Itinerary: Part 3, Sorrento and AC

Posted by bxrlover (Canada) on 02/17/25 10:14 PM

The third leg our our trip to Italy in mid May will be spent in Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, where we will spend 4 days before heading to Naples and then Rome.

Having spent the previous 2 days on Ischia, we will take either the Aliluaro or NLG Jet hydrofoil from Ischia (Forio port) to Sorrento, arriving around 6:30 or 7:00pm, check into our hotel (Hotel Desiree) and have dinner at either Ristorante Bagni Delfino, Il Monazzero di Teresina, Taverna Azzurra, Trattoria da Emilia.

Question: Any preference for which ferry company to use?

Our first full day in this area will be spent seeing the Amalfi Coast, by ferry if weather permits or with Mondo Guides group tours if not. The plan would be to start with Amalfi by going to Piazza Duomo for Pasticceria Pansa for some espresso and sfogliatelle, then visiting the duomo.
Next we'll take the bus ( maybe taxi) to Ravello to visit Villa Cimbrone and have lunch at either Ristorante Garden, Trattoria da Cumpa Cosima or Mimi Bar Pizzeria. Then ferry (ideally) back to Sorrento with dinner at any of the above restaurants and maybe the passagiata.

Day 2 is dedicated to seeing Sorrento and Positano. Thinking to take the ferry to Positano, checking out the via Positanesi d’America path to Spaggia di Fornillo and then having lunch at Da Ferdinando and wandering around Viale Pasitea before taking ferry back to Sorrento. Truthfully, I don't see much to DO in either Positano or Sorrento, but thinking to end the day wandering around Piazza Tasso, Centro Storico, Villa Communale and having dinner at any of the above restaurants that we didn't already get to.

Day 3 is for visiting Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, which I am looking at doing with Golden Tours, Pompeiittours or Gray Line for about $175 pp.

**Question: any recommendations between these tour companies?

Day 4 is still open ended. I am thinking we could either visit Capri (Anacapri seems more our style), mostly to ride the chairlift, hike a bit or do some kayaking there. The alternative would be to hike wither the Pathway of the Gods or the Path of the Lemons.

Question: if we do Capri, can anyone recommend some reasonably easy to moderate hikes that we can combine with the chairlift?

Thanks in advance for any feedback on what I have planned. As always, I am grateful for the wisdom of this crowd :)

Posted by Allan

Canada 1st, not 51st.

02/17/25 11:00 PM

4773 posts

Regarding your question about which ferry company to use, I'm not sure if matters. I've posted a link to my Trip Report but also copied an excerpt from my Day 3 Wednesday to explain why.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-2-weeks-of-day-trips-from-sorrento

Let’s talk about ferries and chaos. On Monday we booked the early Alilauro ferry to Amalfi with the intention when we got there to hop on either the Travelmar ferry or SITA bus to Miniori. Except for the boat to Capri, there’s no signage that shows what ferry is arriving/leaving from which dock and you’re on your own to figure it out. We found our dock, and the boat was there but it was deserted and so we sat nearby to wait. Our ferry was leaving at 10:20 and the competitor’s ferry-Caremar was leaving at 10:00. At about 9:55 there was still nobody at our ferry to begin boarding and a guy with limited English came over and gestured that the ferry was leaving. We showed our tickets and gestured that we were on a different boat, finally in English, he said the boat had changed and to get on. So, we hopped on the Caremar ferry hoping we were doing the right thing. As we were nearing Positano, OUR boat went speeding by, full of people and arrived in Amalfi well before we did. We had watched this guy intercepting many people and directing them to his boat and we have no idea why, because there was no financial incentive as we hopped on and off with no issues. On the way back, we befriended a bunch of Brits waiting on the dock and they had the same experience, plus their return tickets were for Caremar, but the time scheduled to leave was the same as ours. We all hopped on the Alilauro boat, and nobody had any issues.

It's a different world down there.

We did use Mondo on another day to do the AC. I'm perfectly happy with them, but it may be rushed if you want to sit and eat. Of a 9 hour tour, 4.5 was in the car. Travel is slow along the coast.

Quite honestly we were underwhelmed by Positano. Our Mondo Tour stopped there for an hour which was 30 minutes too long. We much preferred Capri. We didn't do the chairlift and I can't recommend a hike. But we had a great day. There's also a day there described in my Trip Report. You may consider that over a day in Positano and Sorrento. We have no regrets about our stay in Sorrento but it's a hub with really good restaurants and wandering there each evening may be enough for you.

We used Mondo for Pompeii as well and then stayed later to wander on our own. It depends on your interests but we dedicated 12 hours over 2 days there, plus a day at Herculaneum and a day in Naples which included the museum to tie all of the info on the Vesuvius eruption together.

Posted by DebH

02/20/25 08:32 AM

287 posts

It is ten years since we spent a week in Sorrento, but it is still very much on my mind, particularly when you mentioned Ristorante Bagni Delfino. We loved this restaurant, eating out on the pier, so try very hard to incorporate it into your itinerary. We ate their twice, very happily.

We travelled in October, and decided that since it wasn't high season, ferries would be an issue. We used Rainbow Limos for all our transfers, from the station in Naples to Sorrento, with a two hour stop in Pompeii along the way. They then took us on a full day tour of the coast, with a stop in Positano, just for a look, a wine in the main square in Amalfi, shopping time in both.

We spent a good couple of hours in Ravello, mainly on a long lunch with lots of wine in a spectacular spot overlooking both the wineries and the sea. We ate at Villa Maria, which we reached by a long walk through the gardens of Villa Cimbrone. A wonderful lunch, one of the best of our month in Italy.

Rainbow Limos also returned us to the station at Napoli when we left to return to Rome.

We too spent a full day and another half a day exploring Sorrento. As well as the Amalfi Trip we also did a day trip to Capri.