Buy your ticket before you join the bus queue. On the Amalfi Coast, normal SITA Sud services are not designed around paying the driver: use an authorised ticket seller such as a tabaccheria, newsstand, bar or ticket office, or buy digitally through the UnicoCampania app. Do not assume a roadside bus stop has a machine or sales booth.
The safest rule for SITA bus tickets Amalfi Coast journeys is simple: sort out the ticket while you are still in the town centre, then walk to the stop. This matters especially in Positano, Praiano and smaller villages, where the bus stop may be little more than a sign beside the coast road.
Where can you buy SITA tickets?
SITA Sud publishes an official directory of authorised ticket sellers in Campania. The list includes ordinary businesses as well as dedicated ticket offices, so do not look only for a shop marked โSITA.โ
Useful Italian signs and words to watch for include:
- Tabacchi / Tabaccheria: tobacco shop, usually marked by a large white-and-blue โTโ sign.
- Edicola: newsstand.
- Biglietteria: ticket office.
- Rivendita autorizzata: authorised ticket seller.
- Biglietti SITA: SITA tickets.
- Titoli di viaggio: the formal Italian term for tickets and travel passes.
Bars, hotels and small convenience shops can also be authorised sellers. The important point is that the business must actually stock the ticket you need. A shop selling lottery tickets or cigarettes is not automatically a SITA retailer.
Where to buy in the main Amalfi Coast departure towns
Sorrento
Buy before heading for the coastal bus departure area. The official SITA retailer directory currently lists several sellers in Sorrento, including shops around the central part of town. This is much easier than reaching the bus and then discovering you need to leave the queue to find a ticket.
If you are arriving in Sorrento by Circumvesuviana and continuing toward Positano or Amalfi, make the ticket purchase part of the transfer rather than walking straight from the train toward the waiting bus.
Amalfi
Amalfi is one of the coast’s main SITA interchange points, with buses leaving for Salerno, Positano/Sorrento, Ravello/Scala and Agerola. Authorised sellers are available in the town, including locations close to the central area.
Buy before joining the line for your destination. The waterfront bus area can have several queues and buses operating at once, and having a ticket does not reserve you a place on a particular departure.
Salerno
SITA Sud has an official ticket office at Via Vinciprova, the bus terminal area near Salerno railway station, as well as numerous authorised retailers elsewhere in the city. If you are beginning a coast journey here, buying at Vinciprova is usually more straightforward than hoping to find a seller after you have already reached a smaller coastal stop.
Positano and Praiano
This is where buying ahead becomes particularly important. Stops along the SS163 coast road generally do not function like staffed bus stations. You may find an authorised shop elsewhere in town, but it can involve stairs, a steep walk or a considerable detour from your boarding stop.
If you are staying overnight, buy the next journey’s ticket while shops are open rather than waiting until five minutes before the bus.
Ravello, Minori, Maiori and the smaller towns
Authorised sellers include hotels, bars, tabacchi and other local businesses. Opening hours vary by business, so an entry in the SITA directory does not guarantee that the shop will be open early on a Sunday morning or late in the evening.
A useful habit is to buy tomorrow morning’s ticket the previous afternoon.
The easiest option: buy digitally with UnicoCampania
SITA Sud participates in the UnicoCampania fare system, and the current coastal timetable explicitly states that tickets can be purchased digitally through the UnicoCampania app. This removes the problem of finding an open tabacchi before an early departure.
- Install the UnicoCampania app and create an account while you have reliable internet.
- Look for the ticket-purchase section, normally labelled Acquista ticket.
- Select SITA Sud or use the journey-planning function to identify the appropriate ticket.
- Buy the ticket before going to the bus stop.
- Open I miei titoli, meaning โMy tickets,โ when you are ready to travel.
- Activate the ticket before boarding. Purchasing it and activating it are separate steps.
Do not leave the download, registration and payment setup until the bus is pulling into the stop. Mobile reception can be patchy along sections of the coast, and a queue of passengers behind you is a poor place to discover that your card needs additional verification.
Single ticket or the โฌ10 COSTIERASITA ticket?
SITA Sud currently offers the COSTIERASITA ticket for โฌ10. It is valid for 24 hours from the first validation and allows unlimited journeys on SITA Sud services within the participating coastal municipalities, including Salerno, Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori, Amalfi, Ravello, Praiano, Positano and Sorrento, among others.
Choose a normal single ticket if you are making one straightforward journey. Consider COSTIERASITA if your day involves several SITA rides, such as Sorrento to Positano, Positano to Amalfi and then another bus onward. Check the current conditions on the official SITA Sud ticket page before relying on the pass, since fares and products can change.
A paper COSTIERASITA ticket is personal and non-transferable. SITA Sud instructs passengers to enter their name and date of birth in the spaces provided and validate it at the first use.
How paper-ticket validation works
Buying the ticket is not the final step. Paper tickets that require validation must be stamped in the machine when you begin the journey. Look for the small onboard validator and insert the ticket as you board.
If you have a ticket whose validity begins with the first validation, do not stamp it hours before you actually intend to use it.
For COSTIERASITA, SITA Sud specifically states that if the validating machine is missing or not working, the ticket should be validated manually. If that situation occurs, tell the driver immediately rather than simply sitting down with an unstamped ticket.
Can you buy a ticket from the SITA bus driver?
Do not plan on it for ordinary Amalfi Coast buses. SITA Sud does permit onboard sales in exceptional circumstances on certain specified Campania routes, but its published onboard-sales notice does not establish driver sales as the normal system for the standard coastal services.
That distinction matters because travellers often hear that โSITA sells tickets on the busโ and assume it applies everywhere. It does not.
There is also a separate seasonal SITA service linking Salerno Costa d’Amalfi Airport with the coast for which SITA’s 2026 notice specifically allows onboard ticket purchase, subject to seat availability. That is a special airport service, not evidence that you can board a regular Positano-Amalfi-Sorrento bus without a ticket.
What to do if the ticket shop is closed
If you reach your departure point and the seller is shuttered, do not immediately board and hope the driver will fix it. Your better options are:
- Check the UnicoCampania app and buy digitally.
- Use the official SITA retailer directory to find another nearby seller.
- Ask locally, โDove posso comprare un biglietto SITA?โ meaning โWhere can I buy a SITA ticket?โ
- If you have a later journey as well, buy both tickets once you find an open retailer.
This is especially useful before Sundays, public holidays and very early departures. Small retailers set their own opening hours, which may have little connection to the bus timetable.
Buy the return ticket at the same time
For a simple out-and-back trip, buying both directions before you leave your starting town can save trouble later. Tell the seller your destinations so you receive the correct fare product rather than assuming every coastal trip uses the same ticket.
This trick is particularly useful when your return stop is on a road outside the main centre, where there may be nowhere nearby to buy anything at all.
If you are combining several coastal towns, it also helps to organize the rest of your Italy route around realistic bus and ferry connections rather than treating every town as equally easy to reach.
A ticket does not guarantee boarding
This is one of the most important distinctions on the Amalfi Coast. Normal SITA tickets are transport tickets, not reservations for a specific departure or seat.
In summer, a bus can arrive full and leave passengers waiting for the next one. Having already validated a time-limited ticket too early can therefore be awkward, so follow the conditions of your specific ticket and do not activate a digital ticket unnecessarily far in advance.
At major departure points such as Amalfi and Sorrento, arrive early enough to identify the correct queue. At intermediate stops, stand where the driver can clearly see that you want the bus and signal it as it approaches.
When the ferry may be a better choice
For journeys such as Salerno-Amalfi-Positano, a ferry can remove both the bus-ticket hunt and the uncertainty of a full bus during busy months. Buses remain particularly useful for places without ferry access, including Ravello and inland locations.
If you are deciding how heavily to rely on buses during the trip, the Italy on Foot comparison of the Amalfi Coast with a car versus without one explains where buses, ferries and walking each make the most sense.
The mistakes that cause the most trouble
- Joining the queue first and looking for a ticket second. At a busy terminus, you may lose your place.
- Assuming every tabacchi sells SITA tickets. Use an authorised retailer.
- Assuming the driver will sell you one. That is not the standard arrangement on ordinary coastal routes.
- Buying digitally but forgetting to activate. An unused ticket sitting in the app is not the same as a properly activated one.
- Waiting until an early Sunday departure to buy. The bus may operate before nearby shops open.
- Confusing a ticket with a reservation. A valid fare does not guarantee space on a crowded bus.
- Assuming one local fare rule applies across Campania. SITA Sud uses the wider UnicoCampania tariff system, and the right ticket depends on the journey and product you choose.
For the current coastal timetable, check SITA Sud’s Campania service pages shortly before travel. Timetables and temporary service notices can change during the season, while the basic survival rule remains wonderfully simple: buy first, queue second.