Conca Dei Marini is a charming town located between Amalfi and Positano. The town is home to many locals who have lived there for generations. It is the perfect distance from Amalfi and Positano to where both can be reached within a 40 min bus ride. The best part about this little town is that it is not over run by tourists. We really felt like we were able to experience this beautiful location like a local.

How to get there:

When we visited Conca Dei Marini we flew in from Sardegna, Italy to Naples. Naples airport is the closest airport to anywhere along Positano and the Amalfi coast. We booked our flight with easyJet since ours was a national flight, but Naples is an international airport as well. The flight from Sardegna took a little less than an hour.

The drive from Naples Airport to Conca Dei Marini is about an hour and a half and the best way to get there is to book a private transfer. You can travel there via public transportation but it would take a two train rides and two bus rides and this is more than we wanted to take on. We reached out to our AirBnB host and she arranged the pick up. The process of the private transfer was seamless, the driver was waiting for us right when we landed, and he dropped us off right in front of our AirBnB.

AirBnB

Charming detached village overlooking the sea

When we travel to Europe with our kids, we always rent an Airbnb because hotels usually don't have rooms with two queen beds like in the US. Renting an Airbnb is much cheaper for our family than booking two hotel rooms. The AirBnb was great it had a ton of outdoor space and an outdoor shower. It served its purpose for what we needed during the trip. We spent very little time in the actual AirBnB plus the bedroom upstairs had the most stunning views. Our host Anna was so helpful in answering all our questions and even gifted us a little welcome basket.

The supermarket was about 10 min away and the bust stop to go to Amalfi or Positano was also about 10 min away.

Warning: You need to climb stairs to get anywhere and I mean anywhere

I think this is something you don’t hear enough of but it’s completely true. There are steps to get anywhere so when I say 10 min to get to the bus stop, I mean 10 min of climbing stairs. This is the case anywhere along Positano to Amalfi because of the way the towns are designed. The towns are vertical towns so you have to climb up or down to get anywhere you are going. Just be prepared. I still think this is one of the most beautiful places in the world but you need to know what to expect.

Views towards the mountain from our AirBnb front door

First day activities

Explored the local Conca Dei Marini Beach
Explored Conca Dei Marini
Had dinner by the beach

The Conca Dei Marini beach was about a 20 min walk from the AirBnB. it was actually quit easy getting there, there are a lot of signs along the way pointing you towards the beach. The beach was not crowded at all; we really enjoyed hanging out people watching.

Second day activities

Found the most amazing place to have breakfast named Le Bonta del Capo
Visited Fiordo di Furore

Le Bonta Del Capo is a gorgeous restaurant that is about a 15 min walk up from our AirBnB. The staff was so friendly and the food was amazing that we kept going back multiple times during our stay. They also serve an “American” breakfast with omelets and coffee which is something that could be hard to find in such a small town.

Fiordo di Furore was one of the highlights of our trip. Getting there was an experience to say the least but I am here to pass the information to you so you do not make the same mistakes lol.

The bus system is not difficult at all once you understand how it works. Amalfi and Positano basically have one road that takes you up to Positano or down to Amalfi.Buses arrive every 30 minutes, but they can get too full and skip your stop. The AirBnb has a bus stop about 10 min downhill with a hotel right across the street from it. The name of the hotel is Hotel La Conca Azzurra you can actually buy your bus tickets at this hotel from their front lobby.You can buy one way tickets or round trip tickets. You do not purchase tickets for the specific destination, the bus will stop at every stop on the way to Positano and back down until it reaches Amalfi. So in this case we were supposed to buy a bus ticket to Positano and stop at our stop which would be the Furore stop. When we tried to buy the bus tickets the staff at the hotel told us that Fiordo di Furore was only half a kilometer away and made it sound like it was an easy 20 min walk. Well…..it was not. It took almost 40 min to walk there while in the sun holding our beach bags. Don’t listen to anyone! take the bus!

Once we finally arrived it was magical. Of course to the true nature of the Amalfi Coast you have to go down tons of steps to get to the beach but it is worth it. We spent the rest of the day laying out and enjoying the water. There is a small vendor that sales alcoholic drinks and water and you can also rent a beach bed to lay out if you would like; we just laid out on our towels. Now another very important thing to note the beaches are very rocky you will need water shoes. Trust me, it is so worth it to just take true water shoes. Crocs don’t cut it, trust me we tried it. You will be regretting it the moment you step onto the beach.

Third Day Activities

Explore Positano
Da Ferdinando Beach Club Day
Sunset Cruise around Positano

Third day activities were all about Positano. We walked down to Hotel La Conca Azzurra and bought or bus tickets from their lobby to head towards Positano. We had pre booked our reservations with Da Ferdinando Beach Club prior to our arrival in Italy and I suggest you do the same specially when going during the summer months. Beach club reservations vary in price depending on the “row” that you book. For example the first row will be the one with no view abstraction to the beach and it would be the most expensive, second row would be right behind and is a bit cheaper and so on. We booked the first row because if you go all the way to Positano you might as well get the best view. We left our AirBnb around 9AM and headed straight to the Beach Club. We wanted to enjoy as much time there as possible and really take advantage of the day. We chose Da Ferdinando because we wanted a more low key experience. Specially traveling with our kids we were not interested in a party scene or a luxury Beach club. We wanted to hangout just have a good time. When you book with Da Ferdinando they will send you over directions depending on where you are coming from and are always available through Insta DM in case you have any questions.

Da Ferdinando was one of the best experiences we had at Amalfi. The food was amazing, the service was great and the views from the water were incredible. I would definitely go back and book again. Also, we met so many amazing people at the Beach Club.

View from the ocean over looking Da Ferdinando Beach Club

Ok so once you are getting ready to leave the Beach Club it can seem kind of daunting to think that you need to go up all the hundreds of steps you came down to get there, but actually there is a different way. The Beach Club has a boat that comes around every 45 min or so that can take you to the “center” free of charge. For us our cruise was picking us up from the “center” where all the other excursions pick guests up from so it worked out great. We left a bit before pick up and walked around and explored the shops a bit.

We booked our sunset cruise through AirBnB and it was an amazing experience. A personnel from the cruise reached out to us via AirBnB and sent us a meeting point. The boat arrived quickly, and the experience was wonderful. The captain was friendly, and we enjoyed wine and snacks during the ride. Also, apparently nobody else booked the cruise that day so we had the whole boat to ourselves :)

Our beautiful boat for the sunset cruise

Fourth Day Activities - Final Day

Explore Sorrento
Head to Naples
Fly home

Since we were flying out of Naples, we visited Sorrento for a few hours to explore the area. Sorrento is on the way to Naples so this worked great. The same bus that takes you to Positano will take you to Sorrento so it ends up being quite easy.

Sorrento was ok….I didn’t love it as much as Positano and Conca Dei Marina. We spent most of our day in the Corso Italia which is where all the shopping is. To me this was the best part of Sorrento and because it’s flat it makes it so much easier to walk around and carry your goodies.

From here we hopped on the train and arrived in Naples main train station “Napoli”. We stayed the night in Naples since our flight was leaving the next day. We stayed in the closest hotel we could find by the airport. Our flight left pretty early the next day and we were so close that we walked straight to check in and board our flight.

Cute might paint later; art inspiration

Conca Dei Marini, Italy

Cute might paint later; art inspiration

Sardegna, Italy