Trip to Amalfi Coast from Florence

What time of year?
There are no trains in Positano or on Amalfi coast

You have several options but time of year matters- (ferries don't run in winter Nov- April)

Train from Florence to Salerno- then bus or ferry to Positano
Train from Florence to Naples then Circumvesuviana train (like a local metro) to Sorrento then bus to Positano.
(Or private driver from Naples to Positano)

From Positano to Pompeii -back to Sorrento via bus then Circumvesuviana to Pompeii

You’ll need to check luggage at Pompeii

From Pompeii to a Rome take Circumvesuviana to Naples then train to Rome

A private driver from Naples to Positano might be your best option- probably around 120 euros, could also consider a driver from Positano with a stop in Pompeii before getting dropped at Naples station for train to Rome.

Getting around Amalfi requires bit of work and takes time!
With just 2 nights you are spending good part of day 1 just getting there.

We used this company for a couple transfers and were very pleased:
https://www.topexcursionsorrento.com/?portal_referer_id=46

Hopefully you are not trying get to Rome for a flight out that same day- you need to be in Rome night before departure.

It would be very helpful if you included more details about your trip (a lot more). Because based on what you've posted so far, the lightning-fast trip to the Amalfi Coast you are asking about does not seem like a great way to go.

Specifically...you are going to burn a full day getting from Florence to Positano. And (depending on which way you go) you may blow right past Pompei on your way in and out. If you want to do a day trip to Pompei from Positano, that's going to consume most of a day. Your only day there on the AC. There goes your "2 nights" in Positano, then you leave the next morning.

I'm just making a guess (based on a couple things), but this hints at some more profound and problematic issues with the rest of your trip. This plan may not be realistic or wise. So...can you post the rest of your itinerary, and (as suggested above) what happens after you haul out of Positano for Rome...

Is this part of the blitz trip in June with the 10-12 yr old grandkids?

Looking at some of your other posts, it appears to be quite an ambitious far-ranging expedition. The kids should be quite skilled at unpacking/packing by the end of the trip.

If you cannot allocate at least 3 nights to the Positano, with what you plan to do while there I would skip it. You will spend too much time traveling vs being there.

You could add the time to Rome and go to Ostia Antica to have the "Pompeii" experience and save a lot of wear and tear on traveling.

My $0.02

That is a lot of traveling for just two days in Positano. I wouldn’t do it.

Lindah, I'll add my voice the rest: it's much too far to travel from Florence to Positano for just 2 nights. As stated previously, there's no train service to Positano (although you could do a private driver for $$$) so even if there might be bus service, save Amalfi Coast for a future trip where you can give it the time is deserves. You just can't do it any sort of justice for just 2 nights from the sort of distance you're looking at.

I greatly appreciate all of your suggestions. I should have given you all a bit more information. We will be doing this trip next summer ('21), end of June through mid-July; quite awhile away, but my 2 working daughters need to give their employers lots of notice, so I'm trying to plan early so that I can secure travel dates for them. One of my daughters can only take off 2 weeks and has opted to skip Rome (she did this last year), so this is the reason for our tentative itinerary. My 3 granddaughters have all expressed the desire to visit Paris, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy - specifically Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast & Rome. So...I am doing my best to work it all in. We only have 2 & 1/2 weeks to work with because my other daughter can't stay longer than that. Our itinerary is to fly into Paris, spend 2 full days there then take a 6 hr. train ride to Flumserberg, Switzerland. We plan to spend that evening and the next day there, before leaving the following morning for the 5 hour train ride to Salzburg. In Salzburg, we plan to spend the late afternoon & evening there, as well as the next day. Then the following morning we want to take the 6 hour train ride to Venice. (Part of this itinerary is for the family to enjoy the incredible beauty of Switzerland & Austria - even though it will mostly be through the window of a train). In Venice, we'll have the evening to walk around & the next day to do more exploring before leaving the following late afternoon for Florence. In Florence, we again will have the evening to explore the city, as well as the next day, before leaving the following morning for the trip to Positano. I know this trip will likely take the whole day, but, again, a big part of doing this is for the family to experience the beauty of the Amalfi Coast. My grandchildren have lots of experience with beach life, so we don't plan to spend time at the beach in Positano but rather spend the day & 1/2 there exploring the town. From Positano, our plan is to make it to Pompeii, where we want to spend about 3 hours touring the ruins before leaving for Rome. My daughter plans to fly back home from Rome the next morning, while the rest of us will spend the next 3 days there. I do realize that this is a very ambitious itinerary, & I'm looking to see what I can possibly do to make it less hectic while still doing & seeing all the things that my family wants. Again, thanks so much for all your advice. I will be posting a lot more questions on this forum within the next 4-5 months as I continue to work through all these plans, so please bear with me. THANKS! Linda (from New Orleans)

A few bits of information: the train ride between Rome and Sorrento is not particularly scenic; in fact, as I recall, it’s downright dull.
To use a train to get to Positano, you would have to go to Naples, change to the Circumvesuviana, then change to a bus at Sorrento. To get to Pompeii, you have to reverse that and get off at Pompeii.
Positano isn’t the best part of the A C for wandering about. It’s very hilly and filled with shops selling souvenirs and over-priced clothing. Amalfi is more interesting; and Ravello, more scenic.
I have to add my voice to the chorus telling you that your plan is way too heavy on getting to the places on your list and too light on being in them.

lindah, I'll just comment that with tight itineraries, you have to cross fingers that everything, including weather, goes according to clockwork. In our experience, clockwork has not always having worked to our benefit so I still would allow enough time in preferred locations to work around potential wrenches in the machinery.

I say that having had pouring rain on the train from Rome to Naples and onward on the ferry to Capri. You're going to nearby Positano instead but still, the one night and partial day you'd have could be a wash if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate. We had 5 nights - 2 in Capri and 3 in Sorrento - so it's not as if one bad-weather day could have wrecked the entire adventure. With just 2 nights, your risk is much greater.

Understanding that it's your money and your trip, I think trying to cram Paris, Austria, Switzerland, Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast & Rome into 2.5 weeks is WAY too much. You could very easily spend it all in Italy and still find it to be a challenge fitting Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast & Rome into that time frame!

Oh my, you’ll be spending so much time on trains, your grandkids will be bored spitless! I suggest skipping Naples/Amalfi Coast/Pompeii completely. For that quaint coastal experience, you can easily get to Cinque Terre from Florence. There is wonderful hiking, gorgeous towns accessible from the ferry. As someone else’s suggested, visit Ostia Antica instead of Pompeii. Save your family from countless hours on a train!

Well, you have all definitely made me rethink my itinerary. I do think the suggestion to skip Amalfi Coast in favor of Cinque Terre might really work. I will definitely look into doing this, because, the more I look at this & read your unanimous opinions, I'm beginning to agree with you. I hiked these 5 villages years ago & will never forget the beauty of it all. I think the kids would love it, too. THANK YOU!

I do realize that this is a very ambitious itinerary, & I'm looking to
see what I can possibly do to make it less hectic while still doing &
seeing all the things that my family wants

The only way to make it less hectic is to scale way back. You have 2 nights each in 6 far flung locations. As has been said you will spend more time on trains than actually being anywhere.
Write out this itinerary and be very honest with your time- a 6 hour train ride isn't just "6 hours" add the time it takes to get packed up, get to station, get to your next lodging, get unpacked, get oriented. Next day you sightsee.
Get up next am and do the whole pack/train/unpack thing again.

I would have no problem telling kids that what they "want" is not really feasible. Make them choose between Paris/Switzerland/Salzburg OR Italy locations. Each of the places you have listed-- Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome etc all need a MINIMUM of 3 nights.
Show them how their time will actually be spent- show them that brutally honest itinerary you wrote out.

I saw a movie way back in the day titled "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" I always think of that when I see itineraries like yours. None of you will come home with great memories. Sure you might have a moment here or there but it will mostly be a big exhausting blur.

Well, you have all definitely made me rethink my itinerary. I do think the suggestion to skip Amalfi Coast in favor of Cinque Terre might really work.

Sorry. You are in denial.

You do not swap out the Amalfi Coast and swap in CT in its place and call that a fix. That does not address the problem. The problem is too many stops, not enough time being still. I think you need to revamp a lot of this. It's not just the ill-advised flash dash to Positano.

I'm sorry, I know this is not what you want to hear. You have a year-and-a-half to work on this. I would suggest you start over with a clean sheet of paper.

I would have no problem telling kids that want they "want" is not really feasible. Make them choose between Paris/Switzerland/Salzburg OR Italy locations. Each of the places you have listed-- Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome etc all need a MINIMUM of 3 nights.

THIS.

Stop listening to the kids. It's great to try to make your kids happy, but trying to meet all their requests will have the opposite effect.

You do not swap out the Amalfi Coast and swap in CT in its place and
call that a fix. That does not address the problem. The problem is too
many stops, not enough time being still. I think you need to revamp a
lot of this. It's not just the ill-advised flash dash to Positano.

Ditto to that. We don't mean to give you a hard time but you have too many locations for too little time to begin with. Swapping one of them for another doesn't eliminate that issue. You really just need to tell the grandchildren that what they want isn't realistic and they either spend the entire trip in Italy or in Paris/Switzerland/Salzburg.

Show them this thread if they think it's just you being conservative with the itinerary! :O)

With the French transportation labor union strikes almost a regular part of life in France, I wouldn't go to France unless you had more time, just in case you had to figure out alternative travel modes, if the trains, buses, and/or trams go on strike. This happened to us last December.
Have a great trip, and safe travels!

Years ago in my twenties my husband and did multi country trips by train. I was just trying to reconstruct our first one which we went to Paris, Rome, Florence, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, and somewhere in Switzerland I do not recall. We had 22 nights. It was a great trip.

4 nights Pairs, overnight train to Rome
5 nights Rome,

3 nights Florence
2 nights Innsbruck
2 nights Salzburg
4 nights Vienna
2 nights in Switzerland to get near where we were flying out (Luxembourg)

I now travel to one country at a time but I think seeing multiple countries is possible and enjoyable. That said, I don't think you are planning on a realistic pace, like others have said. If you have 2.5 weeks you have probably 17 nights. I think to stay sane you need an average of 3 nights in a place so that means 5-6 places.

A few years ago my husband and I went to Naples and Amalfi coast for 9 days (had left kids at home) and had a series of two nights stays with a one night at the end. The distances were far shorter than you are planning, for a shorter length of time, and there was just the two of us. We were exhausted when we got home. Two years later we took our children with us to Greece. We had 14 nights so less than you but stayed 3 nights, 4 nights, 4 nights, and 3 nights. It was perfect. If I had 3 more days like you we would have done 3 nights, 4 nights, 4 nights, 4 nights, and 2 nights. It is much harder to move with a group and I think you are underestimating the toll it will take.

One other thing to think about is six people is much cheaper in apartments than hotels but that really only works well for stays of 3 days of more. We also have found with traveling with a family group that a place to gather is critical and that is hard to pull off in most hotels.

We are going to Italy this year with our young adult children. I have planned the trip (like the one to Greece) with minimal input from them. I take into account their likes and dislikes (vary what we are doing for example) but in my mind democracy doesn't work very well for trip planning.

When you say “2 full days in Paris, are you counting from getting off the plane at 8AM to heading for the train station at 8AM? That isn’t two full days by the measures we use on this newsboard. Since you have been to Europe before, do you really think your family is best served by this death-march pace? They each might visit Europe again. They don’t have to pretend that they saw everything.

Linda, you have a year-and-a-half to plan this. Don't panic. You can have a great trip for yourself and your family. You just need to be realistic about what's achievable, and (most of all) what's enjoyable.

You cite concerns about people getting time off from work. That's OK, we all have similar constraints. Have everyone start to align their work vacation schedules - you don't need to finalize an itinerary for a long time.

While we all have long lists of places we would love to see, it doesn't make sense to try and cram way too much into a single, short trip. Doing that guarantees everyone will be miserable and disappointed. You have no choice but to prioritize, or everyone will be wrecked and sad.

I suggest you get out a clean sheet of paper and start over from scratch. begin with these basic facts:

A. How many days will you have?
B. Ask anyone who wants to provide input (including yourself) for a short list of places they want to include (5 places at most).

Then, here are the key parts...

1. Everyone (including you) must take their "list" and put it in priority: most important at the top, least import at the bottom.
2. Someone needs to reconcile these lists, combine them and rationalize them. You can do this yourself as the "boss" if you like (someone has to be the responsible adult) or you can do it with input from others. But you must come up with a combined list of priorities for the group.
3. Get out a map (one that you can draw on) and a calendar. Start brainstorming a way to put together a reasonable itinerary. This process takes time, and you can't skip it. Come back here and post your initial list of priorities (but you must include the overall number of days you have). You will get plenty of good advice on how to make it work, and how to make it reasonable. Start a new thread.

Our itinerary is to fly into Paris, spend 2 full days there then take a 6 hr. train ride to Flumserberg, Switzerland.

I am only going to comment on this part because everyone is giving you the same opinions as I would, too many places.

On that note, I am planning my first trip to France (been to other countries, though with the help of this forum). What I have learned is that when you fly into CDG, it is not unusual to take 4 hours to get out of the airport and into Paris itself. Depending on your arrival time, there goes your first day in Paris, besides being jet lagged. So you only have one real day, then you leave. I am planning 5 nights in Paris and can't fit in everything I want to do!

I'm heeding all of your advice & really appreciate everyone's input and frankness. I'm learning...

You're going to have 2 or 3 people sharing a room - and a bathroom. Take into account how much that might slow you down. A group will only move as fast as its slowest member is at any given time (sleepy-head, window shopper, photographer, weak bladder . . . ). My first rule of travel: less is more.

As for the Amalfi Coast - it's definitely possible. Stay in Salerno! it's at the east end of the AC, the buses and ferries to almost all the towns start/end there. You can get there by fast train from Florence or Rome. 3 nights minimum stay. Among its attractions are a well-preserved medieval center, a large sandy beach, a lovely seaside promenade, good restaurants, and Netuno's gelato.

Two years ago I did a day trip from Florence to Cinque Terre with my mom. They had "direct trains" and I recall it only took 1.5-2 hours each way on direct train then smaller train to the towns. It was doable. We hiked from one town to another and took the train to another for late lunch then headed back to florence. It was a long 14 hour day but so beautiful. We relaxed and drank wine the next day.

I am going to almafi coast this year with my husband (staying 8 nights in Sorrento and one in Rome before flight). From Rome airport it takes about 6 hours (3.5 hour but, then smaller trains and buses) to get to our hotel per ROME2RIO calculation. I would not do it for a short period of time of only a couple nights.

Expanding upon David's advice, #3.
Sometimes I take a map to the local Kinko's, make several enlargements, then laminate those enlargements. I then use erasable colored markers, draft several routes, noting train/flight times between destinations. This method helps me understand the actual traveling times between destinations, and my trip becomes more practical.

Also, don't assume all train trips are so scenic; often the tracks go thru industrial, nondescript areas.

Again, enjoy the research, as you have plenty of time for a well-planned trip!

Hi all, I am fascinated by this forum because I am wondering if my plans to combine Tuscany with Amalfi is also too ambitious within 11 days. This is my tentative itinerary:
June 11: arrive Rome at 8am
3 nights Rome
3 nights Tuscany
3 nights Capri
1 night Positano or Ravello
1 night Naples
June 22: depart Rome at 6pm

I am worried about travel from Tuscany to Capri in one day, but the high speed train is about 3 hours from Florence to Naples (or Salerno?). This seems doable, but I welcome thoughts about switching to Cinque Terre instead.

Also I could do 2 nights Capri and 2 nights Positano or Ravello.

Also which is the best Tuscany town to "home base" in? Pienza, Montalcino, Siena, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano??

Welcome claire-

It would be best if you start your own new thread. Your post will get lost here and you won't get notifications of any responses.
Do that- then we'll happily advise ;)