Amalfi Coast/Sorrento/ Pompeii area

We rented an apartment in Positano for a week in September 2016 and used this as our base. We had a driver pick us up at the Naples train station and drive us to Positano and pick us up a week later. During the week we used the ferries to get around and took a tour to Pompeii picking us up in Positano as well. You could easily do the Rick Steves Naples Walk and then have the driver meet you back at the train station. We were very surprised at the number of day trippers that flood all of the towns on the Amalfi Coast during the day so plan accordingly if you are planning on eating lunch or just moving around from mid morning through mid afternoon.

Please use the search box here for background on your faq. There is no reason or advantage to sleeping beside Pompeii. You need to understand how isolated the Amalfi Coast is. Pompeii will still be sunny and hot in September. Pompeii is a 2-hour to 8-hour visit, depending on interest. You'll want the 5-site, 3-day ancient sites ticket. Do you really care about Vesuvius, which is visible from everywhere?

We did do Pompeii one day, and Herc and Oplontis the next, but that's too much empty hot stones for most people. I liked Oplontis, but it is not a must do for the average traveler. It is small and close to the train station, however. Herc is a 15-minute downhill walk from the train, no food inside, no re-entry.

We will be using Sorrento as a base for 5 nights next month, and will be visiting Naples and maybe Ercolano by CV train, Positano by bus, and maybe Capri by who-knows-what, depending on the weather. We visited Pompeii two years ago, and while the ruins are magnificent, most of the art/sculptures/mosaic are at the Archeological Museum in Naples.

I find Naples a much more interesting place than Sorrento, so I would stay there for the Vesuvius/Pompeii, etc. visits, and then move to the Amalfi coast. If you are enthusiastic about those interests, you might spend one day doing Vesuvius/Oplontis/Herculaneum, and the other day at Pompeii, which is much larger. I would not try to do them all in one day Note you can also store luggage at Pompei's trenitalia station (provided you are headed to the AC via Salerno; note I am talking about the trenitalia line, not the Circumvesuviana line that goes to Sorrento--I don't know about that station). AT any rate, at least give yourself enough time in Naples to see the archaeology museum.

There is luggage storage at the main entrance (Porta Marina) to Pompeii, close to the Villa dei Misteri Circumvesuviana station.

The only reason we wanted to visit Capri was to see The Blue Grotto which was closed as this depends on waves and weather so we took a boat rip around Capri. Capri to me is a tourist trap with nothing much to do except shop and go to restaurants. There is a villa there that I would have gone to but we did not want to overdo the villas - depends if you like history and architecture.

What we did do was base in Positano and Ravello and spent three glorious days in each. From Positano you can take a boat to the town of Amalfi and then a SITA bus way up the winding hills to Ravello. Here we had a fabulous lunch at Villa Maria outdoors on their patio with a view of sea and mts. and we spent half a day at Villa Cimbrone which has a hotel ( could have lunch or drink there) and
walked through the gardens which included statuary and of course took photo opportunity on the Balcony of Infinity where the sea meets the sky. Check out Villa Cimbrone website and you'll want to go there! Ravello is full of charm and great for meandering.
In Positano we stayed at Buco de Bacco. You need a full day in Ravello - we were there three days and did not want to leave.

We also took the walk that Rick suggested in his book from Vila Cimbrone down to Atrani.
Another charming town is Vietro which makes the fascinating tiles. You can see tile work at the Hotel San Pietro in Positano (very exclusive) you could ask to see a room and check out the floor tiles. We had a cappuccino on their balcony and enjoyed the tile work and the view of Positano - it is a short walk from the centre of Positano to Hotel San Pietro

Sorrento is a lovely town, stay there and take the train to "Pompeii...Vesuvius" and the ferry to Capri. You can also take the bus to the Amalfi Coast towns (Positano etc). Work your way down on foot to to the shore and ferry back to Sorrento. That allows you to vary the days.

You should not skip the archaeology museum in Naples. It's a Wow and deserves a minimum of 2 hours. You could day trip from Sorrento to Naples on the train or the ferry.

Cheryl, when I was in that area in 2014, I spent 3 nights in Naples, followed by 4 nights in Sorrento. In Naples I stayed at the Orsini46 B & B, one of the best I have experienced anywhere. I spent one whole day, plus partial days, in Naples, and took another day to travel by train to Salerno and especially Paestum, which you haven't mentioned, but which has some of the outstanding Greek ruins anywhere, plus a very nice small museum about them. I took a taxi door-to-door from Naples to Sorrento, one of the best travel splurges available, in my mind. From Sorrento, I visited Oplontis, Herculaneum and Pompeii in one long day, too long I think. Oplontis was skippable, I think. I took a van tour of the towns of the Amalfi Coast, and then another day went back to Amalfi and Ravello by public buses, to spend more leisurely time. I decided to skip Capri. What I did turned out to be a fine plan for me, but everybody's different.

Villa Cimbrone's hotel is a budget-buster, for sure! But, you can enjoy the views from the gardens for a reasonable entrance fee. Ravello is great, truly a vacation from your vacation. The church gets lots of wedding party photo ops.

Cheryl,

I visited Naples for about five days in March of one year. I think using Naples as your base is the best idea. There is a local train that goes from Naples to Herculaneum, Pompeii and Sorrento, with Sorrento being the last stop. It is very easy and inexpensive. Frankly I found Sorrento to be boring and dead in the off season. It is really a beach type of town. When I went in March, it was too cold and windy to enjoy the water and there wasn't much to do in the town. I ended up staying there probably an hour before getting bored and then hopping back on the train.

Pompeii was amazing though. I loved it so much I went back there twice and as another poster said, you can spend a lot of time there. If you don't want a rushed experience, then I would dedicate a day to visiting Pompeii, which will allow you to take the train from Naples at a decent hour (not too early), wander around Pompeii, have lunch at Pompeii (the food is very good), wander around a bit more, and then take the train home in the afternoon. This will leave you some time to relax a bit before dinner.

You can see Mt. Vesuvius pretty clearly from Naples and Pompeii. I am not sure what you mean when you say you want to visit Mt. Vesuvius. I am not sure there is anything to visit.

I did not got to Herculaneum. When I was going to Pompeii, we passed the Herculaneum stop on the train and I noticed there was a gang of young boys hanging out at the train stop. They looked like they were up to no good and I didn't feel safe getting off the train there. Since I live in NYC, I think I have a pretty good intuition about this. So just be aware. There are also gypsies on the train panhandling. They are not going to bother you but just be aware of your bag as you can easily be pick pocketed.

I agree with the other poster who suggested going to the Archeological museum in Naples. It was amazing! Definitely one of the best museums I have been to in Europe. Naples also has amazing pastries. You can spend a lot of time just going around and tasting all of their pastries.

I didn't go to Capri because I didn't feel like I had enough time but I am not too upset about it because I don't think there is that much to do there, frankly, especially in the off season.

First time we were in Rome, we did a day trip to Naples - walked to Herculaneum, on the way back had some pizza and did a ride to Mt Vesuvius (this was 08, so memory is a bit fuzzy, but we used a tour/van at the Ercolano train stop - I believe)...other than it being a little hard to walk up because of the loose soil/gravel (wear proper footwear!) - we quite enjoyed it - amazing views and you can go look into the caldera...so if you want to go up Mt V - go for it!

I did a similar trip the last week of September 2016, and made Sorrento my base which worked out fine. If you are looking for a place to stay, consider Surriento Suites which is at Marina Piccola (the small marina) and take the ferry from Naples when you arrive. Mondo Tours which is recommended by Rick Steves does day trips to the Amalfi Coast from Sorrento. Also, if you stay in Sorrento there is an excellent grocery store on the main street, enabling you to put together picnic lunches or dinners with wine, cheese, fruit, etc.
Cynthia

Thanks so much for your responses! They will be useful in the planning for our trip.