Transfer or day trip: two different journeys
The first distinction to make is not which town to choose, but what kind of journey you are planning. They are two different things and they are prepared differently.
The transfer with luggage
This is the journey of someone moving from Rome to the coast to stay there, or the other way round. The dominant constraint is the suitcases: what counts is the exact point where the vehicle can stop and how far that is from the property, because on the Amalfi Coast that distance is almost always made of steps. The route from Rome is long — motorway as far as the Naples area and then either the Sorrento peninsula or the Salerno side — and the final stretch on the coast road is the slowest. The page on the transfer from Rome to the Amalfi Coast gives an indicative fare from €500 per Economy+ vehicle for up to 3 passengers, one way in low season, approximately 7 January–13 February. The price for your date, vehicle and address is confirmed before payment.
The day trip
This is the journey of someone leaving Rome in the morning and coming back in the evening. Here the constraint is time: between the outward and return legs the road takes up most of the day, and what is left has to be spent in one or at most two towns. Anyone trying to do three spends the day on the coast road. It is worth being honest about this: the Amalfi Coast in a day from Rome is possible, but it is a long day and has to be accepted as one.
The three towns compared
What really separates the three towns, from the point of view of someone planning a journey, is not only their character: it is the geography. Positano is vertical, Amalfi is gathered around the sea, Ravello sits high up and is reached by leaving the coast.
| Place | How you get there | What it is like | What to allow for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positano | From the coast road; the points where it is possible to stop are limited and away from the centre of the town. | An amphitheatre of houses on the slope, linked by flights of steps running down to the beach. | Substantial slopes on foot, downhill on the way in and uphill on the way back. |
| Amalfi | On the coast, with the town facing directly onto the harbour. | The flattest of the three in its central part, around the cathedral square. | It is the busiest town on the coast: in the middle of the day in season it is crowded. |
| Ravello | It is not on the coast: it is reached by a climbing road that turns off the main coastal route. | A hill town organised around Piazza Duomo, where the entrance to Villa Rufolo is. | The climb has to be counted into the timings, on the way up and on the way down. |
| The coast road | The main road linking the towns, narrow and winding, shared with scheduled buses and two-wheelers. | Scenic but slow: journey times between one town and the next are longer than the distance suggests. | At the busiest times traffic management measures may be in force: check them for your dates. |
For a transfer to or from the coast, or for a day with stops in more than one town, send us the dates, the address, the number of passengers and the number of bags.
Check availability and request a quoteWhat to see in each town
Positano
The visit largely coincides with the descent towards the sea: the main lanes drop between shops and terraces down to the main beach, and the church of Santa Maria Assunta with its majolica dome is the visual landmark. It has to be said plainly: the climb back up is hard work, and with luggage harder still. Anyone staying here should ask the property, before travelling, how many steps separate the road from the entrance.
Amalfi
The focus is the square with the cathedral of Sant’Andrea, at the top of a monumental flight of steps that is the town’s most recognisable image. Around it, the centre keeps the structure of a maritime town, with covered lanes and the harbour a few steps away. It is the easiest of the three to visit for anyone who finds walking difficult, at least in the lower part, and it is also the natural starting point for the sea and road connections to the other towns.
Ravello
The reason to climb up is the gardens hanging over the drop: Villa Rufolo, whose entrance is on Piazza Duomo, and Villa Cimbrone with its panoramic terrace. Ravello has a different rhythm from the towns on the coast, more contained, and it is also the home of a music programme that in season changes visitor numbers noticeably: if your dates coincide with an event, it is worth knowing in advance.
Stopping along the road
Between one town and the next the road passes viewpoints, small places such as Praiano and Atrani and the Furore fjord. They are short stops that change the day, but they have to be agreed beforehand: the points where it is genuinely possible to stop are few and cannot be improvised on a narrow road.
How you actually get around the Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast is one of the places where the mode you choose changes the experience most, and where expectations are most often wrong.
The scheduled buses
Road services between the towns do exist and cover the main routes, including those climbing to Ravello. The timetables change by season and should be checked on the Amalfi Coast timetable page of Sita Sud, making sure the document you are looking at is the one in force for your dates. At the busiest times the buses can be very crowded and become impractical with luggage.
The sea connections
In the right season the boat services between the towns of the coast and towards Salerno and the Sorrento peninsula are often faster than the road, but they depend on sea conditions and run to a seasonal calendar: they are not an alternative available all year round.
The journey from Rome, in practice
By road the route from Rome follows the motorway towards Naples and then turns off onto the Sorrento peninsula or the Salerno side, with the last part along the coast road, which is the slowest of all. Reaching the coast from Rome by train involves a change: you travel to Naples or Salerno and from there you still need a bus or a boat, so at least one change with the luggage. The same reasoning applies to arrivals by air: anyone landing in Rome and continuing south will find the comparison for the first leg in the guide on getting from Fiumicino to Rome, and in the guide on how private hire works the details of how a booked transfer runs over a long route.
Your own car
Driving on the coast road is possible but demands constant attention: the road is narrow, with blind bends and mixed traffic. On top of that comes the difficulty of parking in the towns, where space is limited. In practice, whoever is driving sees far less than the passengers.
The last stretch, the one nobody counts
This is the most important point in the whole guide: arriving by car does not mean arriving at the door. On the Amalfi Coast many properties can only be reached on foot, up flights of steps that can number dozens or hundreds, and the points where a vehicle can stop are limited. Before travelling it is worth asking the property two precise questions: where the vehicle can stop, and how many steps separate that point from the entrance. It is the information that most often goes missing and most often ruins an arrival.