Hey everyone! I’m Sam Kieft, wife of Zach Kieft. Over the years, I’ve become the main planner for our trips – mainly due to my type A personality lol. I get major anxiety about safety, having housing, spending money, or forgetting to plan something crucial like a train ticket. So for me, it was always best to own the planning so I could ensure everything was accounted for.
The main thing I hear from most of my colleagues is “I can’t wait to start traveling” but then it never happens. My gut tells me it comes from either anxiety of planning it and going somewhere you don’t know, or from not having the money to do it. Both of these are valid concerns, and are two topics that I excel in.
For those struggling with the anxiety roadblock, that’s what this blog is for. All of my “Let’s Plan This Together” posts will be me helping you step-by-step plan and book your trip
So let’s get to it – let’s plan this trip to Positano together!
The best thing to remember is all you really need at the end of the day is – how to get there, how are you getting home, where are you sleeping at night, and how do you want to get from place to place? So once you have your flights, hotel, and rental car you’re pretty much 80% done!
1. Choose your dates
Sometimes this is easiest to do while booking your flight if you don’t have specific dates that you have to be there. Something that we take into consideration is the price of flights. Prior to doing a google search, open up a private browsing window – this stops companies from being able to save your search which can lead to them upping the price when you later search the same trip.
If you google “flights from BLANK to Naples” google will show you flight results that look like this:
You’ll need to fly into Naples and take a ferry to Positano. There were no direct lines when we went. We did a ferry from Napoli(Beverello) to Sorrento. Then Sorrento to Positano. You can purchase tickets through directferries or through Alilauro for ferry tickets.
Once you hit on SHOW FLIGHTS, it’ll load all your options. At that point, click on the departure date & it’ll show you prices per day:
This is how we usually pick our dates. It’s showing you the cheapest option you’ll have for the round trip. Don’t let it sweep you up – it sometimes is a great deal but other times it’s because there are more stops or a longer duration. So ensure to still check all the details.
Google is also awesome because they’ll always have a price graph that tells you if the dates prices are normal or not for that time of year. From this, you should be able to choose your dates.
2. Plane Tickets
Plane tickets are straightforward once you choose what brand you want. What I’ll share from our experience is we usually use Delta for our international flights along with KLM and British Airways. We have used American but they do get delayed sometimes while with Delta, we’ve never experienced that.
What to expect for an international flight?
International flights come with a lot of extras that domestic flights don’t! They’ll usually pass out headphones, eye cover; Delta passes out a sheet that can be used for a blanket, and a little pillow!
When booking your flight, they’ll ask you for meal dietary restrictions because international flights will usually come with 2-3 meals. They can also have unlimited flight snacks that you can ask for, as well as beverages.
All the international flights that we’ve been on always come with tv’s on the back of each chair so you can watch shows, movies, or play games through the tablet during your whole flight! One time when we were heading back home from Amsterdam, we watched the entire 3rd season of Game of Thrones!
I would still recommend bringing your own snacks, and beverages in case they don’t have unlimited snacks. I’d also recommend downloading a Duolingo course! You’ll have plenty of time to practice some basic words while on your flights.
3. Hotels
Positano has a wide variety of prices and amenities per hotel. One thing to consider when looking into where to stay is how far of a walk it is from the beach. I bring this up because Positano is completely uphill. You can either walk up stairs or walk up the street but either way it will be a workout! We LOVED our hotel but it was a 10 minute stair walk everyday.
One way you can check into it is using maps. Route your hotel in mind from Porto di Positano and ask for walking directions. It’ll tell you how far it’ll be. Then you can take into consideration knowing it’s uphill.
$ Hotel: Locazione Turistica Alba
Has a 8.3 rating on Booking.com ; comes out to around $150 a night
Seems to be a lot like Florida Residence just smaller rooms.
Pros: great city views, has private balconies with some rooms.
Doesn’t come with free breakfast but it has a small fridge and microwave in rooms like other hotels.
$$ Hotel: Florida Residence – Where we stayed
Has a 8.7 rating on Booking.com ; comes out to around $230 a night
Pros: Beautiful building, one of the best sunset and city views, great private balcony with lots of the rooms, you can request a specific room through booking.com and they may be able to accommodate it. Super sweet staff! They welcomed us with a glass of Limoncello, amazing free breakfast included, parking was easy.
It is a steep walk that takes about 10-15 minutes from the ocean. But the steep walk means great views!
Learn more about our stay at Florida Residence in this post!
Has a 9.1 rating on Booking.com ; comes out to $367 a night
Pros: Comes with a lot of ocean view decks, original architecture, nice pool with a view, great for sunset watching, not too far of a walk from the ocean
Has a 9.6 rating on Booking.com ; comes out to $780 a night
Pros: Amazing views of the ocean, private balconies, looks like a castle! It’s a famous building that you’ll see in a lot of Pinterest photos because it hangs off the side of the town. Amazing architecture and interior design.
Doesn’t seem to be a terrible walk from the ocean just take the first street all the way up.
4. Transportation
There are multiple ways to get around Positano if wanting to explore – mopeds, cars, bus, ferries. To drive in Italy, or internationally, you can get an International Driving Permit through AAA or AATA. We visited our local AAA office and they made it on the spot within 10 minutes. It was $35 a person. If you bring your own passport photos (2 of them) it can save you $15 a person.
You can also use the SITA bus while in Positano. This website is a great resource to look up popular routes to nearby towns like Sorrento and Naples. You can purchase your tickets at small food markets throughout Positano, but you can’t purchase tickets onboard.
Positano streets are pretty narrow and curvy – if you are going back and forth between doing a moped or a car I would choose moped. Positano itself is a small town filled with hills and turns. Not much parking options so parking a moped becomes a lot easier than parking a car in town. It’s not a busy city like Paris so you don’t have to worry about crazy drivers coming every way towards you. We personally didn’t end up getting mopeds or car. We used the SITA bus and ferries.
COVID Protocols
It is difficult to find information for Positano specifically online for their latest COVID protocols. This is a website for Capri which is an island that you can do an excursion to from Positano with updated information around COVID restrictions for the area. I would monitor that page since they keep it updated pretty frequently. As of early June 2021, vaccinated passengers from the US can travel to Italy without needing to quarantine or get a test.
5. What to Pack
Positano can get humid during summer months and hot! So I’d recommend lots of dresses, shorts, bikinis, and sunscreen. They’ll have little markets that you can pick up essentials like sunscreen in case you want to wait until you get there!
It’s a very photogenic area so I’d recommend packing clothes that you’ll feel excited about having photos with. I know when we were out there; we wished that we had a bit more elegant clothing for some photos that we wanted to capture during sunset.
What to Expect for the Culture
It’s a great balance of tourists with locals. Most of the locals that you’ll see are kids going to or coming from school, and people catching the bus in the morning to head out to work. It’s a great relaxing place that makes you forget that there are crazy things going on in the world around it. It’s a quaint town that is filled with hotels, restaurants, and small markets. It’s a town that is meant to eat out at restaurants and lay out at the beach. There isn’t much there besides that inside Positano itself.
I hope this was a helpful guide to planning your trip! If you wish to know more about a specific topic, please leave a comment and I will share more details with you!
The Vagabun 