Hello,
My hubby and I (early 60s) are planning a trip to visit Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast early May 2023. We love sightseeing, nature, photography, beach, relaxing, and immersing in the culture.
We would love some suggestions of how many days we should spend in Cinque Terre, which village we should stay, and some recommendations in Amalfi Coast, as well.

Right now, we are thinking of 3 days in Cinque Terre and 6 days in Amalfi Coast. We are from East Coast of USA and flying in to Pisa,IT and fly out from Naples,IT.

Thank you in advance.

In case you didn't know... The journey from the CT to the AC will take nearly 9 hours and involve multiple trains and a bus or driver on the last leg. It's quite a trek.

Where will you visit in between your far apart locations?
There are many wonderful places in between those two seaside locations.
Days for Cinque Terre,I recommend a maximum of three.
Are you serious hikers? That is why most visitors go there, to hike between the five tiny nearby villages. Monterosso has a beach. If you stay at Hotel Porto Roca they have a private beach area. You can take a train between villages if you don’t want to hike all of it. Four are on the water while Corniglia is up high.
You can stay more days on the Amalfi Coast.

I'd think Tuscany goes pretty well with the 5 Terre, after all lots of roman/etruscan remains, great marble, food and wine, spas, hiking, cycling and some wonderful views. On the other hand Amalfi in May is one of the best times to fit it in.

We decided to stay in Monterosso and one of the reasons for that decision was that there was an easy walk from our hotel to the train station as we did use the train every day to visit the other villages and to arrive and depart the CT area. We were there in October which meant it wasn't as crowded as during the summer which worked well for us as we aren't really "sit on the beach" travelers. We stayed three nights which felt like a good amount of time and did spend one day doing a hike from one village to another.

We also visited the Amalfi Coast and stayed in Sorrento for two nights and Positano for 2 nights which felt about right to us. We did visit Capri one day and drove from Positano to some of the other villages one day.

In between our stays in these areas, we visited Naples which we also really enjoyed. We had planned to visit Pompeii as a day trip from Naples but I was unwell that day so we nixed that plan.

I hope this info is helpful. Enjoy your planning!

Thank you so much for all your input and advices!

Thanks so much! This is helpful. We do plan to stay in Positano for 2 nights. We have a total of 6 nights in Amalfi Coast and not sure should we stay in Sorrento 2 nights or Capri 2 nights and should we stay in Naples or not? We will fly out of Naples. How far from Sorento to Naples?

Thank you.

Sorrento versus Capri versus Naples...

It all depends on your sightseeing plans and priorities. For me, back-to-back-to-back 2-night stays aren't appealing, and my interests are slightly more in the area of history/archeology/art than beach/relaxing/photography. So, no advice from me on how to divide the nights/days.

FYI, authorities have recently enacted a traffic control plan for the AC road in hopes of reducing the number of vehicles. It's not known yet how this will affect tourists' ability/ease in getting around, availability of taxis, private drivers, etc. Buses and ferries could be even more crowded, but at least you can buy tickets online for ferries. The situation should be clearer at the end of summer, and hopefully Fodorites will report on their experiences on the AC or you can start a thread in September and ask for comments.

If your departing flight from Naples is in the morning, you'll want/need to spend the last night in Sorrento or Naples. (Sorrento to Naples Airport could take 90 minutes by taxi, depending on time of day.) If it's an early-early departure, I'd rather stay the last night in Naples. If you decide to stay on Capri, don't put it last in the unlikely but always possible chance that ferry service will be temporarily suspended due to weather conditions.

I think the train from Sorrento to the Naples airport takes a bit longer: https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Sorrento/Naples-Airport-NAP.

We really enjoyed Naples but, similarly to Jean, we are more interested in history, art and architecture than beaches, shopping and relaxing. I know some people are put off by Naples as it is a bit "rough around the edges" but we had a great time.

Just to clarify... There is no train service to NAP. The last leg of the journey from Sorrento to the Naples Airport is by bus from the Napoli Centrale train station. It takes about 15 minutes.

https://www.anm.it/images/stories/st..._aero_5_22.pdf

Thank you Jean for your advice! As of right now, ;in Amalfi Coast: we plan to stay 2 nights in Poisitano, 2 nights in Capri and 2 nights in Naples - then fly out from there. Yes, we are more into relaxing, sightseeing than history.

Thank you KT. Yes, from what we read, we would rather stay and visit Naples than Sorrento - since that is close to Poisitano and Capri. And you confirm that Naples is worth visiting!