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Best way to travel from Rome to Positano

We are doing a Rick Steves tour in May that ends in Rome on May 26, 2019 and are traveling to Positano from there to meet family. We re looking for recommendations for reasonably priced travel down and back up to Rome for our outbound flight home. Flight or train from Rome to Naples might be an option, but is there a boat to Positano from Naples? If so, can the boat trip be pre-arranged, length of trip, cost? Thanks!

Posted by
922 posts

One option would be to take the train from Rome to Salerno and then take a bus to Positano. Both Trenitalia and ItaloTreno offer high speed service to Salerno.

Posted by
3812 posts

In may you could also take the Travelmar ferry from Salerno to Positano. These are just local ferries: you don't need to "pre-arrange" anything.

Posted by
7181 posts

You will want to look at some of the many past posts about staying in Positano. Besides transportation, they will warn you about planning for your last night, and whether you can get to your plane or next destination in a reasonable amount of time. You'll also want to find out how many vertical steps (5, 50, 250) there are to your hotel from the transit stop - including a private car and driver service, which probably can't go to the door of your hotel.

Your second sentence suggests that "best" means "cheapest", rather than fastest, most comfortable, best for heavy luggage, large number of people, or disability accomodation. Although really slow local trains might be a little cheaper, if you buy 3 months in advance, the fastest (Frecciarossa) trains from downtown Rome stations is quite reasonably priced. But you can't change or cancel without paying the full walkup price at the last moment.

Then, walk down a long hall in the Naples rail station to the Circumvesuviana commuter train (no advance sale, half-hourly, more or less) and jam onto a crowded train with 1000 of your closest friends and accordion players. In Sorrento, you cross the street from the station and get in the huge line for the half-hourly SITA bus to Positano and Amalfi. There are likely more people in line than will fit one bus, so you might have to wait for the next one.

If there is a ferry from Sorrento to Positano, you could take the bus or a taxi to the Marina area, and end up at the lowest elevation point in Positano, the ferry dock. Note that Positano has to use smaller ferries than (for example) Capri. It's a small, shallow harbor.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you so much for the feedback; we've booked flights from Rome to Naples and are working on the trek back and forth to Positano - appreciate the suggestions!

Posted by
3812 posts

I hope your tour ends at Rome airport, otherwise you're wasting 2 hours for security plus the time to/from airports. The quickest route has been suggested at the 1st reply, purchasing train tickets in advance it would have been also the cheapest.

Flying from Rome to Naples when not arriving at FCO by plane is quite absurd.

Posted by
2462 posts

I would take train to Salerno and then ferry. The ferry is more pleasant than the bus. It is an open deck ferry and the views are wonderful. It is less complicated than going via Naples.

Do plan to be in Naples the night before flight. The day before we flew back to US we took a ferry to Capri, left our luggage, explored Capri and took ferry to Naples. I know there also is a ferry from Sorrento because we took it (take bus to Sorrento from Positano). I don’t know if there is a ferry from Positano to Naples.

Posted by
11034 posts

We are doing a Rick Steves tour in May that ends in Rome on May 26, 2019

The tour will end at a hotel likely near Termini---- at least easy access to FCO. ( and even easier to just hop a train to Naples or Salerno)
As already noted using a flight will make the trip last 2-3 times as long as a train trip.
You may want to re-think the idea of flying this leg of your trip

What time of day and what airport are you using for your departure?

Posted by
15679 posts

we've booked flights from Rome to Naples and are working on the trek
back and forth to Positano -

Ow. Can you get out of this booking without penalty? As the others said, you're going to waste a whole lot of time messing around with airports when a fast Freccia train can get you from Rome to Naples in a little over a hour! No security lines; no check-in; no luggage size/weight restrictions or extra fees; more comfortable seating; convenient departure point from the middle of Rome - where you're likely to be staying - versus out on the fringes.... Definitely the way to go.

Editing to add: a Freccia train can get you to Salerno in as little as 90 minutes, should you decide to go the train> ferry option previously suggested.

There is no direct ferry service from Naples to Positano, and the boats can't always dock in Positano on rough-sea days.

https://www.positano.com/en/how-to-get-here