Traveling Between Rome and Sorrento

There are dozens of threads here addressing transportation to/from Sorrento

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You do not want or need a car in the area

You will need to be in Rome night hefore your departure flight
Might make sense to travel to Sorrento on arrival and put all Rome nights at end

I know there is a train from Rome to Naples, but then we have to
figure out how to get to Sorrento from there. Does anyone have any
recommendations?

In the lower level of the Naples train station is the Circumvesuviana train to take you to Sorrento for about €4. It will also get you to Pompeii and Herculaneum. There is no way I'd want a car along the Amalfi Coast. You could hire a driver but expect to pay about €160 from Naples or €500+ from Rome. However, no matter which way you choose, expect it to be chaotic and frustrating at times.

Here's a link to my Trip Report if it helps. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-2-weeks-of-day-trips-from-sorrento

I started searching through the forums prior to posting, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for and it was a little overwhelming. We've got a lot of parts of our trip to figure out.

We already booked our flights and hotels back in October. We arrive in Rome, stay for 4 nights, then go to Sorrento for 5 nights, and then we leave from Rome. I know it will be a pain on our way home, but no way to change it now. On the plus side, our flight doesn't leave until after 1pm.

Here is a search last 6 months- "Sorrento transportation"
You need to read thru.

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=6m&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Sorrento+transportation&utf8=✓

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/travel-from-rome-to-sorrento-october-2024

For a 1 pm flight you need to be at airport by 10 am. I would not risk trying to get there from Sorrento that morning.
Stay in Rome or at airport hotel the night before unless you are OK missing your flight.

Pay heed to this warning- we are not kidding:

However, no matter which way you choose, expect it to be chaotuc and
frustrating at times.

Lots of info here:
https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/e/getting-to-sorrento-italy

We took the train from Rome to Naples, then hired a private driver to get to Sorrento. Traffic was CRAZY. The train from Naples to Sorrento would have been much quicker, but that has hassles of its own. Expect crowds and frustration no matter what you choose. Luggage on the train from Naples to Sorrento can be tough and that train is known for crowds and chaos. A private van may be the easiest- but we did have lots of traffic both from Naples to Sorrento and back from Sorrento to Naples. All that said, we loved Sorrento and had the best food in all of Italy there.

The train from Sorrento to Naples, and reverse, is like a NYC subway, in all respects. You may have to stand, it's not air conditioned, and the schedule is a suggestion. Things just don't work in an organized manner south of Naples.

We used Aldo Limos, they were very professional. Christine, in the Sorrento office, is a Brit, so English email communication was easy. We worked out a package deal, paid in USD, fair exchange rate, and were given a written receipt.

Mondo shared tours is also a good resource, recommended by RS.

Have a great trip.

What time does your flight land in Rome? The reason I ask is because you can take a direct train from the airport to Napoli Centrale (Naples central station) that departs the airport at 9:38 AM arriving in Naples at 11:33 AM. You can then walk to the basement at Napoli Centrale and hop on the Circumvesuviana train to the end of line (Sorrento).

OP is staying in Rome on arrival.

Any chance those hotel reservations can be changed? We never book anything non Refundable

Or see if you can fly home from Naples instead

There are a lot of useful links in this past discussion:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-for-7-nights-itinerary-help

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful so far.

Unfortunately we cannot swap our hotel stays at this point. We seemed to have booked things backwards from what most recommend, but we can’t change that now. We’re early morning people so we don’t think we’ll have too much issue getting to the Rome airport from Sorrento. We have trip insurance, but not “cancel for any reason”, so we can’t switch things. We’re on a budget so we had to book things months ago and in a way that was affordable (meaning hotel plus airfare package).

Sounds like renting a car is a no go. Train between Rome and Naples. Then it’s either hire a driver or take the local train from there. I’ll research the companies recommended, thanks!

For a 1 pm flight you need to be at airport by 10 am

Sorrento to FCO in 4 hours would be a "it ran like a Swiss watch" kind of trip. Short of having a chartered helicopter, no way I would try what you apparently are planning.
.

Having a driver pick you up at 5AM would likely cost $1000. That means 330ish wake up ( assuming you actually fall asleep while contemplating what you have to do) . No place to get breakfast that early so plan some sort of snacks to have on hand.

The only exception to being at FCO by 10AM, would be if that flight goes to a Schengen destination ( e.g., Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, or a German city) for the US bound flight.

It would be less expensive to leave Sorrento a night early and get to an airport hotel

The problem with a train from Naples to Rome is that you still need to get from Rome Termini to the Rome airport, which is another 50 minutes. The Naples train doesn't go directly to the Rome airport.
I think a private driver to the airport is your only option, if you're not spending the night before in Rome.
Have a great trip. Safe travels.

https://www.topexcursionsorrento.com/en/i/SX3F2

Curious about what date your departure is-Easter is April 20
April 25 is also a holiday

ChristineH has nailed the answer: Just pay for a second hotel room, in Rome, on your last night.

I agree that the public transportation ride from Sorrento to Rome is at least Three Seats, which adds a certain amount of latency and additional uncertainty to the ride. It is reckless to plan the proposed departure schedule. Even with a later flight, there would be too many uncertainties.

I do want to note that the higher-priced, sometimes non-changeable, non-refundable Frecciarossa rail service from Naples to Rome is about one-third the time of standard trains, and at least twice as fast as any car service. Note that the OP wants to arrive in Rome at the peak of morning rush hour.

We are leaving the US on the evening of April 20 and arriving in Rome on April 21 (Monday). We stay in Rome until Friday the 25th, then head to Sorrento until Wednesday, when we fly back out of Rome to the US.

We tried many variations of our schedule, including leaving out of Naples (which obviously makes more sense), but price was a huge factor in our decision, as was school vacation schedule. I understand our schedule is not ideal, as many of you have stated. But it is what it is and now we have to plan around it.

Your options are:

1- Hire a private driver to take you from Sorrento to airport on the morning of your flight. I’d leave Sorrento at 4:30 am. About 800 euros?
Cross your fingers that traffic isn’t bad.

2- Hire a driver to take you to Napoli Centrale - leave no later than 6 am (about 150 euros?) and catch a fast train about 7 am- gets you to Termini by 9 then take a taxi to airport (55 euros fixed rate- less than 4x Leonardo Express.

3- Stay in Sorrento til late in the day on 4/25. Book an airport hotel for that night- Hilton at the airport is about 350 /night I think. Walking distance to airport- it is attached to the terminals
Take a fast train from Napoli Centrale after dinner- then on to the airport as above.
Since you have a room booked in Sorrento you don’t need to worry about what to do with luggage- just check out later in day

Alternatively you could stay in Rome near Termini for the night. Be in a taxi to the airport by 9 am.

Number 3 is the only option that is basically risk free.
Good luck!

Thank you Christine and to everyone for their advice! I'm researching options 2 and 3. I also have an email out to Aldo Limos for some quotes.

Hey Doigger, nobody intends to insult your planning; Your specific dilemma is, alas, quite common on this newsboard. It's more that a newsboard has something in common with reviews on a Hotel site; You can't rely 100% on every single word, so people are offering multiple opinions, to support the general tenor of replies. And there can always be a good hint hidden in a hasty piece of English composition!

And purely by accident, misunderstandings can arise: I only posted a second time because I believe that you were (innocently, but wrongly) led to believe that the fastest way from Naples to Rome is a rich-folks "black car". I personally believe that a lot of posters here are not familiar with public transportation, because they live in the land of the car. (I do too, now, but I grew up in Manhattan.)

Edit: (I am not confident about whether a car service or the Airport Express [train] is better from Rome to FCO. For example, the car might be able to bypass some of the DOWNTOWN rush hour traffic. I don't know.)

Since you're on a budget I would recommend the Circumvesuviana train between Naples and Sorrento. Once you've taken it a few times going to places like Pompeii you can decide for yourself if it's acceptable with luggage. You'll get a variety of opinions from those that have already posted, mine is that it isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. We did stand for part of the trip with luggage back to Naples. I do agree with everyone though that I wouldn't risk heading to Rome on the same day as your flight. You'll probably be OK, but you might not either. It's a different world down there.

We headed back the day before and did a final walking tour of Rome the night before and then stayed at Hotel Sofia near the Termini. We then caught the 9am train to the airport the next morning. I think cost for the hotel was €150. It's nothing special but perfectly acceptable for one night.

Well said:

It's a different world down there.

See the Elana Ferrante novels on Netflix, for example.

If times allows, we always take the direct Marozzi bus to and from Rome to Sorrento. For us its a no brainer because we don't want to bother with changing trains in Naples in order to get to Sorrento.