We are traveling to Amalfi by car and staying at a hotel in Amalfi for 3 nights during the last week of March 25, and just wondering if this is a good time to go. Any advice on what to see and do for two full days will be appreciated.
March is off season, so the ferries won't be running. Some hotels, restaurants, and shops may still be closed. It will be too cold to swim. And if it has been raining, the hiking trails may not be in their best shape. Usually, having a car on the AC isn't recommended due to the narrow and extremely congested roads and dearth of parking in the towns. But since this is early, you may get lucky on both counts. Be sure your hotel has parking.
As for what to do: Rick's guidebook has suggestions, as does the Explore Europe section of this forum: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/amalfi-coast
You have a good reply already. When we hired a car and driver for 8 hours on the AC (from 5 nights in Sorrento), we noticed that our driver tended to double-park in a tiny garage where he had friends to play cards with. My point is that there are precious few parking spaces on the AC, regardless of season. They simply don't exist. I mean to go to a church, beach, or restaurant.
You may (I don't know from personal experience) have trouble using a car in the way that you do at home. Pompeii does not have parking garages or even Disneyland-sized surface lots. I have no idea if the off-season visitor load is more or less than the public curb spaces can accomodate.
Please come back here and report. We are desperate for off-season information.
Thank you!
This is very helpful. Fortunately, the hotel has parking. As for the rest, we will report and let you know how it went.
Re suggestions of things to do:
Why did you choose this area?
Where else are you going in the area?
Interests? For example, Do you enjoy hiking?
Be sure to check with hotel about driving restrictions.
No, do not plan on hiking, it is primarily a sightseeing trip. The hotel does have free parking and a charging station for electric cars if needed. We would like to see different beautiful towns, walk around, eat, drink, relax, and enjoy the scenery. We don't plan on driving for sightseeing, but it seems a convenient way for transportation to and from Naples Airport. This is the first time, and I don't know much about the area other than what I have read. Any suggestions on where to stay, where to go, where to eat, and what to see from first-hand experience will be most appreciated.
I have mentioned this in another post: the ferries do not stop running. They make adjustments, serve certain locations differently, change the schedule but do not stop running. Only caveat would be for weather. I was there in early November when the schedule changed. I was there when the winds were 20mph and the ferry still ran. Please check with directferries and then buy your ticket at the port kiosks.
We visited the coast from our base in Sorrento on a day trip at the end of March 2023. We were driven in a Mercedes van with other tourists. There were plenty of visitors, traffic, shops and restaurants open. I got my sightseeing recommendations for each stop on the coast from a guidebook. Weather was fine the week we spent based in Sorrento and Naples. Lemons were ripe.
Elizebeth, thank you so much! Very helpful and encouraging:)
janet_kupfer, can you please offer some more details? I have only been there in the summer, but I believe some routes do not operate at all in the winter. The Alilauro site does not show any boats from Sorrento to Positano tomorrow (12/27/24), or say, 1/8/25 which is an important route for daytrippers in this area.
Different issue, today (12/26/24), the Travelmar ferry company site (the actual site, not a third-party aggregator like DirectFerries.com) says that "weather" cancelled all boats 12/24/24 and 12/26/24, and unsurprisingly, service was not operating 12/25. I'm a bit concerned that there's something of a "Domani, domani" culture in southern Italy ...
I'm always troubled when lightly maintained websites (like these ferry companies) don't manage to put the effective dates on timetables that you might download.
It all depends on where you are going and departing from. You might be correct that some stop completely but I wouldn't know unless that was where I wanted to go.