Capri/Amalfi Itinerary Help

What is the month and year of the trip? Do you have the hotel rooms already? Do you have a place to park the car in Ravello? Capri is highly pedestrianized. I haven't slept there, but presumably you make some kind of arrangement for getting your luggage to the hotels that taxis cannot get to. Have you downloaded a ferry schedule for the month you are going to Capri?

It is much cheaper to buy Rome-Naples Frecciarossa service tickets three months in advance. But they are for a specific train and not changeable or refundable. That can be a problem with transatlantic flights, of course. Off season, there are fewer ferries, but also fewer passengers. The ferries don't run after sunset, and can be cancelled in windy or bad weather. You plan is not impossible, but it has a lot of rough spots that you may or may not run over.

When I bought a walk-up ticket to Capri from Sorrento, I found that the multiple ferry companies would not say "hey, you'll get a better schedule from our competition over there ... ". They also pressured me to buy a specific return departure, but that makes good sense for a daytrip in high season. You could get stranded on Capri. Our return ferry was of a different size, and left from a very different slip from the one we had arrived at.

As we told someone else recently, "Capri is an 'advanced topic.'" It's not like going to Kazahkstan or something, but it's not a trivial matter! The Amalfi Coast is also "remote" from your next stop on the trip, and you should plan the timing of your departure day carefully, now, before you buy anything.

Driving on the Amalfi Coast is not recommended. Why not travel from FCO to Ravello? Two hours by train to Naples with a change downtown; quote from Sorrentocars or other company to drive you there. Leaving Ravello, a ten-minute cab ride to Minori and a ferry to Capri for a two-night stay.

FCO [Fiumicino Aeroporto] to Napoli Centrale use the Trenitalia app for tickets after picking up your bags. You'll have a cell phone number for the driver.

I consider myself an intrepid driver and I've driven difficult coastal and mountain roads comfortably. I was not daunted by the challenges of driving along the Amalfi Coast (in February when there is little traffic and enough parking). EXCEPT when I ventured to drive up to Ravello. After about 5-10 minutes of driving on the mountain side (not the cliff edge) I started worrying about the drive back - what if I should meet a bus? I continued uneasily for another 5 minutes or so until I found a place where I could safely make a 3-point U-turn (it was more like 7 point turn since I couldn't tell how close I was to the edge) and returned to Amalfi.

I'm sure the locals are comfortable with the road and drive a lot faster. Thankfully I didn't have an impatient Italian behind me.

Thanks all for your thoughts. We will be there the last week of May.

Now I’m wondering about going direct from Rome to Salerno and staying there four nights with day trips to Capri and the coast. One of the things we really want to do is visit Paestum and Salerno seems more central to that as well.

We had wanted a car because I know we would hate the bus based on what I’ve read about it. I trust my wife’s driving skills but I would want her to be able to enjoy the scenery. So maybe we could hire a driver to take us from Salerno to Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello just for day.

So many decisions to make, lol

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/pompeii-salerno-capri-recommendations

Your comment about UNESCO WHS Paestum is perfectly true. But you cannot make that decision without considering your other significant monument visits. We gave up on Paestum with 5 nights in Sorrento. Not a recommendation, just a data point.

We visited the Amalfi Coast and Capri in April this year.

We flew into Naples from Toronto. We went directly to Positano for three nights. One of the days we did a boat tour along the Amalfi Coast to see so much more than we would have been able to otherwise. We spent three nights in Sorrento and one day took the ferry to Capri. It is a short ferry ride and convenient. We did not rent a car and were happy with that decision.

Ferries from Salerno:

travelmar.it/downloads/orari_travelmar.pdf

For a google map of the Concordia dock and the station, enter Salerno Travelmar Ticket.

The Hotel Montestella is right down the street.

Train time from the FCO airport is 3-4 hours.

You can visit most of the AC towns by ferry from Salerno. I don't know if you'd have to change ferries to get to/from Capri. I've read that the buses can be crowded, but Salerno's at the beginning of the route and late May/early June may not be very crowded. Leaving Salerno, get seats on the driver's side of the bus for the views; toward Salerno, right side. The views are different from the sea, so it's recommended to go one way by bus and one way by ferry.

Not sure why you'd "hate the bus."

I don’t know about the Salerno end, but in Sorrento in the last week of May, every time we passed the SITA bus stop for Positano/Amalfi, there were more people in line than would fit on the next, half hourly bus. But the price can’t be beat.

We've settled (I think!?) on staying our first night in Naples - too many things can go wrong to try to rush and get anywhere else that day. In the morning we plan to hire a driver to take us to Ravello with some stops along the way in Positano, etc where we will stay three nights and hopefully while we are there weather and waters will allow us to make a day trip to Capri before we leave. We will then make our way to Salerno (either via bus/ferry or taxi) to pick up a rental car to go to Paestum where we will tour the ruins, visit the buffalo farm, and stay for one night before going East to Puglia for the rest of our trip. Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions!

Sounds like a better plan with fewer hotel changes. We stayed in Naples, Capri and Sorrento and it was very easy taking the ferries between them. Our hotel obtained our departure ferry tickets for us.
A comment was made in one of the posts about dealing with luggage on Capri. When you get off the ferry, you will see porters with luggage carts. Our hotel had arranged this, told us the name of cart, and they delivered it to the hotel. Our luggage was in our room before we arrived; we took the funicular up to the town and walked to our hotel.

Tenuto Vannulo is on the way to Paestum and better to stop before than after. The best canolo I ever ate was there and the gelato is exceptionally good as well. I thought Paestum was best around sunset, but that may be much too late for you. The archaeology museum is closed one day a week, I think it's Monday. I went on a Sunday and had very heavy traffic going back to Salerno around 7 pm.

Thanks Chani! I’m super excited about Paestum and happy about our decision to stay there for the one night rather than doing it as a day trip. Sunset over the ruins sounds amazing!