The Amalfi Coast From the Water: Every Cove, Grotto and Fjord You Pass

Why half of this coast has no road to it

The SS163 was cut into the cliff between 1832 and about 1850, and it went where a road could go — which is to say along the contour, well above the water, connecting the towns that already existed. Everything between those towns, at sea level, was left where it was. Coves, sea caves, fishing beaches and one genuine fjord all sit below the road with no way down to them.

That is the entire argument for seeing this coast from a boat at least once, and it is why Amalfi Coast boat tours are the busiest single category here. What follows is what you actually pass, west to east.

Li Galli, the islands off Positano

Three small islands a couple of kilometres off Positano, privately owned and not landed on. Boats slow here rather than stop, and it is where the water changes colour from blue to something closer to green. Several of the Sorrento departures make their first swim stop in the lee of them.

Positano from the water

Everybody has seen this view and almost nobody has seen it from where the photograph was taken. From the sea the town reads as what it is: a ravine with houses stacked up both sides of it and the majolica dome of the parish church at the bottom. From the road above you see roofs. From the beach you see walls. From about two hundred metres offshore you see the town.

What is at Marina di Praia and La Gavitella?

Marina di Praia is a cove at the foot of a gorge below Praiano, with a handful of boats drawn up on shingle and a couple of buildings squeezed in beside them. It is the only real inlet between Positano and Furore. A little to the west, La Gavitella faces west rather than south, which makes it the one beach on this coast that keeps the sun into the evening; one of the boat days stops there for lunch between mid-May and early October.

The Fiordo di Furore

The narrowest thing on the coast and the strangest. A cleft in the cliff, perhaps thirty metres across, with a road bridge across the top of it and a fishermen's beach at the back. Furore itself is a town without a centre, scattered up the mountainside above it, so the fjord is what everybody means when they say the name. Every boat on this coast slows down here, and most of them go in.

Conca dei Marini and the Grotta dello Smeraldo

The Emerald Grotto is a sea cave lit from below through a submerged opening, which turns the water an odd green. You can reach it by lift from the road or by tender from a boat, and the entrance fee is bought on the spot rather than included in any tour fare here — three separate listings quote three different figures for it, which tells you it is the sort of price to check at the door.

It divides opinion. The cave is genuinely unusual and the queue in high season can run half an hour. Some crews put it to the whole boat and go by the vote.

Amalfi from the sea, and the Darsena pier

Amalfi is the one town on this coast that looks bigger from the water than from the land, because from the sea you see the whole valley behind it climbing away. The Darsena pier, by the yellow lighthouse in front of Piazza Flavio Gioia, is where the small boats tie up and where several tours board. The cathedral steps are three minutes from it.

How do the boats get you to the coves?

The hull most of these trips use is a gozzo — a wide, low wooden boat with a canopy, carrying between five and twelve people. It draws little water, which is how it gets close in, and it is comfortable at the speeds this coast is worth seeing at. The private charters run from the same hull up to speedboats and small yachts, and the category you book is stated at checkout on the listings that offer a choice.

What is actually included on a boat day?

More than most people expect, and it varies. The captured listings between them include snorkelling masks, floats and life jackets, towels on some boats and not others, prosecco, limoncello, beer, soft drinks, water, snacks and fruit, a canopy, a shower and a restroom. What is usually excluded is the Grotta dello Smeraldo, lunch ashore, and — on two of them — a docking or destination fee collected in cash on board.

Which boat day should you take?

If you are staying in Positano, take one that leaves from Spiaggia Grande and works east. If you are in Amalfi, board at the Darsena pier and work west. If you are in Sorrento you will round the point first, which adds time at both ends but puts Li Galli on the route. And if there are more than four of you, price a private charter against four or five shared fares before you assume it is out of reach — two of them are quoted for the boat rather than per person.

When can you actually do this?

Between mid-April and late October, and that is not a preference, it is the operators' own calendar. The captured seasons open between 13 and 16 April and close between 18 October and the start of November; one road tour runs from 10 March to 8 November and one private charter from 11 March. Outside those dates there is no boat day at any price, and the ferries have stopped too. The month-by-month weather page has the sea and rainfall figures behind those dates.

What the water cannot show you

Ravello, Scala and Tramonti, all of which are inland or high above the coast and none of which a boat can reach. If those are on your list you want a road day as well, and the boat-or-road guide is the place to settle which order to do them in. The towns themselves are described on the towns of the coast.