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Positano has more than a dozen case vacanza (vacation homes) for rent. You can find a three-bedroom villa for as little as €39 per person per night.
A short-term villa rental offers the chance to live like a local for a few days or weeks—and can be remarkably affordable, especially for large families or small groups, splitting the cost of a house five or eight ways. (For couples, look into a rental apartment instead.)
Keep in mind that most have a two-night or three-night minimum—and many are only available by the week, so if you search for a longer stay you will get many more results.
There are lots of terms for renting a house on vacation, so on any site be sure to check not just the "Villas" section but also anything "Vacation homes", "Cottages" "Self-catering," "Short-term lets," or anything else that looks promising.
With seasonal variations; rates for nightly, weekly, and monthly stays; and wide choice of sizes (some sleep two to four, other eight, some sixteen or more)—not to mention a variety of styles (from basic and budget to truly posh) and amenities (pool? sea view?)—the price of a rental villa can vary quite wildly.
That said, you can expect to pay about €150–€500 per night on average for the villa itself.
Even for a couple, that makes a villa rental competitive with a stay at a local hotel. (Though if you're just a couple and want even greater savings, look into renting just an apartment rather than a whole house.)
However, when you start filing up all those extra bedrooms, villa rentals gets even more price-savvy.
A group or family of four will be looking at spending €50–€120 per person on average; for six to eight people, the prices drop to more like €25–€80 per person.
Note that there is sometimes a one-time cleaning fee of anywhere from €20 to €90.
The one thing to remember with any rental is that you will have fewer services than a hotel—no housekeeping to clean the rooms (just take out the trash on trash day), concierge to arrange things, or staff to cook you (overpriced) breakfast.
On the other hand, you get to live like a local, have far more room than a hotel, often a pool, cook some of your own meals to save on daily restaurant bills (or just go to a bar each morning for breakfast), and it almost always costs much less than a hotel for parties of four or more.
There's so much good intel out there, I've made a whole section of tips, hints, warnings, and resources for renting a villa in Italy.
» More on Italian villa rentals
The price categories for hotels on this site are as follows:
| € | Under €100 |
| €€ | €100–€200 |
| €€€ | Over €200 |
This reflects the lowest cost for a standard double room in low season.
Yes, that does leave a whole lot of wiggle room. Rates will be rather higher for, say, a "superior deluxe" room with a spectacular view at the height of high season. Still, we have to be able to compare somewhere—and using this metric does at least give you a relative sense of how the hotels compare to one another on price.
Since price ranges (€€–€€€) only muddy the issue, I will usually stick to a single designation for each hotel. The only time you will see a range is if a property offers more than one distinct category of lodging—not different types of rooms (many do that), but say a property that offiers, say, both private hotel rooms as well as hostel-like beds in a shared dormitory.
Hop off the bus, Gus
Positano has two main bus stops for the coastal SITA bus coming from Sorrento.
For most of the downtown hotels, get off at the second stop, 'Sponda," just east of the center of town. The exception (at least among the hotels listed here) is the Casa Albertina, for which it's better to get off at the first stop.
If your hotel is in the Fornillo neighborhood, get off at the first stop, "Chiesa Nuova," then wait for the Positano minibus. (Ask "per Fornillo?" as you board to make sure it's the right bus—and to signal the driver that you're a tourist and he'll need to tell you when to get off.)
| English (Inglese) | Italian (Italiano) | Pro-nun-cee-YAY-shun |
| Good day | Buon giorno | bwohn JOUR-noh |
| Good evening | Buona sera | BWOH-nah SAIR-rah |
| Good night | Buona notte | BWOH-nah NOTE-tay |
| Goodbye | Arrivederci | ah-ree-vah-DAIR-chee |
| Excuse me (to get attention) | Scusi | SKOO-zee |
| thank you | grazie | GRAT-tzee-yay |
| please | per favore | pair fa-VOHR-ray |
| yes | si | see |
| no | no | no |
| Do you speak English? | Parla Inglese? | PAR-la een-GLAY-zay |
| I don't understand | Non capisco | non ka-PEESK-koh |
| I'm sorry | Mi dispiace | mee dees-pee-YAT-chay |
| Where is? | Dov'é | doh-VAY |
| ...a hotel | un albergo | oon al-BEAR-go |
| ...a B&B | un bed-and-breakfast | oon bet hand BREK-fust |
| ...a rental room | un'affittacamera | oon ah-feet-ah-CAH-mair-ra |
| ...an apartment for rent | un appartamento | oon ah-part-tah-MENT-toh |
| ...a farm stay | un agriturismo | oon ah-gree-tour-EES-moh |
| ...a hostel | un ostello | oon oh-STEHL-loh |
| How much is...? | Quanto costa? | KWAN-toh COST-ah |
| a single room | una singola | OO-nah SEEN-go-la |
| double room for single use [will often be offered if singles are unavailable] | doppia uso singola | DOPE-pee-ya OO-so SEEN-go-la |
| a double room with two beds | una doppia con due letti | OO-nah DOPE-pee-ya cone DOO-way LET-tee |
| a double room with one big bed | una matrimoniale | OO-nah mat-tree-moan-nee-YAAL-lay |
| triple room | una tripla | OO-nah TREE-plah |
| with private bathroom | con bagno | cone BAHN-yoh |
| without private bathroom | senza bagno [they might say con bagno in comune—"with a communal bath"] | SEN-zah BAHN-yoh |
| for one night | per una notte | pair OO-nah NOH-tay |
| for two nights | per due notti | pair DOO-way NOH-tee |
| for three nights | per tre notti | pair tray NOH-tee |
| Is breakfast included? | É incluso la prima colazione? | ay in-CLOO-soh lah PREE-mah coal-laht-zee-YOAN-nay |
| Is there WiFi? | C'é WiFi? | chay WHY-fy? |
| May I see the room? | Posso vedere la camera? | POH-soh veh-DAIR-eh lah CAH-mair-rah |
| That's too much | É troppo | ay TROH-po |
| Is there a cheaper one? | C'é una più economica? | chay OO-nah pew eh-ko-NO-mee-kah |
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This article was written by Reid Bramblett and was last updated in May 2015.
All information was accurate at the time.
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