The $325 private transfer boat you don’t need

Your hotel will happily book you a private boat from Sorrento to Positano for $275–375. The public ferry does the same run, on the same water, for about $13.

The pitch sounds reasonable — “arrive in style, on your own schedule.” In practice the private transfer drops you at the exact same marina as the ferry, you still climb the same steps up into town, and the “schedule” is a ferry that runs every 45 minutes anyway. The Positano–Amalfi–Sorrento ferries are frequent, cheap, and hand you the postcard view of the coast rising out of the sea — from the open top deck, no less.

Do this instead

Take the fast ferry and grab a seat on the top deck for the views. Buy tickets at the dock kiosk the morning of — no need to pre-book except in peak August. Put the $300 you just saved toward the one boat day that’s actually worth it: a half-day private hire around the coast, swimming off the back in a cove you can’t reach on foot. That’s the boat to splurge on — not the taxi ride between two docks.