I am thinking of booking a boat tour that starts in Salerno and has 1 hour stops in Amalfi and Positano. If I were to book this tour, what should we do during the stops? I realize this is not near enough time to fully take in the cities but if you were to do one thing in each town - what would it be?
Posted by
Idaho, USA
8029 posts
We stayed in Salerno for two nights and in Amalfi for three nights. While in Salerno, we took the train to see the Greek ruins at nearby Paestum. While we were staying in Amalfi, we took a bus up to the lovely gardens in Ravello one morning & a ferry over to Positano to spend an afternoon. - All to say that I am familiar with the area.
I would not take a boat tour to Amalfi & to Positano for one hour each. The walkways at Positano are crowded & slower moving, so you aren’t going to enjoy anything if it’s such a short time.
I would recommend taking the ferry over to these places and spending more time in each, or skip Amalfi since it’s mainly the cathedral & central piazza near the water and spend the whole time in Positano if you’re short on time.
Are you planning Paestum’s Greek Ruins for another day? You don’t need a tour to walk through it, and it’s spectacular.
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1233 posts
Was in Salerno at the very end of season last year. I took the ferry to Positano - it waited for 15 minutes or so in Amalfi on the way there. The shoreline between Amalfi and Positano is some of the best and wildest and I wanted to see the entire coastline. We walked Positano and even way off season we decided to quickly leave and took the ferry to Amalfi - had lunch and explored some more, went to the paper factory tour and then took the ferry back to Salerno. It was easy to piece together our own paced tour simply walking to dock and getting tickets to the next ferry that where we wanted to go.
Personally, even prepared for the level of tourism that I expected I think the major towns of the coast are prettiest from the water and I probably wouldn't go back unless it was deeply off season or I was with a local. From the water and at the edges of the towns we can see the raw charm that the English poets found and undiscovered it would be an achingly beautiful place to stay. In Amalfi you can still see some vestiges of the old town with a shop that sells ship parts and fishing gear and a couple of fruit and veg sellers, but I also counted literally four gelato shops in a row at one point.
My $.02, just do a choose your own adventure using ferries and a boat hire is unnecessary unless you absolutely want to visit a town without a ferry and park in your cove somewhere for a swim.
Have a great trip,
=Tod