Transportation along the Amalfi Coast

From Maiori, your primary transportation with be SITA bus company, which has the following services:

Hourly to Salerno; Hourly to Amalfi with hourly onward connections to Praiano/Positano/Sorrento; Five daily to Naples (except Sunday), one of which stops at Pompei (modern town). From Salerno, there are hourly buses and trains to Paestum. To get to Ercolano, your best bet is to go to Salerno by bus, then connect to the train. To Ravello there are hourly buses from Amalfi.

Along the Amalfi Coast (Salerno to Sorrento including Ravello), you'll need to purchase the UNICO COSTIERA bus tickets: 2 euros for 45-mins (e.g. Maiori to Amalfi; Maiori to Salerno); 3 Euros for 90-mins (e.g. Maiori to Positano or Maiori to Sorrento); 6 Euros for 24-hrs.; 15 Euros for 3 days.

To get to Naples, you'll buy the UNICO CAMPANIA Fascia U5 ticket (3.30 Euros one way).

To get to Paestum, you'll buy the UNICO CAMPANIA Extraurbano E6 ticket (3.50 Euros one way)

To get to Pompei or Ercolano, you'll buy the UNICO CAMPANIA Extraurbano E4 ticket (2.50 Euros one way).

The UNICO CAMPANIA tickets are valid on the SITA buses, the Trenitalia "regionale" trains, the Ferrovia Circumvesuviana between Sorrento and Naples, the Naples city buses, the Naples metro, the Naples funiculars, and the main bus company going between Salerno and Paestum: CSTP. You may take a combination of carriers to reach your final destination. For example, to reach Maiori from Naples, you can take a "regionale" train to Salerno, then connect to the SITA bus to Maiori. OR you can take the direct SITA bus to Maiori, bypassing Salerno entirely.

On the UNICO CAMPANIA one-way tickets, you must write in the origination point and the destination of your trip (e.g. Maiori/Paestum). This is not necessary on the UNICO COSTIERA tickets.

You must "punch" the ticket each time you board a bus or train (except for the 24-hr and 3-day UNICO COSTIERA tickets).

BEWARE; The UNICO CAMPANIA tickets are NOT NOT valid

Here's the current bus schedule between Salerno and Maiori - http://www.sitabus.it/sitabus/campania/orarioCAMPANIA/QUADROXV-i.pdf. Quickest route from Maiori to Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum is to return to Salerno and connect from there. You can take either a bus or the train to Paestum - both work fine. For Pompeii, take the train towards Naples and get off at Pompei (the new city). From the train station, it's a 20 minute walk or a short bus or cab ride to Pompeii (the ancient Roman city). From Pompeii, you can take the Circumvesuviana train south to Sorrento or north to Herculaneum and Naples. From Salerno, you can also take the train to Naples and then the Circumvesuviana to Herculaneum, Pompeii and Sorrento. Quickest route from Maiori directly to Sorrento is the SITA bus, which requires a change in Amalfi. Look into the Campania Unico ticket for the trains. Buying a daily, 3-day or weekly pass may save quite a bit of money. Don't believe the Unico ticket covers the SITA buses.

(continuation of GAC's previous posting:

BEWARE: The UNICO CAMPANIA tickets are NOT NOT valid on long-distance Trenitalia trains such as the AV, ES-Fast, ES, ES-City, IC, ICN or EXP. They are valid ONLY ONLY on the "regionale" ("R") trains. Between Naples and Salerno, you will find that the "R" trains run frequently enough.

www.sitabus.it
www.cstp.it
www.vesuviana.it
www.ferroviedellostato.it

From Maiori to Naples, your fastest option is to take the DIRECT SITA bus, if its schedules are convenient. Otherwise, take the SITA bus to Salerno and connect to a "R" train to Naples. Either way, you pay 3.30 Euros one-way with an UNICO CAMPANIA Fascia U5 ticket.

The UNICO tickets are indeed valid on SITA buses (they are one of the principal associated carriers).

The UNICO CAMPANIA website will give you all the information you need on how to use the UNICO tickets, including the map showing the various fare zones. Unfortunately, it is only in Italian, which is why I often post threads summarizing how to use these tickets.

www.unicocampania.it

GAC's information provides more detail than mine. Note that I was told my 3-day Unico Campania ticket didn't cover the SITA buses between Sorrento and Salerno, so maybe the Unico Costiera ticket is needed for those buses.

Frank is also correct: along the Amalfi Coast (between Sorrento and Salerno, including Amalfi), the UNICO CAMPANIA tickets are not valid and you must purchase the UNICO COSTIERA tickets.

Nevertheless, if you're travelling to or from the Amalfi Coast to or from an outside destination (e.g. Maiori/Naples; Maiori/Paestum; Maiori/Pompei; Sorrento/Pompei; Sorrento/Naples), use must buy the UNICO CAMPANIA and not the UNICO COSTIERA ticket.

It's all very confusing to the uninitiated, because you must know some rudimentary geography, which is why it's very useful to have a good area map and study the fare zones on the UNICO CAMPANIA website.

Note that the UNICO CAMPANIA "U" tickets are used if travelling to or from Naples; whereas the UNICO CAMPANIA "E" tickets are used if travelling between two points NOT touching the City of Naples. For example, you buy a UNICO CAMPANIA Fascia U5 ticket between Naples and Maiori, but a UNICO CAMPANIA Extraurbano E6 ticket between Maiori and Paestum.

"U" means "Urbano" because you travel to or from the city of Naples. "E" means "Extraurbano" because you bypass the city of Naples.

The UNICO COSTIERA tickets are sui generis, valid ONLY along the Amalfi Coast from Sorrento to Salerno.

www.unicocampania.it

Ravello is also part of the Amalfi Coast, so the UNICO COSTIERA ticket is valid to get there. There are hourly buses connecting Amalfi and Ravello. In Amalfi, there are connecting buses to Sorrento, Salerno and Naples.

However, if you were travelling directly to Ravello from Naples (or vice-versa), not stopping en-route, you would buy the UNICO CAMPANIA Fascia U5 ticket and not the UNICO COSTIERA ticket.

Here is an old posting of mine on Slow Travel (where I post often) which describes the differences between bus and train travel between Salerno and Paestum:

http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/862600685/m/7261001862?r=7261001862#7261001862

The fares are slightly off, but the info is still good.

Thank you all for your amazing information. One last question, how do we get to Caserta? Thanks again.

From Maiori to Caserta: UNICO CAMPANIA Extraurbano E7 ticket for 3.90 Euros one way. Take the SITA bus to Salerno, then connect to the DIRECT train to Caserta, which bypasses Naples. Be aware that connections are better on the return trip, and not very good in the mornings going to Caserta. If you connect in Naples (by train), it will take longer.

From Naples to Caserta: UNICO CAMPANIA Fascia U4 ticket for 2.90 Euros one-way. There is both train and slower bus service very frequently. The train is better.