Amalfi Coast Frequently Asked Questions

We recommend a week. Italian charters operate Saturday to Saturday, and the seven-day window is the country's standard charter unit — built around marina turnaround logistics and the way the inventory is offered. The three Amalfi routes (Naples Round-Trip, Salerno Round-Trip, Naples-to-Salerno One-Way) each fit comfortably into seven days at the slow pacing this coast rewards: short hops, long lunches, two nights at Capri. Longer charters (10–14 days) are possible by chaining a second week — most often pairing the Amalfi Coast with the Pontine Islands extension out of Naples, or continuing south through the Aeolian Islands to Sicily. We walk through which combinations work before booking. Shorter charters (4–5 days) are uncommon — most operators don't break the Saturday-to-Saturday week, and the Amalfi rhythm rewards the full seven.

Italy operates on the Mediterranean plus-expenses model — different from the Caribbean's all-inclusive default. The base weekly rate covers the yacht and the professional crew (typically captain, chef, and stewardess on catamarans and small motor yachts; larger motor yachts run a full crew of five or more), plus standard yacht-side equipment — water sports gear, snorkel kit, paddleboards, kayaks, linens, and towels. A typical Amalfi week runs two meals a day on board. Most weeks shake out as breakfast and lunch with the chef, dinner ashore at a taverna or trattoria — the Italian harbors are dense with the kind of waterfront places guests come back for. Your chef and captain build the rhythm around the route and your group's preferences; lunches occasionally end up ashore (Lo Scoglio at Nerano, Da Adolfo at Spiaggia di Laurito), and dinners occasionally stay aboard on quieter anchorage nights. Not included in the base rate, paid through APA: food and provisioning for the week (covers both the chef's cooking and any meals ashore), beverages (wine, spirits, beer), fuel, marina dockage, harbor and port fees, water and electric, port-tax registration, and entry fees for places like the Blue Grotto and the Emerald Grotto. Crew gratuities — customary at 5–15% of the base rate in the Mediterranean, with 10% the typical midpoint per MYBA guidance — are paid directly to the captain on disembarkation. Italian charter VAT of 22% (the country's standard rate) is added to the base rate at booking. Charters run Saturday to Saturday as standard.

APA stands for Advance Provisioning Allowance — a pre-paid fund (typically 25–35% of the base charter rate in Italy) that covers food, beverages, fuel, marina dockage, harbor fees, and the day-to-day running costs of the week. Your captain keeps an itemized account, and any unused balance is refunded at the end of your charter; if costs exceed the APA, the difference is settled at trip end. Amalfi APA tends toward the higher end of that band. Capri's Marina Grande runs €740 per night for an 80-foot yacht in peak season (€1,210 for a 100-footer), and the Amalfi Coast is one of the more expensive provisioning corners of the Mediterranean — premium wines, Pompeii-day private guides, and tender-and-dine excursions to places like Da Paolino on Capri all run through APA. Most weeks consume 80–100% of the funded amount. Before booking we walk through provisioning preferences with you so the chef and captain stock to your group, and we flag any unusual line items (a Ravello Festival evening, a private Pompeii guide) so they're priced into the APA upfront rather than absorbed at trip end.

The Amalfi charter season runs Easter through late October. The trade-offs across the season: Late May, June, September, and early October are the strongest weeks of the year. Sea temperatures hit a swimmable 22°C by mid-June, peak near 27°C in August, and stay above 21°C through October. Daytime highs sit in the high 70s to mid-80s, the harbors aren't gridlocked, and rates run 20–25% below peak. June and early September are when most Amalfi-charter regulars book. July and August are peak — the highest temperatures, the largest crowds, and the highest rates. Italian Ferragosto on August 15 is the peak of the peak: Rome and Milan empty into Capri and Positano for the holiday, and the islands run at saturation. The best yachts and crews go 9–12 months in advance for July and August. Capri introduced new tour-group rules in May 2026 — shore parties capped at 40 people, no loudspeakers — which has helped slightly, but the harbors themselves remain dense. October delivers warm seas and quieter harbors with the trade-off of more rain (typically 130mm across 8–9 days, often as fast-moving afternoon thunderstorms). November through April is off-season; most of the Amalfi fleet either crosses the Atlantic for the Caribbean season or hauls out for refit.

We build three weeks here, each shaped around a different rhythm and yacht type. A Week on the Amalfi Coast (Naples → Naples, round-trip). The classic first-timer week. Naples to Procida and Ischia, two nights at Capri, then west through Nerano, Positano, Amalfi, and Sorrento before returning to Naples. The most relaxed pace — every must-see at the leisure pace this coast rewards. Built for motor yachts 24–50m; works on a catamaran on tighter budgets. Salerno Round-Trip. The same coast in reverse, on a sail-friendly yacht. Salerno's Marina d'Arechi is the catamaran and sailing yacht base of this region — shallower draft, lower berthing costs, and a direct Frecciarossa from Rome's Termini station in as little as 1 hour 26 minutes. The route adds Cetara at the start and arrives at Capri mid-week after the guests have settled in. The yacht-type shift makes this the value angle of the three. Naples → Salerno One-Way. The maximum-coverage week. Naples to Procida, Ischia, two nights at Capri, then a slower run west visiting two stops the round-trips skip — the Fiordo di Furore (a 25-meter cleft under the SS163 arched bridge, reached by tender pass-under) and Conca dei Marini's Emerald Grotto (€10 per person, accessed only by the grotto's wooden rowboats — your tender drops you at the cave mouth). The week ends at Salerno with no backtrack, and clients often add a Pompeii guide before embarkation or a Rome onward train after disembarkation. Best on motor yachts 35m and up, where the no-backtrack pacing has the most payoff. We walk through your group, your travel dates, and the yacht options before booking — the right Amalfi week is the intersection of all three.

The Amalfi Coast is one of the most-visited stretches of coastline in the Mediterranean, and July and August are intense. Capri's resident population is around 13,000; in peak summer the day-tripper count can hit 50,000 in a single day. Naples airport has nearly doubled its passenger traffic over the past decade, and the ferry density into Capri, Positano, and Amalfi tracks that growth. The yacht is the workaround. Three patterns the captains and crews build around for HNW guests: Sleep aboard, beat the day-trippers. Most ferry traffic into Capri lands between 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning, and clears out between 16:00 and 18:00. Your captain anchors at Marina Piccola or stern-tos at Marina Grande the night before, you walk the Piazzetta after dinner when the cruise crowd is gone, and you take the chairlift up Monte Solaro at 8:00 AM the next morning before the first ferry from Sorrento has landed. Same island, two completely different experiences. Book restaurants 4–8 weeks ahead. La Sponda at Le Sirenuse opens reservations 60 days out at 3:00 PM Italy time and books out within minutes; Il San Pietro di Positano has a private tender dock at sea level and a cliff elevator up to its 1-Michelin-star Zass dining room; Da Paolino's lemon-grove canopy in Capri sees hundreds of reservation requests per day in peak season. Our concierge handles the booking calendar with the captain's pre-arrival dossier — guests don't need to chase tables. Time your shore excursions for the off-hours. The Belvedere of Infinity at Villa Cimbrone is empty at 09:30; by 11:00 there's a queue. Pompeii caps daily entry at 20,000 visitors and now requires personalized timed-entry tickets booked weeks in advance — we book you the 09:00–13:00 slot with a private archaeologist guide so you walk the site as the gates open and have the morning before the buses arrive.