The Amalfi Coast is a two-day coastline that rewards a week: forty nautical miles of cliff between Sorrento and Salerno, with Capri sitting off the western end like a full stop. The trip works best west to east and back, sleeping in three harbours — Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri — and treating Positano as a morning call, not an overnight. The catch is traffic: between 10:00 and 16:00 in season the ferries, day cruisers and trip boats own the water, and the two hours either side of dawn are the ones that decide whether the week feels like a cruise or a commute.
This is a planning guide built from published port information and standard pilotage for the area, not a reported voyage. Depths and berth details below are typical figures for the season — confirm current depths and availability with each marina before arrival, and file your plans with the harbour offices as local notices require. The Italian coast guard remains the authority for any notice to mariners in the area.
Which direction, and why west to east first
The prevailing summer wind along the coast is from the south-west, which makes the eastbound legs the calmer mornings and puts the swell on the quarter for the return. More practically, the coast's one wide, sheltered overnight anchorage east of Salerno is a long run from Capri; starting west clears the famous bits early, while the crew is still fresh and the fridge is full.
Sorrento: the sensible first night
Marina Piccola, below the cliff at the town's foot, is the coast's most useful base: published berthing depths generally in the two-to-four-metre band, laid moorings stern-to, and a lift into the piazza. It is a working port with ferry traffic — expect wake until the last evening crossing — but it provisions well and puts Naples, Pompeii and the peninsula's restaurants within an hour by land or sea. Arrive before 17:00 in July and August or take your chances on the waiting list.
Positano: a morning, not a marina
Positano has no real marina, only a small landing and a patch of water that ferries cross constantly. The move is to arrive between 07:00 and 09:00, anchor off in settled weather with a careful eye on the south-west — the anchorage is untenable in any swell — run the tender to the beach steps, have breakfast up the hill, and be gone before the midday circus. Guests who insist on a Positano evening are better served by the day's second half in Amalfi and a tender run back in the morning.
Amalfi and the quiet alternative
Amalfi's harbour, inside its mole, offers stern-to berthing with depths typically around two to four metres and the town thirty seconds from the steps. It is the coast's best walking port — the duomo, the paper mills, the stair-paths to Ravello — and the natural place for two nights. When it is full, which in high summer is often, Conca dei Marini and the fjord at Furore make protected daytime stops with restaurant moorings, and Vietri sul Mare at the coast's eastern end has quay space that the international fleet overlooks.
Capri: book it, or skip the marina
Marina Grande is the island's only real harbour, and in season it is booked weeks ahead; published depths accommodate most charter displacements, but space, not draught, is the constraint. The alternatives are a buoy reservation where offered or a day anchored at the Faraglioni in flat weather, tendering in for the evening. The island rewards the last two hours before the day-trippers leave: the Piazzetta at 18:00 is a different place from the Piazzetta at noon.
The week, day by day
Day one, Naples or Sorrento arrival and berth at Marina Piccola. Day two, the early run to Positano and on to Amalfi for two nights. Day four, the long-ish morning east to Vietri or the fjord stops, or straight back west if the melltemi's cousin — the afternoon thermal — is building. Day five, Capri, entered by mid-afternoon for a buoy or berth. Day six, the island slowly: Anacapri in the morning, the Faraglioni pass in the evening. Day seven, home leg to Sorrento or Naples, off the dock by 08:00 and in by lunch.
Who should skip it
Families with very young children and anyone who measures a holiday by water sports in open roadsteads will prefer the Aeolian or Pontine model — bays, not quay walls. And the coast in August, with the fleet at its thickest and every ferry slot sold, is a different, lesser trip than the same coast in June or late September.