When planning a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, I highly recommend staying in Positano. This beautiful, cliff-hugging seaside town has come a long way from its fishing village roots and is now a popular destination for international and national tourists alike.
Positano is one of those places that you could spend an infinite amount of time. However, not everyone has that luxury, so here I have created a 4-day itinerary, with the option to spend just 1 or 2 days in this incredible part of the world.
Day 1 – Explore Positano
Waking up in Positano (or arriving by bus/ferry/car), you are instantly immersed in the charm of this lemon loving, pastel town. Start your first day in Positano by roaming to a local café and enjoying a coffee while soaking up all that the town has to offer.
Once caffeinated, take a stroll along the shops and down to the beach. Positano has such a unique layout that there are practically no streets. Instead, there is a series of paths and staircases leading you down to the shore.
On the way down, you will pass the beautiful 10th century Church of Santa Maria Assunta, which with its mosaic roof is quintessentially Positano.
Grab a gelato by the ocean and have a dip. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from for lunch, or if you’d rather an authentic feeling Italian experience, visit the local grocer and purchase a roll made with the ingredients of your choice. Personally, we preferred doing this as it meant we were able to eat right by the shore.
To properly enjoy the beach (as the sand can be coarse and gritty), you can hire a beach umbrella and chair for about €20 per person, per day. Depending on where you stay, your hotel can arrange this for you.
You could really spend an entire day exploring this beautiful little town, so I recommend taking the time to visit all of the linen and ceramic stores, and breathing in the aromatic lemon fragrance that is the signature of the Amalfi.
Day 2 – Walk of the Gods
On your second day in Positano, you might like to walk around to the neighbouring beaches, which can be a little quieter than Positano’s Spiaggia Grande.
If you prefer an activity other than visiting the beach, Positano has a series of beautiful cliff high walks with impressive views over the coast below. The most popular of these hikes is the Walk of the Gods. It takes roughly 3 hours and follows a ridge through the hills above Positano all the way to Praiano. If you plan to do this, make sure you take plenty of water, a hat and sunscreen with you, especially if you are visiting in the summer time. The 12km walk begins at the Northern end of Positano, at Via Chiesa Nuova.
Day 3 - Drive along the Amalfi Coast
Hire a car, scooter or buy a bus ticket and venture along the Amalfi Coast to visit some of the other iconic towns. If you, like me, are scared of the sharply twisting cliff roads, there are two bus options. There’s the local bus, or the City Sightseeing Hop on Hop off tourist bus. I recommend the tourist bus as this drops you off right in the heart of the main areas and provides a map and insightful commentary along the way. The commentary is fantastic and teaches you much more about the local area that you might otherwise learn.
From Positano, you can either take the tourist bus to Sorrento, or join the Sorrento-Positano-Amalfi line and change in Amalfi to another tour. We took this latter option and chose to take the Amalfi-Ravello leg and explore the more mountainous town of Ravello.
Day 4 – Isola di Capri
The Lonely Planet guide says with an Amalfi Coast trip to go to Capri “if you have time”. BUT, Capri isn’t the sort of place for ‘if you have time’. It’s the sort of place you make time for.
To get to Capri from Positano, you can catch a ferry from the main shore. When you arrive at Capri’s Marina Grande, resist the urge to immediately head for the funicular and go to the top, and instead join a boat tour around the island. From the water, you see much more of Capri and really appreciate the sheer scale of the cliffs and just the natural beauty. The water colour is also incredible and a boat tour will take you to some of the grottos. The most notable of these, the blue lagoon (Grotta Azzurra), is Capri’s most famous attraction. Admission to the grotto costs about €13 on top of a boat tour to get there. If the sea is too choppy, or the tide is too high, access to Grotta Azzurra is forbidden, so if this is a must see attraction for you, plan to spend a couple of days on Capri.
Once you have circumnavigated the island by boat, continue up the top to Capri town. To get to the top, you can either take the funicular, the bus, a taxi, or walk. For more on what to do on Capri, take a look at my blog post, ‘How to spend one day in Capri’.
While in Positano, make sure you visit Franco’s bar. Franco’s sits on top of the Hotel Le Sireneuse (one of the most expensive and incredible hotels in Positano) and is a great spot for people watching and enjoying the incredible views over Positano. I recommend going for sunset to enjoy both the views while there is still light, as well as Positano lit up by night.
This beautiful little seaside village wasn’t always the playground of the fabulous and wealthy that it is now. Positano started life as a fishing village and this authenticity can still be felt today. Make sure you spend time wandering and exploring the streets, both high and low, visiting the stores, chatting to locals and enjoying all that this heart-stealing Amalfi town has to offer.
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