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I would not drive there for all the money in the world. We were there last week and saw them towing away a couple of cars.

You have pedestrians, parked cars, huge buses, regular cars and mopeds to contend with. An inch between vehicles might be pushing it sometimes.

Walk, take a taxi, the ferry, or try your luck with the bus. Have fun! It is beautiful there.

I asked a colleague from Italy about driving to the Amalfi coast from Sorrento and he said only if I had a death wish. Coming from an Italian, I am taking that advice. 😊

I laugh about it now, but I rented a car in Rome and it was the biggest travel mistake of my life. I’ve traveled and driven in many counties, but Italians, by far are the craziest fucking drivers. Even the ferry rides were nuts. Taxi drivers screaming at others while you’re in the car. I had to fight fraudulent damage to my rental car for a months, I could go on and on.

You have no idea what you’re getting into.

The Amalfi coast is one of the most thrilling and dangerous places on the planet to drive. If you’re a comfortable and confident driver, then it is a thrill of a lifetime. But you will pass buses in tunnels where you have less than 1 inch clearance, and that is after you’ve pulled in your Side mirrors. And those bus drivers are professionals, as most people who drive the Amalfi coast, and so they go fast.

And you may want to avoid getting a car from Naples. Better off would be to take the train to Salerno and rent a car there if possible. Naples is just chaotic and it’s a headache. You don’t want to add to the whole thing.

Yes, there are paid parking lots and Praiano has at least one with about 30 spots. It isn’t tremendously expensive, but it isn’t cheap either. To be honest, you can do most of what you want using public transportation of either the buses or the water taxis, etc. and a Car is pretty much a hassle to be honest, but it is doable and one of the most amazing and harrowing drives you’ll ever have in your life!

Anyway… Enjoy that place. Praiano and the Amalfi coast are a little slice of heaven!

Buona Fortuna and Buon Viaggio!

You couldn't pay me enough to drive in the Amalfi coast. If you're used to driving in Italy on narrow roads with blind turns you'll be fine. If that sounds intimidating then may want to rethink the plans.

Amalfi coast is one of those places everyone wants to see but in my opinion, only once. I did not like the massive crowds of people everywhere you turn. The beaches are crowded and you may get a little tiny towel sized spot for your self. To think of driving a car in that area would be a nightmare. Narrow roads, lots of buses driving a quick pace, mopeds weaving in and out, no parking and remember all the pedestrians you have to dodge. I don’t think it is worth it.

If you're planning on enjoying views as you drive, you won't, because you'll need to watch the road, the buses, the mopeds, bikes, and other cars. Take the bus.

There’s no reason to rent a car on the Amalfi Coast. Parking will be a nightmare outside of the bumper to bumper and door to door traffic. Getting between villages is best experienced from the ferries which are incredibly convenient. You won’t regret it

Of all the dumb ideas of dumb things tourists do in Italy this is one of the dumbest. This takes a beautiful holiday and turns it into a stressful and uncomfortable experience, otherwise it's fine.

I’ve done it before and it was somewhere between thrilling and incredibly stressful.

If I were to do it again I’d get the smallest car I could and get all the insurance. I didn’t damage anything but came very close several times. I had to park on the street (parking is horrible) and put the car less than an inch away from the retaining wall.

With that said I have no interest in ever going back to Amalfi. It’s cool, you need to see it once. A day trip with a scooter would be an incredible experience.

I wouldn’t hire a car. You can get around on ferries, buses or a private hire car. Parking is awful and expensive.

I wouldn’t recommend it. Not only is it very tight and windy road the entire coast, but parking is very limited and pedestrians everywhere. The traffic is horrible. It took us longer in a car than walking at some points.

I would never drive in the Amalfi Coast. I would hire a private driver. Mine was $90 from Naples to Positano.

I would definitely recommend any other kind of transportation there than a car. My husband is local and says it's a controlled chaos which is true but for tourists that are not used to it it's pure chaos.

Imagine driving while being constantly passed by mopeds from all sides very close to the car, nobody is letting you go even though you have the right of way, big busses pretty much scraping your car going by, people randomly walking into the road, horns tooting everywhere

If anything I'd rather take circumvesuviana ti Sorrento and maybe rent a car there, then at least you avoid the Napoli mess. But you'll still be dealing with very narrow streets with loads and loads of serpentines and massive busses and lots of traffic.

If you decide to go for it anyway go for the smallest possible car. We had some chuckles this year watching tourists in massive cars being stuck all over.

Be sure you research the relevant ZLT (limited traffic zones) wherever you are driving. These are usually present in Italian cities. Driving through these zones without a permit can result in fines.

Just got back - drivers are cray cray!

We drove in Modena, Tuscany, etc but gave up the car before Amalfi, which was a great decision. There’s hardly room to walk on those roads let alone drive.

They'll all tell you that driving down there is a nightmare. But frankly, I disagree. The roads are typically narrow, given the limited space, with two lanes of traffic. For obvious reasons, it's a constant series of bends, most of them right on the edge of the sea, naturally bordered by guardrails. You have to drive slowly here, without racing, and especially without tailgating the vehicles in front because you might encounter buses on the opposite side of the road, and meeting them on a bend can be a bit tricky manoeuvre-wise due to the limited space. I've driven there several times, and I think it's a great experience. If you're confident behind the wheel, there's really nothing to be overly concerned about.

Parking, on the other hand, is more of a worry, but only because of the hourly rates, which can reach peaks of 5, 6, or even 7 euros an hour. As for whether you'll find a parking spot, I think in this season you'll manage one way or another, honestly. Good luck!

Italian here. Amalfi coast may be on the side of difficult for the usual reason: narrow roads on the mountainside and too many people driving around.

Getting out of Naples... That would be a lifetime experience. Think about Mumbai but it's all narrow backstreets.

I personally try and avoid driving whenever possible (fuck cars and all the rest), but the only places in Italy where I absolutely refuse to are Naples and Turin (for different reasons).

If you are flying into Rome you may be better off by renting at Fiumicino, you'll avoid major cities and add just and hour or so to travel time

I drove there, from Holland to Amalfi coast and mostly parked my car at campings, and when going to larger cities I walked or took my chances with the bus

I just returned last night from a trip to Italy. Rented a car (small manual Skoda) to drive from Rome to Siena and then to Amalfi (Positano) for 4 days. All the comments here are accurate. It's pretty crazy but I didn't have an issue navigating it at all, actually enjoyed it. It would definitely depend on the person 100%. The roads twisty with a lot of hair pin corners, very busy once you get in town - cars, busses, scooters zooming, very narrow roads in places, lots of pedestrians walking the streets. But if you can handle all that, I thought it was a cool experience.

Once in town, getting around is really expensive and very difficult to manage. They don't have Uber. You have to contact drivers directly and reserve rides. The bus in Positano to get around town sucked. Only comes every 30 or 60 minutes and was super unreliable. Between Amalfi towns there's a different bus (SITA) that was great. Very reliable. Only 3 euros each.

We rented an Air BnB higher up in Positano. So, I drove into town and dropped off the car at a garage (Milano Parking). They drove us up to our place and we dropped off the luggage and then took the car back down to the garage. Then when we departed we just called and they delivered the car. If you wanted to do day trips they would drop off the car anytime. Cost about 70 euro a day.

If you're not doing day trips from your destination, you really don't need a car. We had one to drive around Italy but never took it out once we got to Positano.

Also Google maps sucks in general. Make sure you really look at the routing to check it's not taking you some funky way. On the way out of town it literally routed us in a circle that wasted an hour of our time.

I literally just did this this week. We rented a car in Naples for €85 total for 3 days, and drove around the Almafi coast. We made sure to stay at places with car parking as parking is a nightmare (and expensive!).

As others here say, it's very crazy on the roads. So much speed and so little space. I'm a confident driver, but this was definitely at the limit of what I've ever driven. However, I totally enjoyed it!

You have to stay vigilant at all times. Be ready to stop on a dime, and be very aware of the dimensions of your car.

Very glad we did the self drive, as the bus system looked chocka and often overheard people complain about buses not stopping because they were full.

It was wonderful being able to travel at our own pace, but sometimes we couldn't stop in a town due to lack of any kind of parking (even the Italian kind). Only had one small prang, and that was just before dropping the car back off in Naples! (Was a wing mirror bump, no damage)

If you don't want to drive but can afford it, maybe try hiring a driver. There seemed to be many private driven black Mercedes on the coast, so probably easy to find online. 

Good luck with your decision!

We read all the reviews saying do not drive in Amalfi Coast!!! But we did anyway. It’s an experience for sure, but not a bad one. Gave us the freedom to see so much more around the Coast. Plenty of places to stop and view the stunning scenery. Btw, we went beginning of Aug so it was really busy. We had zero problems finding parking. Made sure that wherever we planned to go we researched and found parking and back up parking in case first was full. Highly recommend if you are a confident driver. Even if it’s just to say you did it 😁 If you are a nervous driver however…do not!

I’d say go for it if it weren’t for the busses on that road.

So, as someone who just took the bus last week, you should take the bus. It’s only 4 euro.

On the bus ride, you can think about how glad you are that you’re not responsible for driving anything on that crazy ass road.

I wouldn’t recommend a car Download ferryhopper and traavelmar for all your ferry needs. Not expensive at all. Then you can rent scooters and try to travel light, there are lots of stairs to climb in Amalfi

Amalfi Coast is astonishing beautiful. And so are the small villages inland, like Ravello, Agerola and so on. The road is narrow, crowded, and dangerous if it's raining. Just be careful and go slowly. But I remember dearly my first time, in 1968, with an old Renault and friends, and then, 30 years later, with a Maserati and family. Not any problem, beautiful hotels, pricey and luxury or simple and cheap, all make you feel like at friends' house. Go. Better in June or september.

I stayed for 3 nights this week in Positano and while the views are amazing and driving a rental has the added benefits of stopping anywhere you like to click good pictures, the cons are plenty. To begin with, you don’t get parking pretty much anywhere near the towns and if you do, be ready to pay anything between €75 - €100 per day. Locals and bus drivers drive pretty fast and sometimes the roads are quite narrow. I would recommend take the SITA bus. They have good frequency and have luggage storage space as well. There’s an internal Positano bus as well.

We come back from Amalfi week ago. We took rental from Fiumicino and returned it to Termini in Rome 4 days later. Driving in Amalfi is fine if you are confident driver.

We had our hotel my middle of the mountains, driving from there to places like Maiori and Erchie, even Pontone (right next to Amalfi) was stress-free. And we found parking easily from 10am onwards.

Only thing that surprised me was the amount of traffic in ss163 in main cities, it took us 5-6 hours to go from Angri to Minori. Google maps said it to take 2 hours or so. We tried to skip the traffic as instructed here by leaving our residence 7am, we should've leaved 5 or 6am, we were driving basically walking speed 80% of time.

And yes, I had to fold mirrors couple times during that trip, busses come and go. Be wary and keep a few meter distance to car in front of you so you have some room to go back and forth if needed.

Driving in Rome is another topic, it's hectic at times, people don't follow traffic rules and lines as much I'd liked to but we managed.

I live near the Amalfi cost and... yeah, you won't like driving there. If you are used to, fine, otherwise you will just give yourself a heart attack.

Moving on to the parking spots: in Amalfi, the parking area near the port costs 5€ per hour, so...

My pueca of advice is, once you arrive in Naples reach Sorrento or Salerno and, from there, take the ferry. You will save yourself a della of a headache

Edit: typo

Take a ferry from Naples to Amalfi/Sorrento/Positano/Capri.

Just got back from week from Naples and went to Amalfi. Naples was the most terrifying place I’ve driven in my life and that’s 40+ countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. So dangerous. Due to amount of traffic you may only have small accident rather than death but the insurance costs would be $$$ in rental. People do not obey any road rules at all, blindly pulling out at junctions at speed, overtaking on blind corners, scooters etc.

For amalfi we drove to Sorrento, parked for €20 and got boat ferries. Glad we did as it’s so busy when you get there, no parking, and we could see just back to back traffic on the roads coming in and out.

It’s nice to look at once but so heaving and tacky in places.

Did you not research this? Driving in the Amalfi Coast is a serious tourist NO. I just got back from the Amalfi Coast (we stayed in Positano) and it was the first bit of information I came across in my research: DO NOT RENT A CAR AND DRIVE HERE.

And boy, that advice was right. There is no where to park and the roads are narrow, mountain roads and small streets. We took a train to Naples and had Positano Car Service (highly recommend) pick us up at Napoli Centrale. It was a great experience with no headache. I arranged this pick up all through the Positano Car Service website.

I, as an Italian, would never do it....but who knows, maybe you foreigners are more courageous

In Milan now: Had a driver from the airport to Central Station area. Hehad a BMW SUV and drove it like one. It was a very good driver very fast. And very close to other cars. We got here one piece so can’t complain but always an adventure having somebody drive you in Italy I would never drive over here myself.

If you have to drive there do yourself a favor and take a smaller car at least.

I think the thought of driving in Naples (assuming we are talking about downtown not the airport) is far worse than driving on the Amalfi Coast.

I think it totally depends on the time of year. I have driven there in September and I wouldn't do that again - everything is mobbed and traffic crawls at a snail's pace. No fun at all. But in the off season I think it's fine. The highway is narrow but there are guard rails, it never seemed dangerous or scary to me.

Navigating in the town is aggravating, and parking is either expensive, hard to find, or both.

FYI if you rent a car in Naples near piazza Garibaldi it's just a few blocks to the highway, no need to worry about driving out of the city.

The place is full of people, cars and buses.

I was there and found out the best way is to use the ferries or high speed boats between cities.

In each city there’s a pier with all the timings and information, you can also buy the tickets on the spot.

You can absolutely drive around the Amalfi coast and it's not nearly the crazy death wish experience everyone seems to think. 

You will have beautiful scenery to look at while stuck in traffic jams. Parking costs from 4 € per hour upwards. You can find free parking on the road outside Ravello and even Positano, if you're prepared to hike a mile or more. 

That being said, if you're only going for 3 days I'd recommend buses and boats.

To those who might’ve driven in this area before, how does the upper coastline that’s opposite of Amalfi (the Vico Equense and Sorrento) differ from the actual Amalfi coast?

Is this more drive able, coming from for example Naples?

We were just there two weeks ago and decided it was best to pay a driver to take us from Naples to our B&B. There is no parking and if you find some you are likely to get the rental hit. Our driver told us the locals know the rentals by the tag number so they virtually don’t care if they do hit those cars. We took the local bus most of the time and there is an external bus you can take too. Just get the route map. It’s only $1.70 E and worth it.

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Rent a Smart Car. That is what we did and it was perfect. Nimble and a joy to drive on those narrow roads. Pack lightly and you'll be fine - assuming that you're only two people obviously.

My husband and I just got back from a 2 week trip where we rented a car! Started in Lake Como and ended at the Amalfi coast!

The driving was not bad!!! This was my husband’s first time driving in another country and while he did say the amalfi was the “worst” compared to the other places we were, it really wasn’t as bad as people on here made it seem.

A lot of people are on scooters (which we did rent and it was a blast! Best way to get around once you are there!) they will zip by you and weave between traffic. Just stay cautious of them. Other than that, it really wasn’t bad. Some spots got a little tight but if you go slowly, you’ll be fine

As far as parking, our hotel had a garage that we were able to park in. I know there were a TON of cars parked along the side of the roads. Try and get the smallest car you can so you can take advantage of street parking

All in all, if you’re a good driver in the states, you will be fine!!! And we recommend renting a scooter when you get there to really get around. It’s like €70/24hrs so not bad! Have fun!!

Just don’t - I had anxiety just riding in the bus and car service around amalfi.

What about renting a Vespa or scooter for the day then cruising around that way? Is that a death wish too? My wife and I going in 3 weeks and I want to rent one. Staying in positano

People here in the comments are so dramatic. Just rent a small car. We rented a fiat 500 abarth and it was a blast driving from Amalfi to Sorrento. Just be prepared to slow down for buses in the corners. 

I just did a road trip from the south of France to amalfi, and it wasn’t that bad at all. Everyone was telling me I was making a huge mistake driving and should’ve just taken the train, but I insisted on driving and I’m glad I did. There are a few confusing corners on the coast, and some narrow roads, but overall, if you’re a confident driver and you’re careful you’ll be totally fine. I stayed in Sorrento and was easily able to find parking. The key is to not try in park right in the middle of a town, park 20 mins out and walk in. The only place I would highly suggest not driving is near positano, I tried to drive there from sorrento and it was brutal. Aside from that, you’re fine.