Amalfi Coast Question.

There are lots of places along the Amalfi Coast with small beaches, including Amalfi itself. You could also go to the beach while you are in Sorrento. Praiano is one place you might try.

One of the most beautiful places in the area is above the coast, the town of Ravello. Spectacular views.

This bus schedule is from last March so before planning check its accuracy if you would:

http://www.theamalficoast.net/orari_sita_bus_timetables.html

Ravello, as Zoe mentions, is about as beautiful a spot as it gets on the A.C. It is a little up the mountain from between Amalfi & Atrani, and the bus is an hour forty from Sorrento to Amalfi, dirt-cheap cost-wise if I remember correctly. Not sure of the route, but in that direction for the views I think you'd want to sit on the non-driver side. Visit Ravello, then sun to your heart's content down at Amalfi's beach. Lido Azzurro restaurant on the water is a fine place for lunch or dinner.

Not a bad way to spend a day...

And you mention Salerno. It's a city, a relatively small one of about 110,000, but wonderful for its cathedral, shopping & restaurants. We based at a B&B in Salerno in March for 5 nights and accessed the Amalfi Coast from there.

If you like walks - you could also do the hike down from Ravello to Atrani, then it's only a ten minute walk around to Amalfi. We stayed in Atrani in 2014 and there is a nice little beach there as well.

The hike down I think generally takes about 30-40 min or so, but it took us about an hour. We stupidly went during the hottest part of the day in early Sept - right after lunch - and had to stop to cool off a few times, and even tho it is downhill, there were LOTS of steps, it was very hard on our legs (mine were trembling when we finally got to the bottom, which I don't think has ever happened to me before!). I guess we should have went to chill out on the beach after our walk instead of hiding in our room ;)

If you decide to do it, take a water bottle if it's a hot day - there are places to refill along the way.

We did the bus ride and just a warning if either of you gets motion sickness. There are a LOT of twists and turns and I was horribly sick, Ended up taking the boat back to Sorrento. Was beautiful, though :)

To me life is hanging out at a beach. So good choice. There are plenty of good spots along the Amalfi coast road. In most cases you will have to descend down the cliffs, sine the road is about 50-100 meters above sea level. It's mostly pebbles and rocks, since the entire coast is rocky cliffs. The bus goes from Sorrento to Amalfi. If you want to proceed further toward Salerno, you need to change buses in Amalfi and take the one that goes from Amalfi to Salerno. Visiting famous Positano is of course a must. In May crowds aren't too bad either (except for weekends when the Neapolitans descend to the place). Also you might like a boat excursion to the island of Capri. You can do that on your own, via regular boat service from Sorrento, or with the numerous organized excursions with local operators, which include also a visit to the blue grotto.
Below is a taste of the beaches on the Amalfi Coast (be aware that Sorrento is not on the Amalfi coast). Click on each town name in the website to see more in each area.

http://www.positano.com/it/e/le-spiagge-della-costiera-amalfitana

The bus is leaving from Sorrento in front of the train station. Come early so you are in the front of line to choose seats and sit on the right hand side for views. Then go all the way to Amalfi, see Amalfi, take a boat back, get off in Positano. Facing town from the sea go left about 5 to 10 minutes, there is some little hotel and restaurant there (forgot its name) and also nice sandy beach. Know the departure time of the last boat and board it to get to Sorrento. That way you will get views of Amalfi coast from bus and then different from the boat. We did it and liked it very much.

My husband and I took the bus from Sorrento and unfortunately he got super car sick (never does normally). He rented a beach chair in Positano to recover from feeling so woozy - while I shopped and explored. Loved Positano. Took the boat to Amalfi - then boat back to Sorrento. The boat trips are wonderful. We had a great lunch there at Black's. Try the buffalo mozzarella plate with three different types of mozzarella - ah.... so good.

Great advice - take both bus and boat to experience best of both worlds. Also totally agree that Ravello is the jewel in the crown of the Amalfi Coast.

Yeah - if anyone is prone to motion sickness, some Gravol (or something natural like ginger) is in order. When we were going back from the Coast to Sorrento, some poor soul in the back of the bus was retching for quite awhile. There are lots of curves and swerves!

Thanks everyone!

I think we will bus from Sorrento to Amalfi, short detour to Ravello, back to Amalfi for some beach time, then boat back to Sorrento.

I had thought of an itinerary similar to this earlier but wasn't sure if stopping at Amalfi would give me enough of the 'Amalfi Coast Experience'. I didn't know whether the best views/drive were after Amalfi, or if I could see enough to appreciate it all by stopping here.

Thanks again!!

We are also spending 2 nights in Sorrento. We are traveling from Rome, stopping in Pompeii for an afternoon tour, then on to Sorrento to have dinner, explore the town that night. We are also thinking about touring the Amalfi Coast, but I do suffer from motion sickness so am wondering if taking the bus is even worth the trip?

Are there boats/ferries that we could take to Positano, etc, that we could drop on or and get back off to the different cities along the coast or not? Any other suggestions to see the Amalfi coast without suffering from motion sickness?

We just returned from a RS Sicily tour (fantastic) and traveled on to the Amalfi Coast for three days. We hired a driver, Rafaele Monetti, of Monetti taxi to take us from Naples airport to Ravello where we stayed. There were six of us and it was such a simple transfer. He was extremely nice, outgoing and pointed out all the suights to us. The next day he took us to Positano and Amalfi and waited while we did our exploring. The next day we walked down the mountain to Alfani and then took bus to Amalfi. the bus back to Ravello was hair raising and knuckle whitening, but we made it. He again picked us up to return to Naples. It was more than the bus, but such an easy way to travel and not worry about our luggage.