What would be the best way to get from Tuscany to Praiano?
 

In June i'm taking my family of nine to Italy. It's a big birthday for me and I want to share my favorite spots with my married children and grade school aged grandchildren. We will be staying in Tuscany near Sinalunga for a week. Then we will spend four nights in Praiano on the Amalfi coast. We will have two rental cars while we are in Tuscany, but my question is what would be the best way to get to the Amalfi coast. My granddaughters would love to see Pompeii along the way and I don't think we will want cars while on the Amalfi coast. At the end of the trip we will need to get to Rome for our flights back to the US.
One thought I had was to drive to Pompei then return the rental cars in Naples and hire a driver to Praiano and another to get us back to the airport in Rome. Ideas, please.

You don't want to leave luggage unattended in the car at Pompeii. Taking the train is faster than driving. I would drop the cars in Florence, then train from Florence to Naples and on to Pompeii. Then pre-arrange for drivers to take you to Praiano.

To get to Rome, take the small (non-SITA) bus to Positano, then take the ferry to Salerno to catch the train to Rome. Since there are 9 of you plus luggage you would need 2 drivers which would be close to 1000 euros.

You'd be better off dropping an Avis/Budget rental at the Arezzo train station as opposed to the big complex near the Florence airport.

I don't know, taking nine people plus luggage on the Circumvesuviana train doesn't sound like a great idea to me. There was a special express train for tourists called the Campania Express, but it seems to have gone belly up.

If you have two fairly roomy midsize cars, and if you lay down the law about luggage size, you may be able to hide all the luggage in the trunk. I rented a car in Dublin last summer for five people, and told all passengers that they couldn't bring any luggage bigger than a carryon and a personal item they could hold on their knees. In reality, we easily fit the five suitcases and the five personal items in the trunk, and even had room for groceries.

Thinking this out, I want to modify what I said above.

The drive from Sinalunga to Pompeii would take about four hours, and then you'd have to go back to Naples, turn in the car, and get a driver to Praiano. You really aren't going to have time to visit Pompeii. The trip back to Rome would be a little shorter, but you still would have only a very rushed visit. I would consider four hours to be a very short visit to Pompeii.

You could conceivably make a day trip to Pompeii while you're in Praiano, but that's no piece of cake either.

I was in Pompeii this past September, my fourth trip there, but the first return visit in about ten years. It was insanely crowded compared to my earlier visits. There were queues of people waiting to get into certain streets (especially the one leading to the brothel, which seems to be the main thing most people want to see).

Thanks so much for your ideas. It all seems complicated. My granddaughters really want to see Pompeii. And I thought that the ViaMichelin website said it would be about 2 1/2 hours to Pompeii. I also read somewhere I might be able to drop off a rental car in Positano and then just get two cabs to our house in Praiano.

I'm going to continue looking at this and would appreciate any other thoughts you might have.

There is no car rental in Positano. The closest would be Sorrento.

It is complicated, especially with so many people. All due respect to bv, but I really doubt the luggage for 9 people would ever fit in the trunk of 2 cars.

EKC, when I put in drop off at Positano in Europcar's website they quoted me a price.

EKC, I stand corrected. Even though the website gave me a price for Positano, upon closer inspection it appears the drop off is somewhere nearby ????
Might it be better for us to drive on to Salerno after seeing Pompeii and get a driver from there to Praiano?

I would not leave my luggage in a rental car at Pompeii, even in a locked trunk.

I agree with socal.

OK, rethinking this, I would drop the car in Arezzo (based on the advice of RonZ above, and take the train to Salerno and have a driver (or 2) take you to Praiano.

Then see Pompeii on your way to Rome. Have the drivers take you to Pompeii, tour for a couple of hours (with the driver staying with the luggage) and then have the driver take you to the Naples train station where you can catch the 70-minute train to Rome.