Rent a car for the amalfi coast or not?

If you just want to visit the towns on the coast, just use the ferry. Has to be a ton cheaper than renting a car, plus less hassle of driving and finding a place to park. I imagine there would be a fairly steep price to pay just to park the car. Personally I wouldn't want to be the driver on the coast road, with the tour buses and other tourists driving there. So much nicer to see the land from sea than the sea from land (you can see the sea from each town anyway!) You won't be traveling with luggage and on the ferry you can relax and enjoy the view both directions.

In your case the car is not necessary. If you had the car already for the rest of your trip, I'd tell you to drive there from wherever you are coming from and keep it, but if you are going to rent it in Naples just for the Amalfi coast, it's not that necessary. If you decide to rent, however, you might as well rent it in Rome, rather than Naples, and drive there from Rome. You'll save yourself money (train fare for 4 people is more than the gasoline) and the pain of driving inside Naples. Be aware that the coastal road is very narrow and curvy, and in Summer (esp. weekends) it's also congested. If you are not comfortable driving in very narrow spaces, you are better off taking the SITA buses running along the coast and leave your car at the hotel or at a paid carpark. The islands (Capri) don't allow vehicles unless you are a resident, therefore when you visit there, you need to leave the car in the mainland. If you decide to use public transportation there are two choices. You can take a Freccia high speed train to Naples from Rome. Then in Naples go to the Circumvesuviana commuter train station under the Central station and take a commuter train to Sorrento. From Sorrento station (the last stop) you can take a SITA bus to any of the Amalfi coast towns (my favorite is Positano). Staying in Sorrento is another option, however Sorrento is NOT technically on the Amalfi coast. Another option from Rome is to take a bus from Rome to Sorrento directly. Curreri Viaggi (www.curreriviaggi.it) runs daily buses (not in Winter though) from Rome's Tiburtina station to Sorrento (4 hours). Probably not as fast as the train, but less hassle especially if you have heavy luggage. Once in Sorrento, you can take a SITA bus to any of the towns on the Amalfi coast.

You don't need a car and you wouldn't want a car. Getting around is very easy by public transportation. Parking is scarce and very expensive on the AC and the traffic can be horrendous. I would recommend staying in Positano, as it has very good ferry connections to Capri, Amalfi, etc. If you are staying a week, I would recommend renting an apartment - more space for everyone, saves money on lodging and food, and you can usually do laundry. We rented www.villalesirene.com for a week last June and loved it. I would have rented it for my trip again this June but was already booked. If you are staying in Positano or Amalfi and you are traveling during the busy season, another great way to get there from Rome is to take the train from Rome to Salerno, and then ferry to Amalfi or Positano.

I agree with the others who recommend using the bus. However, at the risk of sounding like an alarmist, I'd like to mention that during my one bus trip down the coast (from Sant'Agnello to either Positano or Amalfi, whichever is further south) one of the other passengers, when we got the last stop, found that his luggage had been stolen from the baggage compartment under the passenger compartment. So if you're bringing luggage, be alert. I don't have any way of knowing if this is a common occurence, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Mina, we returned from our trip to central Italy just before Thanksgiving. We had a rental car2 of them since there were 8 of us including a 6 and a 16 year oldand traveled to 21 hill towns in 21 days but we really wanted to do the Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri trip. After much stressing we decided to hire a driver. It was the best decision ever. He piled us all into his van and we were able to relax and enjoy the trip. We stayed in a terrific hotelAl Barilotto Del Nonno in Positanothey served us dinner and treated us like family. Yes,it cost more this way but all of the stresses of driving, parking etc. were eliminated. We could all enjoy the breathtaking vistas while the driving was left to to a seasoned, knowledgable professional. While I enjoyed driving the backroads of central Italy I am too much of a sissy to tackle that beautiful but scary coastal road. Viewing that lovely coast from the water sounds like a good idea too.
Enjoy the anticipation of your trip!

Agree with others... while I drive all over Europe I did not enjoy the Amalfi Coast drive all that much, and I drove it in March... and it was still busy. It is a bit of a white knuckle drive for me. If I go again I will forget the car and take a train.

Thanks to all, I will keep all these messages. I have just started to map this 4 week trip out for the 4 of us. Just started reading Rick Steves books I am starting in Venice so my reading at this point is trying to understand
the transportation, where to stay and I think I know what I want to show my teenages sons. I am sure I will be asking for help as I go along. Thanks to all of you again.

I have driven in some crazy places because I just think I could, won't go into that, but the one thing I would not do is drive Amalfi coast.

I agree that the Amalfi coast can be congested and parking difficult during peak time, but I don't understand all the fear about driving there. It's not that people drive 100 miles per hour on it, so what's the big deal? If there is a place to park at the hotel or at a nearby parking lot, I find it convenient to drive to it and not having to deal with the Circumvesuviana or the SITA with all the luggage. Even if you don't want to drive around once at your hotel, I like the idea of not having to carry luggage on the circumvesuviana, especially in this case where you have 4 people traveling together. Also if outside of the congested periods when parking is hard, it's also nice to go from town to town, even just for dinner, without having to rely on the buses, which aren't that frequent, especially late in the evening.