magdalen

We're planning a 10 day trip in May and are thinking of staying in Umbria for about 4 days and then going down to the Amalfi coast. Obviously we'll want a car to tour around Umbria, but should we then drive south or perhaps take a train? Will a car just be a liability in the Amalfi area? I hear it's easy and cheap to take buses from town to town.

Sher

We drove from Chianti to the Amalfi coast.
And while the merits of having a car on the coast has been debated here (we did) I want to say that the drive to Naples was very long.
Maybe if we had stopped along the way for a day it might have seemed better but we just wanted to get there.
I personally would take a train instead of that six hour drive.

TuckH

We drove from Montalcino (leaving 9am) to Sorrento (arriving 4pm) with a pleasant lunchtime stop in Tivoli.

I'm a strong advocate of having a car (especially if you already have rented one) on the AC. We explored (nice hikes) many wonderful areas well off the main road where buses do not venture.

tdyls

Getting from Umbria to AC is probably six-of-one, half-a-dozen of the other. By train, you'd most likely take one train from Umbria to Rome (potentially with a first train from {city} to Foligno), then a second train from Rome to Naples with a third train to Sorrento, and then a bus to AC. Alternatively, you might be able to score a Eurostar that goes from Rome to Reggio Calabria and would stop in Salerno. That would eliminate the third train from that sequence.

Driving the whole way would most likely involve taking the SS-3 to Orte to pick up the A-1 Autostrada. From there it's a 3+ hour drive to Naples to pick up the A-3 to either Castellamare or Salerno, and then surface roads from there. So do you want to pay through the nose for gas and tolls and deal with Naples and Salerno traffic, or have a multimodal transportation day involving trains, busses, and potentially ferries/hydrofoils?

nytraveler

In May the Amalfi Coast is not yet that crowded and a car can be very helpful (we always have one). The key is parking. Our hotel in Sorrento provided free parking. You need to make sure your hotel can provide or reserve parking for you - or finding an overnight spot can be very dicey.