Paestum or not??

Paestum has a great archeological zone (Greek rather than Roman, for the most part), a good museum across from the ruins, and a beach. You could make it a separate daytrip, depending on your time frame, without a driver (train stop but by a roundtrip ticket before you go, or perhaps there's a bus).

Viamichelin.com puts the driving time from Amalfi to Paestum at 2 hrs 19 minutes each way. Paestum itself is worth 2-3 hours. Starting & returning to Sorrento and trying to see Amalfi, Ravello & Paestum in between is way too much for one day, let alone 8 hours.

We did the same day trip with a driver, and made it all the way to Paestum. We enjoyed it, as we love to see history well preserved - three of the best preserved Greek Temples outsides Greek mainland.

Mike, approximately how much time did you spend in each place? Did you feel rushed?

Well its closer than Oxnard, and it depends if you think original Greek ruins in pretty good condition and an accompanying museum are worth going that far for or not. For all I know you may regularly go to Greece and it would be nothing out of the ordinary.

Thanks all for your input. I didn't realize that Paestum took so long to get to/from. I had looked at a map which showed that it was only 27 miles from Amalfi but I guess it takes quite a while to drive to due to the twisting/turning roads, etc. As much as I would LOVE to visit Paestum, I think I will leave it for another trip & have the driver solely concentrate on the Amalfi Coast instead. Thanks again for your input.

The Michelin-recommended driving route from Amalfi to Paestum shows a driving distance of 106 Km, which = 66 miles. If there were a ferry from Amalfi to Paestum (there isn't), the distance would be much shorter. I think you made the right decision.

Thanks Tom. There's just so much to do & when looking at maps, everything seems so close together!! I think my time will be better spent seeing more of the coast. Can't wait! Now, I've got to narrow down which driver to go with.

We hired a driver from Sorrento. He picked us up from hotel and started the Almalfi drive around 8 in the morning. He will patiently stop by the road side and gave us photo-op. On and off he must have offered us 20 to 30 places along the famous Almalfi coast drive for numerous breadth taking views. We stopped by the town of Almalfi for 1 1/2 hrs visited the cathedral and had coffee and cake. Positano was also a brief stop - one could spend a day here. We made it to Paestum by noon for a nice lunch next to the Greek temple ruins. Pasteum is quite worthy of a 2 hours stay if it is not too hot. On the way back he took highway and motor road and we returned to Sorrento just in time for dinner.