Where to stay in Amalfi Coast

Vertical villages on a cliff road, and the road is the point and the problem. Beautiful, slow, and best with a base you do not need to leave daily — Positano for looks, Ravello for quiet, Amalfi for getting around.

The coast is one road, and every town stacks above or below it. Positano climbs from Spiaggia Grande to the road above, so a room is measured in steps to the sea; Praiano, next east, is quieter and faces the sunset. Amalfi is nearly flat, with ferry pier and SITA bus stand together on the front, the easiest base. Ravello, above Amalfi, is a bus ride from any swim.

It suits couples and walkers content to do little. Positano is a staircase with a town attached, which rules out pushchairs and weak knees. The road is one lane each way, and in summer an odd-and-even plate rule shuts visitors' cars out of it for most of the day, so come without one. The SITA buses fill and in high season leave people behind at Positano.

Three nights in one town is the minimum. Ferries run spring to autumn, and not in a swell. Walk the Path of the Gods downhill, Bomerano to Nocelle, before nine. Arrive from Sorrento and leave via Salerno, where the Frecciarossa stops, so the road is done once. Positano is itself again after six.

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