The Amalfi Coast towns, and why you should not hire a car in 2026
Nine towns ranked by what each is actually for, the alternating number plate rules that close the SS163 to half of all cars, and the base nobody books.
Photo · Alina Chernii · Pexels
Before any of the towns, the thing that changed and that decides the shape of your trip: in 2026 you cannot reliably drive the Amalfi Coast road.
The SS163 runs an alternating number plate scheme. On odd dates, cars with plates ending in an odd number are banned. On even dates, even ones are. Between 10am and 6pm, in fourteen municipalities along the coast.
That is not a small inconvenience. It means a hire car is a coin toss on half the days of your trip, and it is why this guide recommends arriving by train and moving by boat.
Euro. Convert any figure on this page into your own currency at today's published rate.
Open the currency converter →The driving rules, precisely
| Period | When it applies |
|---|---|
| 30 March to 6 April 2026 | Every day, including Easter Monday |
| 24 April to 2 May 2026 | Every day |
| 1 June to 31 July 2026 | Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays |
| 1 August to 30 September 2026 | Every day |
Hours: 10:00 to 18:00. Outside those hours the road is unrestricted.
The municipalities: Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori, Amalfi, Atrani, Ravello, Scala, Praiano, Positano, Conca dei Marini, Furore, Tramonti and Agerola. Which is to say, all of it.
Motorcycles and scooters are exempt, which is the one loophole and is only useful if you are a confident rider on a road with no shoulder, blind bends and coaches coming the other way.
The dates shift year to year, so check before you travel, and treat any guide that tells you to hire a car for the Amalfi Coast as written before 2024.
The towns, by what each is for
Positano, the photograph
The one on every list, and it earns it visually: pastel houses stacked up a cliff above a beach, with the dome of Santa Maria Assunta in the middle of the frame.
What nobody says clearly: it is vertical. Positano is a staircase with a town attached. Everything is up or down steps, taxis cannot reach most accommodation, and your luggage is carried by you or by a porter you pay.
It is also the most expensive and most crowded town on the coast.
Our advice: arrive by ferry, spend the day, leave. If you do stay, book something near the bottom or accept the climb.
Amalfi, the town that is actually a town
The historic republic, and the only place on the coast with a proper civic centre rather than a viewpoint: a cathedral with a spectacular striped facade and a grand staircase, a working piazza, shops that sell things residents need, and the paper museum in the valley behind.
It is also the transport hub: the SITA buses meet here and the ferries dock here.
Best for: a base if you want to move around without planning every leg. The catch: it is busy at midday when the boats arrive, and calm by seven.
Ravello, above it all
Three hundred and fifty metres up, on a spur between the sea and the valley, and completely different in character from the coast below: cool, quiet, gardened and refined.
Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone are the two great gardens of southern Italy, and Cimbrone's Terrace of Infinity is the single best view on this coastline. The summer music festival plays on a stage cantilevered over the drop.
Best for: a night or two of quiet, and the best sleep on the coast. The catch: it is a bus ride up from Amalfi and there is no ferry.
Praiano, the value answer
Between Positano and Amalfi, on the same road, with the same sea, at substantially lower prices and with a fraction of the visitors.
It faces west, so it has the best sunsets on the coast, and the walk down to the Marina di Praia cove is one of the nicer half-hours here.
Best for: a base, honestly, if you want the coast itself. The catch: it has fewer restaurants, and you will use the bus.
Atrani, the one nobody visits
Seven hundred metres from Amalfi along the cliff, and almost nobody walks it. It is the smallest municipality in southern Italy, a compact knot of arches, stairs and a piazza that opens onto a small beach, and it is what Amalfi looked like before the boats.
Best for: dinner, and an hour in the late afternoon. Free, and five minutes away.
Minori and Maiori, the flat ones
East of Amalfi, and the two towns on this coast with actual flat ground and proper beaches. Minori has a Roman villa and the best pastry shop on the coast; Maiori has the longest beach.
They are working Italian towns rather than postcards, prices are markedly lower, and they are on the ferry route.
Best for: families, longer stays, anyone tired of steps.
Cetara, the fishing village
Still a working anchovy port, and the home of colatura di alici, the amber anchovy sauce descended from Roman garum that is one of the great Italian ingredients.
Best for: eating. Two hours and a long lunch.
Vietri sul Mare, the ceramics
The eastern gateway and the ceramics town, where the tiles on every other roof and staircase on this coast are made. Cheaper again, and ten minutes from Salerno.
Salerno, the base nobody books
The unglamorous recommendation and the one we would actually make for a first visit on a normal budget.
Salerno has a mainline railway station, so you arrive from Rome or Naples without a car. It has a ferry terminal for the coastal boats. It has a genuine Italian city centre with a medieval quarter, a cathedral holding the relics of Saint Matthew, and a seafront promenade. And it costs a fraction of Positano.
From Salerno the coast is a boat ride, which is exactly what the driving rules now push everyone towards.
The walk, if you do one thing
The Sentiero degli Dei, the Path of the Gods, from Bomerano to Nocelle, high above the coast with Positano and Capri below you.
About three hours, downhill in that direction, and it is the best three hours on this coast. Take water, wear real shoes, and start early in summer. It ends in about 1,500 steps down into Positano, or a bus if your knees object.
A catalogue note: the shelves above are Salerno and Naples, our two destinations at this end of Italy. Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Praiano and Sorrento are not in our catalogue, so we cannot show you rooms in the towns this page spends most of its time on. Salerno is a genuinely good base and Naples is the gateway, and we would rather say what we cannot do than show you the wrong shelf.
When to go
May, June, September and early October. The sea is swimmable from about June and stays warm into October, the heat is workable, and the driving restrictions are at their lightest in May and early June.
July and August are the peak of everything: heat, crowds, prices, and daily plate restrictions from 1 August.
November to March the ferries stop, many hotels close and the coast goes quiet. It rains, and it is beautiful, and Ravello in winter is a genuine secret.
The full Italian seasonal picture has the Ferragosto fortnight, which lands squarely in the middle of the daily restriction period.
What to skip
Hiring a car. The argument of this entire page.
Positano as a base if anyone has a bad knee, a heavy case or a pram. It is stairs, all of it.
Driving to Ravello for the day in August. Bus from Amalfi.
A day trip from Rome. It is three hours each way to spend four hours on a coast that deserves three days.
The Blue Grotto queue on a day-trip schedule. Capri is a separate decision and squeezing it into an Amalfi day means seeing neither.
Booking Sorrento thinking it is on the Amalfi Coast. It is on the other side of the peninsula, facing Naples. It is a good base for Pompeii and Capri and it is not this coastline.
Short tourist stays only. Checked 21 Aug 2026; rules change without notice and the government page is the source of truth.
Check your own passport →Checked 21 Aug 2026.
Everything we check for Italy →Before you book
Ten days in Italy is the route this coast fits into, and the best time to visit Italy covers the month, the Ferragosto closures and the Venice fee. If Naples is your gateway, underrated European cities makes the case for treating it as a destination rather than a train change, which is the commonest mistake in southern Italy. The Naples city guide, the Salerno city guide and the Italy country guide have the practicalities, and Rome in four days covers the usual first half of the trip. More in the best of hub. Ready to look at rooms? Salerno stays here and Naples stays here.
Driving restrictions, dates and hours checked September 2026. The alternating plate calendar is set annually by the Anas road authority and the coastal municipalities and the regional government publishes it, so confirm your own dates before booking any car. Ferry timetables are seasonal and stop over winter. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
