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Need Travel suggestions for 2 week trip Venice-Rome-Amalfi Coast with 2 adults 2 teenage boys

Hello, our family is well traveled. I would like suggestions for 2 active, athletic teenage boys. Our best vacation experiences have occurred combining being active - bicycling, kayaking, watersports, cooking etc. with sightseeing. We also need some good transportation options between destinations. In the past we have traveled with other families so have enjoyed private car service or 1st class trains. We would like to do this again. Am questioning best route to get from Rome to Amalfi Coast villa with 4 of us. - We are meeting friends on the amalfi coast for the last week and need a villa for 8. We have accomodations for venice and rome, Wondering if our amalfi coast stay should be 2 places or 1 for the week for the 8 of us. We would like to go to Capri. Any suggestions large or small are appreciated.

Our timeline will look something like this
Sun 6/18/17 - Noon Arrive Venice from Seattle
Mon 6/19 Venice
Tues 6/20 Venice (potential overnight train to rome?)
Wed 6/21 - Arrive Rome - Sistine Chapel/Vatican
thurs 6/22 Rome - Colosseum
fri 6/23 Rome
sat 6/24 Depart for Amalfi Coast
sun 6/25 Amalfi Coast
mon 6/26 Amalfi Coast
tues 6/27 Amalfi Coast
wed 6/28 Amalfi coast
thurs 6/29 Amalfi Coast
fri 6/30 Amalfi Coast
sat 7/1 Transport to Naples - Need naples airport hotel
Sun 7/2 Fly out naples 6:30 AM

Posted by
20250 posts

Tues 6/20 Venice (potential overnight train to rome?)

It's only a 3 1/2 hour train trip, so even if there was a night train, I wouldn't consider it. Spend the night in Venice. First class is over top, totally unnecessary. Second class is fine. Book a table a for 4 when you get inside the reservation window.

Posted by
16387 posts

I cannot help with Rome to Amalfi Coast, but I can with Venice to Rome. The trip is only 3 and 3/4 hours, so definitely not something to do by night train ( if there even is one). We took the new Italo Treno train in First class a year ago and it was very nice.

http://www.italotreno.it/en

The prices are very good if you book a couple of months in advance. And the website is more user-friendly than Trenitalia.

Posted by
27212 posts

Current reports on conditions in the Vatican Museums indicate that crowding is an extremely severe problem, and it appears the best way to deal with that (if only partially) is to take an early tour that gets you into the Sistine Chapel/Museums before they open to the public. You will not be able to do that if you try to visit the Vatican on the day you arrive from Venice. The early-access tours will cost about 100 euros per person (don't know whether the teens will be less), but I'd do that in a heartbeat rather than spending money on first-class rail tickets.

Posted by
27212 posts

That's a much better price, Lola. I must have not checked enough Google results.

Posted by
45 posts

Hi Karen!

I actually traveled all the way from the Cinque Terre to the Amalfi Coast during my 2 week trip and then ended in Rome since it was easier to fly out of. It was a trek of a 6 hour travel day haha! From Rome is very easy, no worries.

What we did is to take a fast train to Naples (a train from Rome to Naples is only 1 hour long) and then had a car pick us up from Naples to Positano where we stayed. It was 100 euro for 2 of us and well worth it because if not we would have been on buses etc, and we were not comfortable driving the windy roads ourselves in a rental. It was great and our driver told us a lot of history as we traveled.

In Positano, we stayed in an amazingggg family-run house right on the water that I found on AirBNB, but who also has a website. It was cool because they had 8 different style apartments to rent depending on family size/your needs and all were very well priced. It wound up being one of our cheaper stays and was such a good value for the incredible view. Each had a deck right over the water. It was beautiful. The driver that we used they recommended to us as they were friends of the family and do business with them often. So it was easy to call of them whenever needed- even for a dinner at night!

The place we stayed in Positano also had their own gated access down to the beach area and to the ferry. So to get to Capri was so easy because we were minutes from the area where the boat picks you up. Keep in mind this means that there were manyyyyy stairs to get down to that level of the house. Positano = a continuous workout on stairs. I really enjoyed Positano as the base as it is so picturesque and very central on the Amalfi Coast! We did a day trip to Capri (and I booked an absolutely amazing boat tour around the Island with changes to swim in hidden caves and inlets) and then we did another boat tour on a separate day up the Coast and saw Amalfi and Ravello, and we had 3-4 hours to get out and explore. If I could do it over, I'd defnitely had stayed a night or 2 on Capri because it is simply magical and that when all of the tourists leave. So, if you can base in both Positano and Capri it would be incredible.

PM for anything else. I loved the 4 days we spent there.

Kapri