Amalfi coast

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Labor day 2025: Istanbul, Cappadocia and Amalfi coast trip

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One complaint I get from folks who go to the blog to get travel tips is that they have to go post to post backwards. There is no link from day 1 to day 2.. as I write in start to end sequence. My walking buddies suggested that everytime I finish a “series of posts”, there should be a summary post that describes the placed we stayed in, times between locations, etc.. something that they can literally cut and paste for a future itinerary. So for the first time trying that.

Click on the images to see the individual posts..

Day 1: Fly out of SFO to Istanbul. Start Friday afternoon. Reach Saturday afternoon local time in Istanbul airport.

Day 2: Two hours to reach hotel in old Istanbul area from Airport. Check in, change and visit Grand Bazaar, then walk around, see the Grand Cisterns and have dinner outside the Cisterns at a roof top restaurant, walk around the Sultanahmet mosque and square and get back to hotel.

The Grand Bazaar

Day 3: Sunday (Grand Bazaar is closed) All day walking tour of Istanbul with Viator. Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, catwalk at a mall, lunch break on our own, back to hotel, then Topkapi palace, back to hotel, then a night cruise on the Bhosporus strait.

Walking tour..

Topkapi palace

Night cruise

Day 4: Monday : Another morning at Grand Bazzar and walking around, then go to Hammam for 2+ hours, lunch near the Hammam place and back to hotel, pack and leave for Airport. Fly from Istanbul to Nevshehir and a long ride to Cave hotel in Kapadokya (Cappadocia).

Hammam and bye to Istanbul

Day 5 Tuesday: Wake up to see the ballons, then go on an all day Viator tour of Kapadokya. Open air Museum at Goreme, Lover’s hill, Pottery at Avanos, buffet lunch, Imagination point, PInk Valley, underground city of Kaimakli, Pidgeon valley, Uchisar castle, stop for buying Turkish delights, back to Cave hotel. Walking around the Goreme village at night and a dinner in Indian restaurant.

Hot air balloons in Kapadokya

Goreme open air museum

Lover’s hill

Pottery gallery at Avanos

Imagination point and PInk Valley

Kaimakli underground city, Pidgeon valley and Uchisar castle

Day 6 Wednesday: Cancelled Ballon ride. Spend time in the village, drive to Nevshehir airport, fly to Istanbul, wait, fly to Naples (basically entire day in cars, airports), drive from Naples airport to Sorrento hotel.

spending time at cave hotel and off to Naples (all day travel via Istanbul)

Day 7 Thursday: Walking Food tour in Sorrento followed by visiting Church and Cathedral. Back to hotel and walk to the water to spend time in the sea in the public area. Back to hotel, change, visit city center for dinner, followed by sunset viewing.

Sorrento food tour

water time and sunset in Sorrento

Day 8 Friday: Drive to Ercolano to see the buried city of Herculaneum. Then drive to Pompeii to see buried city there, lunch at Pompeii, drive back to Sorrento, short break and Kayaking in sunset in Sorrento.

Buried city of Herculaneum

Pompeii

Kayaking at sunset in Sorrento

Day 9 Saturday: Say bye to Sorrento, load luggage, drive to Positano, spend time seeing vertical village, lunch, then drive to Naples hotel. See the Naples City center, Castle, Galleria Umberto, Via Toledo, ice cream, take out dinner which we had back in hotel with the little one and pack.

Positano Vertical village

An evenings in Naples

Day 10 Sunday: Early morning flight from Naples to Rome and Rome to SFO and back by Sunday late afternoon. Time to recover in time to head back to office Monday!

Had to take five days off instead of 4 as Turkish airlines flight time moved earlier. So had to take off Friday before labor day.

There was something for everyone in the family in this trip. No check in baggage. Managed to pack only clothes (fortunately summer clothes) and do a 9 day trip with a carry on bag each. Did not buy anything that would add to weight. Didn’t take laptops on trip. It was an exercise in luggage frugality. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Hope this summary post helps you better. If it does drop me a note or let me know on FB and will do this for all future trips.

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Positano in the Amalfi Coast - Vertical village

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The previous post in this series is here..

After Jr.’s scaring us with her health the previous night post kayaking into the sunset, we tried to get her back in shape with EmergenC, tylenol etc. and by morning she was in better shape.

We had one last breakfast at the Angelino Hotel, said bye to the staff. Loaded our luggage and started driving to Positano. It was a tense drive on windy roads along the coast. Once we reached Positano we found a paid parking garage and walked the entire vertical village up and down a few times.

Thoroughly enjoyed the churches, the lanes, the cute shops, and had a fabulous pasta lunch.

The gallery of photos , mostly in portrait format..

A video highlights reel..

Then we walked back in the hot sun to the car. It was already close to 2 PM when we started. The original plan was to go sleep in Naples close to the airport and catch the early morning flight out. Given the heat and need for some chai, we skipped the gelato plan and drove straight to Naples.

Positano was amazing. It felt like an action replay of Sorrento at placed but the vertical village has its own charm! Do not miss visiting Positano if you go on a trip to the Sorrento area.

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Kayaking into the sunset - an amazing experience in Sorrento

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The previous post in this series is here..

We were to drive to the starting point for the Kayaking and be there before 5PM. We ended up in a wrong parking lot somewhere in the middle of the hillside. Finally after calling the Kayak place we found a parking lot below at the sea level. Turned out we were not the last ones to arrive. This was booked through Viator. So we know it will be good.

We were asked to change in a small change room, leave everything there, given life vests, a hanging cover for our phones, paddles and when the entire group of 14 was ready, there were three guides who joined us. Once our vests were checked, we got a lesson on paddling and off we went. San and me in one kayak with her insisting that she will be in the front (which meant I got to direct the kayak.. you cannot have your cake and eat it too!) and the kids in another double kayak.

We kayaked along the coast line into a grotto. It was a thrilling experience. Once there, folks who wanted to swim there were allowed 20 minutes. There is a path from the grotto to go up the hill to a villa and see the sunset from there. San and me raced up. I thought I could make it to the villas front doors, but there wasn’t enough time. So we ran to the other side, got some pics and raced back.

San had a narrow escape as she fell when trying to get back on the kayak (it was unfortunately captured on video like a drishti parigaram) but recovered okay.

When we made it back and changed, Jr. was really sick. She was miserable. So we ate at the restaurant that was new (same owners as kayak place) and it was made fresh. Loved the pasta here. Then with wet clothes it was a race back to the hotel. By the time we reached the hotel the kid was really miserable. We had two more days of travel left. So we focussed on getting her better and went to bed early. When we got to the hotel I realized that my hard earned new challenge shirt was gone!

We had to take the next days plans depending on how things turned out in the morning..

A video highlight reel

In a way it was good we missed our original appointment and went to kayak at sunset. It was fantastic.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.