Where to stay on the Amalfi Coast: Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, the quiet villages or the flat towns to the east, town by town

Positano is the picture people come for: steps and steep lanes falling to the sea, with Via dei Mulini, the car-free lane from Piazza dei Mulini, running down to the church of Santa Maria Assunta and the beach. Cars stop at the piazza; below it, everything is on foot.

Spiaggia Grande is pebble, with beach clubs renting sunbeds beside a free public stretch. From Piazza dei Mulini the beach is 5 minutes downhill, the ferry pier 6, Fornillo beach 13, and the SITA Sud stop at Sponda 7, uphill. The bus reaches Amalfi in 40 minutes; Travelmar sails there all year in 25 for €10, and from 1 April to early November boats reach Capri in 30 to 40 minutes, €28 to €29 with the landing fee. Naples airport is 73 to 82 minutes by road off-peak; the fixed taxi fare is €145.

The cost: high prices, a climb after every swim, and a tourist tax of €5 a person a night at five-star hotels, April to October.

Ours: Le Sirenuse, from about €1,905, and Palazzo Murat, on Via dei Mulini, from about €1,340, both for couples who want the town on foot; and Il San Pietro, on the Laurito headland 1.5 km east, with a lift to its own cove and a free shuttle, from about €3,530.

Amalfi was a maritime republic, and its centre is still the harbour and the Duomo above Piazza Duomo, up its staircase. The lanes of the historic centre are a pedestrian zone for most of the day, and the seafront road runs flat along the harbour.

Marina Grande, the widest beach, is a 2-minute walk from the Duomo, equipped with loungers and umbrellas and with a comune service for disabled bathers; Il Duoglio, pebbles and rocks, is about 400 steps down, 1.5 km out of town. On foot from the Duomo, Molo Pennello, the ferry pier, is 3 minutes, Atrani 11 and the Museo della Carta 11. Travelmar sails all year to Positano in 25 minutes for €10, Minori in 10 and Salerno in 35; SITA Sud buses leave for Ravello, 25 minutes, and Positano, 40. Naples airport is 68 to 81 minutes off-peak; the taxi fare is €155.

The cost: the coast road runs along the seafront, and Luna Rossa, the one car park for long stays, charges €40 a day from the Thursday before Easter to 3 November and €45 in August.

Ours: Hotel Marina Riviera, on the seafront road with a rooftop pool, from about €615. It suits a first trip without a car.

Ravello sits on the ridge above Amalfi, and its days run on gardens and music. Villa Rufolo, with its 13th-century Moorish courtyard, which received Wagner on his brief visit, is 2 minutes from the Duomo; Villa Cimbrone, now a hotel but open to the public, is 10 minutes away, and its garden ends at the Belvedere dell'Infinito, 13. The Ravello Festival opens its 2027 season on 4 July. Scala, across the valley, has its own Duomo, 21 minutes on foot.

There is no beach. Castiglione, the nearest, is 8 minutes by road off-peak; the paths down to Atrani and Minori take half an hour of steps, and much longer back. SITA Sud buses reach Amalfi in 25 minutes and the COSTIERASITA day ticket, €10, covers them. Naples airport is 73 to 87 minutes off-peak; the taxi fare to Ravello is €160.

The cost: a bus or a car for every swim, and evenings in the village rather than on the sea.

Ours: Caruso, a palace at the top of Ravello with a heated infinity pool, from about €2,595 with Ravello's tax included, open from 13 April 2027; and Palazzo Pascal, 13 rooms in Minuta, a hamlet of Scala, from about €375, with no rise in July and August. Both suit couples who want quiet and the view.

Praiano grew from two hamlets, Praiano above and Vettica Maggiore by the sea, and it is still a village of stairways: the comune's own page on them begins with steps, steps and more steps. The coast road runs through it, and it faces west, towards Positano and the sunset.

The beaches are below the road. From the church of San Gennaro, Gavitella, with pebbles, concrete platforms and beach clubs, is 7 minutes down steep steps; Marina di Praia, a small cove of fishing boats and restaurants, is 29 minutes on foot or 4 by road. SITA Sud buses take 15 minutes to Positano and 25 to Amalfi, and Travelmar's timetable adds a Praiano stop from June 2027. Off-peak by road, Positano is 16 minutes, Amalfi 15 and Bomerano, for the Path of the Gods, 27 to 39. Naples airport is 76 to 84 minutes; there is no fixed fare to Praiano, so agree the price first.

The cost: a climb back from every beach, and the evenings of Positano and Amalfi a bus ride away. The tourist tax is €4 at four-star hotels, and nothing from November to March.

Ours: Hotel Tramonto d'Oro, on the coast road with a rooftop pool facing west, from about €520. It suits couples and travellers moving by bus.

Conca dei Marini is less a town than a cliff: houses and terraces above the coast road, and below it the Marina di Conca, a fishing hamlet with a pebble beach and the little church of the Madonna della Neve, reached by boat or by about 240 steps from the road. Our two hotels stand on the cliff, one in the village and one on the road towards Amalfi.

From Piazza Olmo, off-peak by road, Amalfi's Duomo is 9 minutes, the Fiordo di Furore 7 to 15, Bomerano, for the Path of the Gods, 16 to 25, and Positano 28 to 38. SITA Sud buses stop at Conca, 15 minutes from Amalfi, and both our hotels run free shuttles into Amalfi. Naples airport is 62 to 89 minutes, depending on the route.

The cost: no village life on the doorstep, a climb from every beach, and a tourist tax of €7 a person a night at Monastero Santa Rosa, or Amalfi's €5 at Borgo Santandrea.

Ours: Monastero Santa Rosa, a former convent whose restaurant, Il Refettorio, holds a MICHELIN star, for guests 16 and over, from about €1,320; and Borgo Santandrea, opened in 2021, with lifts 79 metres down to its own pebble beach, children from 8, from about €2,745. Both suit couples and special occasions.

Minori is built on the flat at the mouth of its valley, round the Basilica of Santa Trofimena, with a Roman villa in the middle of town, closed for restoration since August 2025. Maiori, the next town east, has its seafront on Lungomare Amendola. Flat streets are rare on this coast.

The beach is in town. In Minori the beach and the ferry pier are 5 minutes from the Basilica, and a beach club, Lido California, charges €20 to €40 a day for an umbrella and two loungers. Maiori's seafront is 21 minutes on foot. Travelmar calls all year: Amalfi in 10 minutes for €5, Salerno in 40 for €10, Maiori in 5 for €3. SITA Sud buses reach Amalfi in 15. Off-peak by road, Villa Rufolo is 10 to 16 minutes and Salerno station 25 to 36. Naples airport is 66 to 76 minutes; there is no fixed taxi fare to Minori.

The cost: the coast road runs through the centre of Minori, street-side rooms face it, and the cliff-top views are a bus ride away.

Ours: Hotel Santa Lucia, family-run, 3 minutes from the beach, with no pool, from about €225. It suits families and anyone who avoids steps.

Sorrento is outside the Amalfi Coast proper. It is built on cliffs above the Bay of Naples, on the other side of the peninsula, and people base themselves here for the connections: the Circumvesuviana from Naples every 30 minutes, 75 minutes for €4.60, with stops at Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the Curreri coach from the airport, 75 minutes for €13.

From Piazza Tasso, the station is 6 minutes on foot and the port at Marina Piccola 11. From April to early November boats reach Positano in 35 to 50 minutes for €18 to €21.50, and boats to Capri run all year. The SITA Sud bus to Positano's Sponda stop takes 50 to 60 minutes. Off-peak by road, Positano is 23 to 34 minutes and Amalfi 44 to 53. Naples airport is about 62 minutes; the fixed taxi fare is €125, against €145 to Positano.

The cost: every day on the Amalfi Coast starts with a bus or a boat, and the boats to Positano and Amalfi stop for the winter.

None of our ten is here. It suits travellers who want Pompeii and Capri as much as the coast, or who arrive and leave by train.