The Amalfi Coast road is famous because it is narrow, beautiful, and full of people who wish they were not driving. You can have the towns — Positano, Amalfi, Ravello — without a rental car. You need a base with a ferry pier or a bus stop you can walk to, and you need to stop treating every village as a same-day check.
Sorrento is the easiest arrival if you are coming from Naples by train or hydrofoil. It is not on the most dramatic bend of the coast, which is why it works: more rooms, a train station a bus ride away, and ferries toward Capri and, in season, toward Positano and Amalfi. Positano is the postcard and a difficult base if your hotel is up the hill and your ferry is at the bottom. Stay there when the stay is the point. Use Amalfi town when you want buses in more than one direction and a pier for Ravello’s connecting rides.
Ferries first, buses second
In late spring through early autumn, ferries are the calm way between the big towns. They do not run in heavy seas, and they do not run all year. Buy the day’s ticket in the morning if you can, and keep the bus as the backup rather than the assumption. SITA buses do the full coast and they fill. Stand at the stop before you think you need to. There is no secret vehicle behind the crowded one.
Ravello sits above the coast. The bus from Amalfi is short and winding, and the walk down is only a good idea with the right shoes and a free afternoon. If you have a lunch reservation in Ravello, leave early enough that a full bus does not cost you the table. Tell the restaurant you are coming by bus if you are cutting it close. Some will hold the table. Many will not.
What to reserve ahead
A hotel with a real cancellation window, a ferry on arrival day if you are landing in Naples and continuing the same afternoon, and any dinner that is the reason you chose the town. Groceries and ordinary trattorie can be improvised. The terrace you saw in a photograph cannot. Build one beach block that is simply “swim near the base” so you are not crossing the coast with a wet bag at 16:00, which is when the buses are at their least charitable.