I am being sent (last-minute) on a work trip to Pompeii. If I wanted to extend for 2-3 days just for an on-my-own trip, where would you go? Obviously not a lot of time to do anything extensive. Stay nearby and do the Amalfi coast? Puglia? Sicily? I'll be traveling on my own as a woman, and based on what I've heard about Naples I'd rather not do that in this situation. I'd prefer not to have to rent a car.
Posted by
5107 posts
How exciting!
I would personally not be worried about a few days in Naples (live in DC area like you), but I understand. With just a few days, the most bang for your buck to be sure will be the Amalfi Coast (AC), but accommodations could be in short supply on such a short notice. What I would do is immediately hop over to Booking.com and see what you could get in any of the AC villages that are on the ferry line (https://www.travelmar.it/en/index) OR in Atrani, which is just a short walk to Amalfi. Salerno is a small city at the mainland end of the AC and it is a nice base for day trips in addition to being a pleasant city.
Do plan on spending the last night in Naples in all likelihood, in particular if your outbound flight is early. The Hotel Piazza Bellini is lovely and they can arrange your taxi to the airport.
ETA Also consider the islands off Naples--Capri, Ischia, and Procida.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
795 posts
OOO yay! That sounds awesome! If you only have 2-3 days, I would say minimizing travel time would be my first priority, and second priority would be to be closer to a good airport to depart. If your work generally thinks Napoli is the one you should be using, it makes it easier to decide!
I vote Salerno, on the other side of the Sorrento/Amalfi Coasts from Naples. Its a large town (200,000+ residents probably), but not as overwhelming as Naples. It has a great history, nice pleasant sites in town to explore, fantastic transport connections if you needed to do any day trips, and an AWESOME waterfront (the Lungomare) and shopping streets (the Corso and Via Mercanti) to stroll along with all the locals.
Will you have had time to visit the ruins in Pompeii/Herculaneum? You can do that before you leave Pompeii if you want, and then arrive into Salerno and drop off your luggage and explore the town on your first day. Depending on the time you have left that day, you could take a bus to Castello Arechi, visit a museum in Salerno, stop into the Duomo or Giardino della Minerva (where the first medical school in Italy grew plants to help with their medicines), or take a short bus ride up to Vietri to do a little ceramic shopping. Then in the evening you could walk along the Corso to do some shopping or along the water admiring the view and enjoying the sea breeze with ALL the other Italians doing the same. On other days you could take a ferry to Amalfi and/or Positano (and maybe even a bus ride up to Ravello for the gorgeous views), a ferry to Capri, or a train to Paestum to see the most well preserved Greek Temples outside of the Acropolis. It would give you a bigger city feel, but very comfortable to explore and hard to get lost or overwhelmed.
But I'm biased toward Salerno :) Sorrento might be a nice place too to do some of that as well....
OOOOO Valadelphia has a good idea in the islands! I bet you could spend a nice time on Ischia (or Procida but I don't know anyone who has explored it personally) with a mix of exploring and relaxation!
Posted by
Washington DC
28249 posts
Sicily and Puglia are wonderful but totally out of the question for such a short time. Come back at some point and spend about a week (or longer) in Puglia and two weeks (or longer) in Sicily.
I'm a 72-year-old female, and I spent a very nice solo week in Naples last year, but if you don't enjoy vacationing time in big, hectic cities, that's reason enough to choose somewhere other than Naples. On that same trip I spent four days in Salerno and definitely could have stayed longer. It was a winter trip, so I didn't attempt to see the Amalfi coast beyond Vietri and cannot comment on the ease of transportation between Salerno and the Coast, but I believe there are both buses and ferries.
Salerno isn't a very good base for seeing the islands, but it's good for Paestum--or even for a day trip to Naples to see the Archaeological Museum and a few other things you might want to catch without spending your nights in the city.
This is by way of saying that if you can't find lodging you consider affordable on the coast or on one of the islands, you needn't feel you are settling for something inferior if you stay in Salerno. It is a very attractive, real Italian city that isn't swamped by foreign tourists.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
407 posts
You might consider Ischia.