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Rome w/ Day Trips or Sorrento

Posted by on

My husband and I will be visiting Italy for two weeks this November. For the second half of the trip, we were planning to stay in Rome for 4 nights, then go to Sorrento for 2 nights, and back to Rome before our departure the following morning.

Since we're going in early November, I'm wondering if that itinerary makes sense, or if it would be better to do a day trip(s) to Amalfi and Pompeii, and spend more time in Rome and have less hotel transfers. With that scenario, we would stay in Rome for a full 7 nights, and do one or two day trips to visit the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii.

So I would like advice- do you think it's better to keep the itinerary as planned, or minimize our transfers and do a day trip or two from Rome to Amalfi and/or Pompeii? How much time should we allot for Amalfi and Pompeii in November since it's the off season? I know the tours there from Rome are long, but I'm not sure what makes the most sense. We definitely want to see Pompeii and at least a little of the Amalfi Coast, but it's not the primary focus of our trip.

**Edited to add some info **
Thank you for the responses so far. While I would love to move all our nights in Rome to the end of the trip, we are not able to do that. We want to be at the Vatican on our 20th anniversary for a papal audience, so we have to be in Rome on Wednesday.

I will scratch the idea of doing day trips to the AC. I appreciate the feedback.

My only question now is whether or not it’s worth visiting the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento at all in November? Is everything shut down? We don’t care to do a boat ride, but would like to enjoy the beauty of the scenery and grab a bite to eat and stop in a few shops. Is that feasible in November? If not, we’ll just extend our stay in Rome and stay there for a full week.

Posted by
13061 posts

I would plan all the Rome nights at the end.

Go to Sorrento after where ever the first part of your trip is. Then finish in Rome

Doing day trips to the Sorrento/Pompeii/Amalfi Coast area from Rome is really a lot of wasted time riding trains

Posted by
6746 posts

Joe32F is right. Pompeii as a day trip from Rome is possible, but whether you do it as a bus tour or DIY by train, it is a very long day with a large part of the day just getting there and back. I don't know how you would do the AC as a day trip from Rome. Especially since the ferries won't be running that time of year. If you want to visit, you would want to stay in Sorrento and use the bus to get from town to town on the AC, and the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii. But be aware that many places other AC will have closed for the season by then, and it will be getting dark early.

Posted by
1007 posts

To maximize your time, I agree, put all your Rome nights at the end. I would say at LEAST 3 nights in Sorrento, one day to do Pompeii and I would secure a tour (mondo guides maybe?) to do the AC. Even though the crowds will be gone, I bet the tour guide will know the good places that are STILL open. I normally do Amalfi/Ravello in a daytrip, but with a tour guide and a driver I bet you could do Amalfi/Ravello/Positano all in one day. I don't love doing the coast only by bus, but it will be less crowded if you decide to do it on your own.

Posted by
328 posts

Yes, you can do Amalfi Coast including Ravello and Positano in one day with a driver. I did that last year, and I included Pompeii. We found 1.5 hours in Pompeii to be enough, because we wanted to see it and didn't want to miss other stops, so less was better than nothing. When we had lunch in Ravello on November 3, it was the last day that restaurant was going to be open (for the season), but like another poster said, a driver would know what is open.
I have spent a lot of time in Rome, and will never see all there is to see, so I say spend some time there and take some time to see the beautiful Amalfi Coast.

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