Best Amalfi Coast Excursion

For a proper answer, you should tell how many days you're there, and why you want to stay just in Sorrento. Usually, a week-long (or longer) visit to the area is best divided between Sorrento and the Amalfi coast. Sorrento offers its own beauty plus day trips to Capri and to the Roman cities of Pompei and Ercolano. The Amalfi coast is more easily enjoyed by staying in the middle - say, Positano, or Praiano, from where Amalfi, Ravello, and other spots can be easily reached with one-hour or so bus rides. In July, you can also use boat transportation covering the whole coast. Costs are reasonable: an on/off Sorrento bus tour is 12 euro; Sorrento-Capri is 10 euro; Sorrento-Pompei or Ercolano, about 3 euro. On the coast, 3 or 4 euro will bus you anywhere. (All one-way.) There are also 1-to-3-day passes covering the entire area that would be even cheaper. What may not be so cheap in July is a hotel room!

Thanks for replying :) I will be studying/living in Rome for the summer. So my trip will likely be:
arrive Friday evening, full day saturday, full day sunday, daytime on monday, travel back to Rome Monday night. I was hoping to do a day trip to Capri on either Saturday or Sunday. If I have to change the weekend I am considering going, then I will have less time on Monday- mostly just for traveling back to Rome, making it just two full days in that area. I am open to staying elsewhere but heard Sorrento was a great place to stay. One option I am considering for lodging is staying in a monastery as it is possibly cheaper but not quite a hostel.

Short trip! Barely enough to sightsee in and around Sorrento on Saturday, plus a day trip to Capri on Sunday - or viceversa. Leave the Amalfi coast for a later time, because to get from Sorrento to Amalfi/Ravello and the rest of the coast means a two-hour bus ride, each way, plus another 30-min. bus to Ravello, and back. You could squeeze that in on Monday only if you took a Sorrento-Rome bus on Tuesday morning at 6 or 6.30 a.m., arriving in Rome around 10 am. Two lines do it: WWW.Marozzi vt.it or WWW. Curreriviaggi.it. for 17.50 euros. You could use those buses (35 euro return) leaving Roma Tiburtina at 2 and 3 p.m. arriving in Sorrento at 5.30 or 7 p.m. Check their offices when you're in Rome. Can't help you with a monastery stay in that area, a hostel or a cheap B&B will have to do. Remember that July is high season there, so everything will be crowded, and costlier.

With 2 full days based in Sorrento, you'll have time to visit the places on your list. On Saturday, buy a 24-hour bus pass (about 7 euro) and travel to Positano for a few hours, then on to Amalfi. In Positano, you could either get off at the first stop and make the long, steep but interesting walk down to the beach area or get off at the second stop, which is at the bottom of town. Catch the bus to Amalfi from the second stop. If your time in Amalfi allows, you can also take the bus up to Ravello. Then catch the bus from Amalfi back to Sorrento. It will be a long day, so get an early start. On Sunday, visit Capri. Sorrento is a great base for the places you want to visit, and a fun place to stay and spend your evenings. Enjoy!

You might want to consider visiting the Amalfi coast on Sunday but instead of turning back to Sorrento, continue on to Salerno and stay overnight there. That way you could take your time enjoying stops at the different towns and not have to backtrack. You can then take the train back to Rome on Monday. You may find less expensive accommodation there for Sunday night as well. There was a recent post about Salerno that it is also an interesting place to visit and you could explore on Monday before returning back to Rome.

Everyone should take the Sorrento-Amalfi bus ride once, but it is a big hassle to get a set on the ocean side of the bus. I loved the ferry that hops from Sorrento down the coast. the bus ride from Amalfi up to Ravello is just a few minutes. Ravello is a "must-do". I use Sorrento as my base camp, and it works fine, although it is a bit of a theme park.

Sorrento is our favorite place in Italy. It's not a theme park at all. Seems a shame to stay in Sorrento but spend your days elsewhere. Sorrento is beautiful, charming and very relaxing. We really enjoyed taking a boat to and from Positano rather than the bus.

I think you are covering too many places. I was in Capri three weeks ago. Very crowded. Buses are full. So buy the boat tickets ahead of time. And if you are coming back to Sorrento in the evening, it will hard to get on the bus from Positano. They only have one bus per hour and the bus will likely all full up in Amalfi.
Have a good trip!

Hi Everyone! Thank you for your continued advice on how to best manage my stay and excursions in Sorrento. I have decided to extend my itinerary slightly so that I can comfortably respond to some of your ideas. Arrive Friday evening. Full day Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Leave Tuesday morning to go back to Rome. Right now I am considering staying at Hotel Elios as they have availability for a single. It seems to have great reviews although a little further out. Any objections to this? It seems like there might be a bus nearby to get me down to the town center. I definitely want to get at least one experience of the crazy drive along the coast. I am fully open to using the boat whenever possible as long as I can get one bus ride in. I will stay in Sorrento all 3 nights, but will look into spending some time in Salerno if I can one of the days. Katie