Visiting the Amalfi Coast: when to go, budget and itinerary

Positano closes the coast to the west: pastel houses in tiers, stepped alleys and Spiaggia Grande at the foot of the village. It is the most expensive and most photographed stop, pleasant for two nights but quickly overrun from June to September. Nearby, Praiano is quieter and better placed for the Path of the Gods, and Marina di Praia keeps its fishing boats. From Positano, boats serve the Li Galli islets and reach Capri in forty minutes. The rest of Campania is then explored from Naples or Salerno.

Amalfi, a former maritime republic, sits at the centre of the coast and acts as the hub of the SITA buses. The Sant'Andrea cathedral rises above the square at the top of its wide staircase; the Cloister of Paradise and the Paper Museum take about an hour. Ten minutes away on foot, along the path around the headland, Atrani stays a genuine fishing village with no luxury shops, gathered around its small square. This is the most practical area to stay without a car: ferries to Salerno and Positano, buses both ways, and a direct link to Ravello.

Three hundred metres above Amalfi, Ravello is reached by a hairpin road or a thirty-minute bus. People come for two hanging gardens: Villa Rufolo, whose terrace hosts the Ravello Festival concerts from July to September, and Villa Cimbrone with its Terrace of Infinity. Higher up, Scala and Pontone open trails into the Valle delle Ferriere, a damp reserve of giant ferns. These villages are markedly less busy than the shoreline and keep their prices reasonable even in August.

The Path of the Gods links Bomerano, a hamlet of Agerola, to Nocelle above Positano: about seven kilometres, three hours of walking, little climbing but little shade. The final descent to Positano adds fifteen hundred steps. Take the early bus to Bomerano and walk west to east, sun behind you. Other trails run from Ravello to the Valle delle Ferriere or from Amalfi to Pogerola. For a comparable network of coastal paths, see the Cinque Terre in Liguria.

The Amalfi Coast lends itself to days spent elsewhere. Capri is reached by ferry from Positano or Amalfi between April and October; allow a full day for the Blue Grotto, Monte Solaro and Anacapri. Pompeii is thirty-five minutes by train from Sorrento on the Circumvesuviana, Herculaneum slightly before. To the south, Paestum and its three Doric temples take half a day from Salerno. Sorrento, off the coast proper, makes an alternative base better connected to Naples and its airport.