Rome to Pompeii & Amalfi Day Trip

If you only have time for a day trip I'd consider Ostia Antica, a great archeology site, or Orvieto, a beautiful hill town. It would be hard to see Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast as just a day.

The only way I can think of to see the Amalfi Coast on a day trip is:
Rome-Naples 1 hour 10 minutes by fast train
Naples-Pompeii 30 minutes by Circumvesuviana (10-15 minutes transfer time, up to 30 minutes wait time)
Pompeii-Sorrento 30 minutes by Circumvesuviana (up to 30 minutes wait time)
Sorrento-Salerno by bus and/or ferry
Salerno-Rome by fast train 2.5-3.0 hours (buses and ferries stop near the Salaerno train station

That's about 6 hours travel time, not counting the time from Sorrento to Salerno (the Amalfi Coast). By the end of May, it's possible that there will be some lines at ferries and buses, so it's hard to know how long that will take. There are high-speed ferries that you can book in advance. The winter schedule for buses shows 1.5 hours from Sorrento to Amalfi and 1.25 hours from Amalfi to Salerno. The high-speed ferries will save you time, the views are different from the bus. The most scenic part of the coast is Positano to Amalfi.

The first high-speed train leaves Rome at 7.35 and gets to Naples at 8.45. Take that, spend 3-4 hours at Pompeii and be in Sorrento mid-afternoon. Then a 7-8 pm train arriving in Rome around 10-11 pm. It's theoretically doable, the question is whether it's worth it for 2-3 hours of seeing the Amalfi Coast from the ferry (the bus views can be amazing, but only if you're on the right side of the bus- where everyone else wants to sit too.

I haven't included time for meals.

Chani has done a great job of laying out the complexities.

In general, I don't like to reco even Pompeii as a day trip from Rome as it's juuuuuust far enough to wear a person out. The Amalfi is even farther + plus has its share of time-consuming transport hairballs to manage.

4 days isn't too much time to just spend in Rome. We've spent quite a bit more time than that over a couple of trips and have yet to run out of interesting things to see. Becky's excellent suggestion of Ostia Antica is well worth considering, though. It's much closer to Rome than Pompeii, and would be a LOT less time-consuming, complex and expensive for a family of 6 to do than Pompeii/Amalfi.

Here's what Rick has to say about that one:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/ostia-antica-near-rome

Wow I certainly appreciate the complexities of travel to try and make that happen in a day. Thank you! I will check into Ostia Antica. If we just want to take an afternoon to enjoy countryside, away from the tourist areas, are there other places you suggest? We enjoy hiking and exploring nature although aren't experienced hikers.

I am looking to do the Pompeii-Sorrento-Positano excursion from Rome in July with seeamalficoast.com. Their tours get great reviews on TripAdvisor. Their driver picks you up and returns you to the Naples train station. They can also arrange for a guide for Pompeii.

If we just want to take an afternoon to enjoy countryside, away from
the tourist areas, are there other places you suggest?

I might suggest a long walk on Via Appia Antica? The ancient road extends quite a distance out of central Rome and has many interesting things to see along the way. It gets busier the closer you get to the city but felt like being in the countryside some miles out. We hopped on (sort of) at Casal Rotondo - near Capannelle - and spent the most of the day checking out the crumbling tombs and other ruins along the way back into Rome. There are catacombs, a Roman circus and the excavation of a bath as well. That was our most favorite day in Rome to date!

http://www.parcoappiaantica.it

However, it is best to do the Appian Way on a Sunday since the traffic is severely restricted on Sunday. You can rent bikes and actually ride the road without get run over by taxis and cars. Still have to watch for buses but they are less frequent.

Take a look at this blog entry, written by one of Rick's guides; http://adventureswithsarah.net/travel-tutorial-day-trip-rome-to-pompeii/.

Ed

Thank you Kathy and Frank for your info on Via Appia Antica. That sounds like what we are looking for to top off the trip!
Ed the blog link was very helpful for Pompeii. We are planning to give that a try as it allows more sites to be enjoyed then the tour we were considering.
Appreciate everyone's assistance!

Just to mention, we did the Appia on a Friday and didn't find traffic to be a problem on most of it. As I recall, It didn't get busy until closer to the church of Quo Vadis and north to Porta San Sebastiano.

We'd left flex in the schedule for doing it on a sunny day and there was a good possibility of rain the forecast for our Sunday, thus the choice of a weekday. We did get up and out early that morning.

I will be traveling with my brother to Rome and will be there for 5 days as well towards the end of May. I knew the trip down to Pompeii and Amalfi Coast would be LONG and tiring, but I just want a taste of Amalfi coast before I leave from Italy. I second a recommendation from another poster above: I just booked a private tour with seeamalficoast.com, with many glowing reviews on Tripadvisor, which will cover Pompeii and then also stop in Sorrento and Positano for a total 8hr trip. They are VERY responsive to emails or questions and are the friendliest, nicest people I've spoken with thus far, so I hope this bodes well for my upcoming tour. The price I paid for the tour is at a premium, since it's only two of us, but I believe it gets cheaper once you have 4-6ppl on the private tour.

I called one of the competitors (WorldTours: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187785-d2176475-Reviews-or60-WorldTours-Naples_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html#REVIEWS) for pricing and availability of a group trip that would make a similar journey, and found that the price was about $100 per person, and they are already booked for 12-14 people so far for my travel date. I wanted to flexibility of being able to see/do what I want (ie. sample limoncello, visit an olive farm for tastings, walk around Positano) without having a tight schedule like the bus tours. The Express train from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale, and as another poster mentioned, is most convenient and it gets you to Naples in 1hr 10 min (leave 735am, arrive 845am), which is awesome!! There's a 730pm express train from Naples to Rome that would be perfect for a whole day tour. The cost for roundtrip railway came out to 138Euro for the two of us. If you decide on a private tour, I think seeamalficoast.com will be a much better option for you (quality and cost-wise) than any group tour for the same areas. Either way, hope you all have a lovely time in Italy!

I'll second Orvieto for a daytrip destination, just for something completely different than Rome. About 75-80 minutes from Roma Termini station, you get off the train and take a funicular up to the hilltown. The more advance research you do on the cathedral & Duomo, the better off you'll be. Just fabulous.

Wander the narrow streets, maybe visit the Etruscan underground (we didn't, sorry we missed it), and you can't miss on great restaurants for an Umbrian-style lunch. Plenty of overlooks to the beautiful valley below as well.

But if you decide to just hang out in Rome instead, you could do far worse. We spent 6 nights in March and could've easily done another week. Find an off-the-beaten-path museum or church--St. Agnese, St. Peter-in-Chains, the Baths of Diocletian, Villa Torlonia (which has Mussolini's wartime residence)--or simply decide to take a picnic lunch to a nice spot along the Tiber River.

Enjoy your planning!

Another benefit to Ostia Antica is that it's a short bus ride to Ostia Lido, a beach that your teens might enjoy.