How could I not resist a day trip to somewhere on the Amalfi coast, being based in Salerno for a couple of weeks? Not having any preconceived ideas, I decided on taking the ferry from Salerno to Amalfi to explore that cute little town.
Porto Turistico
There seem to be two tourist ports in the city. This one called Porto Turistico and the new port which opened in 2016 at on the north side of town. The TravelMar ferries that travel to the Amalfi coast, leave from Piazza Concordia in Salerno.
Tickets
I did not pre-purchase my ticket as I wanted to ensure it was a sunny day for my trip. To purchase your ticket at the booth in person, arrive no later than 20 minutes before departure. There was no line up for tickets when I arrived one half hour before the ferry was due to leave. I decided to take the first ferry at 8:40am and the cost was €10 each way.
There were not a lot of people waiting for this ferry. A boat pulled up to the dock and we were told to hop on, even though the name on the boat was not the ferry line I had purchased a ticket for. Leaving the dock at 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time, I was on my way.
The Trip Over to Amalfi
The boat I was on had two levels, the bottom level was indoors with comfy padded seats, and the top deck that was hard plastic and exposed to the elements. You bet I picked the out door one!
The views, well they were breathtaking! I think I took about 100 photos’ just from the trip over, which only takes 35 minutes.
You will get blown to bits, so hair ties are a must. At one point I was even holding onto my glasses for fear they would be whipped off my face and lost to sea.
Docking in Amalfi
Having absolutely no idea where I was going, I simply hopped off the boat and headed for the town. It is quite literally right there above the boat dock.
There was a massive crowd of people already in Amalfi, waiting at the dock to board their boats for the day, many, many more people than were lined up in Salerno.
Amalfi
I will be writing a post about 6 free things to see & do in Amalfi which showcases most of what I filled my time doing there. Here are some additional photos of beautiful and charming Amalfi.
Ferry Back to Salerno
Super crowded. Even more so than when I landed. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long in line to purchase a ticket. The booth is very obvious, you won’t miss it.
Finding the place to line up however? Dude. To say it was chaos is an understatement. I wandered around for a bit but really couldn’t walk much because of the sardines we all were packed on that dock. No one knew where to stand. Everyone was antsy so as not to miss their ride.
There were three dock hands that were tying up the boats as they arrived. They would walk up and down the line of people, yelling out the destination of the boats after they unloaded. People made their way to where ever they thought they should be.
My boat was due to depart at 12:45 and ended up leaving the dock at 1:10. There were three groups of people on my boat headed for Salerno. Some had a scheduled departure time of 11:50 on their ticket. So, all in all, I was lucky, at least my delay was only ½ and hour.
The Ride Back
Very much like the one to Amalfi earlier in the day except so much more windy!
Great day trip. I highly recommend it. Having never been to the Amalfi coast before, I am glad I picked Amalfi instead of Positano or one of the others. If this is how crowded this little town gets in the shoulder season, dang, I can’t imagine what the other more popular ones are like.
Best advice, get in early, get out early. If not, you will be walking around in sardine streets from 11am onwards.
