Docking in Salerno…where to go?

Go to Paestum

Hello pegfach, and welcome to the forum,

From Salerno you could head to the train station and either do Pompeii or, as Christine rightly points out, Paestum which is amazing.
You could also take the ferry to see some of the Amalfi Coast or tour Capri - although the time on the ocean is pretty long since Salerno is about as far as you can get from Capri among the places that serve it.

What are your interests?

=Tod

We just visited Salerno for 3 nights. It was fairly chill, not nearly as crowded as our other destinations--Florence, Rome, Taormina in Sicily.

If you have 10 hours, and you don't want to chance missing getting back...you have three safe (timewise) choices only:

1) Paestum ruins - a 45-minute train ride south

2) Vietri sul Mare - a 20 minute bus or drive north at the entrance to the Amalfi Coast. Beautiful, many ceramics shops.

3) Salerno Old Town - charming, walkable from the port, great restaurants and shops. Trianon has legitimate, cheap, wonderful Napolitan pizza that does not require you to go to Naples. Had it last week, so good!

I see no way--even with a driver--that you can chance anything on the Amalfi Coast with the assurance that you'll get back in time, even with a guide/driver. Public transportation is absolutely terrible on the A.C. Same with Pompei. Maybe you can take the train to Naples, take a taxi to the Archeological Museum, tour it, and take a taxi then train back to Salerno station, but you're going to feel rushed and everything has to be without any delays.

If I were you? I'm hiring a driver in advance--not gonna be cheap--that will drive me to Vietri, park for the hour or so I'm shopping and walking, then drive me back to Salerno's Old Town, where I can bop around at leisure, have some pizza, and make it back to the port in plenty of time.

Month of year?

Have you been on a cruise before? I ask to learn whether you are familiar with the fact that the ship will leave without you if you are not back by the "all aboard" time, usually at least half an hour before sail-away time. The other side of the coin is people who say that the proprietary excursions you buy on the ship are overpriced and inferior to hiring a private guide. But the ship will always wait for their own excursions to return.

You don't "cruise" to Capri, you take a private company's ferry. This ferry route typically takes 1 hour 40 minutes each way, and is exposed to both wave action and potential cancellation in really bad weather. Capri is a famous destination, but if you take 4 hours away from your excursion, there's a lot less you can get done. That's especially the case because Capri is so large and so hilly, and has vast areas that are entirely pedestrianized, unreachable by taxis.

The funicular is simply a way to get between the marina part of town and the popular center of touristic Capri. It's not a long or landmark experience (I mean, like the ride in Hong Kong ... ) Are you confusing it with the chairlift ride further up the mountain? That is also not an engineering marvel, but more like a small ski resort-type ride, to a very scenic (occasionally clouded-in) summit view.

Note that I am not "slamming" Capri. We spent a wonderful day there. But we took a daytrip from our Sorrento hotel. We did not have the pressure of a cruise ship departure upon us, and we probably walked five or six miles on Capri.

Check out the tours and private charters offered by Blu Mediterraneo. They are based in Salerno. We used them in 2022, and they were great; our friends had an equally great charter with them in 2023.

If you email them - start checking your Spam folder. Their first response to my email ended up in there.

https://www.blumediterraneosas.com/

Salerno's Duomo is well worth a visit. The crypt contains the relics of St. Matthew.

https://www.cattedraledisalerno.it/

If you really want to visit the Amalfi Coast or Capri, it’s best to pay up for the cruise ship’s excursion so you don’t have to worry about getting left if something happens. Otherwise I think Paestum is a great idea - we had planned to visit there last summer before that trip got postponed due to injury. Good luck!