Amalfi Coast - First Time

Linda,
All of the question you ask are covered very well in Rick Steves' Italy Guidebook. I'd suggest reading that first. Then you may have some more specific detailed questions to ask, but the book is a great resource and starting point. Personally I think Sorrento makes a great base for exploring, and there have been a number of Sorrento hotel discussion on this board lately. You might want to peruse those.

She is asking for some specific advice: Restaurants, how many days would be appropriate, hotels, sites. I think it's rude to just tell her to get the guidebook! I am not an expert on the Amalfi Coast, but some of you have specific knowledge and can help her out.

Hubby and I did Amalfi last fall. We found Positano the nicest with the best food. Sorrento was fun but we both liked Positano better. Naples is Naples. Spent two days there and it was enough. As Rick says nitty, gritty Naples.

We stayed at Hotel California in Positano. Employees were all friendly, spoke English very well, and the hotel was spotless. Nice restaurant next door for eats. Get a balcony room off the front of the hotel. Gorgeous unblocked views of the bay. So pretty at night.

Took a high speed boat to Capri and spent a day. Boats leave right off the beach in Positano. Just go down to the water and buy tickets.

Lots of tourist restaurants along Amalfi coast. High prices and bad food.

Took city bus to Amalfi for a day from Positano.

Ahh Rome. Can't wait to go back. Spent a week and could of spent another week easily.

Linda - I sure did not mean to be rude as Donna implied! I just thought you might benefit form a little research on your own first. For example, someone can tell you they loved Positano, then you would get there and find out it is all stairs and hills and maybe you would not like that. By reading a guidebook first, you can find out some of the pros and cons of the various A.C. towns and options. Do you want to be close to Pompeii and take most of your day trips on a train, or do you want to take bus trips up-and-down the coast? AS to making hotel recommendations, knowing your budget would help, and it's hard to make restaurant reservations unless we know which town you have decided on. So I stick by my advice to read a guidebook - especially Ricks' since he is very descriptive in pros and cons. I hope you do not think my advice rude.

To begin with, Laurel's suggestion to start with the Guidebook was perfectly reasonable (IMHO). That's often the best way for new travellers to find places in a particular area that best fit their preferences and what they want to see. The Guidebook also provides information on transportation, museum hours and many other important details. That's not to say that we can't still provide specific advice from our own experience in that area as a supplement to the information on the Guidebook.

Regarding the questions.....

Justlyng, it would help to have some idea on how many days you have to spend in the Amalfi Coast area? What prompted the desire to visit that area, and is there anything in particular (other than Pompeii) that you want to see? A few thoughts......

• Naples: Naples has a bit of a reputation, especially for pickpockets, but if you don't venture into the more "dodgy" areas, you shouldn't have a problem. Be especially careful on public transit and be sure to wear a Money Belt! The Archeological Museum is well worth a visit, and you might find it more interesting to hire one of the local Guides listed in the Guidebook (Pina Esposito is exceptional). I also really enjoyed the Veiled Christ in the Sansevero Chapel Museum. Of course, be sure to try Pizza in the place where it was invented. I'd suggest staying in the area near Piazza del Plebscito and I'd highly recommend Hotel Chiaia in that area. Be sure to stop by Caffe Gambrinus for a pastry or Limoncello (you may never want to leave!).
• Sorrento: Especially as you want to visit Pompeii, it would be a good idea to plan at three or four days here. Pompeii (and Herculaneum) are easily accessible using the local Circumvesuviana train (be especially vigilant for pickpockets here). The entrance to the site is only about a two minute walk from the station. Again, you may find it more interesting to hire a Guide for Pompeii. You can either use one listed in the Guidebook, or just take your chances as you'll likely be approached by Guides as you enter the site. I'm sure the group will have lots of suggestions for hotels, but a few that you could look at are La Tonnarella (far end of town, a bit upscale), Hotel Desiree (next to Tonnarella, less expensive but perfectly comfortable and the staff are wonderful), Il Nido (a beautiful hotel with great views on the hill above town but they provide frequent free shuttle service) or Hotel Settimo Cielo. Be sure to check Trip Advisor ratings on each property. If your budget can afford it, one restaurant that I'd highly recommend is L'Antica Trattoria. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
• Positano: Also a beautiful town, and for that reason it's often used in movies (such as Under The Tuscan Sun). It's more difficult to reach as it doesn't have rail access, which means you'll either have to take a Bus or Taxi from Sorrento. The town is all hills, so if you go downhill to get to the harbour, it will take some effort to get back to the hotel (good exercise though). If your budget will allow, I'm sure you'd be VERY comfortable at Le Sirenuse (often wins awards), but for more modest budgets I'd recommend Hotel Savoia. I found it very comfortable.
• Capri: A visit to the scenic Isle of Capri is a nice day trip, which is easily done from either Sorrento or Positano. There's LOTS of high-end shops there, so BRING MONEY. I haven't bothered with the Blue Grotto, but that's an option if you wish. You have to take a Funicular from the harbour up to town. If you're heading back to the harbour for the last boat and there's a huge queue at the Funicular, I'd suggest a Taxi.

Running out of room so that's all for now.

Happy travels!

I've been to the Amalfi Coast many times. If you take the bus down the coast, be sure to sit on the right-hand side. It's nice to take a boat back to Sorrento, or if you are staying in the Amalfi area, do the boat first and take the bus going to Amalfi.

Many people love Sorrento, I prefer the Amalfi area. I like to stay in Ravello - Ravello Rooms is nice. Ravello is up the hill from Amalfi itself - take a bus or taxi. See the cathedral in Amalfi (lots of stairs), the city was one of the four great maritime powers in Italy. There are dozens of great seafood restaurants in the area. Roberto likes to stay in Positano and if he posts he'll have lots of recommendations.

There is a well-advertised Emerald Grotto, rather underwhelming in my opinion, but if you have the time...speaking of which, three or four days would be nice. You can spend a couple of nights in Naples and visit Pompeii and Ercolano from there, then go to the Amalfi Coast for three days or more.

The area is well-known for paper (Amalfi has a museum), ceramics, and limoncello.

If you get further south, Paestum is one of my favorite places. Good museum, fabulous ruins, and a beach! Hotel staff will pick you up at the train station and drop you off. I love Hotel Poseidonia Mare near the beach (there's a campground with a similar name, you want the hotel).
When are you going?

Have a great trip.

We are going in September, staying at Hotel Mignon (Sorrento) for 3 nights and Hotel Villa Rita in Paestum for 2 nights. We plan to hire a private guide in Naples and for the day trip along the Amalfi Coast, starting in Sorrento and ending in Paestum, and maybe another guide in Pompeii. I am looking at Monetti Taxi Service, recommended by Rick and two others - Guemar Travel (newer family business, gets excellent reviews on Trip Advisor) and Amalfi Coast Drivers (Private Tours of Southern Italy), which seems bigger and very organized....Has anyone traveled with any of these services? In Paestum, in addition to seeing the temples and museum, we hope to visit the bufalo mozzarella farm nearby. After Paestum, we want to take the train to Sicily - We will not have a car so need take a taxi to some train station and then take the train all the away to Cefalu, Sicily, where we will spend a couple of nights before going on to Palermo. Has anyone done this?
KR

The owners of Villa Rita (I stayed there one year) will pick you up and drive you back to the train station in Paestum, just let them know when you are arriving. Cefalu is wonderful - the cathedral is amazing. There's a restaurant with a trellis entrance to the outdoor dining area off to the side of the piazza in front of the cathedral, great food and service, sometimes a pianist. Are you staying anywhere else in Sicily? You can get to Segesta from Cefalu, it has a beautiful Greek temple in a stunning setting, with a shuttle bus to ruins of a theatre and town nearby. You can walk up to the theatre but it's quite a hike.

We have wandered off the original subject of Amalfi down to Sicily. I've not yet been to Amalfi, but I have spent weeks in Sicily, primarily North (Palermo, Cefalu) and East (Taormina to Syracuse). I will give my input to KR in Denver. Cefalu is the perfect place to rest up between heavy touring destinations. I stayed at Hotel le Calette which is sea-front, and even after spending the better part of a week in Taormina, I will tell you my jaw dropped at the view from the hotel! If you look them up on Booking.com or Tripadvisor, rest assured that the pictures don't do it justice! I did not find much of interest in the town of Cefalu, however, and found the Cathedral kind of mundane. Just my opinion, and compared to so many magnificent ornate churches in the rest of Italy/Sicily. If you're arriving by train, I'm assuming you will be arriving in Messina. You can take a regionale train to Cefalu and then to Palermo. Cefalu for me was just a nice rest by the sea, and I'd do it again, for this reason, and skip the town.

That being said, Taormina, which is just south of Messina, has not only spectacular views, Churches, restaurants, high end shopping, but also has the added feature of the magnificent Greek Theatre. Big acts stil come to perform there, and it is one of the best Greek Ruins in all of Sicily (some say Greece too). While we were there we hired an excellent guide through: magicofsicily.com We took a few day-trips with him to Mt. Etna, Gambino Vineyard, and Syracuse. We loved every minute of it. We also saved some $$ by renting an apartment through them rather than a hotel.
Best.Trip.Ever! Happy travels!

Thanks, Zoe and Donna, particularly for your tips on Paestum and Cefalu. Yes - we do envision Cefalu as an R&R destination for a couple of nights. Will take a look at Hotel le Calette. Our aim is to take the train from Paestum (I read that we might have to buy tickets and maybe even depart from another town, however - Maybe Rita at Hotel Villa Rita can help us make sense of this process) across to Sicily and on to Cefalu, spend 2 nights there and pick up another train (or alternatively, book a private transfer) to Palermo. After Palermo (will be looking for a private guide with excellent English skills in Palermo - to compensate in part for a severe hearing disability), we plan to rent a car and drive ourselves counter-clockwise around Sicily for a couple of weeks! We are really excited about this trip - Have driven all over central Italy, Some areas of France and Spain, but have never been south of Rome in Italy or to Sicily! Since we are seniors, we now look for more private guides and more help with luggage......

Back to discussion of Amalfi Coast touring, I now have interesting itineraries and input from Monetti, Guemar, Amalfi Coast Drivers and Amalfi Destination. Am waiting for information from one other. English speaking skills (hopefully speaking slowly and clearly to counter effects of heavy accent on hearing disability!) are pretty important. Anyone used any of these companies?
KR

We are returning to Ravello again this September for the 3rd time. We are staying at Punta Civita again and have also stayed at Villa San Cosma. I love the views from either. We like to stay in Ravello because the views are simply breathtaking. I could (and have) just sat for hours watching that view. Sorrento has more to do and is centrally locate but it's technically not the Amalfi Coast and although the view of the bay of Naples is beautiful, it's simply breathtaking from the other side of the peninsula.

At Punta Civita you need to be in decent shape because there are stairs everywhere. We happen to like that because we are forced to work off the wine and pasta, but it's not for everyone.

KR Denver: You probably need to open a new thread and with the heading Sicily. The only reason I was on this thread was because the Amalfi OP is my friend. I absolutely loved our guide in Taormina, but they do the East side of Sicily and not Palermo and West. You can certainly take the train from Cefalu to Palermo, and get a taxi to your hotel. I am also a senior now, and my husband is very hearing impaired. The last time I went to Sicily, I took two of my "girlfriends" and the guides carried our luggage, and carted us around to all the sites via private car. Perfect English and very well educated on the history of the Island.

If you look on Trip Advisor and get to Sicily there is a "destination expert" named "Vagabonda>" She's pretty much in control of all questions re Sicily. She can likely direct you to a private guide for the West side, including Palermo and South. In Palermo we stayed at Palace Centrale Hotel. It is very close to Palermo's most important sites. She is a Grand Old Dame! The restaurant on the Terrace is fabulous, and the breakfast room is Heavenly Endowed with Magnificent Chandeleirs.

You can, of course, do what I previously suggested and open a new thread on this site. I personally did not love Vagabonda on T.A., but other people have found her to be quite adequate.

If you do the complete circle of Sicily, and end up in Taormina, book with my guide through legendofsicily.com
Used them twice and they are very kind to us 'old folks."

If there's anything else that you need from me specifically, you can Private Message me.

Wow, great info her guys and gals :) I don't mean to hi-jack your post Linda. My Hubby and I are also planning a visit to Italy (first time)this coming June. I am in the process of planning now. I am wondering how you are planning to get around or anyone here who has already posted got around Italy? Was it cheaper to go by Plane, Train, Automobile etc..?? We would like to see Venice, Rome and Amalifi in about 9-10 days before hooking up with friends at their place in Germany.. So I am also looking for any travel tips and great yet affordable places to stay.
Linda..I found this guy nomadic Matt's website/blog..it is free but you have to subscribe to get access. There is some good info in particular about Pompeii.
http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/visiting-pompeii/
I hope you have an amazing vacation. :)

Thank you everyone for your posts/help. To answer a few questions this is our 30th Anniversary celebration & a check off my " bucket list"! We have traveled to many parts of Italy but never to the Amalfi coast. It is because of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun that I have had a desire to see this beautiful part of Italy. We are flying into Rome and spending 3 days there before taking the train down. We have booked the hotel "Palazzo Montefusco" for 5 days but unfortunately could they are booked for 2 of the days we were looking for. So I need some suggestions on where else we should go/stay. Should we go farther south some where or spend 2 days in Positano , or Paestum. Help,,,

We were in the AC area in September. We stayed in Praiano, which was about halfway between Positano and Amalfi. While we were there, I booked Rafaele with Monetti taxi service for a day to drive us around. I can't say enough nice things abou Rafaele! WE is very knowledgable about the area, and catered his itinerary to our likes. We are photographers at heart, and he took us to Rafello to a gorgeous lookout.

Rafaele's drive was the highlight of our week long trip. I would suggest booking him in the early part of your stay in case you want to go back to some of the towns you see while with him.

Good luck!