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Route · 7 days · one-wayYacht charter route · Amalfi

Salerno via South.

Sail seven days south from Salerno into the Cilento National Park: Cetara, Agropoli, Acciaroli, Palinuro and the wild Infreschi marine reserve.

The route

Day-by-day route

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Cetara
Day 1

Salerno → Cetara

An easy eight-mile hop west from Marina d'Arechi to Cetara, the little Amalfi port that turned anchovies into liquid gold.

Distance

4 NM

Sailing

~0.8h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

May – mid-October (peak Jun – Sep)

Duration

7 days

Departure

Salerno

Sailing area

Amalfi

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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The full story

Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 7
Cetara
1
Day 1

Salerno → Cetara

The first leg is deliberately short, and I like it that way. Eight miles out of Marina d'Arechi puts you off Cetara well before lunch, with the rest of the day to find your feet. This is the working end of the Amalfi Coast: a wedge of tall houses stacked above a fishing harbour, a majolica-domed church, and the squat Torre Vicereale guarding the beach. Cetara made its name with colatura di alici, the amber anchovy sauce descended from Roman garum, and the families who press it still work cellars a few steps from the quay. Order spaghetti alla colatura at a harbour trattoria and you understand the fuss. Late afternoon, climb toward the tower for the light on the water, then settle in with a limoncello as the boats come back.

Things to do

Visit a colatura di alici cellar by the harbour

Spaghetti alla colatura at a quayside trattoria

Climb to the Torre Vicereale watchtower

Majolica-tiled dome of San Pietro Apostolo

Mooring tip

Cetara's little harbour takes you stern-to at roughly €40-60 a night and sits well tucked from northerlies, but it fills fast in July and August, so raft in by mid-afternoon or call ahead. If it's full, Marina d'Arechi eight miles back has the berths and full services.

Agropoli
2
Day 2

Cetara → Agropoli

This is the day the coast changes character. You leave the vertical drama of Amalfi behind and cross open water toward the softer, greener shoulder of the Cilento. Twenty miles is a proper sail if the westerly fills in by early afternoon, so we usually slip the lines by nine. Agropoli announces itself with an Angevin-Aragonese castle riding the headland above the old town, its lanes climbing to a gate and a view back over the gulf. The real prize sits inland: Paestum, where three Doric temples have stood since the sixth century BC, a short taxi from the marina. Closer to hand, Trentova Bay a mile north gives clear water over sand for an afternoon swim. Provision here too; the buffalo-mozzarella farms of the Sele plain are the best you'll taste all week.

Things to do

Taxi to the Doric temples at Paestum

Swim over sand in Trentova Bay

Climb to the Angevin-Aragonese castle

Buffalo mozzarella from a Sele-plain farm

Mooring tip

Marina di Agropoli takes you stern-to for about €40-70, sheltered from the north; book ahead in high summer as the pontoons are popular. For a lunch stop, drop the hook in Trentova Bay on sand in four to six metres and swim off the boat.

Acciaroli
3
Day 3

Agropoli → Acciaroli

Acciaroli is small, low and white, wrapped around one of the prettiest little harbours on this coast. A Norman tower stands over the entrance and the church of the Annunziata anchors the piazza behind it. Local lore has Hemingway putting in here in the early fifties, and the village has run with the story ever since; take it with a smile and a glass of something cold. What is beyond doubt is the fishing. The anchovies here are still caught with menaica nets, a Slow Food method that keeps the fish whole and sweet, and you'll find them baked with oregano at the quay trattorias. Three miles on lies Pioppi, where the American physiologist Ancel Keys spent decades documenting what the world now calls the Mediterranean diet. Its little museum is worth the walk.

Things to do

Menaica anchovies baked with oregano at the quay

Walk to the Norman tower and Annunziata church

Pioppi's Mediterranean Diet museum, three miles south

Swim off the harbour breakwater at dusk

Mooring tip

Acciaroli's harbour is stern-to and cheap by Amalfi standards, around €30-50, and stays calm in northerlies, but space is tight, so aim to arrive before five. Prefer a swim day? Anchor off Pioppi on sand in four to six metres instead.

Marina di Casalvelino
4
Day 4

Acciaroli → Marina di Casalvelino

Only eight miles today, which leaves the afternoon free for something unusual on a sailing holiday: ancient philosophy. Just inland from Marina di Casalvelino lie the ruins of Elea, the Greek colony the Romans called Velia, home to Parmenides and Zeno and their school of hair-splitting logic. Walk up through the site to the Porta Rosa, an arch older than most of what survives in Italy, and the centuries fall away. Back at sea level, the long sweep of Ascea beach runs off to the south, backed by pines and easy to reach by tender for a swim over clean sand. Evenings here are quiet farming-village affairs. Track down a family kitchen serving hand-rolled fusilli cilentani under wild-boar ragù, pour a Cilento red, and you've had a good day.

Things to do

Walk the ruins of Elea to Porta Rosa

Swim off Ascea's pine-backed sand beach

Fusilli cilentani with wild-boar ragù inland

Sunset drink on the Casalvelino quay

Mooring tip

Marina di Casalvelino is a tidy little berth, stern-to at roughly €40-60 and protected from the north; it's small, so a call ahead in season saves surprises. For lunch, anchor off Ascea on sand in four to six metres and dinghy ashore.

Palinuro
5
Day 5

Marina di Casalvelino → Palinuro

Palinuro is the set-piece of this coast, and you feel it coming: a great pale headland shouldering out into deep blue, honeycombed with caves at the waterline. Named for the helmsman Aeneas lost here in the Aeneid, the cape hides more than thirty grottoes. The Grotta Azzurra is the one everyone wants, its water lit an electric blue where sun slips through an underwater window; take the tender in on a calm morning before the tour boats arrive. Round to the south side and you'll find the Arco Naturale standing offshore and Cala del Buon Dormire tucked below the cliffs for a swim. Ashore, the harbour trattorias do pezzogna all'acqua pazza, local bream poached with tomato and garlic. Fit crews can hike the trail up to the Capo Palinuro lighthouse for the long view south.

Things to do

Tender into the Grotta Azzurra at dawn

Swim below the cliffs at Cala del Buon Dormire

Photograph the offshore Arco Naturale

Pezzogna all'acqua pazza at the harbour

Hike to the Capo Palinuro lighthouse

Mooring tip

Marina di Palinuro sits on the sheltered east side and takes you stern-to at about €50-80, calm in northerlies; it's the busiest stop of the week, so book. Day-anchor off the south-side coves like Cala del Buon Dormire, but move round for the night.

Marina di Camerota
6
Day 6

Palinuro → Marina di Camerota

The shortest hop of the week drops you at the edge of the best-protected coast in Campania. South of Marina di Camerota the shore turns to cliff and juniper, and boat traffic thins to almost nothing inside the Infreschi and Masseta reserve. Baia degli Infreschi is the headline: a near-enclosed bay of pale sand and green water reachable only from the sea or on foot, named for the cold springs that seep up along its shore. Anchor early, because the day-boats find it too. A little further sits Cala Bianca, a bright ribbon of shingle that once topped a national poll for Italy's finest beach. Camerota itself keeps a proper fishing-village feel; sit on the dock over sea urchins and a cold Fiano, and let the afternoon go long.

Things to do

Anchor in Baia degli Infreschi early

Swim the shingle at Cala Bianca

Sea urchins and Fiano on the dock

Coastal path around the Infreschi reserve

Mooring tip

Marina di Camerota takes you stern-to at roughly €40-60 and shelters you from the north. Baia degli Infreschi is a day-anchorage only, on sand in four to six metres, with no overnight allowed inside the reserve, so plan to be back on the pontoon by evening.

San Marco
7
Day 7

Marina di Camerota → Salerno

The final day is the big one, thirty-eight miles back up the coast to Salerno, so this is a morning for an early start and a fair forecast. With the summer breeze usually behind you on the way north, it can be a genuinely lovely sail rather than a slog. Break it halfway at San Marco di Castellabate, where a sixteenth-century watchtower stands above a sand beach and the submerged stones of an ancient Greek port lie just off it; drop the hook, swim, and eat something before the last stretch. Aim to reach Marina d'Arechi with light to spare, topping up at the fuel berth by the entrance before you tie up. Then walk Salerno's palm-lined Lungomare at sunset with a sfogliatella, and let the trip settle before tomorrow's inventory.

Things to do

Swim below the San Marco di Castellabate watchtower

Snorkel the submerged ancient Greek port

Refuel and clean up at Marina d'Arechi

Sfogliatella on Salerno's Lungomare Trieste

Mooring tip

Marina d'Arechi is a full-service marina and stern-to, but peak nights run €100-160, so it's the priciest stop; reserve your return berth when you book the charter. Take on fuel at the entrance berth before you go looking for your pontoon.

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