14 day itinerary help in Italy: Amalfi Coast
 

Dear Fodorites,

DH and I are looking forward to our third trip to Europe. We've been to London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, and Cinque Terre on past summer trips. This time we're flying to Paris in early September for 14 days. We'd liked to do a mix of big city and small oceanside towns. We're looking for ocean views, hills, food, picnics, easy to moderate hikes, history, and architecture. We're budget minded, travel light, and rely on public transportation.

I've done some research this weekend on Fodors and came up with the following draft itineraries (open for your feedback). I especially need your input on getting to Italy from Paris and some logistics for the rest of the trip. We’re concentrating on the Amalfi Coast for this trip. Do you have recommendations for must-sees in the region?

Option 1:

Day 1: Arrive in Paris CDG around 8 am (flight booked). Air France bus transfer to Paris Orly for a noon flight to Naples on Easy Jet. This leg is not booked yet. This day will be arduous as after we get to Naples airport, we'll hop on a Curreri bus to Sorrento. This means we won't get to our final destination until 5 pm if everything goes as planned.

Assuming our flight from the US to CDG is ontime, is 4 hours sufficient for the CDG to Orly transfer?
Am I trying to do too much on the first day? Should we consider a night or two in Paris before flying to Naples?
Easy Jet shows 230 euros Orly to Naples round trip for two people. Is this a good deal? How soon should I book this? Can I wait until May/June/July?

Day 2,3,4: Stay in Sorrento with daytrips to Pompeii and Capri
Day 5,6,7,8,9: Stay in Positano with daytrips to Amalfi, Ravello, Salerno, Paestum
Day 10: Back to Sorrento for one night before heading to Naples airport. Should we stay in Naples instead or find a way to go to Naples airport directly from Positano?
Day 11,12,13: Stay in Paris
Day 14: Fly home

Option 2:

Day 1: Stay overnight in Paris
Day 2: Paris Orly to Naples to Sorrrento
Day 3,4: Sorrento - Pompeii and Capri daytrips
Day 5,6,7,8,9: Positano - Amalfi, Ravello, Salerno, Paestum daytrips
Day 10: Back to Sorrento for one night before heading to Naples airport. Should we stay in Naples instead or find a way to go to Naples airport directly from Positano?
Day 11,12,13: Paris
Day 14: Fly home

Thank you!

I'm going to let others advise you on flight logistics, but I would like to make some observations:

If archeticture is important to you, consider devoting more time to Napoli itself. If what you've read about the city turns you off -- don't force yourself. But be aware that exploring Napoli can be tremendously rewarding and not dangerous (if chaotic).

My personal preference would be to use Amalfi as one of your bases, instead of Positano -- but these are very subjective calls.

For me, understanding the allure of the Amalfi has a lot to do with finding a magical, hidden-away spot over the brilliantly blue sea, and fogetting about everything else. Thus I also recommend you consider finding such a hideway for part of your trip and just enjoying it.

In early September, I would expect the ruins of Campania to be quite, quite hot. Plan accordingly, brining plenty of water and even little umbrellas to ward against that fierce sun.

I love getting advice like this -- thank you!

I wonder what you all think about the travel plans?

I would fly to Naples (or at least Rome), tour the area (Sorrent/Amalfi/Positano) and then fly to Paris. Why all the backtracking by flying in and out of Paris. It doesn't make sense.

Look at some of Ira's threads. I think he is always spot on with his recs for the AC. He usually says to start by training from Naples to Salerno and take a ferry to Amalfi or Positano

Whatever, I did, I would not spend the first night in Paris. Too much time spend getting back and forth and you would eat up more travel time the next day getting to Sorrento.

I think I am one of those rare Naples fans, so I will throw out another idea. With that much time on the AC, and given your interest in architecture, I might go ahead with the plan to go directly from Paris to Naples, but stay the first night in Naples rather than going straight to Sorrento. You will get to Naples early enough for a walk and nice, relaxing dinner that first day.

You will then be rested and could stop at Pompeii on your way to Sorrento the next day by train. If you didn't want to stop by Pompeii that day, you could take a ferry from Naples to Sorrento, but would have to take a taxi from the port in Sorrento to your hotel. You will have lots of time on ferries anyway, but it is a lovely way to arrive. You could also take the train and start in Salerno.

If your departing flight is early, I would definitely spend the last night in Naples. Why transfer to Sorrento, only to transfer to Naples the next morning? Get back into Naples early enough for some sight seeing.

Another interesting site to visit for history and architecture is Herculaneum. Is it very different and better preserved than Pompeii.

What a great trip you will have!

Hi JJ - If you choose to stay in Sorrento, there is a direct Airport Shuttle Bus to Naples (Capodichino) airport:

Deps. Sorrento -

06.30 - 08.30 - 10.30 - 12.00 - 14.00 - 16.30
(- operator: Curreri)


There is no service, however, from Positano to Capodichino - so from Positano you'd have to book a limo/taxi transfer (- expect to pay € 100 approx).

The following limo companies have been recommended here:

www.positanocarservice.com
www.flaviogioia.com
www.limocarservice.net
www.benvenutolimos.com

Hope this helps ...

Steve

You propose

Day 2,3,4: Stay in Sorrento with daytrips to Pompeii and Capri
Day 5,6,7,8,9: Stay in Positano with daytrips to Amalfi, Ravello, Salerno, Paestum
Day 10: Back to Sorrento for one night before heading to Naples airport.

I wouldn't recommend any of these choices. Sorrento (apart from not being on the Amalfi Coast) is a very popular British resort and is like Blackpool comapred to the rest of the region. Capri is much nicer when you stay overnight, ideally for a few days - you are quite likely to dislike it if you visit it as a daytrip. Positano is not the best base for visiting the other places you mention - Amalfi is much better for transport connections and I actually prefer it to Positano - it's more of a real place, not just a tourist resort. Salerno is nothing special IMO. Naples has a lot of great sights in its own right. I'm not quite clear what you mean by days (nights ?) but I'd suggest something like

Day 2,3,4 : Stay in Capri
Day 5,6,7: Stay in Amalfi with daytrips to Positano, Ravello and Paestum (although the last is a bit far)
Days 8,9,10: Stay in Naples with trip to Pompeii

Personally this is too many daytrips for my liking (I like to spend a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying where I'm staying, especially in one of the most beautiful parts of the world); but if you want to see all of these places in this timeframe, fair enough.

JJ,

I second caroline's plan. I share many of her opinions. Sorrento - too touristy. Positano - very resorty, but beautiful. Do not do Capri as a day trip, ugh. Stay at least 2 nights. Another Naples fan here, stay at least 2 nights.

Paestum is a bit of a trip, but so worth it!

Buon viaggio!

Thanks for all the responses!

I've been reading about Naples and was a bit intimidated by descriptions of crime and chaos. However, since many of you like and recommend Naples I'll do some more research for a place to stay. It does make sense given the travel plans. I'll also research places to stay in Capri, as it sounds wonderful.

As for backtracking to Paris, we found great fares to Paris that we just couldn't pass up. Our original plan was to spend our entire vacation in France (Provence and Cote d'Azur) but our love affair for Italy won. :-)

We stayed in Naples for a week and found it so interesting we've still never made it to Pompeii (after 7 trips to Campania now) ! We plan to return there at a cooler time of year so as to see Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Phlegrean Fields, but I'd go back to Naples any time.

After all the stories you hear I was concerned about booking a hotel in a safe area, while wanting to be able easily to walk to most of the sights. So I did a lot of research including buying a large scale street map. I mapped all the hotels I looked up on Tripadvisor, Venere etc on to the street map.

Basically the area to avoid is the eastern end of the historic centre (centro storico) around Piazza Garibaldi and the main railway station.

We were very happy with our choice of the Hotel Executive which was at the south-western edge of the historic centre, near the ferry port. It's only a 2-3 star but it suited us fine and we'd stay there again. My Tripadvisor review - http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._Campania.html

The location was just right - as well as being able to walk around the historic centre it was handy for the following reasons.

1. It's just round a corner from a street where many buses stop, so easy to get to places outside the centre like Capodimonte, the Catacombs of San Gennaro (my favourite sight) and Mergellina - 2 minute walk.

2. It's near the ferry port for the hydrofoils to Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Capri and Ischia (we were going on to Ischia after Naples) - 10 minute walk.

3. It's easy to get to by public transport from the airport. The express bus only has 2 stops, one for the railway station and one for the port. The stop for the port is a 5 minute walk away from the hotel.

4. It's near the San Carlo opera house.

Even if you don't fancy the same hotel, I highly recommend staying around that area, i.e. on the south-western edge of the historic centre.

Many people like Chiaia but to me it's too far out. I also wouldn't like the area of Santa Lucia where the really posh hotels are, as there's not much else round there and it's not so convenient for the historic centre.

I can add that we never felt unsafe, and we did eat out in the historic centre every night. You just need to take the usual big city precautions, as you would in New York City or London.