Difficulty getting from Positano to Sorrento and Amalfi

Ferries are almost always the best option.....but since Positano is between the start and end of the bus route, there is always a chance that the bus will be full either way. I would probably lean towards getting on in Positano to go towards Amalfi as if you HAD to get a taxi, it would be a shorter drive?

You have to be very assertive to get on the bus in Positano. Also trying to get off is a challenge. we did this several times coming and going and I realized that is what elbows are made for but we were there during the busiest tourist time of the year. You can manage it though.

The SITA bus was horrible when we were there May 2023. Lines of folks waiting in the streets, then the bus was too full to stop. We used a private driver, not on the bus. I'm not sure if Mondo tours has any shared transportation from Positano. Good luck!

We took the ferry from Positano to Amalfi and then took the City Sightseeing bus to Ravello. That worked well. We took the ferry back to Positano. The views from the water are great and then you are not on curvy roads on the SITA bus. We stayed 3 nights in Positano and then took a taxi from Positano to our Sorrento hotel. You may wish to stay in Sorrento for a night or two and then take the train from Sorrento to Pompeii. Sorrento has spectacular cliffside sunset views over the Bay of Naples.

Hi Kay51, thanks for your report. What month of the year was that? I'm wondering if you had any trouble finding a space on the ferry or buying a ticket? (I'm using both words because some people have reported that their tickets were never punched or inspected!) Did you worry about fitting onto the ferry departure that you wanted to be on?

It appears the best way to get to Amalfi is by water taxi. From there we can take a bus to Ravello or perhaps a cab? I dont know if they operate in this area. It seems excessive to have a driver sit and wait for us for hours while my husband and I tour Ravello. We are signed up to some shared Mondo tours but I wanted to spend more time in Ravello which seemed to be a complaint of people who signed up for that tour.

I searched the City Sightseeing bus to Ravello from Amalfi. It appears that may be discontinued. Can anyone who has been there recently confirm that?

Ugggh. Regarding staying in Sorrento, several people suggested I move my stay from Sorrento to Positano so I did months ago and paid a premium extra $$ for a hotel. Oh well. I'm sure it will all be lovely. I've been before on a day trip from the port of Naples and knew I had to return to spend more time to do the area justice.

Water taxi is different from a ferry, or at least that's what I thought....because the word taxi is in it, that would be private and directed when and where you wanted it. That would probably be the MOST expensive. Ferry is normal transportation with other folks. There are taxis in Amalfi and Ravello, if you don't find one, you should be able to find a number to call one from your hotel or even a tourist office (though you would need to make sure other people don't steal it if it is coming for you haha).

a question vs. reply in regards to this... Are the ferries quite large or are they prone to rocking and may not be ideal for a person prone to motion sickness to consider this from Sorrento to their destination?

they're not HUGE......like...maybe 50-60 feet long? and that's a complete guess....I would think that if the waves were substantial it would be rocking a lot......but if they are going fast, it's less rocky, right? I have no idea how it would affect motion sickness people as I love waves :)

This is the ferry I took from Capri to Positano and then between Amalfi and Positano.

https://www.lucibello.it/en/b/positano-jet

Marco,
Thank you for the link to the ferry from Positano. Is this a public ferry that anyone can get on or is it a private rented water taxi. I think I misspoke earlier and used the term water taxi instead of what I meant was a public ferry. I don't want to charter a boat for myself!

Yes, that was a public ferry that anyone could get on.

On the link you below you can see the ferry schedule, there are other similar websites with ferry schedules. Note that it's important to be in the marina 15 or 20 minutes before your ferry leaves.

https://www.directferries.com/

Are the ferries quite large or are they prone to rocking and may not
be ideal for a person prone to motion sickness to consider this from
Sorrento to their destination?

It depends on the ferry and the destination. We used Alilauro from Sorrento to Amalfi one day and Capri another. The ferry to Capri was large with 400 passengers. The one to Amalfi was smaller with capacity of around 300. Due to the size of the dock in Positano, ferries to there will be considerably smaller.

To answer Tim's question about the ferry from Positano to Amalfi, we went in the month of May a few years ago. We bought our Travel Mar tickets online in advance. Then the day of our scheduled ferry ride we went to the boat ticket office by the beach in Positano with our online Travel Mar boat passes and got our boarding passes printed 30 minutes before our 10:00 am ferry ride.
We got in line for the ferry then so that we could get seats on the upper deck. It was a wonderful ride to Amalfi with spectacular views from the water.

Thanks very much Kay, for confirming that even before the dock reconstruction, Positano ferry facilities were large enough for ferries with a second, outdoor, elevated deck.

It's perhaps not relevant to Positano trips, but I want to mention that our (Late May) return ferry from Capri (a much longer, open-water trip with more wave action) was so large that it carried cars and trucks. And the upper deck carried well over 200 pedestrians, but had no outdoor standing or seating.

Tim, were you confirming that there is a second outdoor deck or a second deck that is outdoors?

All the coast ferries from Salerno that I have ever taken have had only 2 decks, one indoor on the bottom and one outdoor on the top. And all ferries that I have taken from Salerno that stop in Amalfi have always continued on to Positano. So those have always been able to go to Positano, but I have no idea about a 3 story boat.

Thank you all for participating in this thread! It has been very helpful in planning my trip.
My questions are:
Is it necessary to buy tickets in advance?
How much time does it save?

I have read other threads where people mention buying tickets from one ferry company and actually using a different ferry company to cross from one town to another.

Katherine, thanks for your helpful contribution about the runs from Salerno.

I was only referring to one additional (second) deck above the hull-deck of a small boat. The day we were in Positano, we saw (from a distance) a single-deck, surprisingly small ferry at the Positano dock. It's also significant that the long run from Salerno does not require an enclosed boat. My question is informed by my surprise that our ferry from Sorrento to Capri (much more open water than along the AC, if a similar distance to Salerno-Amalfi) was a sealed room with 250 or more airline seats, and only a few, small, fixed windows.

(We used a car and driver for our AC day.)

I just came back last week from a 10 day stay in Sorrento. For 3 separate days we walked to the ferry and was able to buy a ticket each day for, Capri, Positano and Amalfi no problem. One day we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii. The train was packed, my husband, and others, stood the whole way.

Are the ferries quite large or are they prone to rocking and may not
be ideal for a person prone to motion sickness to consider this from
Sorrento to their destination?

Swat, if you suffer from motion sickness, and if by "from Sorrento to their destination" you mean to other towns around the Amalfi Coast, your stomach would have a much harder time by road than by ferry. Granted, you can't always count on ferry service if wind/weather makes a journey by sea unsafe and they cancel the boats.

Last I knew the Coast-to-Coast/City Sightseeing buses ended service on the Amalfi Coast some years ago.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/hop-on-hop-off-buses-sorrento-and-the-amalfi-coast-towns

The ferry trips to from Capri and Positano to Sorrento weren't bad, rocky, but the trip back from Amalfi to Sorrento was 1-1/2 hours and I was done. That trip could have ended 1/2 hours earlier.

HA Kathy, I didn't even think to mention the buses! My friend had to throw up into our other friend's sweatshirt on the ride from Amalfi to Salerno once! It was not pleasant and I haven't tried one of those buses again :)

Oh my. It sounds like i need to get some Dramamine for the trip then. I experience seasickness about 50% of the time.

Lordy, Katherine. I was green just in a van transfer from Sorrento to Naples airport, and that route isn't as wind-y as the AC roads. Another 10 minutes and it would have been "Um, pass the sweatshirt please?" HA! Have read about SITA bus passengers tossing their lunches out the windows. Yep, I've a stomach so touchy that I knew anything but ferries were a no-go even with Dramamine. Bleh.

Oh I wish the windows were able to be opened! hahahah

Yes, I would take the Dramamine the night before (that's how cruise folk do it, right?) and then you will be prepared for either ferry or bus, but crossing fingers its the ferry!

I'm off to get Dramamine and ginger chews. I will remember to pack some plastic bags to have handy in my daypack so I dont have to dirty a sweatshirt. I threw up on the Eurostar in my husband's jacket when no one would let me skip the line to get to the bathroom. It was so embarrassing. We all had to step around the mess that wasn't contained as we exited the train. I had forgotten that gem of a story- but learn from my mistake a bring a sick bag just in case.

OMG, looking at all this motion-sickness talks, I realized that we were planning to take a bug from Salerno to Minori, since it's right from the train station and it's a direct bus. To take a ferry means we need to get from the train station to the port, then ferry to Amalfi, and then another ferry or bus or taxi back to Minori... Seems overly complicated, but I also don't want us to have vomiting as our first experience while on the Amalfi Coast LOL! :)