Hello! We will be traveling to Rome for 4 days, then to either Positano or Sorrento for 5-6 nights. I haven't been to the Amalfi coast since the 90's and could use some advise. There will be 8 of us, 4 adults, 4 tweens. Looking to either get a villa or hotel in either Sorrento or Positano. Ideally, we would love a great location with a pool and beach access. We are open to either idea. We will be doing day trips from the hotel, so I would love ideas on which town to stay in, day trip ideas and anything else. Thanks! Maria

Sorrento has better, more numerous, and faster connections for most day trips in the region, but is short on pools and beaches. Perhaps you might split the days between the two.

My thought was also to split the days, 3 and 3. Positano has all the atmosphere; Sorrento has most of the convenience.

But Positano isn't entirely inconvenient: there are boats to Amalfi and back, and you could easily combine the day to Amalfi with Ravello.

I'm thinking that even 2 for Sorrento, with easy access to Pompeii and Capri, and 3 for Positano, might have the most impact.

It would help to know what excursions you hope/want to do from either location, how you plan to get around and how much time you expect to spend enjoying the beach and pool or whether the day trips are a higher priority. And I'm sure you recall that sandy beaches are the rarity in this area.

If the stay is more about beach and pool, you wouldn't need (or necessarily want) to be IN either Sorrento and Positano. For example, there is pretty good bus service in the greater Sorrento area. Just know that in high summer getting from place to place by any means takes time. But if your list of excursions is long and geographically spread apart, you may want to stay IN Sorrento or not far from the Positano ferry dock to cut down on travel times.

http://www.sorrentotourism.com/_down...-invernale.pdf
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Yes split time - Sorrento is not one of those dreamy Amalfi towns that offers great seaviews nor great beaches - a pleasant watering hole for day trips to Pompeii, Capri, Ischia but for relaxing take Positano.

How are you traveling from Rome to Amalfi - trains can take you to Sorrento pretty easily but I think there may be direct buses Rome to Positano occasionally or private car transfers. For trains book Rome to Naples ASAP to score discounted train fares at www.trenitalia.com -for great advice on doing just that check www.seat61.com - general train info www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Everyone seems to love Positano - great day trips from there go to nearby Amalfi and Ravello - take a ferry to Sorrento to get to nearby Paestum, an awesome classical ruins. You could also take a train from Rome to Sorrento and go by ferry to Positano.

I would highly recommend staying at Le Sirenuse in Positano. It is a beautiful old hotel with fantastic views of the water, and walkable to everything in Positano. Great restaurant, pool, and spa on site as well.

There are many day trips you can take from this location: Ravello (my favorite; a great walkable city and some beautiful ceramic stores to shop in....check out ceramics at Ceramiche d'Arte Carmela in Ravello and ask for Sonia); Pompeii (about an hour or so away); Isle of Capri (an easy ferry ride of less than 30 min away); Amalfi, and Sorrento.

There are some great hikes in the hills above Positano as well (Path of the Gods).

I've stayed in Sorrento before and definitely prefer Positano.

Positano is the more picturesque hillside town, and it has a beach that might appeal to the kids. Plus, it probably has more villa-style accommodations for rent.

From Positano, you can take a day-trip ferry to Capri or hire your own boat for the trip. One cool way to do that is to hire one of the rubber boats on the beach. They can take you into some of the small grottoes.

Definitely split the time.

I hate to contradict Bob and the others here but with a party of 8, I would definitely NOT split the time. the time taken to move from one place to another or to do anything really seems to increase exponentially with the number of people in a group and with 8 people, getting the show on the road every day is going to be a really hard task.

So I would pick one place with plenty of room, a pool, and good day trip connections, and stay there. with the numbers you've got you can probably afford to hire a private boat for a day and /or a minibus with driver if you want to do a trip by road. Moving accommodation [packing, moving, unpacking, settling in etc, etc.] will just take up too much of your valuable time.

BTW nice to see you here again, Bob. Hope that you're doing ok.

Sorrento is not near Paestum, Salerno maybe?

Sorrento is really great, more shop more services and than if you plan on visiting places like Pompeii or Herculaneum. To visit island of Capri is also easy from Sorrento.

Positano is on the Amalfi Coast, and is a great base fro exploring that. Depends on what you want to do.

From my experience you can decide to stay in Sorrento and from there you can move to Pompeii, Capri, Ischia, Vesuvio and Amalfi coast very easily using a private driver.

To go to Pompeii from Sorrento is very easy by circumvesuviana you can visit their website: http://www.eavsrl.it/web/orario-integrato

To go to Capri from Sorrento is also very easy there are lots of ferry from 7:00am to 7:00pm here you can see prices and ferry time: http://www.gescab.it

Regarding amalfi coast the best way to move is driving at your own renting a car or use a limo car service like this: http://positanolimoservice.com

If you drive, it will not be easy to park. Anyware.

We stayed in Sorrento and were very happy. It has much better transport links for day trips. One thing we noticed (this was years ago but not sure it has changed) that buses along the coast won't stop in Positano to pick up passengers if the bus is full, which it is a lot of the time. It was just sailing past people trying to flag it down. The buses start in Sorrento from near the train station and can get pretty full there.

Day trip ideas from Sorrento are Positano, Amalfi, Ravello (all by bus), Pompeii by train, Capri by ferry.

Kay

Thanks for all of your replies!

We split the time between the two, with another 2 nights in Capri. But we were a group of 4, not 8. For 8, I'd say stay in Sorrento. Not gorgeous, like Positano, but a great base for day tripping!