Pompeii, Salerno, Capri recommendations

In my opinion, there are some issues with your plan as written:

Day 1: The Circumvesuviana train does not go to Salerno. It only runs between Naples and Sorrento, with stops in between, including Pompeii. From Pompeii you would need to return to Naples on the Circumvesuviana and then take a train to Salerno.
Day 2: Sounds ok, except that an alternative is to take the train from Salerno to Paestum to see the ruins.
Day 3: I assume you are referring to a ferry rather than "water taxi". Perhaps I am mistaken, but I don't think there is a direct ferry between Salerno and Sorrento. You would need to take a ferry to Amalfi, then another ferry to Sorrento. In either case, that will take up most of the day. Touring Capri on that same day doesn't seem doable.
Day 4: I'm not sure why you would take the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii. You would take it to Naples, then take the train to Rome.

If it were me, with such a brief amount of time, I would eliminate Salerno and save it for another trip. After dropping the car in Naples, I would take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento. Stay in Sorrento and use it as a base to see Pompeii and Capri.

I'm sure others will have some helpful suggestions as well. Good luck with your planning.

Your plan is not bad as a sketch, but many of the details embody mistaken assumptions about the infrastructure. I can't get all of them in one reply. This is a very crowded area in a very crowded time of year. You are going to have to take your sixth choice of hotel, except maybe in Salerno, a pefectly pleasant modern small city with less tourism but less to see. (Paestum is most accessible from Salerno, but it gets much less tourism. We'll see it on a future trip, because we slept in Sorrento.)

You are right to prioritize Pompeii, and many posters here do it the way you propose. However, it is baking hot and sunny at midday, and you might wish (since you're sleeping in the area) to get there near opening time as a daytrip.

(I) have plenty of money, and agree that having four guests makes the private transportation you propose several times on and off the water a reasonable splurge. But this kind of transport requires advance booking or a luxury hotel with a concierge. It may be hard to fit all your luggage and four guests in a large sedan like mist bookings provide. I mean typically a Mercedes sedan.

The Circumvesuviana is a griity, crowded surface transit line that runs from Naples to Sorrento, with stops that include several ancient excavations nearby. The long-distance train company serves Naples and Salerno, with a different, intermediate stop, in Modern Pompeii, some 1/2 mile from the ancient excavation you want to see.

You don't usually take the ferry to Sorrento and the another ferry to Capri. That adds up to too much time and ticket buying. In season there are ferries from Salerno to Capri. I prefer Sorrento [Edit-Corrected city name] to sleep in because of good travel connections, but you may be too late to get rooms in Sorrento. We took a luxury hotel at the top of our budget because we booked Sorrento only five months ahead. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Positano or Ravello, two lovely sights.

Edit: I'm not questioning your personal preferences, but tell us why are you staying in Grottaferrata. (I've never been there.) All I mean is, is it to visit Tivoli while you have the car? I'm questioning suffering Rome traffic just to get to Naples in a car. It's not desirable to arrive in Naples in a car because the city is so awful for auto traffic, and the car is useless there. (I think you are not sleeping in Naples. We spent one night there, and it was barely enough in a city rich in history and civilization. Not to mention, pizza.) More to the point, you can take an effortless, advance-purchase Frecciarossa premium-service rail ticket ALL the way from Florence to Salerno. Unfortunately, you are too late maybe for the dynamically-priced lowest fares. (Even though Salerno is not MY choice for an Amalfi Coast area stay. As I said, I"m trying to respect YOUR city choices.) I have driven from Tuscany to FCO, and it's just not a special superhighway drive.

Note that there are some newsboard posters who LOVE Salerno. Other newsboard posters LOVE Sorrento. You are quite entitled to favor posts that support your own interests! But please understand that staying in Salerno is directly related to issues like visiting Paestum and choosing one particular access to Pompeii Scavi (ancient excavation.) It is, for example, much farther from Capri.

You might benefit from a look at this area on Google Maps, and then an online PDF of the Circumvesuviana and Trenitalia lines in the area. It makes the infrastructure easier to understand.

After touring the Pompeii sight, you can walk or taxi to the Pompei (new town) train station and take a regional train to Salerno from there. You do not have to backtrack to Naples. When you're ready to depart Salerno for Rome, you can either take a regional train to Naples and connect to a high-speed train to Rome or take one of the direct high-speed trains from Salerno to Rome. I believe both Trentialia and Italo offer direct train service. You can save up to 50% by pre-purchasing your tickets for the high-speed train, but doing so locks you into a specific departure day and time (no changes to the cheapest tickets).

Both bus and train between Salerno and Paestum are easy. I took the bus to Paestum and the train back. There's no ticket window or kiosk at the Paestum train station, so be sure to buy tickets in town before making the short walk to the train station.

I agree that your day 3 seems very ambitious. I think you'll have to choose between visiting Amalfi Coast/Sorrento and Capri. I seem to recall there being a ferry from Positano to Capri (hopefully someone else will confirm), which would save you some travel time.

I'll agree as well that Day 3 is overly ambitious. And yes, you will be using ferries and not "water taxis". Capri can, and should, easily consume a day, and is a 2-hour ferry journey from Salerno so takes some time to get to. There are currently only 3 runs per day; not sure if more will be added for the summer season but I'd keep an eye on it.

https://www.capri.net/en/ferry-schedule?from=salerno&to=capri#
https://www.capri.net/en/ferry-schedule?from=capri&to=salerno

Ferry schedules for Salerno/Sorrento are not out yet for the season but should be within the next few days

Catching the earliest boat to Capri and the latest one back would give you approx. 7.5 hours on the island. So, I don't think you'd have time for both Capri and Sorrento. With limited time on Capri, the one thing I personally would NOT do is the Blue Grotto: it's an expensive and time-consuming, touristy thing for the very few minutes they spend inside assuming seas are calm enough to access it at all.

Editing to add, I checked out Taxiboat (http://www.taxiboatcompany.com/en/) in case that's what you were considering, and testing Salerno>Sorrento or Salerno>Capri for a few random July dates showed "No products were found matching your selection" so my guess is that it doesn't service these routes anymore or is no longer in service at all.

Thanks for the corrections on the transportation available. I'll have to rethink the methods of transportation fore sure.

The full itinerary (14 days) has us arriving in Venice(3nights), high speed training to Florence(3 nights), visiting Pisa, Private car tour of northern Tuscany wineries.

From there we are driving through the Tuscan countryside visiting San Gimignano, Siena, Orvieto before landing in Grottaferrata, The reason for landing in Grottaferrata was more time and distance. We originally were going to drop in Rome but it left too much time the next day to get to Salerno. Grottaferrata seemed like a convienent middle place to spend the night and shows us a different part of Italy.

We already have a hotel in Salerno(Hotel Voce del Mare) that looks amazing since it is on the cliff face and has great views. There is also a large beach right next to it. It is a long walk to downtown Salerno but I would rather taxi and be someplace I am excited about. We booked in January and looking at Sorrento there was nothing available in budget other than the convent, which looked amazing, but didn't have AC. In July, I need AC. My daughter also wanted something not as touristy so Salerno fit the bill vs Sorrento.

Thanks for details on the ferry from Salerno to Capri. It seems like it could be a nice relaxing ferry ride both ways!

Honestly? I think spending 4 hours of your day on 2 ferry rides is maybe not the best use of your time. What about Amalfi and Ravello instead for Day #3? Ferries Salerno>Amalfi only take 35 minutes (and there are a lot more of them than from Salerno>Capri) and from there you take SITA bus to/from Ravello, takes about 30 minutes each way.

https://www.naplesbayferry.com/en/t/salerno/amalfi
https://www.naplesbayferry.com/en/t/amalfi/salerno

https://www.ravello.com/sita-bus-schedule/scala-ravello-amalfi/

We enjoyed Capri BUT we stayed on the island for a couple of nights. Being there during the hours the hordes of day-trippers were not + avoiding most of the places those day-trippers go and things they do, like the B. Grotto, can make a difference what sort impression it'll make: overrun, overpriced tourist trap or, well, neither of those things. The town centers, most popular attractions and little buses to the few places they go to are going to be a zoo during day-tripping hours in July. Just thought that worth mention due to....

My daughter also wanted something not as touristy so Salerno fit the
bill vs Sorrento.

If wishing to avoid as much "touristy" as possible on the A.C. in July, I don't know as day tripping Capri is going to be your best choice, not that much of the region won't be crawling with tourists anyway. Just IMHO and I'm sure some other folks will weigh in... :O)

We only used ferries, but possible chop or even rough water could make a private Capri excursion less luxurious than you expected! Our return ferry from Capri had hundreds of airline style seats in an air-conditioned cabin with limited views. It also left from a slip far from the slip where we arrived onbthe same company's smaller ferry. Distance from Salerno (or Naples ferry) much larger than on Sorrento ferry. We also skipped Blue Grotto, and were happy with that decision. Capri is very large, hilly, and widely pedestrian-only.

You are right that a/c is essential in July, even in a cliff-face hotel.

Wow, thank you for all the quick responses here. We are going to take your advice and skip Capri. In my mind everything was idyllic and made sense but you are right about the time, the risk and how busy Capri will be. I'll spend some time reworking the agenda and repost. Thanks again for all the help! Really appreciated!

My wife and I were just 'there.'
Flew into Naples and stayed in Salerno. Salerno is a nice city. It was a good base for Pompeii/Paestum/Positano.

We took a bus from the Naples airport that goes to Pompeii and then on to Sorrento.
The bus exited the freeway at Pompeii / Pompei. At the stoplight (stop sign?) he was in the left turn lane and decided he didn't want to wait. He pulled over the the right side, turned right, pulled to the side of the road, opened the bus door and told anyone heading to Pompeii to get off.
We had NO idea where we were :-)
We pulled our luggage (light weight stuff) 1/2 a mile "to the left" and found Pompeii.

1) the luggage storage doors are all closed. You 'tell' the computer if you want a large or small storage spot and it will open a door for that size compartment. (p.s. keep the receipt - it has the code you enter to get the door open again)
1a) the LARGE compartment is large enough for a RS carryon (what we own) but not tons larger.
1b) we were there near the end of April. In July, it may be busy enough that (possibly) the lockers could all be used (?) and I don't know how you'd know (i.e. all the doors are closed)

2) The train station for Salerno is over a mile away from the Marina entrance. My wife and I walked it (w/ luggage). Having just spent 6 hours walking Pompeii, this was a boring / tiring walk. You may want a taxi.

3) I really enjoyed Salerno. I've never been to Sorrento. My impression of Sorrento is that 3a) it is pretty, 3b) they spruced it up as a tourist town, and 3c) there is NO reason to go there if you are staying in Salerno.
Salerno was very nice to walk at night. We saw very little of it because of our day-trips.

4) Paestum was my highlight. We got going late in the day and there are no trains to Paestum after 10 (?). We took the bus from the train station to Paestum. It was slow but OK. I think it has 3 stops at the Paestum archeology site. It sort of circled the site and we got off on the far side, very close to the temples.

5) Look into the Naples ArteCard. We bought the 3 day card that covered all transportation, gets you into 3 sites 'free' and then 1/2 off for other sites. It made train rides easy, since our last days were spent on the Amalfi coast (ferry) we didn't have to BUY a train ticket until our last trip from Salerno to Naples.

6) Paestum was SO good that I'd priortize it above all other archeology sites. Yes, Pompeii was/is giant and well preserved. but in April it was already dusty/dry. The crowds at two of the houses (one being a brothel) were so bad that we skipped them.
Look into Herculaneum instead of Pompeii.
For enjoying Paestum, it helped that I had read a ton about the layout of the Roman house and that we had been to Pompeii. At Paestum we could walk on the tile flooring, etc (which was no where near as nicely done as Pompeii, but, hey, we could walk all around!

Evan, thank you so much for that clear, personal, detailed review of many important issues in the area. You have helped many people (although I do not think that Salerno has as good transportation as Sorrento.) I agree (as an opinon ... ) with your unseen assessment of Sorrento, but it does have virtues, primarily as a base for easy, cheap daytrips (other than Paestum, which is too far.) It is true that a FAQ for Sorrento on Trip Advisor is "How much is a Pint?" (We spent five nights in Sorrento, and it did the job for us. I don't support five nights in Salerno.)

vmusleh, the OP: I wasn't trying to talk you out of Capri. I was trying to talk you out of a small, private boat from Salerno. I don't think Capri is (as some say ... ) Paradise on Earth. But I'm glad we'd seen a blue grotto in Croatia and felt we could safely skip the grotto in Capri. We enjoyed Capri very much. And (except for the port areas), it has a less intensely touristy feeling than does Sorrento. But the walking mileage on Capri was just huge, especially for those who don't walk much at home. (I'm not bragging about my fitness. But it's a peer-reviewed fact that NYC residents and workers WALK much more than most other Americans!)

So many people ask here if they can see Pompeii, Positano, and Capri in a same-day trip from Rome!!!!! (Short answer: NO) People at cocktail parties will ask you about Capri. If you save time by seeing Pompeii "in transit", and you take a big ferry, I suggest you continue to consider Capri. We didn't enter a single international clothing or accessory boutique on Capri (which is surely the least attractive part of the island to us.) But the boutiques don't dominate the entire island the way they dominate Positano and even Sorrento (where low budget knicknacks and Limoncello stores are added to the mix.)

P.S.
1) there are several live web cams in the coastal cities.
There is one in a Salerno square.
My wife and I stood in the square and could see ourselves online. We then texted our stateside family (with the link) and waived to them.
Your daughters may have better luck than we had. :-)

2)
We didn't go to beaches. The one in Positano that the ferry lands at is all rock. FYI

I liked both Amalfi and Ravello better than Capri.

And we were in area in early July like you are proposing. We went first thing in the morning to Pompeii from sorrento and it still was quite warm. I would reconsider whether it makes sense to get there in afternoon.