Sorrento is a balcony. The day happens on the water.
Which Capri boat actually gets inside the Blue Grotto. What the Positano and Amalfi run costs. Whether Pompeii goes better by train or by minibus. Reviews of every tour you can book from this coast.
Two boats and a train: the week most people book.
The three days that carry a first trip to Sorrento, and what each one costs to get on.
01The island dayIsland Boat Trip with GrottosRight around Capri, in past the grottoes, swim stops where the water turns green over the sand.
02The coast runAmalfi and Positano Boat TourNerano, Positano and Amalfi from the sea, which is the only angle that shows you the whole cliff.
03The ruins morningSkip-the-Line Pompeii Express Tour by TrainThe little train to Pompeii, a guide at the gate and entry booked, back in town for lunch.
Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Amalfi: decide where the day ends up.
Everything on this coast is a boat ride or a run of hairpins apart. Four bases, and the day out each one does better than the others.
Every good Sorrento day starts at a jetty.
This coast was built to be seen from below. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to get on board, and which stretch of cliff each one covers.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · Island Boat Trip with Grottos
Capri and the grottoesAround the island, into the caves, an hour ashore in the Piazzetta.
Positano and Amalfi by seaThe cliff villages from the water, with swim stops in between.
Sunset sailingsOut past the point as the light goes, Vesuvius behind you.
Swim and snorkel daysAnchored over the marine reserve at Punta Campanella.
All 517 days on the water →
The days out of Sorrento that fill up first.
Every tour we have reviewed →The boats, the ruins and the farm tables that more travellers take than anything else on this coast.
1
Island Boat Trip with Grottos
Sail from Marina Grande around Capri’s cliffs, Faraglioni Rocks, Casa Malaparte, White and Green Grottos, and Punta Carena Lighthouse. Your English or Italian speaking crew shares island stories, while the optional Blue Grotto visit adds €18 and can involve a wait of up to two hours.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Exclusive Capri Boat Tour and Optional Blue Grotto
from $143
3
Sorrento Farm and Food Experience including Olive Oil, Limoncello, Wine tasting
from $114
4
Capri Blue Grotto Small-Group Boat Day Tour From Sorrento
from $131
5
Amalfi and Positano Boat Tour
from $70
6
Day Trip to Positano, Amalfi & Ravello from Sorrento
from $131
7
Island Boat Tour with Blue Grotto Stop
from $28
8
Capri & Blue Grotto Semi Private Boat Day Trip from Sorrento
from $216
Pompeii, Herculaneum and the crater that did it.
Twenty minutes on the Circumvesuviana and you are standing in a street that stopped in 79 AD. Go on the first train: there is no shade in the forum by eleven, and the crater path shuts when the weather turns.
Lemons the size of a fist, and everything Sorrento makes from them.
Farm kitchens on the terraces above town press their own oil, pull mozzarella in the morning and pour limoncello at the end of it. Book the one that finishes as lunch, not the one that finishes at a gift counter.
What a day out of Sorrento actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay to get on it. The island boat everybody books sits at the cheap end. The car over the pass does not.
Town walks that end in a limoncello cellar, the Pompeii train, kayaks and the short harbour runs.
The standards: Capri by boat, the Positano and Amalfi run, farm lunches and the guided ruins.
Private drivers over the pass, chartered gozzi and the small-group yacht days.
Three things that only happen on this bay.
Sea caves turn up all over the Mediterranean. A cave lit from underneath, a footpath six hundred metres above the water, and a liqueur with its own farm circuit do not.
The Blue Grotto
The entrance is barely a metre high, so you lie flat in a wooden rowboat while the oarsman pulls on a chain and times the swell. Inside, the light arrives up through the water instead of down through the roof and the whole cave goes the colour of a swimming pool. It closes whenever the sea is up, which is often, so keep a second plan for the same day.
- 1Exclusive Capri Boat Tour and Optional Blue Grotto★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,170 reviews
- 2Capri Blue Grotto Small-Group Boat Day Tour From Sorrento★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,511 reviews
- 3Island Boat Tour with Blue Grotto Stop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 2,071 reviews
The Path of the Gods
The old mule track from Bomerano to Nocelle runs along the top of the cliffs with six hundred metres of air between you and the water. Three hours, mostly downhill walking it westwards, and it finishes at the 1,700 steps down into Positano. Carry more water than feels sensible and start before the sun comes round.
- 1Path of the Gods Guided Hike with Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 530 reviews
- 2Guided Day Hike on the Path of the Gods with Sorrento Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 265 reviews
- 3Path of the Gods Hiking Day Tour from Sorrento★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 110 reviews
Limoncello at source
Sorrento lemons grow under chestnut-pole pergolas on the terraces above the town, and half the farms up there still steep their own peel. A tasting tends to arrive with the olive oil, the cheese and somebody’s grandmother’s pizza dough. You will be offered a bottle at the end, and you will take it.
- 1Sorrento Farm and Food Experience including Olive Oil, Limoncello, Wine tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,524 reviews
- 2Coast and Capri Boat Trip with Limoncello Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,037 reviews
- 3Pizza Lesson, Wine, and Limoncello at a Local Farm★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,513 reviews
Four bookings on this coast that will not wait.
Most of a Sorrento week can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on entry slots, sea state and boats that are full by April.
- 01Exclusive Capri Boat Tour and Optional Blue GrottoThe cave opens only when the sea is flat, and the rowboats stop taking anyone the moment the swell gets up. Give it a spare morning later in the week.
- 02Skip-the-Line Pompeii Express Tour by TrainEntry runs on timed slots and the site caps each one. The first slot of the day is the only one where the streets are empty and the stone is still cool.
- 03Path of the Gods Guided Hike with TransfersThe bus up to Bomerano is small and the guided walks take about a dozen people. Nobody adds a second departure in August.
- 04Pizza Lesson, Wine, and Limoncello at a Local FarmFarm kitchens run one sitting a day for eight or ten people. Through July they are gone a fortnight ahead.
The road to Amalfi is one lane of hairpins, and everyone is on it.
From June the SS163 is solid by ten, and the summer plate restrictions close whole stretches of it to hire cars anyway. The answer is the one the locals use: go by sea, or leave before eight and be back for a late lunch.
By place — the bay, the island, the coast
By kind of day — boat, ruin, kitchen or footpath
The newest reviews from the Sorrento coast.
The rest of the new ones →
Private transfer from Salerno to the Amalfi Coast, or vice versa
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Special Blue Grotto & Capri Island departure DA Sorrento
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Positano, Amalfi & Ravello Shared Tour from Sorrento
Read our review →
Pompeii & Wine Tour from Sorrento (tickets & lunch not included)
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