Where to Stay on the Amalfi Coast

Positano. The photograph everyone has seen, and the one town here where the thing you came for is visible from the room.

It is also a staircase. The historic centre is closed to cars, the town descends the cliff in tiers, and the connections between those tiers are steps rather than streets. A taxi or bus can bring you to the top or to the road; it cannot bring you to most front doors. That is why the town has a porter trade, and the existence of a porter trade is the most honest description of the terrain anyone can give you.

Plan around it rather than being surprised by it. A room high up buys the view and costs you a climb every time you want dinner or the beach; a room low down is closer to the water and further from the bus. Neither is wrong, but the choice is real, and it is worth more thought than the star rating.

The beach below is Spiaggia Grande. Most beaches on this coast are small and pebbly or shingly rather than broad stretches of soft sand, so bring something to put on your feet.

Choose it for two or three nights on a first trip, when the setting is the reason you are here and the walking is a fair price. Choose against it if anyone in the party has mobility limits, if you are carrying heavy luggage, or if you want a base for a week of day trips — for that, the stairs stop being scenery and become a commute.

Amalfi. The practical answer, and the one most first visits should take.

The town sits in a cleft in the cliffs rather than up their face, which means the centre is broadly flat: a cathedral square, a main street running inland from it, and the waterfront a few minutes away on the level. After Positano that is not a small thing. It is the difference between a town you look at and a town you can use.

Its real advantage is the waterfront. The bus terminal and the ferry piers are on the same square, which makes Amalfi the interchange for the whole coast — you can leave by road or by sea from one spot, and switch to whichever is running. On a coast where the sea cancels boats and the road jams, holding both options is worth more than any view.

What you give up is drama. Amalfi is a handsome town rather than a spectacular one, it takes more day visitors through its centre than Positano does, and the hour either side of the ferry arrivals is the busiest part of its day. It is also the obvious base for Ravello, which is a short bus ride up the valley behind it.

Sorrento. Not on the Amalfi Coast, and still the right choice for a particular kind of trip.

The geography first, because it is the thing people get wrong. Sorrento faces north across the Bay of Naples toward Vesuvius. The Amalfi Coast faces south. Between them is the spine of the peninsula, and getting from one to the other means the coast road over the pass — comfortably the longest daily journey of any base here.

What you get in exchange is a town that works. Sorrento is the terminus of the Circumvesuviana line from Naples, with trains through the day and a journey of a little over an hour, so you can arrive from Rome or Naples by rail and step off in the centre. It is flat, it has more hotels and restaurants than the coastal towns, and it stays open in shoulder season when Positano is shuttered. It is also the natural base for Pompeii, Herculaneum and Capri, which are all closer to it than to Amalfi.

Choose it for a longer stay, an off-season trip, a car-free arrival by train, or a trip where the Amalfi Coast is one thing you are doing rather than the whole point. Choose against it if you have three nights and came for the coast: you will spend a meaningful share of them getting to it and back.

Praiano. Between Positano and Amalfi, on the same road, and markedly quieter than either.

It is a village strung along the cliff rather than a town with a centre, so it is steep in the same way Positano is and has far less at the bottom of the steps. That is the whole trade: you get lower prices, an evening with almost nobody in it, and the same coastline — in return for depending on the bus and for a shorter list of places to eat.

It works well as a second visit, or as a first visit for people who would rather read on a terrace than walk through a town. It is a poor choice for anyone who wants to step out of the door and find something happening.

Salerno. A real city at the eastern end of the coast, on the national rail network, and by some distance the cheapest way to sleep near the Amalfi Coast.

It is not scenic in the way the rest of this page is, and nobody comes here for the setting. What it offers is function: fast trains to Rome and Naples, ferries west along the coast in season, ordinary Italian city prices, and no difficulty at all arriving late or leaving early.

Worth it if the budget is the constraint, if you are arriving or leaving by train at an awkward hour, or if the coast is one stop on a longer Italian trip. Not worth it if you have three days and want to wake up on the coast, because you will be commuting to it every morning.