A weekend in Positano

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. 

For dinner that night we hopped in a taxi up to La Tagliata. Tucked up in the hills above Positano, La Tagliata is a wonderful, family-run restaurant serving farm to table food. You pay a flat fee and all of your food (and there's a lot of it) and wine is provided. There's a set menu so you don't choose what you're eating but there's so much to choose from that nobody will be going hungry, and everything you eat and drink (yes, that includes the wine) is made right there on the farm. It's also home to one of the best views in Positano and they'll drop you back off home afterwards - what more could you want! It was the perfect way to end our Amalfi Coast trip and we really felt like we were dining in one big Italian family home. 

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 😅