The Amalfi Coast: Where to Base Yourself, and Why It Matters

The coast is vertical

Photographs flatten it. In person, the towns are stacked up cliffs, and the distance between your room and the water is often measured in flights of steps rather than metres. It is beautiful and it is physical, and the two are inseparable.

This is the single most useful thing to be honest about before booking. A stay that looks idyllic can be exhausting for anyone with a knee that complains, and the alternative — a flatter town, or a property with lift access to the sea — exists and is worth asking for.

How the towns differ

Each base gives you a different trip, and the difference is larger than the map suggests.

• The cliffside classic — dramatic, busy, the most steps, the best photographs.
• The larger working towns — flatter, better connected, more everyday life, less postcard.
• The hill towns above the coast — cooler air, wide views, a drive or bus from the water.
• The peninsula and nearby islands — quieter bases with good boat connections, further from the famous strip.

The road, the ferry and the traffic

The coast road is narrow, spectacular and slow, and in high season it is very slow. Driving yourself is possible and mostly unrewarding; parking is scarce and expensive, and some towns restrict access at busy times.

Ferries along the coast are the pleasant way to move between towns in season, and they are weather-dependent. The practical answer for most travellers is a private transfer in and out, ferries during the stay, and no car at all.

When to go

Late spring and September give warm sea, open restaurants and a coast you can actually move around. Midsummer is hot and heavily booked. In winter much of the coast closes down, ferries stop and the road becomes quiet again — atmospheric, but not the trip most people are imagining.

What to book first

Accommodation, then boat days, then the one or two restaurants you would be disappointed to miss. The best small properties have very few rooms, and the ones with sea access have fewer still.

Everything else — the lemon groves, the walk, the afternoon in a neighbouring town — works better decided the morning of, once you can see the weather.