Sorrento or Positano as a home base??

Jessica, IMHO, Positano would be more romantic but it is out of the way. It's half way down the Amalfi Coast on the way to Salerno. Part of the charm. By SITA bus, its about 45min-60min down the Amalfi Coast. If you can time your journey with the hydrofoil boat, you can jump on that to get to Sorrento (or Capri). Pompei is in the opposite direction from Sorrento. The bus/train journey would take almost 2hrs if you include the transfer time in Sorrento. Sorrento is quite busy and crowded in August. Positano isn't all the quiet either. Busy time.

Make it memorable and romantic. You won't regret it.

Sorrento by a landslide. It is more centrally located and gives you tons of more accessible options -- day trip to Capri/Naples/Pompeii, down the Amalfi coast, etc. Positano is more picturesque to be sure, but its not that big and personally I'd feel a little cramped 3 days there. Its a long haul to get to places like Pompeii, especially by public transit, because you'll have to take the bus to Sorrento first. And while its sometimes panned due to its heavy tourist influx, Sorrento is a nice town. The evening stroll (passegiata) is quite nice and they block off a whole street for it. If you stay in Sorrento you can find hotels with ocean views. My preference would be for one in town so you can walk to the train station, restaurants, etc. as opposed to on the road leaving town even though more of the latter hotels have good views.

Here's a few suggestions... If you stay in Sorrento dinner down at one of the restaurants on the dockside in Marina Grande where you'll feel you're in a small fishing village. Also a glass of wine in the afternoon at the Foreigners Club in Sorrento overlooking the ocean is fantastic. Having been to both Pompeii and Herculaneum, if I could only visit one it would be Herculaneum which IMHO has better preserved ruins than Pompeii does. Both are stops on the Circumvesuviana. Most of the good artifacts from Pompeii and other excavations are in the museum in Naples; if you take the train to Naples and your flight is later in the day you can check bags at the train station and visit it (1 stop away on the subway). Another stop of the train station is at Castellammare di Stabia where you can ride a cable car (called a funivia) to the top of a nearby mountain for spectacular views of Naples and the bay.

Lastly not much of a beach in Positano and none in Sorrento. There is one a short bus ride out of Sorrento, but they have beach docks at the base of Sorrento. You can rent chairs & swim off the dock; it was fun!

I will ditto all of the above too. We spent 4 nights in Sorrento on one of our trips to Italy and we really enjoyed it. Stayed at Settimo Cielo out on Via Capo above Marina Grande and had a balcony with stunning views of the Bay of Naples. Left our car at our hotel and one day took the train to Pompeii, another day the hydrofoil to Capri and did the blue grotto, etc. (It is rather cheesy but glad we did it. We were there in July and the boat ride to the opening of the grotto was beautiful) and one day took the bus to Positano and the hyrofoil back to Sorrento. Sorrento has lots of energy and the evening passeggiata lots of fun. We have wonderful memories of Sorrento and being there in 2006 when Italy won the World Cup! What excitment that was! Congrats on your upcoming mnarriage and have a wonderful trip!

I agree completely with above posts about Sorrento. We absolutely love staying there. We don't find it overly crowded at all, even in July and August. We've stayed at Hotel La Tonnarella 3 times, it's great, and it does have it's own private beach which is very nice for relaxing and for a swim. It's in Rick's Italy guide.

Thank You all for your comments. We have decided to go with Sorrento as our home base. Most certainly seems like it would be the right place...

I think Sorrento is also very romantic...everywhere on the Amalfi Coast is romantic, imo.

Jessica, Mike and Steve have given you some excellent advice. Sorrento is a great central location. If you have time you can take the fun bus ride alog the cliffs and explore the Amalfi coast towns of Positano, etc.

We loved dining at the Marina Grande, and had some great meals for little $$$$.

I also have to agree about Herc., much more to see (better preserved)

One note: it is going to be VERY HOT there in August...make sure that you have AC in your room. If you do explore Pompeii, have some good tennis shoes, and lots of water.

It is our opinion that the Museum in Naples is a must; it has all the artifacts from Pompeii and Herc.

Whatever you do, read Rick Steves advice about this area....it is right on the money!

You can take the Curreri bus from the Naples Airport to the center of Sorrento for about ten euero-it is a coach style bus and very comfortable-luggage goes under the bus. It is not necessary to backtrack to Naples to fly home as the bus returns to the airport.