A few tips for a first-timer's, do-it-yourself visit to the Amalfi Coast.
The Amalfi Coast is certainly a stunning and dramatic part of the world. Towering cliffs, improbable roads, endless blue seas and a near-perfect climate are a potent combination. A lot of it is also crowded, touristy and hard to access which can make things a little frustrating unless you plan carefully. Somehow we managed to thread the needle of various lockdowns and travel restrictions during the summer of 2020 so our experience might have been somewhat atypical.
Organising Things
This trip was a fully self-organised one which included a rental car and an Airbnb property. Given the situation, this holiday was a little less pre-planned than our normal trips and COVID impacted the normal summertime dynamics of the Amalfi Coast somewhat with no tour buses full of day trippers or tourists from almost anywhere other than Italy. Nonetheless, August is still a busy time and if you have a choice, not necessarily the month I'd recommend unless you are locked into school holidays.
What became apparent very quickly is you need bookings for almost everything in advance and it really helps to have a local make these for you. Getting into a beach club on the day was basically impossible without a pre-booking and that had to be done over the phone. Most places are happy enough to speak English however many never picked up and when they did, we got a lot of straight "no's" and "not possibles". È la vita, but don't underestimate the value of a good concierge in this part of the world.
Where we stayed
An Airbnb in Conca Dei Marini (no concierge sadly but that view!).
Conca Dei Marini is about 5km from Amalfi but unlike some of the other towns there is no easily accessible waterfront area as it rises more or less straight up from the sea. It makes up for that however with the quality of the water and the views. There are some nice beach clubs and restaurants but they are not easy to access from the town. Some parking is available but you should still plan on a lot of stairs and avoiding a scratch on the rental car is not easy. Clubs we were recommended are below but since we couldn't get into any of them, no specific advice on whether they are good or bad aside from La Tonnerella restaurant.
Capo di Conca - they seemed to have a car service if you drive there and park your car but double-check this. Viewed from the water, this was our pick.
Zefiro Sereno - highly recommended restaurant but not keen on answering their phone. Apparently they can pick you up in their boat from Amalfi.
Conca Beach - the stony beach looked fine and there are three restaurants: La Tonnerella, L'Ippocamp and Risorgimento. We were lucky enough to eat at La Tonneralla (a former favourite of Jackie Kennedy and jetset pals) and it was excellent.
Driving the Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast road is not for the faint-hearted driver. The cliff-top roads are high and narrow which doesn't stop the buses, trucks, scooters, pedestrians from sharing the road. A few millimetres here and there can make all the difference if navigating a corner with a bus. My best advice is to stay calm and be patient - things seems to work out eventually. According to our local taxi drivers we spent a great deal less time than normal sitting in gridlocked traffic so that is also something to plan for in terms of how and when to travel up and down the coast.
The biggest problem isn't actually the driving however, it's the parking. Despite having a car we ended up using taxis quite often because finding parking spaces anywhere is challenging. (If you are in Conca, Daniele Di Palma runs a great service. 333 343 2830. They charged 30 Euro one-way between Conca and Amalfi (normal taxi is ~40)). Pricy but worth it if you have to be somewhere at a specific time. While Conca and Amalfi are only about 5kms apart the drive can take 45 mins+ in a normal summer according to our taxi drivers so budget some time for that.
If you happen to be in Maiori we parked at Garage Mandara on the via Degli Orti. Valet parking for 3 Euro per hour. Maiori, has the longest beach anywhere in the Amalfi Coast and almost exclusively beach clubs. Two chairs with an umbrella cost 60 Euro which seemed about standard. But book ahead because we got lucky, most of the places were already full by 11am. The beach is a mix of black sand and stones and the water was fine.
Beaches and Beach Clubs
There are very few places you can go to the beach without paying for a chair at a beach club which of course is part of the experience. It's certainly possible but there are easier options in Italy if this is your thing (see Puglia). The beach clubs are all fairly similar and as mentioned above, 50-60 Euro is about standard for a couple of sun loungers and an umbrella for a day plus lunch, drinks etc. The beaches are a mix of stones and sand but mostly stones.
There were a lot of reviews for Da Adolfo in Positano but they seemed to share the general distain for answering their phone. We ended up spending the day at Da Ferdinando's in Positano instead which also had a number of good reviews. Da Ferdinando's is one of about five clubs all in row and there was nothing terribly special about it including the food and the quality of the sea (at least on the day we visited and not helped by sea lice in the water). They run a free boat service from Positano (NB: it doesn't operate between 1:30-4:00pm).
Restaurants & Food
Staying in a house, this was mostly a self-catered trip. In Conca Dei Marini there is a small supermarket with the basics that does the job including a small selection of wine. We had a couple of enjoyable meals at Trattoria Nino which has a terrace across the road from the restaurant. As you do in this part of the world, we ate a lot of pizza and I don't think we had a bad one. There is also a lot of seafood on offer however most of the menus have more or less the same items on them which is fairly typical across Europe.
Probably the best food we had was at La Tonnerella in Conca Dei Marini but we definitely left with the sense there is far more to explore food-wise than we experienced.
Overall
We loved the freedom and space renting a house offers however after spending a week there we did feel that this is one part of the world where checking into a nice hotel, having someone drive you places, make bookings for you and generally make life easy might be the way to go. There's a lot to love about the Amalfi Coast but it can be hard work if you are doing it all on your own.
Probably the best way to experience the coast is by boat. After a few days wrangling with beach club bookings we decided to throw money at the problem and charter a boat which turned out to be our best day of the week. Ivan Di Palma's amalfiboatexcursions.com was excellent from the last minute reservation to the day itself on board his Pershing 37 and very good value relative to other offerings.
SIDEBAR
Naples
Due to some COVID related itinerary changes we ended up spending a few days in Naples. Naples can be generously described as gritty. It has a dodgy reputation that it's clearly trying to escape from but there's some way to go. We spent a very hot morning dropping back our rental car and exploring the old town but unless you have a particular desire to see more Duomo's and museums (of note are National Archeological Museum of Naples and Museo di Capodimonte) I'm not sure I would recommend spending a lot of time in Naples itself. However, if you do there are plenty of things to fill in a few days. I recommend getting the Free Now taxi app as there is no Uber in Naples.
Pompei
From Naples, Pompei is an easy place to visit. You can get there by train or taxi (a bit over-priced at 100 euro each way) or as we did, organise a private transfer which turned out to be slightly more than half the cost of a taxi for an air-conditioned van. We used Naples Airport Transfers which was well-priced and reliable and easy to book on-line, even last minute.
Pompei itself is amazing and highly worth the visit. It's also very large so 3-4 hours to cover the whole thing is not unreasonable. We found that was a tough ask in the August heat even being there relatively early in the morning.
Capri
Capri is easy to reach by ferry from several places along the coast including Sorrento and Naples. We booked the SNAV hydrofoil ferry from Naples which takes about 50 minutes and is a smooth, air-conditioned ride. Ferry's depart from Naples Bevellero terminal which is easy to get to by taxi. If you have booked tickets on line and have them on your phone, you need to go to the ticket office at least 15 minutes before departure to collect paper tickets.
I wish I could write more about Capri but this was a day trip to a beach club for our final day. We selected Da Luigi ai Faraglioni right on the famous Faraglioni rocks. This was a classic on-the-rocks beach club and didn't disappoint. The sea is deep and clear and the restaurant was excellent. Highly recommend although as a day trip this is not an inexpensive option.
A few tips: If you are not staying on Capri and arrive by ferry you will come into the Marina Grande. Da Luigi is on the other side of the island so you can either take the bus to Marina Piccolo or catch a one of Capri's unique soft-top taxis (25 euro). Tell the driver you are going to Da Luigi and he will drop you at the entrance to the hotel where their boat service runs from. If you ask at reception at the end of the pathway they will organise the boat for you which costs 7 euro per person each way.
Photo credits:
Amalfi Coast (first image) - Photo by silvia trigo on Unsplash
The rest - me
Comments