Sorrento/Salerno/Amalfi Coast

[2catsand2kids]

I'd love to go to the Amalfi Coast in October half term with my DH and two DC (aged 13 and 14) and visit Pompeii/Herculaneum whilst there. I have managed to find reasonable flights and would be looking to go for four or five nights and wondered if people had any recommendations of where to stay (both area wise and specific hotel/apartment recommendations)?

Cost is an important factor as we will be doing this on a budget, but also ease of getting to different places to visit by public transport (it's not an area I fancy driving a hire car around) and being somewhere that's nice to stay. Any ideas/suggestions very welcome (and any recommendations of must see/do things in the area also appreciated).

So we went Easter 2023, 2 adults and 2 kids, aged 8 and 11 at that time I think. We flew into Naples, train to Salerno, overnight in Salerno at midtown B&B (found on booking.com), which was cheap, clean, convenient for train and ferry, but only 3 rooms in a random apartment block and the landlady only spoke Italian. We stayed overnight in Salerno because our flight arrival time was 4:30pm and this was high risk for missing the last ferry out of Salerno. Next morning took a ferry to Amalfi, stayed at l'Anticco Convito in Amalfi. Hotel was nice, not completely unmissable, as I always choose somewhere we can all share a room to keep costs down and I often book fairly last minute. I liked Amalfi as a base, as has good ferry and bus options. The day we arrived we dropped bags and used local buses to get to the start of the walk of the gods, bus to Bomerano, walk to Positano, lovely views, came back by bus as well, next day went to Ravello by bus and walked back to Amalfi. Loved the area, the towns are beautiful, but couldn't pay me to drive those narrow twisty roads! Bus queues quite long in April, particularly leaving Positano, choice of bus stop absolutely crucial. We visited Pompeii and Herculaneum from Naples, but that could be done from Salerno. Paestum also possible to visit from Salerno, it's the one thing I had to drop from my itinerary. Valuables need watching in Naples, pickpockets are rife If you have any specific questions I can try to answer them.

Sorrento is the easiest independent access by train to Pompeii et al with a range of accommodation. However some its satellite villages, also on the line are cheaper to stay in.

So we did this exact trip at the beginning of July. Flew into Naples. To keep the cost down we actually stayed in Pompeii. Hotel was lovely and overlooked the ruins. Hotel, Restaurants etc in the area were really reasonable and it felt really safe. Would 100% recommend booking a tour for Pompeii as it is unbelievably huge. If you’re super interested in it, you may want a couple of days there. It also sets you up for Herculaneum - you’ll understand what is going on much better if youve been on a tour at Pompeii. The guides also use a different entrance so you basically do the main route in reverse so we were in the forum first and it was empty…. Most people do that at the end of the day. We actually enjoyed Herculaneum much more than Pompeii as the ruins are better preserved. It was disappointing that most of the artefacts were in a museum in Naples so it’s mostly the buildings you’re looking at in both towns. We avoided the plaster casts as I just wasn’t that interested/felt a bit morbid/sad but I can understand if people are interested.

We hired a car and driving was fine once out of Naples. That was crazy but just hold your nerve and you’d be fine. Round Pompeii etc there’s lots of toll roads but they are cheap, easy to use and really cut a lot of time from using the non-toll roads. We drove down the Amalfi coast. I have to admit it was beautiful but it was crazy. We didn’t go in school holiday time and it was chaotic then so would hate to see it mid summer! It was so busy we couldn’t stop/park within miles of the popular towns. And once in the towns/villages they were rammed with tourists. Not my bag really. Glad I saw it but for us, glad we also didn’t stay in the middle of that. Felt a bit like Venice - a real tourist trap. Visited it once, liked it but don’t feel the need to ever go back. What we did like was yacht watching from an amazing restaurant at the top of a cliff that we stopped it before we hit any of the famous stops along the coast. Proper billionaire yachts were all moored up. If you just can’t stomach the driving, I can’t comment directly on public transport other than we definitely saw a lot of public buses going from Pompeii down the coast so you should be ok if you research properly.

We stayed with our teenagers in august in pompei at La Villa Franca- not expensive, very close to ruins and train station. And it has a lovely pool which you'll really need!
Sooo easy to get to sorrento etc on the circumvesuviana.
We weren't that keen on sorrento. Very expensive and crowded.
Loved Naples, and Herculaneum was fantastic!

Grand hotel Vesuvius.
Go to capris!

Thank you so much for all your helpful replies, I will get researching!