Naples Area Trip Planning Advice Wanted!

Well,

Just my opinion but with so little time I would use Naples as a base. You have the option to explore Naples, take a trip to Pompeii, ferry to Ischia and see Capri/Ana Capri.

I would just stay in Naples. Based on everything you describe, I think you’ll love it! While I understand how a place like Naples gets a “reputation,” I think it’s a bit unfair. It’s definitely a bit rough and tumble, but I found it wildly enjoyable and fascinating. Just a day wandering along Spaccanapoli is great. There’s lots to see in Naples itself. As art lovers, I’d recommend heading to Museo di Capidomonte. It’s a bit out of the way, but they have some amazing canvases and zero crowds.

Pompeii is a must, but I also highly recommend Herculaneum. It’s smaller, but equally compelling. They are very different from each other. You can do both in one day. Make sure you get to Pompeii as early as possible to beat the tour bus contingent.

If you somehow find you have a day on your hands and want to get out of the city, then the ferry over to Capri is a fine option. It’s super touristy, but incredibly beautiful. Skip Capri town, and head to Anacapri and Monte Solaro. The view is beyond description.

Oh, and make sure you stuff yourselves with pastries! They are renowned throughout Italy for their pastries in Naples and Campagna. Don’t pass them up.

There's enough to keep you busy in Naples. Save the Amalfi Coast for a separate trip. You may like a day trip to Caserta. Besides Pompeii, there's Herculaneum. Rick's self-guided walking tour is good. While it may be warm enough to sunbathe on the beach, the water will be icy. If you want a budget hotel recommendation, PM me.

I would stay in Naples. It’s a great base for all the things you mentioned, and with 4 days hopping around is more trouble than it’s worth.
You can do a day trip to Sorrento, or even further down the coast if you want a more relaxed day.

Now, I am someone who likes a little grit and loves big cities. Athens is wonderful. Palermo is one of my favorites. I’ve happily lived in Detroit and Chicago. Naples was still a bit much for me. I spent 4 nights there and I’m glad I did but I don’t really want to go back. I can’t quite figure out what makes it different than the other cities, but it is to me. Not in terms of safety or anything, just the feel of the place. Be prepared for more difficulty/intensity than you think. Well worth it though!

Note that it's very easy to get to Sorrento (which is not on the Amalfi Coast) from Naples, but much more difficult and time consuming to get to the Amalfi Coast from Naples - ESPECIALLY on a BUDGET, because it restricts your choices to the awful SITA busses. That said, it can be disappointing to visit a coastal area in April. If you mean April, 2019, I would comment (even if you think it conflicts with what I just wrote, negatively) it is hard to book hotels with less than six months advance time in Sorrento and the AC. There is any endless supply of U.K. customers, for example, desperately searching for anyplace with a slightly higher temperature and slightly less rain. It is also a huge problem to get out of the AC and get anything else done on that travel day. Do you understand that Positano only has smaller, completely pebbled, beaches? Sorrento has one miserable sand beach with marina diesel fumes.

Because you write "bar scene", I wonder if you may find Naples to be too predominantly down-scale economically for your taste. But if you speak Italian, you won't have any problem in places the natives go in Naples. I agree that Naples is loaded with history, food and culture, and surrounded by enough. Note that there are five sites on the multiday Pompeii ticket, if you and your husband both have the taste for it. He is absolutely right that Pompeii is a must-do. Your apparent lack of enthusiasm (?) makes me wonder if the culture I'm extolling is equally attractive to YOU.

Edit: I did not mean to say that you need to speak Italian to get a drink and be welcome. You can get along fine with the eight courtesy words and reading the menu, just like anywhere else. I just thought you meant making friends and talking to the locals - like many people rave about doing in, say, Ireland. I suspect there are more people-per-capita with zero English in Naples than in Rome.

Nearly everything has been covered by others - I would add Castel Sant Elmo (Interesting in itself, but also stunning views across the city and Bay of Naples)
The remains of the Greek site at Paestum, although 75 minutes by train away, is well worth a visit. Three stunning temples and an excellent museum

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think we'll just spend the 4 nights in Naples. I'm not worried too much - several of our good friends have lived there for years and adore it (Stockholm Syndrome? lol) but other non-military friends visited for a wedding not long ago and all said that the danger/dirtiness was exaggerated, and they know me, and think I'll like it.

To clarify I'm not really worried, but Naples seems to fall into a "love it" or "hate it" category and the "hate it" people can be quite strong. But as my husband pointed out, the same colleagues he works with who hate Naples also hate Rome. And Paris. And Berlin. All places I'd rather be right now. That said, I don't want to be Pollyannaish about the realities so I'm just taking in all the positives and negatives and trying to reach a mean.

The remains of the Greek site at Paestum, although 75 minutes by train away, is well worth a visit. Three stunning temples and an excellent museum

Yeah so my husband, the Greek warfare nerd (also Roman nerd, also train nerd ) seems to want to pass on this and I'm a little confused. To me it seems like one of the great draws of the area. Also I personally prefer Greek stuff to Roman stuff. We've seen So Much Roman Stuff in our time in Europe and only a little bit of Greek Stuff! I'll just ignore my callings to a beach, unless the weather is amazing, in which case perhaps a ferry to an island as friends of mine recommended tonight? (But probably not Capri, that doesn't seem like our scene.)

And no, we don't speak Italian, but I've never had a problem enjoying the bar scene anywhere else all over Europe and unless Naples is extremely insular (which it doesn't appear to be from everything I've been reading/hearing) I'm not terribly concerned. I can order a beer or white wine, apologize, and say thank you, in most European languages and it's gotten me through 8 years in Europe so far without a problem! I'm way more concerned with an upcoming self-driving barge trip in France with people who claim to speak French who apparently don't, and that's the language I'm gonna focus on for the next few months.

Thanks folks for the good advice!

Sarah, I’ll just voice another strong recommendation for a day trip to Paestum, some of the best Greek ruins anywhere, including Greece. These 3 intact temples are from 550, 500 and 450 BC. The modest-size museum next to the temples is excellent, with art and artifacts from the temples. It also shows how the temples would have been decorated in their day, very colorful, totally different than the plain gray stones of the ruins of today. The best light at the ruins is late afternoon. On a day trip by train, you can stop for a while to visit Salerno and its old medieval area and beautiful church. With an early start you can even also visit the ceramics town of Vietri sul Mare, very close to Salerno. You can do all this in one day, and be back in Naples by mid-evening for dinner.

We just stayed in Naples for 3 nights at the end of our trip to Italy and we liked it. I think you are right to spend all four nights there and not waste time moving around. We spent an afternoon in the Archeological museum, a fairly full day at Pompeii (I think we were there for 5 hours!), and then we took a day to go down to Paestum - yes, Paestum again.... If you like a bar scene, it's bound to be hopping by then, as people were out in the streets having drinks early this week when it was 38 degrees and howling wind - we were inside drinking hot chocolate! Also, we had the best food in Naples - better than Venice and Rome, though it may have just been luck of restaurant choice.