Naples and Amalfi Coast Area in March 2019 for family of 5

Hi there -
A couple of comments off the top of my head?

Saturday afternoon - drop bags off at Naples hotel (?) and tour the
Natl Arch. Museum and the Capella Sansevero. (thinking of using Dr.
Pina Esposito as a personal tour guide while in Naples)

Most of us discourage scheduling tours for arrival days. For one thing, travel delays are not all that uncommon. For another, a lot of folks spend arrival days in a jet-lagged fog: doing in-depth tours - and especially museums - can be more than overtired brains can take. Walking in the fresh air is a better way to stay awake until a semi-normal bedtime and acclimate to local time as quickly as possible. As Dr. Esposito's services are not inexpensive, I think I'd save them for another day versus take both risks?

Sunday: Herculaneum and Pompeii (Stay in Naples)

This is going to be a lot to absorb so you will want to be well rested.

Monday: train to Sorrento (main base until Friday) drop bags at
lodging (?) and head to Mt. Vesuvius

Vesuvius is the opposite direction from Sorrento so you'd be backtracking. Personally? As you can see it clearly from Pompeii, I'd drop this and spend the day exploring Sorrento.

Friday: Enjoy Sorrento and train back to Naples to fly out in the AM

This is the day I'd probably choose for the Naples archeological museum, etc. Take a mid-morning train, dump the bags at a hotel (most will store them until check-in) and off you go. The artifacts in the museum may very likely be more contextual after you've seen Pompeii/Herculanum than before.

Oh, and Path of the Gods will be weather dependent.

This is great feedback. Thank you Kathy. We were expats in Europe for a few year so I totally understand the timing/jet lag issue and appreciate your suggestions. I will definitely make some adjustments to this schedule based on your feedback! Thanks!

We were expats in Europe for a few year so I totally understand the
timing/jet lag issue and appreciate your suggestions.

Oh gosh, then this isn't your 1st rodeo! Good to know that you're old hands at the jet lag stuff! :O)

We did go to mt Vesuvius from sorrento which required practically going back to Naples from which we had come. Would not do it that way. And agree you are being unrealistic with what you can do upon arrival. In my view, you would be better off climbing mt Vesuvius the day you arrive than visiting museums.

Also you have yourself in sorrento but going to amalfi and on the path of the gods . That doesn’t seem very reasonable to me. Maybe consider going by bus to amalfi and staying a couple nights. We took the bus from sorrento to amalfi and then to Ravello and then walked back to amalfi. A second day We took the bus to bromerano , hiked the path of the Gods, caught a bus from end of hike (novelle?) to positano to avoid walking down a 1000 stairs. We then took a ferry back to amalfi.

We also did a day trip to Capri but from the Amalfi Coast not sorrento. We stored our luggage and then retrieved it and took ferry back to Naples. That was quite efficient. We returned to same hotel which was nice and then took taxi to the airport.

Beth

Thanks for the feedback Beth. I like the thought of staying in Amalfi and will look into that further. I don't think the ferries run in March in Positano, do they?

I don't think the ferries run in March in Positano, do they?

'Fraid not. Or to Amalfi either. They usually start running along the coast around the beginning of April.

https://www.positano.com/en/ferry-schedule

"Ferry routes run during the tourist season from the beginning of April through October. During the winter months, the only ferry routes ative are those between Sorrento and Naples, and Naples or Sorrento and the islands."

This itinerary may flow a little better.

Day 1. Arrive Naples, take this bus to Sorrento use.
€10,00, 1H15m. Visit Sorrento.

http://curreriviaggi.it/autolinee/images/AUTOLINEE_CURRERI.pdf

Day 2. Bus to Positano. Hike Path of the gods.

Day 3. Circumvesuvian to Herculaneum then Pompeii.

Day 4. Ferry to Capri.

Day 5. Bus to Ravello, Nice walk downhill to Attani, cute fishing village, then on to Amalfi.

Day 6. Circumvesuvian to Naples, drop luggage
Then visit Arch. Museum and Sansevero. Use Pina for this part of your excursion, meeting her after the museum and do a more through tour of Naples.

Day 7. Visit Vesuvius. You can take the Circumvesuvian to Herculaneum 20 min. and catch the bus up to the volcano from there.

Day 8 depart. Alibus to NAP €5 15 min.

This eliminates the transfer back to Naples.

Consider an apartment in Sorrento you'll have more space and it should save $$. Quick look on booking brought up this one.

http://www.booking.com/Share-nF2SIl

I did not think about ferry not running in March. I think reordering is better but a few comments.

1. It is complicated to do path of gods from positano. There is a bus that from goes from positano to where it starts (and I ended) but then you end up in bomerano and as I recall you have to go back to amalfi by bus. Then you would need to take another bus back to sorrento. If you are set on path of the gods and Ravello I still think it makes sense to stay two nights in amalfi town rather than commuting back and forth to sorrento twice. I also liked amalfi town a lot-medieval flavor with a wonderful cathedral . Very different than sorrento or Naples.

2. We spent most of the day at Pompeii and enjoyed it very much. I would not want to have to rush to see something else that day. We hired a guide-a group one as we came in and were glad we did.

3. I took public transportation to meet my husband at Naples airport and it took awhile. We took a taxi for our 7 am flight. Much less nerve wrecking and airport is pretty close so not that expensive (and did you know stopping at red lights is optional at 5 am?)

Beth

Ps. so I would follow gerris rearranged schedule except I would do 3 nights sorrento, two nights amalfi town, and two nights Naples (That would mean doing Pompeii and Capri from sorrento and Ravello and path of the gods from amalfi. Then take bus back to sorrento and then train to Naples. (Bus stop right next to train station in sorrento).

Thank you so much Beth and Gerri. This is so helpful.

So here is next iteration:
Saturday: Arrive and head to Sorrento (Stay in Sorrento)
Sunday: Circumvesuvian to Pompeii (Stay in Sorrento)
Monday: Ferry to Capri. (Stay in Sorrento)
Tuesday: Bus to Amalfi Coast drop bags head to Ravello Nice walk downhill to Attani, cute fishing village, then on to Amalfi (Stay in Amalfi)
Wednesday: Bus to Positano. Hike Path of the gods or see other things in the area. (Stay in Amalfi)
Thursday. Bus/Circumvesuvian to Naples drop bags and visit Herculaneum
Friday: Then visit Arch. Museum and Sansevero. Use Pina for this part of your excursion, meeting her after the museum and do a more through tour of Naples.
Saturday: Alibus to NAP €5 15 min.
Decided to drop Vesuvius

Did I understand you both correctly?

Yes, except you take the bus to Bomerano to hike the Path of the Gods. You will return from Positano. The hike ends near a little store where we bought ice cream and you can buy bus tickets to go down to Positano. Of course, I was there in July not March but don't think the bus had to do with tourists. But one group of women we ran into several times while hiking walked the stairs down so you could do that too. We waited awhile at the bus stop so bus doesn't run frequently but it takes you to the bus stop in Positano. You could explore a little and then take another bus back to Amalfi.

Nice thing about the way you have your itinerary now is Pompeii and Herculean are not back to back. I think you will enjoy that more.

Mt Vesuvius is same stop as Herculean ( I think) so could always switch activities if your group later prefers. But best thing about hiking Mt. Vesuvius is the views so only consider if clear and sunny.

Beth

A thumb up for Gerri's itinerary. Eliminating that transfer to Naples just to catch a flight is a time-saving plus! 👍

While I personally wouldn't do 3 lodgings in 7 days due to the loss of time transferring between, if you do decide to do so, using a car service or taxi to visit Herculaneum will save you almost 2 hours. There's a left luggage service by the Vesuvius bus. Then it's a 20 min ride on the Circumvesuvian into Naples. For the extra $35 this would be worth it.

Here are the bus schedules for the path of the gods. Amalfi-Bomerano takes about 30 min.

http://www.pathofgods.com/path-of-the-gods-bus-timetables/

Don't want to rain on folks' parade, but a factor everybody seems to be forgetting is the potential inclement weather in those parts in early-to-mid March...take it from me, please...

Last year, after a beautifully temperate week in Rome starting February 26, we took the train to Naples, then had a private driver take us to our B&B in Sorrento, for five nights. As it turned out, four out of those five days on the A.C. were bad weather, and not just nuisance-bad. This was torrential winds & rains, temps in the 40's but felt colder, forcing us to cancel a cooking class on the point of the peninsula facing Capri, and pretty much any outside activities. And the B&B's heat was inoperable for the most part--those tile floors got mighty cold!

We made do, of course, taking the Circumvesuviana to Naples to the Archeological Museum, and eating in great restaurants in Sorrento's Old Town, but it wasn't until our last full day that we were able to ride the SITA bus over to Positano, where it was pretty much deserted, but the fog had lifted (just for us!) and we walked and had a great time.

My advice would be to make all your plans for the A.C. that time of year fluid & flexible, and take full advantage of good weather days.

Jay makes an excellent point. The earliest I've traveled to the AC is April. Most of my 14 trips have been May, September and October (daughter lives in the area). Weather can definitely be a factor.

Another thing you may want to look at is this 7 day pass for attractions in the campania region.

http://www.campaniartecard.it/artecard/en/card/whole-region-7-days

If you do Pompeii, Herculaneum the Arch. Museum and 1 other site, it may pay for itself.

I see that the internet advises that the Sorrento March temperatures range from 53-65 Fahrenheit. That's a plus for Pompeii, but you might even need wind protection on Capri. One site shows 14 days with non-zero rain in March. I think Sorrento is likely an exception, but less-traffic-ed Meditteranean resort towns usually have some off season retail closures. We were there in high season.

but a factor everybody seems to be forgetting is the potential
inclement weather in those parts in early-to-mid March...take it from
me, please...

Yep. That's why I mentioned earlier that Path of the Gods would be weather dependent. Same with Vesuvius and Capri. As much flexibility + Plan B's to work around wet/wind/chill as possible is advised. There will probably still be a lot of businesses closed on Capri for winter but if the weather is favorable, you can do some nice hiking there...which is most fun for families on the island anyway, IMHO.

Thank you all for your excellent input. I have researched the weather and plan on having a lot of flexibility with our plans. I am going into this with eyes wide open understanding how bad the weather can be. Love the idea of the 7 day pass. You all have given me such a great foundation to work confidently with. Thanks again!! Love getting the input and advice.