The Amalfi Coast by bus or by ferry: Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Salerno

On the Amalfi Coast the bus and the ferry take turns: the ferry is quicker and prettier when the sea is calm, while the bus is cheap, runs when the ferries do not and is the only one of the two that reaches Ravello. Between Amalfi and Positano allow about 45–50 min (bus), while the ferry takes about twenty minutes.

GuideAmalfi, with its cathedral and the trails above town:Amalfi →

Getting onto the coast: from Naples airport

The coast is entered from one end, and the usual gateway is Naples airport. To Amalfi runs a direct SITA bus, line 5080 (Amalfi–Agerola–Castellammare–Naples): about 2 h 15, fare €10. Positano is reached differently, by Curreri bus to Sorrento, then SITA bus to Positano, about 2 h in all for €15.60. In season there is also a direct ferry from Naples to Positano, just over an hour.

SITA buses run along a single road, the state road SS163, which from Positano towards Amalfi keeps to the cliff above the sea, and the coast has been on the UNESCO list as a cultural landscape since 1997. Anyone sitting on the right of a bus heading from Positano to Amalfi has the sea under the window, because the coast faces south. Fares are paid by zone: Ravello from Amalfi costs €3, Positano €4.80, Salerno €5.60, and the COSTIERASITA day ticket €10, which pays off only when the bus is ridden several times in a day.

When to goWhen the coast bus is most bearable, and when it is standing room:The best time to visit Positano →

From the water you see what the road hides: the towns were built to face the sea. Amalfi was a maritime republic from the ninth to the twelfth century, and Positano reads from a boat as a cascade of pastel houses down the slope, with the dome of Santa Maria Assunta covered in majolica. Ferries link Salerno, Amalfi and Positano, but they do not always sail: winter (Dec–Mar), in rough seas; the return by ferry should therefore not be the only plan, and the bus stays as the fallback.

BeachesPositano from the water, and the beaches reached on foot:Beaches in Positano →

Ravello sits on a hill more than three hundred metres above the sea, so no ferry goes there and the way is uphill by bus, about 25–30 min from Amalfi; allow half a day. Up there are the Villa Rufolo, in whose garden Wagner found the model for Klingsor's garden in Parsifal in 1880, and the Villa Cimbrone, with a terrace called the Terrace of Infinity that looks straight out to sea.

Salerno is at the other end of the coast, about 1 h 15 from Amalfi by bus, so allow a full day. The cathedral holds the tomb of Pope Gregory VII, and the city is on the fast-train line, so it can also be reached by rail and left by ferry to Positano in an hour and a quarter. That is the alternative to the Naples gateway for anyone arriving from the direction of Rome.

Day tripsRavello, Positano and Salerno from Amalfi, with times and fares:Day trips from Amalfi →

For most plans a mix works best: the bus for Ravello and Salerno, the ferry between Salerno, Amalfi and Positano when the sea is calm, and the bus back.

When to goWhen the ferries sail, and when the bus is the only choice:The best time to visit Amalfi →