First of all, Vitto and I only travelled to Amalfi on the last days of our trip which was a bit of a «mistake» in itself. Looking back, we shouldn't have visited Amalfi last because travelling back to Montreal from Amalfi is quite a treck. If you're visiting other cities in Italy, I would recommend going to Amalfi before going to Rome and leaving Rome last because it's much more central and easier to travel to-and-from.
Getting there:
We booked a train via ItaliaRail from Rome Termini station to Salerno, which is the closest train station to the Amalfi Coast. Booking trains online is super easy and legit. There's a lot of departure times which makes it easier to plan your travels. All you have to do is hop on the train and show your tickets to the train attendant once seated. Trains in Europe are super organized and are rarely late or delayed. The doors usually close 1 minute prior to the departure time. Depending on which train you book and the time of departure, the travelling times can vary from 1h30 to 3h of train from Rome to Salerno.
We booked one of the earlier trains in the morning at 8:40AM and arrived around 10:05AM in Salerno. We then took the 11AM public bus that goes along the coast to the different villages of the Amalfi Coast. There's a few coffee shops by the Salerno train station so you can easily kill time there waiting for the bus (they only come every hour).
There's 3 ways to get to the villages along the Amalfi coast: bus, taxi or ferry. The ferries pass at specific times of the day so it didn't work out for us to take it, but I would totally recommend it over the bus if it works with your travelling schedule. It's alot more spacious and way less sketchy than the bus. You can buy ferry tickets the day of, at the ticket office that should be by the port. The taxis cost about 50-60 euros to travel from Salerno to Amalfi because it's about a 45 minutes ride. Personally, if we had to do it again, we would 100% take the ferry or the taxi. The bus is doable, but I don't recommend it. It's very tight (there was alot of people already on the bus, and a lot of people getting on from Salerno) so you most likely will have to stand the whole ride. There also aren't any signs for the bus stops so you either have to constantly check your Google Maps or ask the bus driver when to get off. It's also not travel friendly if you have a lot of luggages. If you decide to travel by bus, you can buy the bus ticket inside Salerno station the day of (it's in this little boutique that looks like a depanneur)
Where we stayed:
We stayed in Maiori, about 3 villages away from Amalfi itself. It's a smaller village, but very nice and quaint. It also has the longest beach of over 1km than any of the other villages on the coast. If you're into chilling by the beach, Maiori is a great place to stay. Another reason why we chose to stay in Maiori is because it's cheaper and it's also on the same level as the sea. A lot of other villages are built on montains and hills so it's not as convenient as Maiori.
How to get Amalfi and Positano:
From Maiori, you can either take the boat ferry or the bus to both villages. Miaori is a 30 minutes ferry ride to Amalfi and another 30 minutes from Amalfi to Positano (you have to switch ferries). The ferry gives you an amazing view of the other villages as you pass by them. You can get the tickets directly from the port and they leave about every hour as well. The only downside to ferries is that they stop running quite early (around 6-7pm for some directions). Once again, you can take the bus, but it wasn't our favorite means of transportation.
We personally found that doing day-trips to Amalfi and Positano were enough for us. We didn't find the need to stay in Positano or Amalfi as they're insanely expensive to stay at. Positano was my favorite village, it's the biggest and most touristic one of them all but definitely worth visiting! You can get a really nice spot on the beach as long as you get there before 12pm (aka super easy to get IG worthy pictures)! Renting a chair and umbrella on Positano beach was about 25£ each for the day. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on the beach; we personally stayed about half the day there and then visited the rest of the village until dinner time.
Hope this helps you figure out your way to the Amalfi Coast!
With love,
Katie xx
Hope this helps you figure out your way to the Amalfi Coast!
With love,
Katie xx
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