** Amalfi Coast - with Large Luggage from Cruise - need Help/advice

Store your large luggage in Naples, then take a smaller bag for your coast excursion.

I think your best bet is to make a couple of day trips to the Amalfi Coast and leave your luggage in Sorrento. Luggage and public transportation will not be your friend in that region. We spent 2 weeks in Sorrento in April 2023 and 2 day trips to the AC were enough. Personally we enjoyed our day trip to Capri far more than anything we saw along the coast. So much so that Capri is a target for a longer stay for sometime in the future.

I agree with the advice to store large luggage and travel light for the Amalfi Coast. There are lots of stairs that would be unforgiving with a large cruise suitcase. Regarding public transportation....do not rely on the bus system as outlined in the RS book. the bus does run but there are not nearly enough. I tried it and after standing in the loooooong line for a few minutes realized it would be hours before I got on a bus. So a few of us teamed up and got a taxi from Sorrento to Positano. It was only $20 each and very fast. We took the ferry back which was also easy (recommend to buy tickets in advance).

Perhaps take a fast train to Salerno and base there. I wish we had done that instead of basing in Sorrento. The regional train to Sorrento is like a NYC subway: crowded, hot, and gritty. All transportation modes around Sorrento and the AC are time- consuming and the infrastructure has been sadly neglected - it's gridlock.
The train to Salerno is a fast train and much more pleasant.
See the AC towns from the water - they are much too crowded to enjoy on the ground.
Good luck!

Great advice. Does anyone know if you get to Positano from Sorento, can you spend a few hours and then "somehow" get to the next coastal city and not use the bus?

Does anyone know if you get to Positano from Sorento, can you spend a
few hours and then "somehow" get to the next coastal city and not use
the bus?

Sure. You use the ferries as long as you're not traveling in winter. Ferries are my much-preferred option to the buses.
Use the drop-downs on this site for schedules to/from select ports.

https://www.positano.com/en/t/sorrento/positano

IMHO, Positano isn't worth a few hours. It's mainly high end shops that are everywhere. The Positano ferry dock is smaller and frequently closed in high seas and/or bad weather, so keep that in mind.

Having just returned from the Amalfi Coast, I totally agree with Pat's advice on Positano, unless you want to peruse all of the shops and fight the hordes of tourists. As for a day trip to Capri, I recommend that you arrive there as early as possible, and head straight for Anacapri in order to try and beat the crowds. You may want to consider visiting Ravello for a more relaxed experience. I reserved a seat on the CMS Amalfi Coast Shuttle from Amalfi to Ravello in order to avoid the SITA bus, and it was a very pleasant day. https://www.cmsamalficoast.com/Book-Bus

I have doubts about dragging two huge suitcases on the train from Naples to Sorrento..those trains can be packed, and very hot. And then how will you get to your hotel in Sorrento?

Can you take a private car for 99 euro from NAP to your hotel in Sorrento--that's what I did a few weeks ago..

What's a length cruise? I've done 21 night transatlantic and I still only bring a carryon plus a satchel. Will take a 9 days Scandinavian in July with 3 weeks in Europe prior to the cruise. I travel solo, am 70+, F so have to shelp everything myself. I just got back 3 weeks ago from a 6 week trip to Italy and reviewed all my photos and laugh myself silly as I had one light sweater and 3 tops and all the pics are the sweater and one of the tops. The saying is lay everything out that you want to bring and bring half of that and twice the money!

2 large suitcases

What is 'large'?

Suitcase large is the 50 lb ones (The standard larger suitcases)

Yes, I agree it would be ideal to take smaller suitcases for just an Italian trip but that is not possible. We will be leaving Naples back to Athens for a 22 day cruise back to the US.

If Day trips are good from either Sorrento or Serlano, would you do more than one coastal village in a day or 1 per day?

How many villages in a day will depend on your interests. Most are small and 2 or 3 hours each are plenty. It's the time it takes to get to each town that may eat up your day. Time of day and year will make difference on how reliable all modes of transportation will be. We were there in late April 2023 and one of our days we did a small group tour that visited Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, it was a 9 hour tour from Sorrento and 4.5 hours was in the car. Here's my Trip Report, days 4 and 6 are our AC days.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-2-weeks-of-day-trips-from-sorrento

Have you scoped out luggage storage in Naples? You are traveling round trip from there so I can’t imagine anything easier than leaving your large bags there.
How many days in total do you have for the coast? That would determine the schedule, number of bases.

Those large suitcases are dictating most of your options for this trip. You really can’t take them on public transportation. I’d guess you can’t store them in Naples because you need the contents for your time on the Amalfi Coast.

So I think your best option is to get a taxi from the airport to a hotel in Salerno and make day trips from there, then a taxi back to Naples airport. It’s not a bad option — you can take boat trips from Salerno and maybe visit Paestum. But your trip is being dictated by your luggage.

Packing light can be a challenge, but it’s so freeing. My husband & I took a 34 day cruise with just carry ons. When some new ship friends saw us waiting on the dock afterwards with our little rolling suitcases they were shocked … they had never noticed our limited wardrobes.

Month and Year of trip?

I'm not interested in telling you how to pack, but you need to understand how relatively primitive transportation is between Sorrento and Salerno. This is a high-traffic, high-priced area (in general), so the taxi and black-car companies know how much the traffic will bear. It could take over 50 Euros every time you step into a cab (made up that number ... ). Will the two big suitcases fit into the trunk of a Mercedes sedan? If you require a special vehicle of some kind, time and money will be added to facilitate that.

Even if your suitcases will fit under the bus, between Sorrento and, say, Amalfi, the busses are normally overflowing in the passenger compartments, and you may have to wait for the next bus (half hourly ??) to even get on, May to September. I'm inclined to suggest that you set a goal of visiting fewer AC towns. They are not all the same, but it strikes me as a not-fruitful goal. This is not some lost and forgotten part of civilization. I was disappointed with Positano and Amalfi. Ravello is unforgettable, but harder to get to, up on the hills. I have not been to the smaller towns closer to Salerno. You haven't mentioned Pompeii or Paestum, but Capri certainly is a special place, and "easy" to get to by ferry in the summer high season. (MUCH walking needed to see the island.)

Time of year is Early Oct. Yes, i think we are overpacking, but sometimes that's just what you do to keep everybody happy :)

Yes, I appreciate those of you who can re-wear thing and wash in the sink...I did that once when i use to backpack. Now i opt for a bit more. It's a choice thing.

I just did not want to get into a "long and curvy road every day from Sorento to coast village and then back or do it via ferry 4 days in a row" I was thinking there would be a more efficient way to tackle it. The question is still on the table. :)

Since the large suitcases are non-negotiable, have you considered staying in one of the coastal towns, rather than day tripping from Sorrento or Salerno? We had a private driver pick us up from the Naples train station and take us to our hotel in Amalfi. It was not the most inexpensive option, but it certainly was the most comfortable and least stressful. From there, we had easy ferry access to the other towns. You can walk to Atrani via the pedestrian tunnel, and it's a quick ferry ride to Minori and Maiori. I would also suggest that for a day trip to Capri, you arrive there as early as possible

I just did not want to get into a "long and curvy road every day from
Sorento to coast village and then back or do it via ferry 4 days in a
row

I'm finding the question a little confusing. Travelers who base in Sorrento day-trip from there. Same for towns on the Amalfi Coast. You have only 4 choices for doing that:

SITA buses
Ferries
Private drivers
Circumvesuviana commuter train (Pompeii)

That's it. The towns themselves can be explored on foot. Much of the town of Sorrento is pretty flat so you'd choose a hotel that doesn't require stairs. The ferries do depart/arrive from a port below the cliffs so you'd need to take a bus, taxi or use the elevator to/from the main, upper town if arriving/departing by ferry with luggage.

Your only reasonable choice if you want to depart Sorrento with luggage, do sightseeing stops en route to Salerno and not return to Sorrento will be private driver. You could also base in Salerno and skip Sorrento entirely, although ferries to Capri from there take nearly 2 hours one-way, and you'd still be day-tripping to other towns via one of methods above.

What am I missing?
How much time do you have to work with?
Editing to add: you know that Naples airport has no train service, right? I'm curious about your plan to travel to Sorrento from there, and from Salerno?

I just did not want to get into a "long and curvy road every day from Sorento to coast village and then back or do it via ferry 4 days in a row" I was thinking there would be a more efficient way to tackle it. The question is still on the table. :)

The transportation on the AC is what it is. Bus, ferry, taxi, black car. I'm leaving out bicycle and walking for the moment. Road traffic is heavy and slow. It's your decision to modify your ideal plan, or not. (We've only taken ferries to Capri, not along the AC. But many posters here use the ferries with enjoyment.)

You have only proposed spending one night ON the AC, I guess as a re-basing to do shorter daytrips. I was deliberately vague about pricing, but you have not indicated your budget. Can you afford two 100 Euro taxi trips each day for the local day trips? Can you afford a 250 Euro car service (made up that number ...) each day for 8 hours of multiple town visits?

I recommend the multiple town visits in a day, if you won't relax the demand to see all the towns on the AC, because I don't think most of them are worth most of a day. Or maybe I should say "necessary" to take up most of a day. As I wrote before, I don't consider it necessary to see even "most" of the towns on the AC. That is very much an opinion, not a "fact". I told you how many towns we saw in one day from Sorrento. Perhaps you should move to Salerno (long trip) and then run-out in the opposite direction for the towns east of Amalfi. Maybe three nights in Sorrento and two nights in Salerno. Do you want any down time, or just daytrips every day?

I just did not want to get into a "long and curvy road every day from Sorento to coast village and then back or do it via ferry 4 days in a row" I was thinking there would be a more efficient way to tackle it. The question is still on the table. :)

Don’t stay in Sorrento. If you stay in Sorrento, you’ll just waste a lot of time going back and forth from Sorrento to the Amalfi Coast towns and you’ll be in the AC towns when they are super crowded with day trippers. The AC towns are nicer in the late afternoon and evenings after the day trippers leave. Your best bet is to stay in Amalfi (town), which is the transportation hub of the Amalfi Coat. From Almalfi (town) you can get to the other AC towns relatively easily by bus or ferry or maybe the occasional shuttle. I’ve visited the Amalfi Coast towns staying in Amalfi and commuting from Sorrento and there’s no comparison, staying in Amalfi was the better choice.

We just returned from a three-week trip that began with four nights in Sorrento. We had a wonderful stay in that city.

I still question how you are going to drag those bags on public transportation from the airport, whether on a train or on a bus?

As I mentioned, it cost us 99 euro to travel from NAP to Sorrento city. That was worth it not to think about dragging luggage on crowded buses or that hot and packed commuter train.....it would cost more to get to Amalfi but prices vary a lot and you could probably find a driver for a fairly decent price....

Hey, Thanks for all the great replies. The plan as I would try it would be to take train from Naples with 2 large suit cases and 1 medium. Then walk or taxi to hotel in Sorento to hotel. Then the next 2 or 3 or 4 days would be taking day trips around the coast to the south east and then back to Sorento. I think the confusion that I am having is the day trips and how many towns could I get off the bus and then back on the bus to see the towns spending the "right" amount of time in each.

Totally get that that time varies, but I think most folks have a good idea. I usually try to shoot for the middle average of what all the folks recommend.

This has been most helpful. No one has called me an idiot yet, so it's a good day! 🤣

The plan as I would try it would be to take train from Naples (to Sorrento) with 2
large suit cases and 1 medium.

OK, so if you're going to do this, you'd be taking a Circumvesuviana commuter train to Sorrento. You can't do that from the airport: you're going to need to take a taxi or other forum of transport to Napoli Garibaldi station.

There are two types of Circumvesuviana trains to Sorrento from Garibaldi. One, the Campania Express, only runs 4 times daily.
https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/campania-express-train-schedule

The other, which is a REALLY bare-bones commuter train, runs more often. Neither are going to be great choices with a lot of heavy luggage.

https://www.visitpompeiivesuvius.com/en/naples-to-sorrento-train-schedule

You might want to consider the coach bus from Naples airport to Sorrento as it's more comfortable and eliminates a transfer to Garibaldi Station and getting to the lower level to access the train. From the coach drop-off point in Sorrento you'd want a taxi to your hotel unless it's a short walk away.
https://www.curreriviaggi.it/en/naples-airport-shuttle

My goodness, no one here is going to call you an idiot! We're just not sure you completely understand the challenges with public transport in this region. Unless you've been there, it's a tough thing to explain! 🙂

The plan as I would try it would be to take train from Naples with 2
large suit cases and 1 medium. Then walk or taxi to hotel in Sorento
to hotel. Then the next 2 or 3 or 4 days would be taking day trips
around the coast to the south east and then back to Sorento.

The easiest option with your luggage is the Curreri Viaggi bus from the airport that Kate was linked. Your bags go under the bus. Hopefully the schedule works out.
And be sure to book a hotel close to station. Taxis in Sorrento are fickle and expensive.

Second best is hire a driver 100-150euros- door to door.

Those are really the only 2 options I would consider in your situation. (Do you mean 2 large suitcases total or 2 large each??)

Honestly there is no need to travel along the AC more than 1 day, 2 at most. No reason you can’t see 2-3 villages a day (these are tiny, not cities at all)
Positano is all steep steps, high end shops and tiny lanes packed with tourists. Worth an hour or so.
Amalfi is a bit larger, the Duomo is worth a peek. Could spend 2-3 hours here. It will still be crowded in October.
Have lunch unless you head up to Ravello

Ravello is worth a few hours- allow time to walk out to Villa Cimbrone.

All 3 can be seen in one long day.
I would never want to make the drive around/along AC more than once in a stay in Sorrento.

Take a look at Mondo Guide tours- they have an AC drive that is well reviewed and affordable.

Or hire a driver that will make the stops you choose.
Or plan to rely on the ferry and bus for day trips.

If you have 4 nights- that is just 3 full days- 1 day for AC, 1 day for Capri, 1 for Pompeii or Sorrento? Evenings in Sorrento.
Sorrento itself is worth a day to just chill, enjoy views, eat well.

If you have more time- consider splitting your time- maybe 3 in Sorrento, 2 or 3 in Amalfi (transportation hub) or Salerno.

What time do you have to be at NAP for your flight? I would hire a driver for this transit. No question.

We spent 9 nights in the area our first visit- 4 Sorrento, 3 Amalfi, 2 Salerno.
It’s a chaotic area to be moving around in and only getting worse but if you want to see the AC then try to add as many nights as you can and really have time to see enough and enjoy. Might be your only visit there!

If you are using the SITA bus, then how many towns you will be able to see in a day depends on the crowds. Don't underestimate how many people are trying to board the same bus as you. There is no organized queue; pushing and shoving is quite common; buses are packed and will drive right past a stop because they are full. You may end up waiting over an hour for a bus that has room on it. The ferry system is not super organized, but it is a bit better. You will need to take those factors into account when planning your days.

There's just no efficient -or fast- mode of transportation in the AC, Sorrento, Naples area. Good luck!

When we were in Sorrento for five nights in 2014, we often walked by the Sorrento Circumvesuviana station after breakfast - either to take it, say, to Pompeii, or to go to the Marina for the ferry to Capri, or to smell the jasmine bushes nearby! There are important bus stops in front of and opposite the train station. Anyway, every single morning (last week of May) there were MORE people in line for the next, half-hourly, bus to Positano and Amalfi (Change in Amalfi for bus that covers the rest of the AC to the east) than would FIT on the bus. That means many people had to wait in the morning sun for another half-hour. And all their research about which window to sit at, or whatever, was futile, because they are likely to be standing for the whole ride.

In addition, our host here, Rick, has written in some editions of his books, that if you are going to Positano and Amalfi for the day from Sorrento, it's better to go to Positano first, and ride home (say, at 5PM) from Amalfi. That's because the busses to Sorrento (nominally, Amalfi-Sorrento route) are so full when they get to Positano that they don't even STOP in Positano.

I am sorry to bad-mouth public transportation, but if you (perhaps) never use it at home, you may not fully understand what it means to NOT be a Captain (as in Lexus "captain's chair" SUV seating options .... ) of your own travel adventure. You are subject to many caprices of public transit, including weather, holidays, time of day, and so forth. I grew up in NYC, and took a half-hour subway ride to High School every morning, so I do not "hate public transit." But I plan time cushions when it is warranted.

Twelve years later, I do not believe that early October will be a Shoulder-Season. I believe things will be more crowded than ever. Opinion. We did not go in October.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-september-transportation-issues

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/naples-to-sorrento-train-or-private-driver

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/one-week-on-the-amalfi-coast

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-day-trip
(I think the HOHO bus in this discussion no longer exists.)