Positano
A town built on a slope that shouldn't work, and somehow does
- When to go
- September 22° · 9 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€€price 5 of 5
- How many days
- 1–2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 33 km Naples · 36 km Salerno
- Right now
Positano is built on an almost vertical cliff, something that only really registers once you arrive — everything is stairs, there's no flat ground, and a taxi barely fits down streets as wide as the taxi itself. So the first decision is how to arrive: by ferry from April to October, or on the SITA bus from Sorrento all year round.
The place is small — two or three hours is enough to walk from the top down to the beach and back. The only real street is the one that runs down to the sea; everything else is stairs, so you choose where to stay by how many of them stand between you and the beach. The ferry takes about 40 minutes from Sorrento, about twenty minutes from Amalfi and an hour and a quarter from Salerno; the pier is small and closes in rough seas, which is why there are no ferries in winter. A seasonal direct ferry from Naples (roughly April–October) takes just over an hour.
The SITA bus from Sorrento runs all year, with queues from May to October; a day ticket for every line along the coast costs €10, sold at tobacconists or the kiosk outside Sorrento station before you board. Stay the night and you get the sunset without the day-trip groups, and dinner at a restaurant reachable only on foot, because there's no other way to get there.
Guides for Positano
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Positano in 2 days
→The first day runs down the one real street to the sea, the second goes up by bus and back down a trail of 1,700 steps.
Where to stay in Positano
→In Positano accommodation is chosen by height up the slope — a room near the pier is pricier and closer to the sea, a…
The best time to visit Positano
→The ferries run only half the year, and the town is calmest right at the edges of that season — May and September.
Beaches in Positano
→All four of Positano's beaches are sand and pebble squeezed beneath the cliff — what differs is how far down each one…
What to see in Positano
Spiaggia Grande
The main beach, right below the centre, with colourful umbrellas and a view of the Santa Maria Assunta dome. It's crowded in summer, but still the easiest way into the water.
free (public part) · sunbeds €35–60
The Path of the Gods (Sentiero degli Dei)
Waymarked trail no. 02 from Bomerano, a hamlet of Agerola, to Nocelle above Positano; the Monti Lattari park reckons 4 h to Positano, the last of them a descent of some 1,700 steps. Walk it in this direction, since it's mostly downhill that way; a SITA bus gets you to Bomerano.
free · 4 h
Fornillo beach
A quieter alternative to Spiaggia Grande, a ten-minute walk along the coast or a short boat ride away — fewer people, the same sea.
free
Santa Maria Assunta church
The majolica dome visible from every corner of town, with a Byzantine icon of the Black Madonna inside. Entry is free.
free
By boat to Amalfi or Capri
Ferries run along the coast from the pier — about twenty minutes to Amalfi, from where Ravello is a bus ride uphill; Capri is a separate, pricier line that takes the whole day.
€10 (Amalfi) · €15 (Sorrento) · closed winter (Dec–Mar), in rough seas
Nocelle
The highest hamlet above Positano, reached by a narrow road and a flight of steps; from up here the view opens onto the whole coastline, not just the village itself. Entry is free with no booking, reached by a small local bus or on foot down the Path of the Gods steps.
free
Two things you probably did not know
There is no flat part of Positano. The one road through it is one-way and drops in switchbacks, and there is some hundred and seventy metres of height between the top and the bottom. Everything else is stairs.
In 1953 John Steinbeck wrote for Harper's Bazaar that Positano is a dream place that is not quite real while you are there and becomes real after you have gone. The piece brought the town its first American visitors.
Ready for Positano?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Positano — day trips or weekends.
Italy
→The cities on the high-speed line are an hour or two apart; the coast, Matera and the Tuscan hills lie off it
France
→From Paris the TGV reaches Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg in about two hours — France is chosen by direction, not by city
Spain
→A country where dinner is at ten and the city wakes up as everywhere else turns the lights off
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
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