Best transportation between Sorrento and Positano/Amalfi?

What time of year?

Ferries are an option if running ( start in April)

You might check with Mondo Guides as well
www.sharedtours.com

Hah, that's an important component of the question. We're traveling in October, and I am aware of ferries.

If it's late in October, I might be inclined to tell y'all to take a chance on a SITA bus, even if it means that you might have to wait one round so you all could get on the same bus. And like you say, I have less confidence in trying to get back from the Positano road at the Sponda stop. It would be under 15 Euro R/T per person, but the uncertainty of it would have me waking up at night!

How about 4 or 5 Ubers or taxis? May the force be with you, and I empathize, but this is why leading a large group is a thankless task! Good luck!

No Uber in Italy

I think the most economical might be to book Mondo Guides shared day trip to Amalfi towns and combine your 2 days into one
Your group would fill at least 2 vans/ tours

I think the 65.00 pp. Mondo tour is a good suggestion. While you'd be doing the coast in a day, by the time you added up ferry fees to/from Sorrento and Positano, and Sorrento and Amalfi over two different days - they are not cheap - you'd likely come out ahead. I do see, however, that they only take groups up to 19 so that could be a game stopper?

We are seeing reports of very high prices for private car/van transport services around the coast and in other areas of Italy due to rising fuel costs. Honestly, if the tour or ferries don't work for you, SITA buses are likely your only economical options. I suppose you could try to bus one direction and ferry back the other way to keep the cost down?

Important details:

1. We will visit Positano on one day, although, admittedly, a half-day is all you really need. However, we will have a full day in Amalfi with a tour and cooking class, which means Positano cannot happen on that same day. So we'll do Positano on day one, leaving Sorrento around 8:30 and arriving back around 3pm.

   1. We'll visit Amalfi on the second day, leaving around 8 and arriving back in Sorrento around 5pm.
   2. Timeframe is mid-October if that helps.

There appears to be plenty of SITA buses. And with multiple chaperones, traveling as a full group of 20 is not a hard requirement. I recall during our previous trips in 2014/2017/2019 that there were always multiple companies at the train station trying to sell trips to Amalfi as we were getting on the City Sightseeing Coast-to-Coast bus. Was kind of hoping one of those would be a good option.

I do care about the economics of this, and was hoping to stay within the previous cost of 16 euro per round trip, which is already more than double the SITA buses. The ferry is more than double, I believe, at 16 euro per trip or 32 euro per round trip. Is there a realistic chance that a group of 20 goes to the ferry, arrives 30 minutes early, and doesn't find space? I'm okay paying a bit more (even 32 euro round trip for one day) if that makes it easy.

For those who have used the SITA buses, IF we were to split into groups of two, for example, does finding space for 10 travels sound reasonable?

Thank you!

For those who have used the SITA buses, IF we were to split into
groups of two, for example, does finding space for 10 travels sound
reasonable?

From Sorrento to Positano, possibly, because if I'm not mistaken the route originates there, at Sorrento Centrale. But I'm not at all sure if on the return you picked up the SITA bus at the Positano Sponda stop. Going that way, you would be boarding a bus that I believe originates in Amalfi-town (that's the hub on the bus coming from Salerno), and might be already fairly crowded?

Bottom line is there are a lot of variables here. I would probably use this as a fail-safe because the buses will eventually come, maybe not in your timeframe though. And we did it ourselves, albeit in mid-March--and it was half-full at most. I seem to remember--without checking the SITA schedule--that they run about hourly.

OK so I pretty much can guess the answer to this but what if you scrapped one of the trips? For instance, are you nailed to the cooking class in Amalfi or could you cancel and reschedule for one in Sorrento instead?

Or is Positano really a MUST? It's OK but not a place that offers a lot for college students to do. Honestly, we were pretty much done with it in less than 1/2 a day. What was the big draw for that one?

Third option: free day. Your college students are technically adults who should be able to do a certain amount of travel on their own. In fact, should be encouraged to do so; call it a learning opportunity? Give them a list of activities they could do independently, transport options for doing that, and they can choose to do one of them on their own dime. They may even form little groups to do so together. I guess I'm thinking young people of that age shouldn't need a chaperones with them ALL the time? That was the case with my own month in Europe at (barely) 18 with a large choir many years ago: other than scheduled transfers, performances, most meals and some organized group tours, we were left to our own resources, including our own $.

How long will you be staying in Sorrento, and what else will you be doing during that stay?