Joy2

Hi, I am travelling by train to Naples and hope you can help me. I will need transportation to Sorrento. I'm not sure if I should hire a driver or take a taxi.

Also does anyone have knowledge on train service from Tropea Calabria to Sorrento?

Thank you for your help. I have learned so much from Fodor's Forum!

Best to All!

judyjayp

I'll be doing this in June and I found the best pricing from www.airports-shuttle.com They quoted me a price of 100 Euro for 2 people one way and 145 Euro round trip. It's about a 1 hour and 15 minute drive from the airport to Sorrento.

dwdvagamundo

You can also take the train (circumvesuviana), which may be better as you're arriving by train. Certainly cheaper and faster as traffic around Naples is horrible

Check trenitalia for trains from Tropea Calabria. I personnally know of none.

kybourbon

>>>judyjayp on Mar 4, 13 at 3:51pm
I'll be doing this in June and I found the best pricing from www.airports-shuttle.com They quoted me a price of 100 Euro for 2 people one way and 145 Euro round trip. It's about a 1 hour and 15 minute drive from the airport to Sorrento.<<<

From the airport, there is the Curreri shuttle bus to Sorrento - 10€ per person.

>>>Hi, I am travelling by train to Naples and hope you can help me. I will need transportation to Sorrento. I'm not sure if I should hire a driver or take a taxi.<<<

From the train station, the local commuter train (Circumvesuviana mentioned above) is about 4€ and takes 75 minutes from Naples to Sorrento. You catch it downstairs in the train station.

From Tropea to Naples, you would have to change trains (probably in Lamezia Terme) with travel time of 4-5 hours.

Joy2

Thank you so much for the helpful advice. Very much needed and apreciated!

Corrinel

Hope this advice works out for you - I'm glad I read the responses & will be daking the Circumvesuviana from Naples to Sorrento in September based on the advice above.

A_Brit_In_Ischia

When coming up from Tropea, there's also the option of getting off the train in Salerno - half an hour or more before it arrives at Napoli Centrale...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/132567370

... with then a variety of ways one can continue on to Sorrento:

- buses; fairly slow, with an enforced change in Amalfi - but costing only €7.20, which you'll perhaps have saved on the rail fare!

http://www.unicocampania.it/index.ph...anner=costiera

- a taxi or private driver; rather dear (especially if for only one passenger) although good for having a look at places along the way. Others are available, but this firm seems alone in publishing a tariff list - which may be open to negotiation?

http://www.amalfi-drive.com/fares.html

- during their "season", various combinations of boats (with or without using a bus as well - though nothing 'direct' by sea last year) if you prefer instead to have views of the Coast from the water... with those more dependent on quite what time of day, and of year, you'd be travelling?

Peter

PS... if using the CV trains to Pompei and Sorrento etc, try:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-or-pompei.cfm

... and this perhaps for recently changed arrangements at the airport, re the Curreri Viaggi buses and city Alibus:
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/alibus

polly229

No one has mentioned Naples to Sorrento by boat. Since we have 2 nights in Naples in a hotel near the dock before we go to Sorrento and there have been various horror stories in other threads about luggage theft on Italian trains, including the Circumvesuviana, I thought we might use the hydrofoil or ferry.

Then the other day I read that in April the weather is iffy for sea travel and boats are often cancelled. Furthermore, I haven't been able to come up with a timetable for the Metro de Mare for this year. (Haven't checked for hydrofoils since I'm sometimes prone to mal de mer, although we took a hydrofoil from Santorini to Crete several years ago in May and I had no problem.)

Can anyone advise me about the odds of boats even running in April or how to find a Metro de Mare schedule? (In English.)

ekc

Highly doubtful that Metro del Mare will be running in April. Last year they either didn't run at all or didn't start running until July.

kybourbon

>>>there have been various horror stories in other threads about luggage theft on Italian trains, including the Circumvesuviana,<<<

I haven't seen any horror stories about luggage theft on these trains. I've taken my luggage on this train (and dozens of other Italian trains) multiple times (often traveling alone) with no problem. I would be more wary in the train station with the helpful luggage handlers (not employees!)that demand tips from tourists.

The hydrofoils will be running to Sorrento, but if you are arriving the train station, then you have to take transport from the train station to the port to catch it. They don't run anywhere near as often as trains so you might have to hang out at the port awhile. They don't run late either.
http://www.alilauro.it/orari-e-tariffe

PalenQ

From the train station, the local commuter train (Circumvesuviana mentioned above) is about 4€ and takes 75 minutes from Naples to Sorrento. You catch it downstairs in the train station.>

Yes but it can be confusing if you look at the names of the train stations - Trenitalia (Italian State Railways) trains serve either Naples Centrale or Naples Pza Garibaldi, two adjoining train stations but the CircumVesuviana trains leave from a separate but nearby train station - separate from the two mainline train stations - there is an underground walkway that connects the mainline stations to the CircumVesuviana station but CircumVesuviana trains do not leave from downstairs in the Naples mainline train station - it is in fact about a 5-minute walk - with bags that is much more than just going downstairs - that is the point.

Corrinel

wow, good to know, thank you - that is not 'just downstairs'. I'll take the information from the post 4 up 'PS... if using the CV trains to Pompei and Sorrento etc, try:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-or-pompei.cfm' as it looks like it provides exact directions.

PalenQ

I've done it many times and I can see where a casual observer would say it's just downstairs - but just downstairs I believe from Naples Centrale is Naples Pza Garibaldi if I recall rightr.

But I've done the link between Centrale and the CircumVesuviana and it's a small poke and I am not even sure you can take luggage carts between the two - not saying you can't but maybe not - Circumvesuiva is like a metro or commuter train - you have to also buy your ticket once at that station as Trenitalia to my lastest info will not sell a thru say Rome to Sorrento ticket as Circumvesuviana is not part of Trenitalia but yes just a local commuter railway.

I'm not saying the connection is that long or tough but not just going down some stairs - unless in the last two years somehow Circumvesuviana trains now come into Naples Centrale - I guess that could be but doubt it.

polly229

Thanks, kybourbon, for the boat info. We'll be staying at a hotel in Naples that is a short walk to the port but a much longer distance to the train station, I believe. We'll just hope the weather cooperates the day we need to go and I'll take a dramamine. Also want to go to Capri one day, which will also require hydrofoil, but it sounds like maybe my idea of taking a SITA bus down the coast and boat back may not work. The ferry info in guidebooks seems to an afterthought to the more extensive info on the hydrofoils and I never saw anything about it not running in shoulder seasons. (In fact, figuring out exactly when the shoulder seasons are can be challenging - sometimes museum/ruins and transportation are different. We had to make some island-hopping adjustments from Rhodes several years ago due to a vague "mid-May" ferry schedule which turned out to be a couple of days later than the mid-May we needed it.)

CircumVesuviana info is also useful since we will be using that for day trips both from Naples and Sorrento.

Shortly after I booked the airline tickets last fall there were two discomforting threads about ATM skimming in Italy and luggage or contents stolen on trains. Not sure if the luggage one was a digression of another thread or not and don't have time to hunt it down. The Circumvesuviana comments were more about pick-pocketing than luggage perhaps. DH and I have traveled in Europe from two to four times a year between 1998 and 2010, also Egypt, Peru, Ecuador in that time period, and never had any sort of problem, so we assume this trip will be as uneventful in the crime department. But it never hurts to pay attention to other people's misfortunes and keep your eyes open. (Particularly regarding the skimming, which has been happening frequently recently at ATMs in the grocery chain where we shop and occasionally use the ATMs. Well, where we still shop but have stopped using the ATMs to avoid having our bank account cleaned out so we can't afford go to Italy. )

kybourbon

>>>wow, good to know, thank you - that is not 'just downstairs'. <<<

It is "just downstairs". You do not go outside of the train station. It's all one building. You simply take the escalator down a level, walk down a hallway.

kybourbon

>>The ferry info in guidebooks seems to an afterthought to the more extensive info on the hydrofoils and I never saw anything about it not running in shoulder seasons.<<<

The hydrofoils only put in at Naples/Capri/Sorrento/Salerno. The other towns are serviced by ferries in season mostly. In the past, Metro del Mare started late spring or early summer and cut service about 9/15. Budget cutbacks have resulted in less service the last couple of years. Even if they run full schedule, they are still nowhere near as frequent as buses or trains (every 30 minutes). You may have several hours between options and the last ferry/hydrofoil (even in season) won't be much later than 7 or 8 pm.

>>>I'm not saying the connection is that long or tough but not just going down some stairs - unless in the last two years somehow Circumvesuviana trains now come into Naples Centrale - I guess that could be but doubt it.<<

Yes a major remodel in the last couple of years of the station with escalators.

You can click through Brit's pics from the escalator to the platforms.
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/123069561
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/128343808
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/125760466
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/131658260
Even some new trains although there are still quite a few old ones.
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/125740296

<<<The Circumvesuviana comments were more about pick-pocketing than luggage perhaps.<<<

I've never seen any problems, but a person at my hotel last trip had been pick-pocketed in the Naples station. There will be some beggars hop on the Circumvesuviana at a stop (between Ercolano or Pompeii and Sorrento). They will play music and pass a hat. They only stay on a couple of stops as they try to avoid getting caught and they want to work the stops with the most tourists. Keep an eye on your belongings in the train station and your luggage on the Circumvesuviana, but mostly it's tourists, people going home from work or kids going to their after school sports.

kybourbon

Here's the website for the train station. If you click on the station map, the platform level is the Trenitalia level/main/ground level with trains arriving from Rome and elsewhere. The underground level is the Circumvesuviana level.

http://www.napolicentrale.it/en/home#

A_Brit_In_Ischia

For Naples/Sorrento, Sorrento/Capri and Naples/Capri, it's not the Metro del Mare that you want - but our area's regular year-round services

For details of BOTH the hydrofoil operators on the Naples/Sorrento run, try the latter part of reply #6, here....

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop....html#47803423

Occasionally the weather causes a problem, as it does for us here on Ischia - however, between them, those two companies will be scheduling 6 daily trips in each direction in April... and I'll guess at 90+ % of them running!

For ferries to Capri - proper ships, as against hydrofoils - there's only the Caremar line, with some 4 or 5 a day from Naples, and about the same from Sorrento.

See: http://www.caremar.it/

... and these, for what vessel's what!

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/caremar

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::

I really had hoped members might be gracious enough to observe the request which appears below each of the images I'm paying to host online:

"If not otherwise attributed © Peter Bardwell - All Rights Reserved: please do NOT link any of these pictures to other websites!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::

And maybe we can also clarify this....

Within the main station complex in Naples there's a total of THREE levels:

- the groundfloor is "Napoli Centrale" with platforms used both by Trenitalia and a regional company or two (who serve places few tourists bother with!)

- the TWO lower levels comprise "Napoli Piazza Garibaldi"; go down to the first for local Metropolitana services (some of them operated by Trenitalia, p.p. the Campania authorities!), with the deepest of all being where you'd find the Circumvesuviana, whose narrower tracks can't be linked to other networks!

OK?

Peter