There are direct fast Frecciarossa AV trains departing Florence SMN station at 12:10, 16:10 and 17:10 which take just 3 hours, 49 minutes to reach Salerno. One-way fare in second class is 72 Euros. There is also a slower and cheaper Intercity (IC) train at 14:20 departing from the Florence RIFREDI station, which takes 6 hours, 12 minutes. One-way fare in second class on the IC train is only 45 Euros. Other trains require a change at Napoli Centrale station.

From the Salerno train station, there are hourly SITA buses to Amalfi (75 mins., 3.60 Euros), with onward connections to Positano (45 mins., 2.40 Euros). You can buy a 24-hr and a 3-day bus pass for the Amalfi Coast for 7.20 and 18 Euros, respectively. Other discount passes are also available for the entire Campania region, including Artecard passes covering museums and archeological sites, with and without transportation.

From April through October, there are also ferry boats (Cooperativa Sant'Andrea) from Salerno-Concordia Dock (400 meters from the train station) going to Amalfi (35 mins., 6 Euros) and Positano (70 mins., 10 Euros). These are faster than taking the SITA bus, but much less frequent, and don't operate during the winter months.

www.ferroviedellostato.it (Trenitalia)
www.sitabus.it (see Table XV in the Campania section)
www.coopsantandrea.it (Salerno/Amalfi/Positano ferries)
www.unicocampania.it (Transportation passes)
www.artecard.it (Museum/Archological site passes)

GAC is the expert on Italian trains so he gives good advice. I will add however, that changing in Naples is not a big problem. So if the schedules and costs are better don't hesitate to change.

And from there you can get the local train to Sorrento if you decide to stay there rather than Amalfi. We loved Sorrento and were glad we stayed there and did day trips to Amalfi, Positano, Ravello, and also to Capri. Sorrento is a little larger so more sleeping and eating options, good transportation connections, and is just a lovely laid back town, that while certainly touristy is not so overwhelmingly touristy as Amalfi and Positano are.

Circumvesuviana commuter train between Napoli Centrale and Sorrento: departures every 30 minutes; 65-minute ride to Sorrento; 3.40 Euros one-way.

www.vesuviana.it

The UNICO CAMPANIA 3T tourist ticket (3 days; 20 Euros) is valid on these trains, as well as on all SITA buses along the Amalfi Coast and indeed within the Campania Region. The UNICO CAMPANIA 3T tourist ticket is also valid on all Naples, Sorrento and Salerno city buses, Trenitalia regionale trains within the Campania Region, the Naples funiculars and subway system, the ALIBUS between Naples and the Naples Airport; buses on Ischia (but not on Capri), the CSTP buses between Salerno and Paestum, and more. The pass is NOT valid on any ferries or hydrofoils, however.

If you purchase the UNICO CAMPANIA 3T tourist ticket, you don't need the 3-day UNICO COSTIERA bus pass for the Amalfi Coast, which costs only 2 Euros less, since the former covers everything of the latter, and more.



www.unicocampania.it

We stay in Sorrento too - since we prefer a larger town - and easier access to a lot of sightseeing. (It has train and ferry connections as well as the local bus - although we always rent a car.)

You haven;t said what time of year you will be going which makes a big difference.

Thanks for the great information so far. We are travelling mid May.

Thanks again

Christine

For a contrary opinion, I'd certainly take the ferry from Salerno (only a few hundred yards from the train station) and stay in Positano or Amalfi. We've been to Sorrento twice and it boggled our mind how it was not only given over to tourism (as the AC is too) but full of "full English breakfast" served here signs etc. If you want that great, if you have the idea that eating a delightful Italian style breakfast is what you want (and all the associated differences), try the AC. Huge numbers of cruise ship passengers being disgorged for day trips every day in Sorrento. We far prefer the AC and since you said you are not interested in Pompeii, there's no transportation advantage to Sorrento.

Crowds depend on time of year and mid May is fairly early in the tourist season and shouldn't be uber crowded. In Sorrento we had no trouble finding real Italian food (just avoid the obvious tourist restaurants - and eat the continental breakfast in our hotel).

Sorrento is fairly unusual in this area, with a hotel clientele that's predominantly foreign: in 2008 for instance....

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/130860382

Some like it that way - others may not.

Peter

Interesting statistics Peter. I did note that Positano and Ravello also have many more "foreigners" than Italians listed. I have to say that in 8 days in Sorrento we never noticed signs for "full Eng breakfast" - doesn't mean there weren't any, but it's not like they are all over the place. And while there were cruise ships in Sorrento, there were also in Positano, and since Positano is so much smaller the disgorging of the groups from the ship were much more obvious and overwhelming. We did do day trips every day but two so were not in Sorrento in the mid day most of the time. Perhaps we missed the cruise ship tour groups. In the early mornings and evenings we certainly didn't notice any. We went to Amalfi and Positano (twice), Ravello and Capri and the only place that was uncomfortably crowded was Capri - and only Capri town, not Anacapri. The entire area is tourist based now, no getting away from that, but when some place is that beautiful you are going to get tourists.

Well, I seem to be posting this a lot these days, but our experience last May (2 nights Amalfi, 3 nights Sorrento) leads me to say we much preferred the former to the latter as it felt much more laid-back and non "touristy", since the visitors appeared to be mostly other Italians and not the swarms of Americans and Brits as we experienced in Sorrento. (Sorrento was great as a base for our day trips around the Bay of Naples.) We chose Amalfi over Positano initially because the hotel listings were less expensive, but on any future return it would be our first choice, no question.

Put a different way: It seemed that no matter how "out of the way" we tried to get in Sorrento (with the caveat that we weren't there too long to explore), all we heard being spoken around us was English. In Amalfi, almost all we heard was Italian. As an American not being able to distinguish regional accents, the latter made us feel much more "local"...

Another reason Sorrento is swarmed with Anglophone tourists (apart from the cruise ships - cruise ships do put off passengers in Amalfi and Positano too but in much smaller numbers because the ports don't have the capacity for big liners) is that a HUGE number of big hotels have been built there (which the topography of the AC doesn't allow) and they do a big business with package tour operators (who hardly use Positano and Amalfi because the hotels are much fewer in number and smaller). So it's an amazingly Anglicized version of an Italian resort. Lots and lots of people love that - if that's what you are looking for great. But that's certainly not for everyone and while all the AC also has masses of Anglophone tourists (we were astonished by that the first time we went there), the towns are much less Anglicized than Sorrento is in I think every regard. Plus we like the views better on the AC side

I've encountered more tour groups in Amalfi than in Sorrento. Perhaps they are more noticeable in Amalfi because it's so much smaller and can't absorb them as easily. I'm not sure why it matters about breakfast as most hotels include breakfast and you wouldn't be going somewhere for breakfast.

>>>We far prefer the AC and since you said you are not interested in Pompeii, there's no transportation advantage to Sorrento.<<<

That's not really accurate. Transportation is much easier to reach Capri, Naples, Pompeii, etc. from Sorrento. Sorrento is a transport hub for the area. She didn't say she wasn't interested in seeing Pompeii or Naples, she just said she wasn't interested in staying there.

As for ferries, I don't think you will find as much service in May as in the summer months. Summer schedule is typically mid-June to mid-Sept.

Three days(how many nights?) is really not very long and if that includes travel time from Florence (it will take 4-5 hours to reach Sorrento or Salerno) you won't have much time to sightsee. You need to decide where to stay based on what you plan to see in such a short time. You don't want to spend all of your time there on transport.