Salerno

Salerno was bombed in WW2, so it lost a lot of what makes other Italian cities so appealing, but I felt it was a pleasant, low-key place. It would make a fine base from which to visit Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Paestum, as well as the Amalfi Coast (by bus or ferry).
Am I understanding you correctly: you will arrive from Rome and stay somewhere in the Salerno area for five days? Where--in Salerno proper would be best for public transport.
http://www.livesalerno.com/ferry-connections

We haven't booked accommodation yet but are leaning towards a B&B in Salerno. The couple we are traveling with have some concerns about staying in Salerno due to negative comments they have read on some sites. Most of the comments I have read were positive but we want everyone to be happy with our choice of accommodation. It doesn't have to be in Salerno but that seems like a good choice to my husband and me.
Thanks for your help.

We stayed overnight in Salerno in 2010 in Hotel Plaza, which was right across from the train station. The hotel was fine and certainly was convenient for the train. We arrived by ferry from Capri and we were heading to Sicily by train, but, while I had no problem with Salerno, it wasn't a city that I'd choose to spend an extended time in.

You need to learn about the two train companies, and where the stations are in Pompeii and modern Pompeii. Salerno is perfect for Paestum and the more eastern AC towns. I feel that it is not that good for Positano, the "essence" of the AC, or for Herculaneum.

It is often difficult to get reliable ferry data for shoulder and off-season. So don't assume today's schedule from Salerno will be in effect in October. The road from Amalfi to Sorrento is only two lanes, and busses have to back up and scrunch around corners. Although the fare is a bargain, the trip is not. And you need two busses to get the full distance. Then, you're only in Sorrento!

Yes, I highly recommend checking the ferry schedules. Have you ruled out Naples? You could split your time between two places so you could more easily visit the Amalfi coast as well as your other day trip choices. A lot of people like Sorrento, but I have not been so I cannot say (and it would be far for Paestum). I have the impression that it is very devoted to tourism, whereas Salerno is just a regular city with more Italians than visitors. Some would find that appealing, some not so much. I would hate for someone to expect the wow factor of Positano and be disappointed, so it really just depends on what you are after. Some of the Amalfi Coast towns close to the mainland are more convenient for visiting all of your choices as well (i.e., Vietri).

Three years ago, my husband and I spent six nights in Sorrento and loved it. Very clean, safe and scenic. Very easy train transportation from Rome via Naples. It is an excellent transportation hub and very easy to travel to Pompeii and Herculanem via train. We also travelled to towns on the Amalfi coast via bus . The towns were great but would not recommend the bus. We found it to be very "hair raising"! Perhaps the ferry or a private driver would be better. We also easily travelled by ferry to Capri. I think it might be quite a bit more cumbersome to get to Paestum from Sorrento then from Salerno but, again, a private driver may be an option, especially if you can split the cost. We loved Sorrento so much that we will be going back this October.

I understand the thinking of Salerno because by the map, it seems like a good, centrally located place to visit the places you mentioned. Salerno is not bad but I think there are other more compelling options.

If you are coming in from Rome on public transportation, I assume you will be taking the train to Naples. If this is the case, I would suggest you consider Sorrento as a base. From a look at the map, it may seem like a bit out of the way but because of it's ease of travel using the Circumvesuviana train, it works well. You can use the Circumvesuviana to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. You can bus or private car through the Amalfi Coast. As for Paestum, public transportation is hard, especially for a day trip. You could however do a bus/car into Amalfi, end at Salerno and go on to Paestum from there.

Don't forget to visit/eat the mozzarella on your way to Paestum. It was the highlight of the trip for my wife.

I would say Salerno is the perfect place to stay for all of those locations!

I actually did that last May, we were there for 4 nights, did Paestum, Amalfi/Ravello, and Herculaneum during our days. My favorite B&B is Seaview Salerno (http://www.seaviewsalerno.it/en/) , its in the heart of the historic center and it has a ROOFTOP PATIO.....that's where you have breakfast and relax after your busy day. I think one awesome thing about Salerno is that it HASN'T been overrun by tourists, and it has very much of a daily Italian life feel to it. I LOVE the lungomare, the almost 1 mile seawalk along the center of the city, and all the life that happens there.

I am kind of hurt that people say bad things about Salerno, its a gorgeous city and a great base for Campania. I can get that if all people want to see is Capri, Sorrento, and Amalfi, they should stay on the Amalfi Coast (and I don't love Sorrento at ALLLLLL)...but since you want to do some other places away from the coast, I would wholeheartedly recommend to stay in Salerno. It is like you are staying in a hub of a wheel and going out on the spokes to do your day trips. Ferries are a little less frequent in October, but there are at least ferries to Capri (and always buses to the coast), and I believe others will probably be in operation at least from the commercial port, if the tourist port ferries have ceased.

We flew into Rome and got a direct train (not nonstop, but no changes) to Salerno, easy as pie, and on the way out, we got a direct train to Venezia on Italo....it can be just as easy as Naples, and possibly easier and less overwhelming....

Thanks Katherine. What kind of public transportation did you use to Herc and Positano? Was it at all tedious?

I heartily agree with your general assessments about in and out of Salerno, but I have my doubts about access to AC sights.

Edit: Spelling only

Thank you so much for all the replies. It is much appreciated. We have now booked in Salerno at Suite 39 so look forward to all the positives and will beware the negatives...hopefully minimal. Thanks for the "heads up" re ferries in October. It's good to know in advance that even though they will be operating, the schedule will likely be different from that during the summer. Also good to know about the trains from Rome. We will be hoping to reach Salerno with a minimum of fuss as we have to be at our hotel by a certain time and are actually traveling via Rome (by car) from further north. I will be sure to post information about our experience in Salerno if anyone is interested.

To Herculaneum, we took the SUPER regionale (like the one that even stops at the Salerno duomo stop haha) train direct to Herculaneum.....then we took a taxi to the gates (because I had never been there and wasn't sure exactly how to get there) and walked back through town....

To Positano, it would be basically the same way one would get to Amalfi, if the ferries are running, just stay on instead of getting off when it stops at Amalfi......if I have limited time, I will always skip Positano because it doesn't interest me as much as my fav Amalfi does, and yes, it is farther.....I really think that the views represent the "coast" to me, so a ferry would be the essence of a trip there, no matter where it was headed.....

I am VERY biased of course, as I lived in Salerno for 2 years, so it is like my home.....popped over to Amalfi 2 to 3 times a year, to hike to my favorite waterfall behind the town.......I always like to lean towards less touristy areas, that's why Sorrento doesn't interest me AT ALL.....

Suze, I had to check where you were situated in town on a map....about halfway between the historic center and the station, hopefully you enjoy your B&B! I will advise though, that hill up to you place through the Piazza of the 24th of May is STEEP....so unless you are hyped up from your train ride and full of energy and are dying to walk (if you get there between 2pm-5pm, the corso will be less crowded than later in the day if you were going to walk), I might think about a taxi, it shouldn't be a problem because its not in the historic center with small roads....

Thank you Katherine. I was unaware that modern Herculaneum, like modern Pompeii, had a Trenitalia (as opposed to Circumvesuviana) station. Google Maps suggests that the excavation is, total, 1:21 from Salerno, with a 20 minute walk in Herculaneum. (The Circumvesuviana has a substantial, all downhill on arrival, walk from the station to the Herculaneum excavation.) You have to add walking time in Salerno, and ticket purchase, naturally.

It seems to be 7 stops on some departures and 13 stops on others. The destination is Portici-Ercolano. But I see that it has a decently frequent schedule. Previous posters here taking the train from Salerno to Pompeii have reported using a taxi to get from the Trenitalia station to Pompeii Scavi.

One can look back on my previous posts championing Salerno, and Katherine's posts as well.

We stayed at a B&B near the Old Town in March of last year for 5 nights, and felt it was the perfect base for what we wanted to do. Visited Amalfi, 1 hour by bus, a wild ride at a nominal cost of 2,20 Euro. If you wanted to go to Positano, you change buses there and it's another hour. Also took the train to Pompei, 45 minutes to the 'town' station. From there it was a 30-minute very pleasant walk through the town to the southern Navona entrance to the ruins. Fantastic. Also took a daytrip--driven by the B&B owner--to the hilltown of Sant' Arsenio, about an hour SE of Salerno. It's where my great-great grandparents were born and lived. Never got to Paestum or Naples, which we wish we had because they were under an hour one-way travel also.

Each evening, after returning from our trips, we'd walk the lungomare along the sea, as many Salerno locals seemed to be doing as well, then wait until 8PM or so to stroll into the Old Town for dinner. What fun! Great food, I dare say better than the Amalfi Coast at maybe 70% of the cost.

Salerno is not what is in the travel books. It's a real working Italian city of 110,000, with a small but growing amount of tourism because the locals are charming and certainly not manufactured like some of the more popular spots. I'd go back in a minute.

I will be in Salerno for four nights later this week, I will let you know how it goes.

If you get a chance, Zoe, check out Pizzeria Trianon for lunch or dinner, and let me know if it measures up. Cheap Napolitan pizza that I thought was among the best I've had. But I was real hungry at the time!

Yes! Trianon! Diavola! Or well, my second favorite, the wurstel e patatine, the hot dog and French fry pizza....my fav wurstel e patatine in ALL of Italia....

Yes, there are trenitalia stations a bit further away from the sites from Salerno, but I prefer trenitalia over the Circumvesuviana anyways.....we could have taken a quicker route, fast regionale to Napoli and then on the CV to both locations, but I wasn't interested in changing trains or going all the way to Napoli just to turn around on a less comfortable train....and you have to buy tickets to whatever train you are going on, so those times are practically the same......but we had the 3 day artecard, so we didn't have to buy any tickets....just hopped on a bus on the Lungomare to the station, the buses and regionales are covered through the card......

Taxis are readily available at both stations should you not want to walk.....we could have easily found a map of Ercolano to walk there, but we didn't want to waste our energy before our day really started....it was quite hot :)

It all depends on what you are looking for I guess, and as Jay mentioned, the lungomare is my favorite part of Salerno, and even on gross looking weather days, it is beautiful.....there were plenty of interesting things to visit and view during our evenings after our trips and wonderful places to eat with normal Italian folk going about their daily lives....