I believed Rick’s suggestion on use of SITA bus for travel along Amalfi coast, Italy. Silly me. Buses along coast on no apparent schedule. There were no queues, people just pushed and crammed into sardine-like standing room. My wife got bruises from the packing. Couldn’t see anything of the coast, just the back of another person, 6 inches away. Took 3 rides and we then just decided to hang it up and caught another packed coach back to Sorrento. Most miserable day of travel I can remember. Do yourself a favor, spend a bit more and rent a tour. No reason to be treated in the manner SITA does, with overcrowded, oversold buses; no queue for loading or limits on number of passengers; and general abuse, when you are on holiday.
Posted by
Chicago
7834 posts
I read reviews about SITA and based on those we used and I recommend this tour as an alternative
https://www.city-sightseeing.it/it/citysightseeing-sorrento---coast-to-coast/
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
I took that same bus, but not at peak tourist season, and had no issues at all. I guess experiences can vary by season, that's the take-away. Adding buses may not help because more buses means more traffic jams on an already crowded road (and who knows how many they have in their fleet). Unfortunately, people behave just as you described when there's a scarcity of something (buses in this example) and they feel like they can't be left behind. You would definitely hate the Circumvesuviana then; I took that too and it was fine off-season.
Posted by
11156 posts
We used the hop on hop off bus as transportation to the Amalfi Coast from Sorrento. They sell only as many tickets as they have seats. It also left from a location near the train station, similar to the SITA buses. We took a ferry back at the end of the day.
We wouldn’t take a tour as we wanted the freedom to spend as much time as we wanted in each of the towns including a leisurely lunch by the beach in Positano.
Posted by
Cincinnati, Ohio
303 posts
I also had read about the SITA bus experience before we went to the Amalfi mid May of 2015. We opted for the ferry as our mode of transportation and loved It! We stayed in Salerno and hopped on the ferry to go up the coast. We also avoided the Circumvesuviana going to Pompeii. Unfortunately we had to use it once, and it was most unpleasant.
Posted by
15 posts
Road the bus from Positano three years ago--crowded yes, but what a great experience. Sat next to a young girl eating her sandwich and reading a book along the way to Amalfi. The return trip was less crowded. Front row seat on the bus next to an elderly grandmother afforded me a great view of the bus drivers' driving skills, and a running commentary, in Italian which I don't speak, of sights along the way that I could photograph from my vantage point. Again, a great experience.
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6290 posts
Sorry you had a bad experience. We were in Positano some years ago, and used the SITA bus and the ferry to get everywhere - Amalfi, Paestum, Sorrento, and Capri. It was great. We were there in early July, and I don't remember any crowds on either the buses or the ferries.
We did, however, get stranded in Sorrento by a transit strike, and ended up sharing a taxi with some other folks back to Positano. We have since learned the word for "strike," and always glance at the headlines as we walk past a news stand!
Posted by
west Chester, PA
370 posts
Another traveler hating the SITA buses in Sorrento going to the Amalfi coast. Made the mistake of traveling it both ways the end of September, cramped in so tight and no moving air. My husband and I both got sick- it was awful- never again. My niece used the city sightseeing bus and said how comfortable and inexpensive it was.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
actually, we took the circumvesuviana train 4 times and it was good 3 of those times. got us from naples to sorrento, sorrento to ercolaneum & pompeii and back to sorrento, and finally a return run to naples. on the last run, we boarded with over an hour to spare for our connecting train in naples. however 2 minutes out of the sorrento station the train died. it coasted, backwards, downhill, back into sorrento. , 25 minutes later. everybody off-loaded that train, onto the next train scheduled to leave the station, which was already near full. became more than full as it got closer to naples, with grandma’s and more, jostling toward incivility. made the trenitalia connection with 10 seconds to spare. public transportation in italy, chaos! rick, bella chaos?