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Positano Tours › Positano Travel Guide: Where Each Day Starts and What It CostsUpdated 2026-09-11

Positano Travel Guide: Where Each Day Starts and What It Costs

Hours, prices and access verified by the Positano Tours team — last checked 2026-09-11

The dome of Santa Maria Assunta above Spiaggia Grande, boats at anchor in the bay

The short answer. You reach Positano by road or by sea, never by rail. The boats leave from the pier on the main beach, the Pompeii days collect you from your hotel, and many Capri and Pompeii days actually start in Sorrento or Naples. Check where each day begins, carry cash for the fees the fares leave out, and pack light: the town is a staircase.

A first visit to Positano goes well when you understand one thing early: this is a town built down a cliff, with the sea at the bottom and one road at the top. Everything you plan, from the tours from Positano you book to where you sleep, follows from which end of the town it starts. This guide walks through the town, the arrival, the days out and the fees, in the order you will need them.

How Positano works in one minute

The houses climb from Spiaggia Grande, the main beach, to the SS163 coast road. Between them a single one-way road loops down and back up, and everything below it is lanes and steps. At the foot of the town stands the church of Santa Maria Assunta with its tiled dome, and beside it the pier where the ferries and the tour boats tie up. Above the town, on the mountain, sit the hamlets of Montepertuso and Nocelle.

So you have two front doors: the pier, for anything by sea, and the road, for anything by car or bus. Learn which one your hotel is closer to, and most decisions make themselves.

Getting in without a train

There is no railway anywhere on the Amalfi Coast. From Naples airport a private transfer takes about an hour to an hour and a half. By public transport you go to Sorrento and take the SITA coast bus, buying the ticket before you board. From roughly April to October, ferries from Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi and Salerno land at the pier. Every route, with the alternate-plates rule that applies to cars on the coast road in summer, is set out on how to get to Positano.

The pier, the beach and the steps

Most first-timers underestimate the steps. A room described as near the beach can still be a long flight above it, and the lanes are polished smooth. Wear shoes with grip, carry less than you think you need, and ask your hotel where the nearest road is before you arrive. Porters meet the bus stops and the pier to carry cases down, and the local bus loops the town road. The layout, stop by stop, is on getting around Positano.

Which days start in Positano, and which only pass through

This is the question that saves the most disappointment. A tour sold for Positano is not always spent in Positano, and not always started there.

Kind of dayWhere it usually startsTime in PositanoLeft out of the fare
Coast boat to AmalfiPositano's main beachYou start and finish hereSometimes a landing fee
Capri boatPositano's pier, or SorrentoNone: the day is on CapriCapri's €5 tax, the Blue Grotto
Pompeii dayYour Positano hotel, or NaplesNone: the day is inlandThe ticket, on the private cars
Rome day tripRomeOne to two and a quarter hoursFood and hotel pickup
Naples coach dayNaplesA photo stop to 75 minutesLunch

If you are staying in Positano, the coast boats and the Capri boats from its pier, set out on Positano boat tours and Capri tours from Positano, and the Pompeii days with hotel pickup on Pompeii tours from Positano, are the ones built for you.

What the fares leave out

Most fares cover the boat or the car and the crew. What they leave out is small, but it is paid in cash on the day, so it is worth knowing.

  • A landing or docking fee on several boats, about €10 a head where a listing names a figure.
  • Capri's landing tax, €5 a head from April to October.
  • The Blue Grotto, about €18 a head, and closed when the sea is high.
  • The Pompeii ticket, €20, on the private cars and transfers that stop there.
  • The tourist tax, €2.50 to €5 a night, added to your hotel bill.
Keep cash for the day out. On a Capri day the extras alone can pass €30 a head: the €5 landing tax, about €18 for the Blue Grotto, and on some boats a landing fee on top. Carry euros in small notes and you will never hold up the queue.

Money, cash and small change

You will pay for most things by card, but the small costs of a day out are cash: the landing fees, the Blue Grotto rowboat, a tip if you choose to leave one, a coffee at a beach bar. The SITA bus ticket is bought at a newsagent or bar before you board, never from the driver, so keep a few coins for that too. If your boat or car is booked online, the fare is already paid, and what you carry is only for the extras each card lists.

Three days in Positano

  1. Arrive and walk down. Settle in, walk the lanes to the beach, step into Santa Maria Assunta and the Roman villa beneath it, and swim at Spiaggia Grande or Fornillo.
  2. A day on the water. A shared boat along the coast to Amalfi, or a boat to Capri from the pier; keep the sea for the calmest day of your stay.
  3. A day on land. Pompeii with hotel pickup, or the Path of the Gods from Agerola down to Nocelle, then the bus back into town.

More ideas for the gaps between tours are on things to do in Positano.

Where to stay for a first visit

For boat days, stay low, near the beach, and book a porter for your arrival. For Pompeii pickups and the bus, stay high, near Chiesa Nuova. If the steps worry you, choose a room that the loop road reaches. The levels of the town, and the tourist tax by hotel class, are on where to stay in Positano.

Your first evening

Whatever time you arrive, walk down to the beach before dark. The lanes are cooler, the shops are open, and the dome of Santa Maria Assunta catches the last light above the pier. It is also the easiest way to learn the route you will take on your boat morning, so that you are not searching for a meeting point at nine o'clock with your bag and your towel. Book dinner a day ahead in summer, and you will have the view without the wait.

When to come

May, June and September give you running ferries, a warm sea and fewer people than August. From November to March the ferries stop and much of the town closes, though the road tours from Naples keep running. The season month by month is on the best time to visit Positano.

You know how the town works now. Pick the day that starts closest to your room and compare it on Positano Tours.

Days that start at your door