Positano and Amalfi Small-Group Boat Tour with Snorkelling

Salerno harbour and the eastern Amalfi Coast

The day begins in Salerno, a lively port city at the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast and the easiest place to start a Positano boat tour if you are staying near the train line or arriving by cruise ship. Leaving the harbour, the boat passes Vietri sul Mare, a town famous for its painted ceramics and its tiled church dome, and the fishing village of Cetara, where anchovies and tuna have been the local living for centuries.

Further west come Maiori, with the longest beach on the coast, and Minori, where the remains of a Roman seaside villa still stand in the town centre. Seen from the water, these villages look as they did before the coast road existed, with lemon terraces climbing behind the houses. Your skipper explains the history of each place and its watchtowers, built in the 16th century to warn of pirate raids.

Conca dei Marini and the Emerald Grotto

Conca dei Marini is a small village of white houses spread over a green headland west of Amalfi, with a round watchtower guarding its cape. Below the road lies the Emerald Grotto, a sea cave found by a local fisherman in 1932, where sunlight filtering through an underwater opening turns the water a brilliant green. The cave is a separate paid visit by rowing boat; on this tour you see the coastline around it from the deck.

The bays around Conca are among the clearest on the coast, which makes them a favourite swimming and snorkelling stop. Masks and snorkels are on board, along with flotation devices for less confident swimmers. Look for small fish around the rocks and the colours of the sea floor; the water here is usually calm in the morning, the best time for snorkelling.

The Furore fjord and Praiano

The Furore fjord is a truly dramatic sight on the Amalfi Coast: a narrow gorge cut by a mountain stream, where a tiny pebble beach sits beneath an arched road bridge about 30 metres high. Old fishermen's houses and the walls of former paper mills cling to the rock. Furore has no real centre by the sea, which is why locals call it the village that does not exist, and the best way to see the fjord is from a boat.

Next comes Praiano, a quiet town spread along the cliffs between Amalfi and Positano, with a church dome of glazed tiles and the small cove of Marina di Praia. Praiano faces west, so it enjoys long evening light. Along this stretch your skipper slows down for sea grottoes and natural arches that you can only reach from the water.

Positano, the vertical village

Positano is the image most people have of the Amalfi Coast: pastel houses tumbling down a steep ravine to the Spiaggia Grande beach, with a majolica-tiled dome at the bottom. With about an hour and a half ashore, you can climb the lanes lined with linen and sandal shops, stop for lunch at your own expense or swim from the beach. Arriving by boat is also the answer to how to get to Positano without the traffic and parking problems of the coast road.

Just offshore lie the Li Galli islands, three small islets tied by legend to the sirens of ancient myth. Positano grew rich as a trading port under the Amalfi republic, emptied in the 19th century and became fashionable again after the 1950s. Seen from the sea as you arrive, the whole town rises like a theatre, so have your camera ready.

Amalfi, the old maritime capital

The tour gives you about an hour and a half in Amalfi, the town that gave the coast its name. From the 9th to the 11th century it was a maritime republic whose ships traded across the Mediterranean, and its cathedral still shows that wealth, with an Arab-Norman striped facade, bronze doors cast in Constantinople and a tiled bell tower above Piazza Duomo. The 13th-century Cloister of Paradise, with its interlaced arches, is next to it; entry is paid separately.

Away from the square, lanes climb towards the Valley of the Mills, where Amalfi's handmade paper has been produced since the Middle Ages, and a small museum in an old mill tells the story. For a quick break, the harbour front and the small beach are steps from the pier. Many guests say the stop in Amalfi is the perfect contrast to the quiet coves of the morning.