I visited here 20 years ago as a teenaged backpacker and next month am planning to go back with some friends to see it again. I know it's become an Instagrammers nightmare in some ways with the crowds it draws, but hoping to be able to avoid the worst of it and find nice pockets of scenic, relaxing, beautiful settings to lounge, eat, drink, walk, and revisit it again. (2-3 nights) We're very open to lots of walking up and down, beach/restaurant/hikes among the different towns.

I've held some hotel options in Sorrento, but also right in Amalfi. We're thinking about coming with a compact car from Naples on a Wed, flying out on a Sat morning, so probably having a car is helpful. And if we want to go between towns I know there's buses (which I took 20 years ago), but the car could be convenient for 2-3 people . And possibly to do that Walk of the Gods in the hills above Positano? But the parking situation gives me pause.

Would you all have any advice about whether to stick with Sorrento, and make day trips with the car into the other towns? Or brave it by going right into Amalfi, staying there, having to find parking in the densest part, because it's so much more central? I don't know much about whether Sorrento is nice enough to be a destination of its own to base out of there.

(and by the way, if there are better ideas for spending these days around here, I would love to hear it! We're not like a couple on a romantic trip by ourselves so we're not thinking little villages with nothing to do -- being around some activity as a group would be more our speed, hence the choice of destination -- also thinking of day trips to Procida or Ischia...)

Thanks!