Can anyone recommend a great company/limo/taxi service for an Amalfi Coast Private Day Tour? We'll be staying at Villa Monica B&B (4 nights) in Sorrento and plan to schedule our tour on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 to visit Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and possibly go to Salerno with a return to our B&B or ferry port in Sorrento. Would really like to split the day and do the drive down the coast in the early morning and take a boat back if possible in the afternoon.
Any comments and/or recommendations?
In Sept, I booked a private day tour for me, my husband and my mom with Sorrento Silver Star Car services. We were staying in Atrani. Lorenzo, our driver, picked us up promptly at 8am in a Mercedes mini van , took us up to Ravello, around thru the mountains to Sorrento and Positano. They usually include Amalfi, but since we were 5 min away, we'd already explored there. The tours run 8-9 hours. We ended up only doing 8 hours - but at the end, Lorenzo asked us if there was somewhere else we wanted to go since we still had an hour left...we were very hot and tired and sweaty from our day, so we said no.
I've never paid that much for a private tour before (350 euro), and was a little apprehensive about that amount of money, but at the end of the day I felt it was worth it for a full day for 3 people (or however many are in your group). Works out to about 45 euro an hour. You can tailor the tours to what you want to do, and I've seen other people recommend them here in RS. And they have great Trip Advisor reviews (including one from me!).
The driver didn't take us around - he would drop us off in a central spot, say - usually people spend an hour or 90 min here, but come back when you are ready, you may want to see this or this...then off we'd go.
Just for comparison, not to say that it was better or worse, we had the concierge at the (large) Hotel Ambasciatori book a Mercedes sedan and driver from their outside limo vendor, Eurotravel [80067 Sorrento, Via degli Aranci, 9]. Enzo, an older gentleman with a heavy accent but good English took us to Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, and a brief stop to see the view in a fourth town. This was 8 hours, to/from our hotel, in May, 2014, for 255 Euros plus tip. We thought it was well worth it.
It is fair to point out that this was not a slick, rehearsed, professional tour guide. And, we had to decline a visit to the pottery factory - but once he understood our wishes, there was no pressure. I know from cruise excursions that over 50% of his clients want the pottery showroom. Indeed, we stopped to use the toilets outside the pottery showroom anyway! He handled all the parking, and was always where he said he would be, at the appointed time. I don't care if he went to school (?) with the guy who sells fresh lemon ices for 2 Euros! They were good ices.
You should also know that when we tried to book him personally for the transfer to the Naples train station, he said that "the office will assign the driver." In other words, he was an absolutely scrupulous employee, who refused to make a side deal - which I mean as a compliment, even if it's not what we wanted. You should plan a walking lunch in order to make the best use of your limited touring time. We got pre-made sandwiches on the square in Ravello, and ate while walking to the Villa Cimbrone gardens.
We actually had him drop us off in central Sorrento, planning to have dinner and walk back to the hotel. He recommended (no, I'd rather say "offered", or "mentioned") a very modest place run by his friends, Ristorante Angelina Lauro, which was just fine. It was not tourist-free, but there were lots of local families there too.
Oh! I´m so happy that even although I didn´t see your pm until today, (I couldn´t say all the wonderful things I have to say about Villa Monica on time), you chose to stay there, you ´ll love it, I´m sure!
I would recommend you to write to Pasquale, your host and ask him . I´m sure he would be happy to help you .He has great and valuable information about Sorrento and its sorroundings. I´m sure he will help you find the best option. Trust his honesty, he takes great care of his guests. And for places to eat, follow his advices , you won´t regret it!
Veronica
Would anyone recommend booking the private limo/car for the drive from Sorrento to Positano, Ravello, ending up in Amalfi and then taking the hydrofoil or other reasonably priced boat from Amalfi back to Sorrento? We been told we really need to view the Amalfi Coast from the water to truly appreciate it's beauty! One more thing, would it be worth it to spend the additional time (50 min) and money to extend the tour to Salerno?
Regarding the ferry trip,
This search might be helpful to you:
http://www.ricksteves.com/search?utf8=✓&query=Amalfi+ferry+view&search%5Bforum%5D=true&commit=Go%21
I would expect the 2 hour empty return of the car to provide no reduction in price.
I'm at Villa Monica now and am doing the all day trip with the Monettis tomorrow. They come highly recommended but are not inexpensive. Wish I had talked to Pasquale at Villa Monica first. He has a friend..... (By the way, this is a charming friendly place to stay!)
I have absolutely nothing against the Monetti's, but our hotel's quote for 8 hours was less than the Monetti's [presumably, a little stale] price printed in Rick's book. Unless I had a big group, I'd prefer a Mercedes sedan to a mini-van. But maybe the Monetti's have multiple vehicles?
I can personally recommend Francesco Marrapese. He picked us up at our hotel in Sorrento and drove us along the coast and we had a fantastic time with him. His English is excellent (he lived in the U.S. for several years) and he is very professional, friendly and warm. He has a great sense of humor. He drives a Mercedes van which was clean and comfortable. He was a very conservative driver which I appreciated because I'm prone to motion sickness and was worried about the hairpin curves along the coast. He allowed me to sit in front due to my motion sickness and luckily I didn't have any problems. He tailored the day to our tastes and made excellent recommendations for places to stop and things to do. We saw way more in the day with him than we would have had we tried to use public transit to see the coast. He made a great restaurant recommendation for lunch; it was in a town off the beaten path up high with incredible views of the ocean. We ate on the veranda and immensely enjoyed the food and Francesco's company. His rate was higher than some of the other drivers that I researched but the reviews of Francesco on-line were what sold me on him. He uses an Ipad to enhance the experience which we really enjoyed as well. He'll show you movie and commercial clips that were filmed along the coast and he'll freeze the clip right when you come up to the exact spot where it was filmed and we thought this was a nice touch. We liked Francesco so much that we decided to use him for a transfer at the end of our trip. His web site is: www.francescomarrapese.com and his e-mail address is: [email protected]. Have a great trip.
