The Amalfi Coast
Published 20 September 2026
What to expect, where to sty and how to do it properly
How do you plan a holiday on the Amalfi Coast without ending up stuck in a coach queue on the SS163, ticking off the same three towns as everyone else? The short answer is: treat the coast as one part of a wider Campania itinerary, not the whole of it, and build in the time to move slowly rather than fast.
The coast itself is worth the reputation. Amalfi, Positano and Ravello are strung along one of the most theatrical stretches of coastline in the Mediterranean, and the towns, the light and the food are genuinely as good as advertised. But the road is narrow, the high season is crowded well beyond its capacity, and a week spent only between Positano and Amalfi will show you a fraction of what the region can offer. Done properly, a Campania holiday pairs the coast with the islands of Capri and the far less-visited Ischia, and reaches inland to Paestum, Caserta and the hill villages behind Positano — the parts most visitors skip and most regret skipping.
This guide sets out what the Amalfi Coast is actually like to visit, where the genuine trade-offs lie, and how a well-planned trip differs from the version most people end up having.
What the Amalfi Coast actually is
The Amalfi Coast, or Costiera Amalfitana, is a roughly 50-kilometre stretch of the Sorrentine Peninsula's southern shore in Campania, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 for the way its towns, terraced lemon groves and vineyards have adapted to an extraordinarily steep landscape. Thirteen municipalities sit along it, from Positano in the west to Vietri sul Mare in the east, most of them stacked up cliffsides that drop straight into the sea. A single corniche road, the SS163, links them all — there is no faster route, and no way around the geography.
Amalfi town itself was a maritime power in the early Middle Ages, and its cathedral and old paper mills are worth more attention than the average day-tripper gives them. Ravello sits higher up and further back from the water, which is precisely why it feels calmer than the coast towns below. Positano has been seen as a slightly more artistic, individualistic, chic haven.
What it's actually like to be there
Day to day, life on the coast is organised around the single road and the ferries. Journeys that look short on a map take far longer than expected — Positano to Amalfi is around 30 to 40 minutes by car in good conditions, more than an hour when traffic backs up, which it reliably does from late morning to early evening between May and September. Ferries between the coastal towns and to Capri run in the warmer months and are often quicker and more comfortable than the road, weather permitting.
Most towns are built on steps rather than streets, which is charming and also means genuinely limited luggage-free mobility for anyone with mobility restrictions. Restaurant tables and hotel terraces are the main currency of the place — long lunches, slow views — and that unhurried rhythm is easiest to enjoy once you stop trying to see everything in a day.
The obvious objection: isn't it just crowded and overpriced now?
Yes, in July and August, and increasingly in June and September too. Positano's main beach and pedestrian lanes are uncomfortably full in high summer, day-trip coach traffic clogs the coast road from mid-morning, and prices at the well-known hotels and restaurants reflect the demand. This is a fair objection and Expressions doesn't pretend otherwise.
The honest mitigation is timing and geography rather than avoidance. Late April to early June and late September into October give a similar climate with markedly fewer people and lower rates. Basing a stay in Ravello rather than Positano, or in Sorrento with excursions by boat, removes a good deal of the daytime congestion. None of this eliminates the crowding entirely — the Amalfi Coast in summer is a busy, expensive place, and clients who want solitude should look elsewhere or come well outside the school-holiday window.
How it fits a wider itinerary
The most rewarding trips treat the coast as the centrepiece of a broader Campania visit rather than the entirety of it. South of Salerno, the Greek temples at Paestum — three exceptionally well-preserved Doric temples dating from the sixth and fifth centuries BC, a UNESCO site since 1998 — see a fraction of Pompeii's crowds and reward at least half a day. North of Naples, the Royal Palace of Caserta, an 18th-century Bourbon palace often compared to Versailles, has gardens stretching some three kilometres to a cascading waterfall; it is a long day out from the coast but a striking one, and better paired with a Naples stay than attempted as a coast day trip.
Closer to hand, the Path of the Gods — the cliff-top trail between Bomerano and Nocelle above Positano — is a roughly three-to-four-hour walk of easy-to-moderate difficulty with some exposed sections, not recommended for anyone uneasy with heights. Ravello's Villa Rufolo hosts the town's summer music festival, founded in 1953 after Wagner's 1880 visit inspired the garden scene in Parsifal; its Sunrise Concert, held at dawn each 11 August on the Belvedere terrace, sells out many months ahead and needs booking well in advance. Inland, the wine subzones of Furore, Ravello and Tramonti produce the Costa d'Amalfi DOC on near-vertical terraces — Marisa Cuomo's cellar, cut into the rock at Furore, and Tenuta San Francesco in Tramonti both take visitors by appointment.
Explore Amalfi Coast by train holiday
The islands: Capri and the quieter alternative, Ischia
Capri is the obvious add-on and, for the most part, deserves its reputation for the Blue Grotto, the Faraglioni rock stacks and the chairlift up to Monte Solaro — but it is also the most crowded single destination in the bay, particularly when day-trip boats from Naples and Sorrento arrive mid-morning. Staying overnight, after the last boats leave, is a considerably better version of the same island.
Ischia is larger, volcanic, and far less visited by international tourists despite being roughly the same distance from Naples by ferry — around 50 minutes by fast hydrofoil or up to 90 minutes by standard ferry. It is known for thermal springs rather than boutiques, for Mount Epomeo's summit walk, and for La Mortella, a botanical garden created by the composer William Walton's widow on the island's western coast. Combining a few nights on each island, rather than choosing one, shows the contrast clearly.
Explore Capri and Ischia two-centre holiday
How to do it well versus how most people do it and who suits it
Most people arrive into Naples, take a transfer to a Positano hotel, spend three or four nights doing coast day trips by shared minibus, and leave without having been inland or to Ischia at all. It is a reasonable trip, but not the coast at its best.
A better-planned version uses a private driver rather than shared transport, which matters more here than almost anywhere in Italy given how unpredictable the SS163 traffic is — a driver who knows to leave for Ravello at 7am rather than 10am saves genuine hours. It splits the stay between a coast base (for the views) and an inland or Sorrento base (for easier day trips to Paestum, Pompeii or Caserta without retracing the coast road each time), and treats the islands as a proper stop rather than a single afternoon excursion. It also books timed entries and festival tickets — Paestum, La Mortella and the Ravello Sunrise Concert all sell out or restrict numbers in peak season — well before travelling.
The Amalfi Coast suits travellers who want dramatic scenery, good food and a slower pace, and who are prepared to plan around the crowds rather than be surprised by them — this is not a spontaneous, turn-up-and-see destination in July and August. It particularly rewards clients willing to look beyond the three best-known towns, since Paestum, Caserta, Tramonti's vineyards and Ischia are where the region feels least like a postcard.
Planning an Amalfi Coast holiday with Expressions Holidays
We build Amalfi Coast holidays around the trade-offs set out above: the right base or combination of bases, private transfers timed to avoid the worst of the coast road, and time built in for Paestum, Caserta, the islands and the region's smaller producers, alongside the coast towns themselves. We can arrange this as a single-centre stay, a multi-centre tour combining the coast with Capri and Ischia, a small-group garden tour, or a festival-timed stay in Ravello, by air, rail or fly-drive.
Call us on 01392 441245 (Monday–Friday 9am–5.30pm, Saturday 10am–2pm) or email info@expressionsholidays.co.uk to start planning.
