We will be staying at an agriturismo near Paestum. I find lots of suggestions for engaging a tour or driver from Sorrento. Is it practical to make a booking from the southeast end, from Salerno perhaps?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15161 posts
From the southeast end of what? If you book a driver from Salerno (or Paestum) to drive you to Sorrento, he will take you around through the freeway up to Torre Annunziata and then down to Sorrento from the North West. That loop might seem longer, but it's much faster than going through the twisty Amalfi coast.
However if you specify to the driver that you want to go to Sorrento, from Salerno (or even from Paestum) through the Amalfi Coast, so that you can see it, he will certainly oblige and do that. It takes substantially longer (probably nearly twice as long), therefore the price will be higher.
Posted by
OP
North Carolina, USA
6 posts
I didn't make myself clear. Everything I read about driving the Amalfi Coast suggests a west to east tour. Are there advantages or disadvantages to doing its in the other direction? Of course, I guess we will also have to return and see it from both directions.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7354 posts
We drove it ourselves from west to east (from Sorrento as far as Amalfi town), but then to get back to Sorrento, we reversed and went east to west. This was December, not as busy as summer, and the days were short so we chose to turn back before it got too dark. An advantage of going east to west is the driver and passengers on the left side of the vehicle get a better view of the coast. My understanding is that the big tour buses are obliged to go one way (west > east) to minimize congestion during high season, but a hired private tour in a smaller vehicle wouldn't have those same restrictions. By the way, the town of Eboli, between Paestum and Salerno, is quite nice -- we stayed there one night on our initial way to Sorrento.