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Best time to visit the Amalfi Coast

The best time to visit the Amalfi Coast is generally outside July and August, when summer crowds and heat dissipate. You'll find wild orchids in spring, but Easter week can be crowded. Walking is delightful in spring and autumn and definitely our top way to experience this stretch of coastline – meeting fishermen and shepherds along the way, and foraging for your own chestnuts and mushrooms. Or come for one of the many festivals. Read more below.

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Best time to visit the Amalfi Coast

On most beaches the sun dips behind the Bay of Sorrento after 3pm, so make sure you get your dose of sunbathing in during the morning.

The best time to visit the Amalfi Coast is spring, early summer and autumn – so between April and early July, and September. Late July and August are the busiest and hottest months, although elevated hiking trails are cooler and crowd-free even then. Most walkers favour spring or autumn. Temperatures are around 16°C in March and 24°C by May, but evenings are cool and you’ll always need rain gear. Easter week is packed with religious festivalgoers. By contrast, the streets are almost empty from October to November, and temperatures are a mild 17-20°C. With daily highs of 13°C in winter, you can get out and about, though many hotels and ferry services shut after October.

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A month by month guide on when to go to the Amalfi Coast

January on the Amalfi Coast

Walking holidays

Sleeping lemons

Cold month

You can go walking on the Amalfi Coast all year round, but some hotels are closed and some ferries are suspended in bad weather. On the Amalfi Coast in January, it can be wet and cold but it’s rarely below freezing, and when the weather is clear, both the sky and sea can be exceptionally vivid. Black nets cover lemon trees to protect the growing green lemons from frosts, rain and hail.

February on the Amalfi Coast

Almond blossom

Carnival

Cold month

It’s still cool on the Amalfi Coast in February, with an average maximum temperature of 10°C and an average low of 4°C, but that doesn’t stop the arrival of the almond blossom, one of the first of the region’s many blooms. Some towns have Carnival celebrations, including Amalfi and Maiori. Along the coast in Naples, look out for revellers wearing Pulcinella masks; the character is a symbol of the city, and eating lasagna, a Shrove Tuesday tradition.

March on the Amalfi Coast

Summer ferries begin

Busy Easter break – family tours

Lemon harvest

There’s changeable weather on the Amalfi Coast in March, and there’s another change too – the moveable feast of Easter. Its beginning dictates the start of the summer ferry timetables for going between Capri, Amalfi and Positano. Other ferries, like those between Naples and Sorrento, run all year round. Our small group family holidays run from March, plus the main harvest season for the famous lemon, sfusato, begins.

April on the Amalfi Coast

Tourist season begins

Multi activity trips

Guided cycling trips

Spring is lovely for walking, and the season sees the start of cycling and multi activity holidays, too. Big cruise ships start arriving at the Amalfi Coast in April and there are mass disembarkations in Amalfi, Positano and Sorrento; your guide can help you avoid the crowds. Another reason for busy streets might be Easter celebrations; hotels get booked up and there are processions for Holy Week.

May on the Amalfi Coast

Lemon blossom

Small ship cruising

Special interest holidays

As the lemon blossom blooms, the start of the main tourist season begins on the Amalfi Coast in May. It’s lovely for walking, with average highs of 20°C and low rainfall. There might be queues for the bus if you’re using it to get around on a walking or sightseeing holiday. Sailing trips start up for the summer; take advantage of the settled weather that these months bring.

June on the Amalfi Coast

School holidays in Italy from mid-June

Flower-filled villa gardens

A busy time of year

The Amalfi Coast in June is temperate and flower-filled. Roses bloom in the gardens of the villas; visit Villa Rufolo or Villa Cimbrone in Ravello for earthly delights. There is very stable summer weather – it’s dry, with an average daily high of 24°C. School holidays commence in Italy near the start of the month. Adults: it’s a great time of year for a limoncello gelato.

June is a good time for our Amalfi Coast and Bay of Naples holidays

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The good thing about going to Amalfi in summer is that at the end of the walk, you get to swim.

– Vania De Paoli, guide from our partner Exodus Travels

July on the Amalfi Coast

Busy family holiday season

Warm sea

Festivals

Swim in the sea off the Amalfi Coast in July, as it reaches a lovely temperature of around 25°C, perfect for paddling. Good luck, however, getting enough room on the beach afterwards to sunbathe. High summer means high traffic, but high spirits and lots of festivals too, featuring fireworks and outdoor concerts. This is the driest month, getting just 24mm of rain, and it’s about 27°C.

August on the Amalfi Coast

Great weather

Holiday atmosphere

Busiest time of year

There’s a reason Amalfi is so popular for summer. It’s warm (highs of 27°C) and lovely, with a refreshing sea breeze, and the sea is 26°C. More than half a million people visit the Amalfi Coast in August, numbers swelled by domestic visitors; Italians are off work in August and many businesses in nearby Naples are closed. Summer traffic restrictions to curb crowds are in place for the whole month.

August is a great time for our Amalfi Coast family holiday

September on the Amalfi Coast

Great weather

Grape harvest

Less busy but still crowds around

The sea is warm and the air temperature an average high of 24°C on the Amalfi Coast in September. Grapes are harvested on impossibly steep terraces, and it’s a lovely time for walking holidays that make the climb among the vines, trees and gardens. It’s still a busy month in the popular spots, with large cruise ships sticking around and summer traffic restrictions, limiting the number of cars that can come, still in place at weekends.

September is a great time for our Amalfi Coast walking holiday

October on the Amalfi Coast

Harvest produce

Some unsettled weather

Some resorts shutting

Verdelli lemons are harvested for limoncello as the tourist season ends on the Amalfi Coast in October. This is the last month for cycling and sailing holidays. The summer resorts shut down – Capri empties and shops close, but places in bigger towns, like Sorrento, stay open. October can see thunderstorms, but it’s also a month for looking out for harvest produce, from hazelnuts to apples.

November on the Amalfi Coast

End of the tourism season

Very quiet

Some rain about

The Amalfi Coast in November sees the tourist season end at start of the month. There are mild winters here, but November is the wettest month on the coast, getting around 120mm of rain. Walking trails with lots of steps – like the Path of the Gods – can get very slippery, and you won’t get the views, but walking holidays still run all year round.

December on the Amalfi Coast

Walking holidays

Christmas celebrations

Quiet off season

There’s still plenty of colour on the Amalfi Coast in December: bougainvillea is still flowering and squat mandarin oranges are ready to be picked. Just along the coast, Naples sells Italy’s best presepe nativity figurines – used to decorate massive, detailed nativity scenes around the city. Some ferry services end this month, such as the Naples to Sorrento shuttle.

Amalfi Coast Weather Chart

MIN °C

MAX °C

RAIN (mm)

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

119

DEC

103

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Best times to visit the Amalfi Coast for festivals & events

Carnevale (February)

Carnevale events take place across Italy – including the Amalfi Coast town of Maiori. There are parades, there’s music, and there are fantastic enormous papier mâché floats paraded through town. Nearby, in Naples, among the traditional festivities associated with the city, you’ll find people eating chiacchiere – small pastries – served with sanguinaccio, a chocolate cream pudding that’s now vegetarian-friendly, though it used to be made with pig’s blood.

Regatta of the Ancient Maritime Republics (between May & July)

The Regatta of the Ancient Maritime Republics (Palio delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare) commemorates the rivalries of the four most famous maritime republics: Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Amalfi. They take turns to host, and every four years this series of boat races comes to set pulses racing and rivalries running in Amalfi. The galleons are decked in the colours of their republic and are powered by eight rowers each. Surely, you’ll be cheering on the home team, in blue.

Ravello Festival (June to August)

Come for symphonies at sunset. From a stage overlooking the sea from on high, world-renowned orchestras play a fantastic showcase of classical music for the annual Ravello Festival, held at the beautiful Villa Rufolo. It’s colloquially known as the Wagner Festival – he visited the area and it served as an inspiration for his opera Parsifal. The festival no longer just hosts performances of Wagner’s music – expect all manner of classical music, jazz and dance events too.

Festival of Sant’ Andrea (27 June & 30 November)

Each town on the Amalfi Coast celebrates its saint’s day – but Amalfi celebrates it twice. Its largest religious festival, the Festival of Sant’ Andrea, is held once on 27 June and again on 30 November. The town’s patron saint is also a protector of fishermen, so a gold statue of the saint is processed through the streets to the sea, before being taken back to the church – whereupon he is rushed up the stairs to the duomo again. Crowds gather on balconies and in the streets to watch.

Sfogliatella Santa Rosa Festival (August)

You’ve got to love the Amalfi Coast’s dedication to sfogliatella, the shell-shaped pastry which you can find all over the region. A yearly festival celebrating the pastry takes place back where it all began, in Conca dei Marini – a hilltop town on the coast between Amalfi and Furore, and the site of the monastery in which sfogliatella were first created. Head there during the first week of August to get your fill of these oh-so-crisp, oh-so-creamy pastries.

Our travellers also ask…

What is the best month to visit the Amalfi Coast?

We love April to May. There are lemons on the trees, flowers along the footpaths, and the summer crowds are yet to arrive. Visit after Easter and it will be quieter than busy Holy Week, plus summer ferry services will have commenced.

When is the worst time to visit the Amalfi Coast?

It depends on what you’re after. January is bad if you want a lively summer destination; August is bad if you want peace and quiet.

What is the most crowded month on the Amalfi Coast?

August is the most crowded month, with around half a million visitors coming to the area. For context, the town of Amalfi has 5,000 residents. The reasons for this are manifold: it’s the summer holidays for many children, it’s the month that Italians are off and there’s more domestic tourism, and the climate is really lovely. There’s a reason that the Amalfi Coast has been a summer destination since Romans built their villas here.