Hello, fellow travelers.
Next year, I am planning a trip to Italy & part of my itinerary includes visiting Matera & Sorrento. Can anyone advise me on the best possible way to get from Matera to Sorrento? I will not be renting a car. I will solely be relying on train, bus, or transfer.
Thank you in advance!
Don
So you have changed your original plan of going to Salerno?
You can look at the Trenitalia site for trains, but according to Google Maps, your quickest options appear to be by bus. Both would go to Naples. Then you could have the choice of bus or Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento.
I haven’t completely ruled Salerno out! I’m just looking to see if I’m overlooking any easier routes/means of transportation.
Thank you.
Helicopter.
https://www.helicapri.com/helicopter-transfers/
Have you checked rome2rio.com for possibilities. I spent the month of November in southern Italy, public transpo only and loved Matera. From there to Sorrento is not the easiest.
There certainly is no direct route, and there is no quick route. Most solutions are showing 7-8 hours, a long day. Some of the fastest suggest going the opposite way to Bari, then train from there to Naples, then to Sorrento. Some solutions show a more direct route, but more connections, maybe waiting for the next bus/train.
Driving is only 3-4 hours, a transfer possible but likely much more expensive, hundreds of euros.
You have chosen two cities that are not on the Trenitalia network. Matera is linked by train only to Bari (slow narrow gauge line and likely a change in Altamura); but going to Bari you are going in the opposite direction. Sorrento is on the Circumvesuviana network.
I strongly suspect the quickest way would be a bus Matera to Napoli, then Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. I can't foresee the practicalities of such a trip; I see that Matera to Napoli would be 4 hours 20 minutes on Flixbus and 4 hours on Miccolis bus. Potenza has a railway link to Napoli, but taking a bus to Potenza and then the train adds a change without being quicker.
Hello, a few years ago we hired a private driver to go from Matera to Salerno. The cost was around 225 euros, but it was door to door service.
If speed is really your concern you'll need to get creative and search buses and different train/bus combinations.
It looks like several companies run long distance buses in the area. Busmiccolis run buses from Matera to Naples twice a day (middle of March) that take 4 hours and are about 18e.
https://www.busmiccolis.it/en/
You would need to then cross to the Naples train station and take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento.
There are other companies check out this site for more options: https://www.materaturismo.it/en/how-to-get-to-matera/
If you want to really play around it looks like Busmiccolis runs a bus to Pompei near the Trenitalia bus station. You would need to cab to the Circumvesuviana station and then ride to Sorrento. There are other non-Naples destinations for buses but this probably gets you closest from what I could see. Would it actually be faster trying Pompei or other destinations? Maybe, but it will involve more moving parts.
The closest I can see by train/bus combo is taking the train from Naples to Ferrandina which is about 30 minutes driving from Matera.
There are a couple of direct trains a day that take about 3 hours or so but you would then need to coordinate with the Matera > Ferrandina transportation. There are several bus companies that run that route but it would be a matter of getting there and then aligning that timing with the train.
Honestly the bus is probably the fastest, fewest issues and cheapest way to go.
Good luck,
=Tod
