Journal — amalfi coast
Amalfi Coast: Positano, Ravello, or the Sorrento side?
The three bases on the Amalfi Coast behave completely differently. Steps, boats, drivers and where a villa week is easiest.
The Amalfi Coast punishes the wrong address. Positano is beautiful and vertical: most villas sit above several hundred steps, and a car cannot reach the door. Ravello is high, cool, quiet and green, with the best gardens and the worst sea access. The Sorrento side — Sant'Agnello, Massa Lubrense — is flatter, easier with children and older guests, and twenty minutes closer to Naples.
Take a driver, not a hire car. The SS163 is single lane in places, parking is effectively nonexistent between June and September, and a local driver knows the hours when the coast road moves. Budget one full day for the drive to Paestum or Pompeii and start it before eight.
Boats are the real luxury here. A gozzo with a skipper for two or three days opens Furore, Conca dei Marini and the Li Galli islets, and turns lunch at Da Adolfo or Lo Scoglio into an easy afternoon rather than an expedition.
May, June and late September are the coast at its best. August is hot, full, and the sea traffic is constant. If you must come then, take a villa with its own sea platform and treat the road as something you use twice a week.