One day for Amalfi

It is so easy to do from Sorrenro! Take a bus to Amalfi. Visit town, then take a bus up to Ravello, back down to Amalfi, finally transit to Positano by bus or ferry from Amalfi. With your daufhter as your knowledgeable fuide, it should be cery easy and much better than a group tour.

Thanks Suki, that is what I was wondering! Do the ferries from Amalfi to Positano run through the end of October? I think it would be fun to get on the water and see the coast from that view. I am not sure which ferry line to look at for that info.

Well, your daughter knows better than I, but I would be inclined to investigate the ferries from Sorrento (multiple companies, in season), because the bus to Pos/Amalfi can be so crowded. Also remember our host Rick's advice: If you're going to Amalfi, go there second, because in the late afternoon, the bus in Positano home to Sorrento may be so full (from originating in Amalfi) that it doesn't stop in Positano at all. (No personal experience, except seeing the awful lines at the Sorrento bus stop.) Note that the water view of Positano is probably better than the water view of Amalfi. Will you visit Ravello?

I personally am underwhelmed by the windy pebble beaches with pay-chaises in Positano. But I'm from the East Coast and have been to plenty of white sand beach resorts. Also, some of my doctors won't swim in the Mediterranean Sea! And I don't want to see the same international boutique stores I saw on Capri, in Rome, and so on.

Haha Tim, I am from just north of Cape Cod so I get what you mean about Amalfi beaches vs. our east coast sand! We are spoiled!!

My daughter's study abroad is based in Florence but she has spent sometime in the AC and is excited to go back and show me around but that is where is ends! Mostly I was just thinking that it would be ashame to find ourselves on a tour on a beautiful beach day, and at 20yrs old I am sure she would rather the beach than tour of 3 towns.

Thanks for the insight on the crowded buses, that did not occur to me! Are the buses crowded in late October? If we do the buses, we would go to visit Amalfi, then Revello, back to Amalfi and connect with bus or ferry to Positano for the afternoon (beach if good weather) then back to our Sorrento Hotel. I don't know how tiring or time consuming it is to travel between these towns by bus and a bus schedule is nice for reference but it doesn't give you any sense of how doable it really is. I just figured I would put the options out here on the board and see what mored seasoned travellers would opt for in my shoes.

It could come to pass that the tour is cancelled for no sign ups so my investigation of options will at the very least save me from scrambling last minute.

gosulliv, note that I quoted Rick backwards, and have corrected that post. If the bus back to Sorrento doesn't happen to stop in Positano, you would want to start sightseeing there, so that you get on the public bus home at it's originating stop, in Amalfi! Of course things are less crowded in October, but these destinations are in constant demand. All I know is that in late May, the bus stop in front of the Sorrento Circumvesuviana stop always had twice as many people as would fit on the next, half-hourly, bus to Positano. Although I like Ravello, Amalfi has much less to see than Positano. I kind of think it has a public beach, though.

Our solution was to hire a private car and driver, about 250 Euros for eight hours. That got us what we wanted from the Amalfi Coast. Otherwise, we used the Circumvesuviana for Pompeii and so on. That's the value of Sorrento, otherwise a purpose-built postwar resort heavily booked by British sun-seekers, as well as Americans. But your interest is the beach, which is not good in Sorrento. Have you checked the internet for October temperatures? Some other posters here have reported beaches in neighboring small towns, like maybe Vico Equense or Massa Lubrense, which I have NOT visited. Both train and bus tickets are sold at the newsstand beside the Sorrento rail station.