We will have one full day in Pompeii and one in Herculaneum and one on the Amalfi coast. We are scheduled to stay in Pompeii for convenience, but none of the guide books mention this. Our reservation is at Hotel Amieto. Ant thoughts on this?

Dullsville. Stay in Sorrento, or better yet, Naples.

I agree--not a good place to stay.
Pick Sorrento.

Another vote for Sorrento...

Sorrento. Amalfi coast deserves more days. Ischia was a pleasant surprise.

Stay in Sorrento. It is an easy trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum and much easier to get to the Amalfi Coast. We found it to be a very pleasant place to be in the evening with lots of good restaurants.

Just in case you don't have enough already - one more vote for Sorrento.

We stayed in Pompeii...so I vote for Sorrento also! Not horrible, but not great either. We had a car so we could escape, I mean day trip, whenever we wanted to.

Sorrento is a charming town with lot of restaurants and good ferry service to Capri and down the Amalfi Coast. There is an way train ride to Pompeii.

As if you need another opinion... Sorrento!

We stayed in Sorrento. And took the train to Pompeii for the day.

And the winner is:

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Sorrento!

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Be sure, sure, sure to visit Oplontis-Villa of Poppea in between Pompeii and Herc. It is included in your ticket and gives a fabulous, decadent, serene experience practically to yourself vs the gritty crush of the main sites. This was the house of one of Neros wives, maybe best done on your herc day which is a smaller site not worth a full day.

How difficult is the drive to Sorrento? Since we will already have a car, we were thinking of driving to Sorrento and leaving the car there while we explore the area via other forms of transportation. I am nervous in the car due to having been hit by 3 large vehicles.

Where will you be driving from on your way to Sorrento?

I drove from Orvieto. After getting out of Orvieto, it is highway driving until you get down past Naples. Then it is a two-lane road (one lane in either direction) along the coast to Sorrento. Not a bad drive at all. After dropping my luggage at my hotel, I returned the car in Sorrento.

We'll be driving from Cinque Terra. I'm relieved to hear that it isn't a bad drive. Thanks for your reply.

Guess I should have mentioned... while it's not a bad drive, it is a long drive, I think it took me at least 5 hours from Orvieto to Sorrento. No stops, one very irritating detour near Naples dues to my GPS (stay left onto the coastal road!!!! She told me to stay right into an extremely congested town... and it was horrible trying to get out of there) And, along the coastal road, I had a car and scooter riding next to each other, holding a conversation until everyone behind me finally beeped their horns. Although very irritating, I was not about to beep my horn!!! ;-)

Well, you have made your decision and no doubt Sorrento will be great, but I just want to let you know there are other views. We stayed in Pompeii at the Forum hotel and loved it. The people at the hotel were wonderful and very professional. We had a Jr. suite overlooking the street that separated the hotel from the excavations, and it had the nicest bathroom of anyplace we stayed. We arrived early in the day and they allowed us to park the car in their secure lot and then we took the train into Naples to the archeology museum. Because Pompeii is halfway between Naples and Sorrento, it was only a one hour trip instead of two. That night, Nov. 1 - was a holiday and they closed off the street to cars. It was full of families strolling and buying food from street vendors. I loved looking out at all of that. It seemed like an authentic Italian town rather than one that just caters to tourists. Because the hotel was immediately across the street from an entrance to the excavations my son did a night time tour of the excavations, which the hotel helped arrange. The next day, we left our car in their lot and toured the ruins all day. It worked out great and we both agreed we would happily go back to the Hotel Forum in Pompeii.

Thanks for another view. At this point we are thinking of 2 nights in Pompeii and 3 in Sorrento, so that we have as much time as possible to see the ruins and possibly the museum in Naples.