The next and final stop on our Amalfi Coast trip was the beautiful Positano. We headed there in the morning before embarking on what can only be described as a hellish journey to our hotel. Everyone warned us about the stairs in Positano but honestly, you can't grasp how much pain they cause until you're there. We are two fairly fit individuals, and maybe the 4 days of eating pasta prior had something to do with it, but I have never felt so unfit in my life...and I didn't even have the task of carrying the suitcase up the stairs. Honestly if we had known we might have splashed out for one of the extremely expensive hotels on the main road to avoid as many stairs 😅

Once we eventually got to our hotel, we headed back down the stairs which was honestly, worse than going up because my leg muscles went into full spasm when we got to the bottom, but once I had got over myself we headed to Chez Black for a well deserved lunch. Chez Black is an institution in Positano and definitely not one to miss, but I think we got it right by having lunch there instead of dinner - I think there are much better dinner restaurants with a view. We both had a pizza, the first of our trip, and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect fuel before heading to the main beach. 

Positano has two areas on the beach, the small free beach where it's just the pebbled beach, and the 'beach club' which is essentially paying to rent a sun lounger and umbrella. It was extremely hot and the main beach fills up first thing in the morning so we hired a sun bed with an umbrella to shade ourselves from the sun. The main beach is a little chaotic and also pretty basic, but the views are spectacular so I'm glad we did it, but the private beach clubs we visited on the trip were definitely a better experience than the main beach in Positano. It's one of those things we're only going to do once in our lives though so we thought, why not? 

After spending the day at the beach, we headed (back up the dreaded stairs) to get ready for dinner and drinks. We wanted to have a drink at Franco's Bar, a famous bar next to Le Sirenuse Hotel. They don't take reservations and the queue does form before opening so we headed down about 30 mins before the bar opened and secured our space in the queue. This wasn't too bad as it meant we got in straight away when the bar opened in time to watch the sunset and got ourselves a pretty good table. I really enjoyed Franco's, the drinks were great, as were the views and the vibes were perfect, so it's well worth the queue. 

After Franco's, we had a bit of time to kill before dinner so we walked further down the main road and I'm so glad we did. along the road there are bars serving takeaway drinks and little tables positioned on the side of the road so you can enjoy your drink and take in the most breathtaking view. We watched the world go by for a while before heading to dinner at Ristorante Bruno. The restaurant has seats either side of the main road but definitely book and request a table with a view, we were able to enjoy delicious pasta and watch the yachts go by and see the twinkling lights of the main hill in Positano, just magical. 

The next morning, after a quick breakfast at our hotel, we headed down to the main beach where a water taxi took us to Arienzo Beach Club. I'd seen this all over instagram before the trip and I was so excited to go. The water taxi is included within the price, as in lunch and a bottle of wine which you choose when you make the booking online. We were a couple of rows from the back but not right at the back which I felt was the perfect spot as you're not completely on display but also not too far from the water. 

The beach club put out pool toys to enjoy in the ocean, you can go cliff jumping, and they even came round with spray Evian to cool you down when it got too hot. The service was incredible and we wanted for nothing all day. We chose our lunch in the morning and the time we wanted it and opted to have it delivered to our sun beds which was so fun. After we were all beached out, we hopped back on the boat to take us back into Positano and got ready for dinner. 

The next day it was sadly time to head home after a real bucket list trip. If you're planning a trip to the Amalfi Coast, there's not one thing I wouldn't recommend that we did, the whole trip was honestly fabulous, however, I would say that it isn't a place to visit on a budget and it's also not the place you want to visit last minute. The only reason we got to go to so many fabulous places was because we booked all of our trips and restaurants 3 months in advance, and even we missed out on some reservations we wanted. It really is a fabulous place and I recommend everyone go visit one day, but do your research and make sure you make reservations well in advance - and maybe do a few sessions on the stair master to prepare 😅

Before heading to dinner we went to the Gardens of Augustus to lap up the views at sunset which was spectacular, Id' highly recommend heading there for the view alone, before heading into town for dinner at La Capannina, a family run restaurant in the heart of town. Our dinner was lovely and the staff were so welcoming, you really felt like you were having dinner in someones family home.

The next day was my 30th birthday so we had a quite a bougie day planned and it was one of my favourites of the trip. We started the day with a private boat trip round the island, our skipper took us to all of the famous spots and while it was unfortunately too choppy to go into the Blue Lagoon, he spent extra time finding places for us to take a dip, and drove us through the famous Faraglioni rocks. When we were done cruising around the island, he took us directly to our lunch spot - il Riccio Capri. When we visited the beach club had been taken over by Dior with their famous prints, Dior beach huts and Dior cushions on all of the chairs - it was fabulous. We enjoyed a cocktail in the bar while waiting for our table, which was right on the edge again overlooking the water. We were able to enjoy our seafood pasta and Whispering Angel with a view of the beach club patrons cliff diving into the water and the little Italian boats whizzing by. Instead of a birthday cake, we opted for 'The Temptation Room', a room full of every desert you could imagine, it was the perfect way to round off the meal.

After lunch we headed by bus over to Ana Capri to take the chair lift to the highest point on the island for the most spectacular views, it was such a fun experience and also a great way to see the rest of the island, before heading back to freshen up for dinner.

That night, we celebrated with dinner at Da Paolino, another restaurant situated within a lemon grove but this one was a little more upscale than the one we visited in Sorrento - we were celebrating, after all! I would say though, getting this booking was no mean feat, I was continually told there were no tables despite trying to book 3 months in advance and they were very picky about which hotel we were staying at. I emailed them from my work email and told them we were staying at one of the more expensive hotels on the island and got a booking straight away 😅 The food and drinks were fabulous though, I started with a lemon mozzarella and bruschetta which was indulgent but fabulous, and followed it with the traditional lemon pasta local to the Amalfi coast, as I had yet to try it. After dinner we walked down to the beach and sat and watched the sunset before wandering through town in search of a gelato.

It was the perfect way to end our trip to Capri, and if you can, I really recommend staying the night. Capri turned into a completely different place once all of the day-trippers had left. The island exudes old school glamour and you can really get a sense of this once the sun goes down. The next morning we headed to somewhere I'd wanted to visit for forever, which you can read about here.

It's been quite some time since I've updated this little corner of the internet (I feel like I'm always saying that nowadays) but boy, do I have some things to share with you all! I thought I'd come back with a bang and share my most requested itinerary with you - my 30th Birthday trip to the Amalfi Coast! 🍋

The Amalfi Coast has been somewhere very high on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, and last year I finally took the plunge and booked it and I have to say, I was not disappointed. We only had a week and wanted to strike a good balance of seeing as much as we could, but also actually *seeing* the places that we visited, so we decided on Sorrento, Capri and Positano, making sure we spend the night in each location to see it once the cruise ships and day travellers had gone home for the night. I'm so glad we made this choice because each location was a completely different place at night, and it meant that we could enjoy more of the restaurants we wanted to tick off - be warned, food will be a big part of this blog post! 

We decided to head to Sorrento first, as it was the closes to Naples airport which was where we landed bright and early. In hindsight, we should have got the later flight as we were exhausted but we wanted to spend as much time there as possible. After getting our transfer from the airport (which be warned, is quite a long drive down winding roads) we arrived at the Hilton Sorrento Palace where we were able to check in, grab a bite to eat and a celebratory cocktail and relax by the pool for the day. This was the only hotel we stayed in with a pool and more of a 'resort' vibe and it was the perfect place to start our trip. 

After a day of relaxing by the pool, we wandered into town and had a look around to get our bearings before heading to dinner at La Pergola at the Bellevue Syrene. This was one of my favourite dinners we had on this trip, we still talk about it to this day. We were seated at one of the tables on the edge of the restaurant which directly overlooks the bay where you have a view of Vesuvius, with a pianist in the background and the most friendly staff. We were greeted with a complimentary glass of Prosecco and a meatball - which seemed very random at the time but honestly, it was the best meatball we've ever had. We shared some starters, a bottle of wine and watched the sun go down, and just as it did fireworks started going off further down the bay - it was perfect. If you're heading to Sorrento and want a fancier dinner out, this would be my top recommendation. We were made to feel so special and it was the perfect way to kick off the trip. 

The next day the original plan was to hire a vespa and travel down the Amalfi Coast Road to Amalfi but we woke up SO tired that we decided to give it a miss and headed to the most fabulous breakfast buffet I think I've been to, before a day of sunbathing by the pool. In the afternoon we headed back into town to have a wander around the shops where we tried local homemade limoncello and picked up a lemon sorbet in one of the famous Amalfi lemons. 

The next morning we were heading to Capri, which you can read about in this blog post. But overall, I'd really recommend Sorrento. There isn't a huge amount to do in the town if you're not going on day trips but I'd say its a great place for relaxing in the sunshine and using as a base to head to other Amalfi Coast towns for the day as it's so well located.