Drive the Amalfi Coast in 10 days: Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano, Ravello, and Paestum's Greek temples. A practical guide for self-drive travellers doing the SS163 in spring or autumn.
The Amalfi Coast road trip itinerary question always comes back to the same problem: how do you see everything without spending half your holiday stuck in traffic? The answer is this route. Ten days, six stops, and a linear drive along the SS163 from Naples to Paestum: one of the world's great coastal roads, best driven in spring or autumn before the worst of the summer crowds.
This is not a route for July or August. Come in May, June, or September and you will find the same views, better prices, and the actual possibility of a parking space.
The alternatives are genuinely good: SITA buses link every town, ferries run between Positano, Amalfi, and Sorrento in summer, and you can see most of the coast without a car. But a car gives you early mornings on empty roads, the ability to stop at unsigned viewpoints, and the freedom to reach Paestum without a two-bus-plus-train connection.
The SS163 Amalfitana is narrow and requires patience. Choose a small car, go slowly, sound your horn before blind bends (locals do), and avoid it in July or August when the road can take two hours to cover 15 kilometres. In April or May, you will share it mainly with locals.
Naples rewards patience. The city's historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most densely layered urban environments in Europe: Greek ruins beneath Roman remains beneath Baroque churches beneath apartment buildings six storeys deep. It is chaotic and excellent.
Two nights give enough time to explore Spaccanapoli, the long straight street cutting through the old city, visit the Castel Nuovo on the waterfront, and eat several good meals. Before leaving, spend a morning at the National Archaeological Museum. Its collection of material from Pompeii and Herculaneum is extraordinary; seeing it before the ruins makes the site itself far more comprehensible.
Park at your hotel garage and leave the car there. Walking and metro are the right ways to move around Naples.
The drive from Naples to Pompeii takes 30 to 40 minutes via the A3. Book timed entry tickets in advance at the official site; coach groups arrive from mid-morning onward and the most famous areas become crowded quickly. With an early arrival you can cover the forum, the Via dell'Abbondanza, a selection of houses, and the amphitheatre in a comfortable day.
Pompeii is larger than most people expect. The site covers 44 hectares and rewards a slow pace. Stay overnight nearby to reach Sorrento the following morning without rushing.
Sorrento sits on a plateau above the sea at the tip of the Sorrentine Peninsula, with views across the Bay of Naples toward Vesuvius. It is practical (good transport connections, varied accommodation at mid-range prices) and attractive enough to enjoy rather than treating it purely as a staging post.
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Use one of your two days to take the ferry to Capri: 25 minutes from Marina Piccola and worth the trip for the Blue Grotto and the chairlift above Anacapri. On the second day, explore Sorrento itself, walk through the lemon groves in the hinterland, and book dinner at one of the seafood restaurants on Via degli Aranci.
Sorrento is also connected to Naples by the Circumvesuviana railway, which makes it straightforward to return a rental car in Naples and use public transport from here if coastal driving proves less appealing than anticipated.
Positano is the Amalfi Coast in miniature. The village climbs a steep hillside in layers of pink, white, and ochre buildings, with narrow lanes connecting them and the beach at the bottom. It is the most photographed place on the coast and also one of the most expensive.
Two nights are the right amount of time. Spend one morning at Marina Grande beach before the crowds arrive, hire a small boat for the afternoon to reach the quiet coves east of the village, and take the ferry to Amalfi for the day (35 minutes, with views of the coast from the water that put the road journey into perspective).
Parking in Positano requires booking ahead; most hotels have arrangements with car parks on the upper road. The walk from car parks to the village involves a significant number of steps.
The drive from Positano to Ravello takes around 45 minutes via the SS163 through Amalfi town. Stop in Amalfi for an hour to see the Duomo di Sant'Andrea, the 9th-century cathedral with its bronze doors and gold mosaics, before climbing the 7km road to Ravello above.
Ravello is small and quiet, positioned 350 metres above the sea. Its two famous gardens both justify an entry fee. Villa Rufolo (inside the medieval tower complex) has terraced gardens overlooking the coast and hosts classical concerts in summer. Villa Cimbrone has the Terrace of Infinity: a balustrade of marble busts above a 360-metre drop to the sea, delivering the finest coastal panorama on the entire route.
Ravello has a handful of excellent small hotels and restaurants. It is the calmest overnight on this itinerary.
The drive south from Ravello via Salerno to Paestum takes around 90 minutes on straightforward roads. The change in landscape is marked: the coast gives way to flat agricultural plains, traffic thins, and the pace drops noticeably. Paestum is a quiet village beside one of the most significant ancient sites in the Mediterranean.
Three Doric temples dating from the 6th and 5th century BC survive in outstanding condition: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Neptune, and the Temple of Ceres. The site museum holds the Tomb of the Diver, a 5th-century BC fresco depicting a banquet scene and a solitary figure diving into the unknown. It is one of the only surviving examples of Greek figurative painting on plaster.
The site takes two to three hours to cover properly. Stay the night in one of the small hotels along the main road; they are inexpensive and considerably quieter than anything on the coast.
Most travellers use the final morning to revisit the temples at first light before driving or taking the train back to Naples (90 minutes by car; around two hours by train with one change at Battipaglia).
Best time: April to June and September to October. July and August see the SS163 at its most congested and hotel prices at their peak. Many smaller businesses close from November to March.
Getting there: Fly into Naples Capodichino (NAP), which has connections from most major European airports. Paestum is 90 minutes from Naples by car or around two hours by train.
Car hire: Book a small car (hatchback or similar) well in advance for spring and summer travel. Automatic gearboxes are worth the premium given the hill starts. Book parking at each stop before you leave home.
Budget: Mid-range at approximately €120-200 per night for accommodation. Positano and Ravello are the most expensive stops; Naples and Paestum are noticeably cheaper.
The Amalfi Coast road trip is often described as one of the world's most beautiful drives, which is accurate and also a reasonable warning. The SS163 is genuinely narrow, with coaches coming the other way around blind bends, near-vertical drops below, and very limited room for error. This is not a route for nervous drivers or those unaccustomed to manual gearboxes on steep hills.
Use the ferries between coastal towns whenever possible: they are inexpensive, frequent in season, and offer the cliff views from the water rather than from the edge of them. The combination of driving the SS163 in one direction and returning by ferry is the most satisfying way to experience the coast.
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The full route — stops, maps, and driving times — is on Routebook by Kington.
Ten days through southern Italy's most iconic coastline: from Naples and Pompeii's ruins, around the hairpin cliffs of Positano and Ravello, to Paestum's extraordinary Greek temples.
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