The Amalfi Coast is one of those places that photographs can't quite capture — the scale of the cliffs, the way the villages seem to grow directly out of the rock, the light hitting the water at golden hour in a way that makes every other coastline feel ordinary by comparison. But for all its beauty, it's a destination that punishes improvisation. The coast road is one of Europe's most dramatic drives and one of its most congested. The best hotels sell out months in advance. Ferry schedules don't wait. Getting from Positano to Ravello on a summer afternoon without a pre-arranged transfer is genuinely stressful.
Done right — with the logistics handled before you arrive — seven days on the Amalfi Coast is among the finest travel experiences available anywhere. This is how to do it right.
The 7-Day Itinerary
Day 1
Arrive Naples → Transfer to Positano
Fly into Naples Capodichino. Pre-arrange a private transfer south — the drive along the SS163 Amalfitana takes about 90 minutes without traffic, longer in summer peak hours. A private driver navigates it without the white-knuckle anxiety of self-driving, and you arrive in Positano already settled.
Check in, then spend the first evening orienting slowly. Positano is built on near-vertical terraces; every journey is a staircase. Let the body adjust. Aperitivo at La Tagliata, perched above the town with panoramic terrace views, or Il Tridente on the main beach for the first taste of the Italian pace. Dinner lightly — fresh mozzarella, local wine, the sea below.
Day 2
Positano — The Path of the Gods & Fornillo Beach
Spend the full day in and around Positano. The morning belongs to the Sentiero degli Dei — the Path of the Gods — a coastal trail cut into the clifftop between Bomerano and Nocelle with views down the entire coastline that are among the most spectacular in Europe. Start early (before 9am) to beat the heat and the tour groups. The walk takes two to three hours one way; a local taxi or bus returns you to Positano.
Afternoon on Fornillo Beach, the quieter cove west of the main Spiaggia Grande, where sunbeds are less crowded and the water is the same impossible blue. Dinner at Chez Black on the main beach — a Positano institution since 1949, where the seafood pasta is exactly what you came here for and the setting, with fishing boats pulled up beside the tables, is genuinely memorable.
Day 3
Ravello — Gardens, Views & an Overnight Among the Clouds
Transfer to Ravello — a hilltop village that sits 365 metres above the sea and feels entirely removed from the coast road chaos below. This is where writers and composers came to work: Wagner, D.H. Lawrence, Gore Vidal all passed time here, and the quality of the silence still justifies the pilgrimage.
Spend the morning in Villa Cimbrone, whose Terrace of Infinity looks south over the Tyrrhenian Sea in a vista that genuinely stops conversation. Walk to Villa Rufolo in the afternoon — the garden terraces here inspired Wagner's Parsifal and host the annual Ravello Festival in July and August. Lunch at Cumpa Cosimo, an unpretentious family trattoria that has served Ravello's best homemade pasta for four generations. Overnight in Ravello — the village after the day-trippers leave is a different place entirely.
Day 4
Amalfi Town — Cathedral, Gorge Walk & Harbour Seafood
Drop down from Ravello to the town that gives the coast its name. Amalfi itself is often overlooked in favour of Positano's photogenic glamour, but it has substance: the Duomo di Amalfi, with its striking Arab-Norman façade and ninth-century crypt, is one of the finest churches in southern Italy. The Piazza del Duomo is the social centre of the coast — take a coffee at one of the café tables and watch the town move.
In the afternoon, walk the Valle delle Ferriere — a nature reserve gorge behind Amalfi where the valley narrows to a stream-fed canyon dense with ferns and ancient paper mills. It's a genuine escape from the tourist geography of the seafront. Return for dinner at one of the harbour-facing restaurants where the catch of the day is written on a chalkboard and the view is free.
Day 5
Capri Day Trip — Blue Grotto, Villa Jovis & Lunch Under the Lemon Trees
Take the morning ferry from Amalfi or Positano to Capri — the hydrofoil takes around 40 minutes. Book the Blue Grotto visit early; the rowboat queue builds quickly and the cave closes when the sea is rough. The experience — bioluminescent blue light filling a sea cave as you lie back in a small boat — justifies the effort entirely.
Walk or take the chairlift up to Villa Jovis, the ruined palace where Emperor Tiberius governed the Roman Empire for the last decade of his life. The views from the eastern cape are 360-degree Mediterranean panorama. Lunch at Da Paolino, where the tables sit under an actual canopy of lemon trees in a garden that feels like the platonic ideal of Italian outdoor dining. Return to the coast on the afternoon ferry.
Day 6
Praiano or Cetara — The Other Side of the Coast
Use Day 6 to step away from the main tourist trail. Both Praiano and Cetara reward those willing to look slightly further.
Praiano sits between Positano and Amalfi with a fraction of the crowds — its small harbour beach, the Marina di Praia, is one of the coast's most picturesque, and the village above it is genuinely quiet. Cetara, further east, is a working fishing village famous for one thing: colatura di alici, the intensely savoury anchovy sauce that is the region's answer to garum and among the most distinctive flavours in Italian cooking. Taste it simply, drizzled over spaghetti at one of the village restaurants, before buying a bottle to take home. Today is for slower pace and genuine texture — no itinerary, no queues.
Day 7
Return to Naples — Last Espresso, Departure
The final morning deserves a last slow coffee in Positano before the transfer north. Naples, en route to the airport, is worth an hour if your flight permits: the city's historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a proper Neapolitan espresso — standing at the bar in a neighbourhood café, not a tourist spot — is the correct last thing to do in southern Italy. Then the airport, the flight home, and the lingering sense that the coast is already behind you.
Where to Stay
Accommodation on the Amalfi Coast is a study in limited supply and high demand. The best properties need to be booked months in advance, particularly for summer. These are the ones worth securing.
- Positano — Le Sirenuse: The coast's most celebrated hotel, a converted 18th-century palazzo with 58 rooms and a pool terrace that is one of the most photographed views in Italy. Book the sea-view rooms. Alternatively, Casa Albertina is a smaller, more intimate option — family-run, with panoramic terrace views and a more local character.
- Ravello — Belmond Hotel Caruso: Perched on a clifftop at the edge of the village with an infinity pool that appears to float over the sea. One of the finest hotels in southern Italy. The restaurant is excellent; the terrace at dusk is something you don't forget.
- Capri — Capri Palace Jumeirah: If you want an overnight on the island rather than the day trip, the Capri Palace in Anacapri is the reference property — a proper luxury resort with one of the island's best restaurants and a spa carved into the cliffside rock.
Getting Around
The honest advice: do not drive the Amalfi Coast unless you have done it before. The SS163 is a two-lane road cut into vertical cliffs, shared by buses, scooters, coaches, and hire cars driven by people who have never seen anything like it. Parking in Positano is either expensive, distant, or non-existent. The stress of self-driving can consume the first day of any trip.
The practical alternatives are much better. Ferries run between Positano, Amalfi, and Salerno from April through October — comfortable, scenic, and entirely stress-free. The boats run roughly hourly in high season, and the approach to each town by sea is among the most beautiful introductions to any destination in Europe. For transfers between towns not connected by ferry, private drivers know the road, know the parking, and absorb the logistics that would otherwise absorb your attention. Budget for them — they are worth it.
What Makes This Itinerary Different
Most Amalfi Coast guides are essentially lists: Positano, Ravello, the Blue Grotto, colatura di alici. The logistics are left to you. And the logistics are exactly where Amalfi trips go wrong — the wrong hotel booked too late, a ferry schedule not checked, a restaurant that's full because no one reserved three weeks out.
This itinerary is built around what actually needs to be in place before you arrive. When Compass & Co plans your Amalfi trip, we handle the hotel bookings at Le Sirenuse, Belmond Hotel Caruso, and anywhere else on the route. We arrange your private transfer from Naples. We book Da Paolino and Chez Black. We confirm the ferry schedule and build it into your day-by-day. You show up with a confirmed plan and nothing left to figure out — which is, as it turns out, the most luxurious way to experience Italy's most dramatic coastline.
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