Sorrento vs. Positano As A Home Base

Let me just say this so you will know our taste preference. Last year we based in Colmar France to tour the Wine Road. After visiting Ribeauville we knew we had made a mistake. We loved Ribeauville. Colmar was a lovely city but it didn't have that down-home feel.

Please post the month of the year. It is already getting late to book these places for May or June, 2019. You are perfectly correct that Positano is prettier than Sorrento. But it is much harder to get to, to tour from, and to get to FCO on the way home. Both are hard to park in unless your hotel guarantees a space. Sorrento has more ferries and ferry seats, but Positano has hundreds of steps up and down to some locations. Sorrento has one little beach with a whiff of ferry diesel fuel. The water is cold in both towns. It all depends what's most important to you.

Since we had to take our sixth choice of hotels anyway, we happily stayed in a bayfront luxury room in a huge hotel (Ambasciatori) on Sorrento's cliff front for five nights. Touring day access was OUR top priority. Guiding our own massive steel steed of American independence was not. We paid about 260 Euros for a private car and driver for 8 hours seeing the actual Amalfi Coast.

Tim, We will be there the last week of May... and you're right they are booking up fast. I have already booked a few places close to Sorrento, in the city center... on the square that starts with a T, and in Sorrento but with a view. We are definitely leaning towards the accommodations with a view of the bay and Vesuvius. (We have the option to cancel any of these with no fees.)

Opinions are probably going to be 6 of one and 1/2 dozen for the other. For ease of day tripping, I'll definitely vote for Sorrento as it's served by 3 modes of transport (local train, SITA bus and ferries), and the train makes it much quicker/easier to get to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples than from Positano, which has no rail service Ferries are a bit more reliable from there as well as they can't always dock in Positano on very windy, rough-sea days. We found it plenty attractive enough for our purposes, and enjoyed the hours kicking around town when not off exploring somewhere else. Take a walk down to Marina Grande: the older, less commercial of Sorrento's two docks, where fishing boats bob about in the turquoise sea, and you might see the day's catch being readied for sending off to local restaurants (we did: squid). Grab a gelato and head over to Villa Comunale (a park) to watch lights twinkle on all around the Gulf of Naples at dusk, and Vesuvius looming in the distance; lovely.

Like Tim, I wouldn't have wanted to deal with all the steps in Positano - even though we could handle them - and it felt more touristy to me for some reason than Sorrento. It was fine for a day trip but didn't feel more quintessentially 'Italian' (whatever that is in your mind) than Sorrento either; more like a high-end resort town.

Either one is going to be overflowing with tourists during high and shoulder seasons so avoiding them shouldn't be a factor in choosing one over the other.

We also stayed in Ribeauville, and I agree that it is attractive. But my love of a pretty place is not enough to spend five nights there, especially if (like Alsace) we will be driving to a daytrip every single day. I don't feel like I'm part of "Band of Brothers" just because I'm sleeping in a small family hotel that smells like the two ladies who run its (own) fish dinner. (I'm referring with affection to Hostellerie ... Seignures de Ribeauville!)

It is extremely difficult to find overlooked gems in the most touristed locations. Are you aware of how many sun-seeking UK visitors come to Sorrento year after year? One of the most frequent questions on TA Sorrento is "How much is a Pint?". I will respond to your second (OP) post by suggesting that you consider the far-from-the-bay towns in the hills, that are less talked about and much harder to research. A halfway measure would be Sant Agata sui Dui Golfi, but there is not "enough" to "do there". But you want a car, and it's a much better place to have a car than the two busy towns you named first.

I don't find Amalfi half as physically attractive as Positano, but it is less crowded (and equally hard to park in.) Perhaps I should add that we virtually never swim in the Mediterranean Sea. But the elevator to the private bay bathing deck platform below each hotel like the Ambasciatori is a nice touch!

I know from newsboards that there ARE budget places in Positano, if any spots are left. But one of my objectives there (sorry ... ) was to visit the ? most famous luxury hotel, Le Sireneuse. We didn't get to see a room, but had drinks on the (non-guest side of) the pool deck. The deck was small, and the pool microscopic, like 8' x 14'. Every single guest using a chaise had had visible "work done." It was bizzare! (I'm not opposed to elective plastic surgery if you don't go into debt for it.)

I’ve been to Sorrento many times, for a week each time and have spent a day in Positano a couple of times... i like Sorrento much more than Positano. Positano is on a very steep hill, full of tourist shops and restaurants for tourists. The beach is very small, crowded with ferries, kiosks for tickets, fishing boats and their equipment, and people - it is not serene. You’ll get more than a whiff of diesel fuel smell there.
Sorrento is beautiful, mostly flat, charming, good / useful stores, and great transportation options which makes day trips so easy - unlike Positano.

I think there is a lot to gain by splitting up your stay between Sorrento and an Amalfi Coast town, be it Positano or whatever. Sorrento has just about everything you could want in a home base, it’s convenient, relaxed, relatively small and fairly charming. I would not argue against staying there at all. The real obstacle here is day-tripping from one side of the peninsula to the other. This is pretty much what everyone is doing, and it makes the daily travel a drag. Waiting in lines for busses/ferries, being on a packed bus, trying to maximize your time in a given place and praying you don’t get stuck in a traffic jam pretty much dominates your day. The more you can avoid the masses the better. So, stay in Sorrento for Pompeii/Naples/Capri, the real sightseeing stuff. Then stay a couple nights on the Amalfi Coast side to minimize your travel pains and enjoy the charm after the crowds return to wherever they came from. Get an early start and you’ll have a lot of places to yourself until the afternoon, and oftentimes you’ll be going opposite the bulk of the tourist flow. Leaving the AC by ferry to Salerno is a very easy connection to a train back to Rome, easier than going back up through Naples.

All that said, all of these towns have their perks and minor drawbacks. It can feel a little nitpicking, because honestly I think it’s hard to go real wrong in this area. It’s all beautiful, with some places being a little more convenient than others. You should be able to find accommodations, but don’t wait too long! Good luck!

We stayed in Sorrento 3 nights and Positano 4 nights.
Sorrento was great to day trip to Naples and Herculenium and a wonderful Passeggiataevery evening. We had a few good meals. It is however packed with British tourists.
Positano is a just an incredible place to stay if you have a view. Now the hotel we chose made the whole stay amazing. Buca Di Bacco Balcony overlooking the Ocean and view of town. Well worth the reasonable high rate paid. The town in a wonderful place to stay and use the ferry to venture down the coast. As romantic a town as any in Italy.
I consider the room and Breakfast Buffet at Bucca di Bacco to be the gold standard for me at any European. Now there are no spas and no pool just amazing room, location and breakfast, Just fabulous. We stayed Superior with Balcony.
Trust me! Heres the website

http://www.bucadibacco.it/rooms.html

Enjoy.