Capri and Positano

I can help a bit with your second question about hiking in Garmish. Check out the Partnach Gorge for a short hike. The trail to it starts near the Olympic Stadium. There are a couple of other trail heads for longer hikes that also start in that area. There is also at least one website that I know of with some basic route information (http://www.gapa.de/Hiking). Its not really a hike, but take the train or cable car to the top of the Zugspitze for a nice view. You might want to post this question on the German board to see if anyone else has ideas. Good luck.

cailin, For your stay in Positano, you might have a look at This Hotel. It's a beautiful Hotel, very comfortable and a relatively easy walk to the beach and boat dock (although getting back to the Hotel is of course, "uphill"). I don't have any suggestions for Capri, but you might check the Guidebook for listings. Happy travels!

Have you looked on Trip Advisor? This is the go to site for great recommendations. Remember Positano is all steps be careful where you stay if you want to be close to the town & the beach.

I would recommend a day trip to Capri while staying in Positano at Hotel California, recommended by Rick. It is lovely.

I stayed in Positano for a week last summer and would recommend Capri for a day trip. During the summer it is insanely mobbed. Positano is great as it is easy to get to many Amalfi coast destinations via ferry. My favorite resataurant is La Tagliata up in the hills. Rick doesn't recommend it but if he found it I know he would.

Capri: Villa Krupp. Room 28 Positano: Hotel Pupetto. Any room. Both are well run and in very good locations.

I prefer Capri as a day trip as well. In Positano we enjoyed Villa Tartana. We prefer to base in Sorrento now

I second La Tagliata. It was the most spectacular meal of my life. Here's a link. http://www.latagliata.com/en/homepage

If you are at Positano, think about trying to squeeze in a trip a bit farther to Ravello. Beautiful! As it has been said about Ravello - "Where the poets go to die."

Thanks so much for your kind and helpful hints! You only live once so we decided to stay in Positano for two nights and two nights in Capri. hotels are really booking up quickly so we feel like we went a little bit over budget. We arrive in Naples and plan to take a day trip to Pompeii on the way to Positano. Does anyone know if we can travel via train with suitcases. Is there a place to leave bags and how safe is it to get around the naples airport to the central station. All of the guidebooks make it sound like pick pockets and muggings occur regularly. I am a New Yorker and am pretty familiar with being carefulbut have never really been in a situation where i've seen or had my thigns stolen. Does anyone have any recommendations? Would it be better to take a car service? I don't want to be a pansy about the situation. We are very capable of taking the train but for enjoyments sake and security is it better to take a car or bus? Does anyone have recs with regard to car service or buses or trains?
Thanks!!