First Time visitors to Italy : planning 7 nights in AC/Sorrento

I love Sorrento! For me it is a great home-base for the Amalfi Coast, Capri, and Pompeii. The town is great for walking both day and night. The views are wonderful, day and night. Maybe take a boat trip from Sorrento to Positano and on to Amalfi. So much more fun, IMHO, than the bus. You will have enough time, maybe, to do a day trip to Naples and Paestum (Greek ruins - not necessarily easy to get to from Sorrento but I found it worthwhile). For about 12 years now I have stayed at il Nido (ilnido.it) which is above the town. They have an hourly shuttle bus, an amazing breakfast buffet, it's my favorite restaurant in Sorrento, with a view that stunning.

In April I’m staying 3 nights in Sorrento, 3 in Capri and 2 in Amalfi.

With 7 nights, I would do Sorrento 2 or 3, Capri 2 or 3 and Amalfi 2.

Transportation between towns seems to be difficult so with just one base you could waste a lot of time traveling between towns.

We spent 11 nights in Sorrento last April and loved it. Transportation in the area is chaotic, unreliable and slow so it's important to decide your priorities of what to see. For us Pompeii, the Archeological Museum and other sites related to Vesuvius were the priority and so Sorrento made sense. If the Amalfi Coast with rest and relaxation is more important, then the AC may be better because of the slow transportation. If it's a mix of both then my pick is Sorrento.

We stayed 4 nights in Sorrento in 2022 and it was perfect, But with 7 nights, I would be tempted to divide the time as Marco suggests, though I'm not one to move around too much so I would likely spend 4 nights in Sorrento and 3 in another location.

Number 1 determinant will be availability--start searching asap and see what appeals to you.
Choosing Sorrento vs AC depends o the day trips you want to do, and I don't see Pompeii, so I would skip Sorrento entirely.
Anywhere on ferry line is good: https://www.travelmar.it/en/index
As is Atrani, as it is only a 15 minute walk from Amalfi.

Yes, it is late to book this area. You will have to take your eighth choice. Sorrento is not technically on the AC, but is by far the best location for day trips. Paestum is VERY far from Sorrento, however.

Capri is very nice, and different from the mainland. You have to decide about the effort to change hotels onto and off a pedestrianized island.

What time is your flight home? Do not neglect this issue.

Thank you so much for all your advice. We go from there to the Cycklade Islands in Greece for a week. So we will book flight from Naples to Athens or Santorini etc.

What Tim was getting at is if your flight is in the early morning, you will need to stay in Naples the night before. It's just a 15 minute taxi to the airport. If you are leaving in late afternoon, it is safer to stay hours away on the coast, but keep traffic in mind (or rockfalls blocking the road--it happens!)
Do you intend to visit Pompeii?

Again, it is getting late to get reservations for these very popular locations. Your priority today should be booking places to stay.

Thank you everyone! Our priority is finding a place. Has anyone ever rented an apartment or villa in Sorrento area?

We have rented a house from a company named Feeling Italy. They are located in the Sorrento area. Our rental was located in Saint' Angello which is a short easy walk along the coast into Sorrento. The company was very helpful with good communication and recommendations. Would not hesitate to use them again.

Has anyone ever rented an apartment or villa in Sorrento area?

I got an apartment with booking.com

Sorrento will be a good base to visit this area. You can easily take the ferry (which is an awesome ride) to Amalfi towns, and even to Capri. How do you plan to get to Sorrento from Rome? Keep in mind it's not a quick jaunt. Getting back to Naples will be easier, but consider staying, as others have mentioned in Naples on your last day. There is a lot to see there as well and will make it much less stressful to catch your flight from Naples to Greece.

If you decide to stay in one of the Amalfi towns after Sorrento (Amalfi is a good choice) you could take the ferry to Salerno which is a lovely ride and the ferry landing is a 5-10 minute easy walk to the train station. Take the train from Salerno to Naples (around 30-45 minutes depending on train time) and can either catch a bus or taxi to the airport. If your flight is early, train to Naples from Salerno the day before, enjoy Naples, then cab to the airport for your early morning flight.

Hotel Residence Amalfi is right by the ferry landing in the town of Amalfi and quite nice at that. See if it is available for your dates. Be aware that the ferry's only run in good weather. Choppy seas and inclement weather conditions keep them from running, but in that case your hotel could make arrangements for you to get to Salerno. We have done this, and the ferry was a highlight of our trips.

Although many on the forum do not like Positano, we found it to be a convenient base for day trips by ferry to Amalfi, Ravello, and Capri. We stayed with another couple in a 2-bedroom airbnb uphill from the main town. It's no longer available, or I would send you the info. We spent a night in Pompeii on our way to the Amalfi Coast because we wanted to wake up and go straight to the site.

I think your own objectives are important. Are you hoping for a Family-Bonding event in a villa? Do you want to imagine that you are residents of Italy for a week? Do you dislike changing hotels un-necessarily? (I certainly do.) Do you want go go swimming in the Mediterranean? (Sorrento is a poor place for swimming.) Do you need to have exactly the same breakfast you have at home? Do you want to shop for food and wash dishes? Although she probably had a tiny student-budget, your daughter may be a good resource, because she has LIVED in Italy. When I first went to Italy (in 1987) a proper breakfast was standing up in a bar, munching mass-produced savory pastries from a heated glass case, while sipping Cappucino among the real Italians having an Espresso on their way to work.

Now, southern Italy is not very like Florence. The government has starved the south of infrastructure money for decades, and there's a bit of ... lawless improvisation ... (?) more common in the south. OTOH, Sorrento is a purpose-built, postwar, reinforced-concrete resort town that is perfect for daytripping, and a nice place to have dinner when you get back. Again, month of year is really important because of crowding. The best restaurants in Sorrento will book up their tables. For our five nights in the last week of May, air conditioning was essential in Sorrento, even though we had windows on the cliff-front.

Since you plan daytrips, the location of your stay with relation to transport is important. You may not want to stay in a less-touristy town adjacent to Sorrento, because you'll have to spend an hour getting to the Sorrento marina, or half an hour getting to a Circumvesuviana (commuter train) station. Restaurants in Sorrento might have longer hours than the neighbor towns, but I don't know.

Trying to plan so all have a good time.

Be sure the husband and kids have input into the planning as it will make for a better time for all involved. The "kids" are old enough to be on their own, so splitting up the activities of the day means everyone can do their own thing.