Amalfi Transportation

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My entire visit to the Amalfi area of Italy was made easy and beautiful by using Amalfi Transfer, a driving and transfer service. Anthony Buonocore, the driver and owner, was a GREAT help during the trip. His knowledge of English was great, the car (which seats up to 8) was in great shape, and he was able to point out things I never would have noticed if he hadn't been there to guide me. He can transport anywhere in the Amalfi-Naples-Positano area. He picked me up at the airport, carried my bags, and I kept running into him in town all week. I was really relieved that I had him because we never could have maneuvered around the hairpin twists and turns of the Amalfi coastal area ourselves (which the experienced Italian drivers take at the speed of sound). I heartily recommend him to any travelers to the area and plan to use him on my next trip. And really, I think he was less than the cost of a rental car in the U.S.

The contact info is: Amalfi Transfer, Anthony Buonocore, www.amalfitransfer.com
The phone number in Italy is country code 39: then 349-441-0336

Dr. Jennifer Bugg, Denver, CO

If you need car service I can recommend: Amalfitransfer, run by Anthony Buonocore
the # in Italy is 39 3494410336 His website is amalfitransfer.com. You can give him my name - Mary. He does driving in the area and also might help with questions.

Have a fabulous time.

FORUM REPLY

From my (long) experience of Italy and Positano I agree with Geoveo:

"Many of the local drivers are impatient, discourteous and downright dangerous. The tour buses bully there way through rarely giving way and the tourists meander along."

It's just so that the local drivers, regular and tour bus drivers, are obliged to drive on that road to do their work or to go to their work.
When they are delayed by tourists who "ignore anybody who drives in your boot" they get nervous and try to overtake these slow drivers under very risky conditions.

If you want to make friends in Italy avoid ignoring the local traffic bad or good habits.

Ciao.

FORUM REPLY.

The usual road (also followed by the regular busses) goes Eastwards over the SS 145 to Sant Agnello, then inland Southeast over the SS163 to San Pietro.
From there the road follows the coast over Positano, Praiano, Conca dei Marini and Amalfi.
I drove on this road on several occasions and could never look at the wonderful landscape. The road turns every 50 m!

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I cannot imagine why anyone should choose to drive the Amalfi coast road (a fantastic feat of engineering): you certainly won't be able to enjoy the views if you do! It's far too twisty, narrow and vertiginous to take pleasure in driving, in my opinion, unless you really want to be stuck behind coaches/lorries/buses etc. If you're happy to meet a coach on a narrow blind bend, or to crawl along behind a lorry with no chance of overtaking, and to see nothing whatsoever except the road in front of you for an hour or so (there are very, very few places where you can pull off the road to look), then do drive yourself.

A million times better is to let the experienced bus driver do all the hard work, whilst you gaze through the window at the fantastic coastal scenery, gawp at the vertical drops a few inches away from you, be amazed at the way traffic negotiates itself and the parked cars along the route.

It's a cheap experience (there are lots of buses) but one well worth taking, even if you don't stay long in Amalfi itself (I didn't).

Buses go from Sorrento (outside the Circumvesuviana station). On the SITA website below scroll down to Quadro 14, where you'll find the timetable.

See my Amalfi travelogues for more photos of this amazing journey.

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You can see in the accompanying photo a blue bus parked - this is where the buses come in and leave from for all destinations except Ravello which the buses left from where i was standing to take this photo!

And to the right of the bus in the picture through the shrubbery to the buildings on the right is the cafeteria icecream shop where the bus tickets for all destinations can be bought from but you do have to buy your tickets before you get on the bus. They are influenced by the time it takes to get there, the destination and how long you think you will need - for example the ticket to get up to Ravello i knew i wanted to walk back so i only got a two hour ticket i think it was from San Lazzaro Agerola which also included the wait i thought i would have in between arriviing off that bus and leaving on the Ravello bus which i filled by running around the town centre and then my ticket was still valid.

Bus travel was very cheap - an estimated couple of euro per hour. so each stage of the journey never came to much ie from Salerno to Amalfi is only about an hour. Amalfi to San Lazzaro 40 minutes. Amalfi to Ravello is only half an hour and Amalfi to Positano an hour and a half or two hour ticket. Positano to Sorrento another hour.
Cheap but you do have to buy your tickets before you get on the bus and you can buy your hours of tickets in advance, particularly so you dont have to go find a shop that sells them when that time might mean missing a bus and waiting for the next one! (as theyre cheap but sometimes not as frequent ie hourly or two hourly) and then the driver stamps them as you get on.

Most people get to Amalfi by bus. We took a train from Rome to Salerno, and then a bus from Salerno to Amalfi. The bus winds through steep hairpin turns around the mountains overlooking the sea. At some points it looks like you might just topple over into the water below. If you are prone to motion sickness or don't like heights, consider taking a benedryl before the trip.

When taking a bus through the coastal towns during the day, traffic can get pretty bad. The roads are narrow and only accomodate one way traffic at points. Several buildings in the smaller towns have marks on the corners where buses have scraped them previously. Police officers are on hand to direct traffic and fold in rear-view mirrors when things get tight. Our bus drivers honked the horn at every turn to alert other motorist we were coming through. Riding the bus is definitely an adventure.

If you want to explore the Amalfi Coast, I suggest you go early in the morning because there are lots to see. The breath-taking view of the Mediterranean sea set against the steep cliffs is one thing that should not be missed.

We went to the Amalfi coast using the public bus (SITA, blue coach bus). You can buy bus tickets (1-way for Euro 2.40) from a small shop located on ground floor of the Sorrento train station. You better buy return ticket too. The bus stop is located down the stairs from the train station.

The bus will travel to Positano (40min) and Amalfi (90min). The trip is really great as you get to see the breath-taking view of the Amalfi coast. Sit in the front, on the right side of the bus; meaning when you enter the bus, go to your left!

The earliest bus leaves Sorrento at 06.25am and the last bus leaving Amalfi is 8.00pm (however, please double-check again!).

If you don't have much time, I would suggest visiting Amalfi town. It is larger than Positano and Ravello. Later, you can take another bus to Positano or Ravello.