Pompeii and Amalfi advice needed!

I forgot to tell you that we are talking about the first week of May 2015. Thanks again.

I enjoy approaching the Amalfi Coast in a car. We hired a limo into Positano and stayed two nights and then took a taxi to Amafi/Atrani for three nights. That being said, I vote for Positano for the overnight stay. On the other hand you can't go wrong by staying in Amafi, then going to Positano and taking the ferry back to Naples. As this was my second trip there, you will want to return again. It is a beautiful location.

On arrival in Naples, go downstairs to the Circumvesuvian station. The stop you want to get off

is Pompeii S. Villa Misteri. This will take around 35 min. Cost E4,40. There is a baggage

check both at the station and at the entrance to Pompeii. Here is the timetable.

http://www.eavsrl.it/web/content/orario-ferroviario click on Naples-Sorrento.

To get to Sorrento use the same train.

Bus timetables for the Amalfi Coast

http://www.theamalficoast.net/orari_sita_bus_timetables.html

Sorrento makes a good base due to transportation connections.

The best solution to limited time on the Amalfi coast is a hired car and driver, available for four or eight hours at a time. Of course, that's expensive. Your OP slides over the fact that Pompeii and Positano are poorly connected by public transportation, and Positano and Naples/Rome are even more poorly connected. I would suggest that you somehow work Sorrento into your travels.

If you have your heart set on a night in Positano, that's no solution. Be prepared for a lot of steps up and down to your one-night hotel in Positano. You are also quite exposed to dealing with a rainy day on a very much fixed date in the future. Assuming money is no object, you could use a car service to get to the Naples train station from Positano.

To be more specific, I'm proposing that you take the Circumvesuviana from Pompeii to Sorrento, stay in a scenic hotel in Sorrento, and have the hotel reserve a car and driver for the second day, then take the Circumvesuviana to Naples and the high-speed train to Rome, maybe even in time for dinner in Rome. Our eight-hour car and driver took us to Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, and a viewpoint or two. But-because of our limited time-... read that clause again .... it was a little like a bus tour, despite the personalized and private nature of the outing. Of course, if you tell the driver "Positano and Amalfi only", you will have more free time in each place. We liked Ravello so much that we didn't regret being rushed. You could say that we "asked" to be rushed.

If that's not satisfactory, you can insist on going on to Positano for the night, probably as the sun sets (check an astronomy site, please) and spoils your views from the bus on the cliffside road. Note that you must limit your time at Pompeii (two to four hours for most people) in order to press on that way. Please do some past-post reading about crowding on the Amalfi Coast public busses. You will have luggage handling issues and may have to wait for a second bus because the first one might already be full when you get to the door. (We were there the last week in May, so I can't describe the exact crowd level expected for your visit.)

We liked Herculaneum better than Pompeii; both are stops on the same train. I don't know if there is luggage storage at either station (don't think there is) so packing light is a good idea since you'll probably have to check it at the entrance. I recommend taking a guided tour; you'll find people standing outside the entrance offering tours. Just walking around with a guide book I don't think we got as much out of it as we could have.

The ocean view side of the train departing Naples is on the right. I would suggest staying in Sorrento. Significantly larger than Positano, and when you hit the end of the train ride you are there; for Positano you'll need to then queue up for the bus. If you stay in Sorrento I highly recommend watching the sunset at the Foreigner's Club; google for some images and you'll see why!

For ferries from Amalfi town, be sure to get duration as well as departure times. They aren't all the same. We ended up on one that stopped for 30 minutes to let people swim, and was pretty slow. If that's what you want its great, but we just wanted to get back to Sorrento and felt like we wasted an afternoon on the boat.

If you stay in Sorrento, you can take a direct bus to Naples Airport; see http://www.curreriviaggi.it/inglese/E_index.html.