top and walk down).

I have photos of both these last two hikes in this gallery - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p266655284
The Ravello hike starts at photo 207 and the Capri one at 236

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