Amalfi Coast - change locations?

It will depend on your priorities. The Amalfi Coast is a challenging region when it comes to transportation and so I'd recommend that you determine what you want to see to prioritize a location. We based ourselves in Sorrento for 11 days in April and loved it. Only 2 of our days were spent on the Amalfi Coast as we had prioritized Pompeii and the other Vesuvius explosion explosion sites.

Here's a link to my Trip Report if you want some reading. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-2-weeks-of-day-trips-from-sorrento

We have stayed on the Amalfi coast twice and still have not been to Sorrento. As Allan says, it depends on you and what you want to see and do.

Consider using Salerno as a base. We did just that in April of 2022. Excellent transportation connections, and less expensive than the more touristy towns farther up the coast.

From Salerno, we made arrangements with the owner of our B&B for a ride along the coast as far as Amalfi. On the way, we spent a couple of hours in Ravello, which we loved - especially Villa Cimbrone. In Amalfi, we had chartered a small boat from a company based in Salerno to take us up to Positano and back to Salerno. We had the option to get off the boat in Positano, but even in April it just looked too crowded to be any fun - gorgeous from the water though. We also took a day trip to Paestum, with a stop at a water buffalo farm.

Before Salerno, we stayed in Pompei for a few nights to see Pompeii, Ercolano, Stabiae, and Oplontis.

Sorrento is good for Pompeii, Herculaneum, Naples and Capri. By using the Circumvesuvian and ferry.

As noted above, Salerno is a good way to see Paestum by train or bus. Positano, Amalfi, Atrani, (Ravello by ferry & bus) Minori, Maiori, Cetara & Vietri sul mare by using the Travel Mar ferry.

https://www.travelmar.it/en/timetable-from-april-2023

The busses are very slow and crowded.

Personally, I think it’s worth splitting your stay between Sorrento and an AC town. There is an ungodly amount of people day tripping onto, then off of the Amalfi Coast everyday. I think it’s best to avoid being a part of that. It’s just added stress and lost time imo. I ended my Amalfi Coast days by walking past an endless snarl of cars for a dip in the ocean followed by a relaxed dinner, thankful I didn’t have to endure the commute. I literally can’t imagine having to do that and being able to enjoy the coast (though people do.)

Likewise for Sorrento though. It is ideal for visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, Naples and Capri. If your itinerary includes any of these sites, Sorrento is an excellent choice.

You have good advice. It's important to understand that transit mobility is not cheap unless you are in Salerno or Sorrento. (And the bus between those two requires a change in Amalfi, but that's an unusually long ride; Part of the reason Paestum is almost impossible as a low-cost daytrip from Sorrento.)

But you have to determine if the place on the actual AC you are staying meets your "needs" for several days, whatever those needs are. I wanted to "see" famous Positano, which tends to be expensive, but it was an overpriced-boutique disappointment to me. And its beach is all pebbles, small and crowded. Don't expect early May to be deserted. Ravello, was even lovelier than I expected. But it's hundreds of feet above any beach and 20 minutes away. If I stayed in Ravello (which we didn't) I'd stay at the over $800 a night resort that has a PRIVATE beach club and a shuttle down to it. Note that the gulf water can be cold ahead of and after season! I should add that Sorrento has only one public beach, tiny and scented of the marinas on either side of it. The biggest hotels have private swimming boardwalks reached from their elevators.

There are less crowded towns than Positano, especially if you don't demand a walkable beach. (And in Positano, a walkable beach from a low-budget room might be hundreds (hundreds) of steps back to the room.) I'm not slamming the AC, just saying that five nights in Sorrento, with a car and driver for 8 hours on the AC, was just right for US.

Thank you everyone so much! A big draw is Pompeii so we are good for that, and then we do want to explore the Amalfi towns, so it sounds like maybe we are in a good position to do so.

There are ferries from Sorento to Amalfi and Capri for fun day trips.

We were in Sorrento a couple of weeks ago using it for a base to see a Amalfi coast, Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was the perfect place to stay. You can catch the train into Naples or catch the bus or ferry from Sorrento. The cost is minimal.