Driving the Amalfi Coast in 2026: The Daily Plate Rule Explained

Right now, through 30 September 2026, the single road connecting most Amalfi Coast towns enforces a licence-plate restriction every single day, not just weekends. If the last digit of your plate is odd, you can only drive the SS163 Amalfitana on odd-numbered calendar dates; even plates, even dates. Get the date wrong in a rental car and you're not driving into Positano that afternoon — you're turning around.

How the SS163 plate rule actually works

The restriction runs on the SS163 Amalfitana, the coastal road between Vietri sul Mare and Positano, from 10am to 6pm. The schedule tightens as the season builds: weekends and public holidays only from late March through 31 July, then — the part that catches people out — every single day of the week from 1 August through 30 September, before dropping back to weekends-only through the end of October. On any restricted day, cars with an odd last digit on the plate may drive only on odd-numbered dates of the month, and cars with an even last digit only on even-numbered dates, per Positano's own official visitor-information page and corroborated by independent Amalfi Coast travel guides tracking the 2026 ordinance. Motorcycles and scooters are unrestricted. Rental cars are explicitly not exempt — picking up a hire car at Naples airport doesn't get you out of the rule, and travel guides covering the 2026 season are blunt that "ignorance of this rule will not be accepted as a valid excuse." Camper vans, motorhomes, and any vehicle towing a trailer face a separate, harsher rule: they're banned from the SS163 entirely, year-round, from 6:30am to midnight.

Exemptions exist for residents of the fourteen Amalfi Coast municipalities, holders of disability permits, taxis and licensed hire-car operators, emergency vehicles, people with a confirmed work contract in the area, and — usefully for visitors — guests with a confirmed hotel booking on their arrival and departure days. If you're staying inside the restricted zone, build your check-in and check-out days around that carve-out rather than assuming it covers your whole stay, because it doesn't — a mid-stay day trip by car still needs the right-parity plate like anyone else's.

Positano's own ZTL fee, on top of the plate rule

Separately from the SS163 restriction, Positano runs its own limited-traffic zone (ZTL) with a EUR5 per-transit fee for any vehicle carrying more than five seats, payable through the town's own ztlpositano.it portal. Parking once you're in is its own cost: the Mandara and Mulini car parks start from EUR10 an hour, and in summer both fill early — arriving before 9am is the difference between finding a space and circling.

Skip driving: ferry and bus into Positano

Given all of that, most people visiting in August or September are better off not bringing a car onto the coast at all. Salerno functions as the practical gateway: it's a short regional train ride from Naples, and from Salerno's port, Travelmar runs frequent passenger ferries along the coast. A one-way Salerno-Positano ferry runs about EUR17, with shorter hops cheaper — Salerno-Amalfi is about EUR12 and Amalfi-Positano about EUR10 — and ferries aren't subject to the SS163 plate rule at all, since they're on the water. If you're staying inland from the coast, SITA buses connect the same towns by road (Positano-Amalfi about EUR2.40, Amalfi-Ravello about EUR1.50, Amalfi-Salerno about EUR2.80), though buses queue in the same traffic the plate rule exists to manage, so on a same-day return from Positano in peak summer afternoons, a ferry back to Salerno is the more reliable option than the last bus out.

Building a realistic day around it

If you are driving — say, from a base further along the coast where a car is genuinely useful — check your plate's last digit against the calendar date before you leave, every day, not just once at the start of the trip; the rule flips daily and doesn't care what you assumed yesterday. Naples Capodichino Airport (NAP) is the main international gateway if you're flying in; from there, both the drive down the coast and the train-plus-ferry route via Salerno are viable, but only one of them has a plate rule waiting for you at Vietri sul Mare. Two routes sit outside the SS163 restriction entirely and are worth knowing if you're trying to reach Ravello or Maiori without waiting out a wrong-parity day: the Chiunzi Pass provincial road and the Agerolina Road (SR366) both bypass the coastal SS163 stretch and aren't covered by the ordinance.

A separate rule on the Sorrento side

If your route also touches the Sorrento Peninsula — Sorrento, Meta, or Vico Equense — be aware that stretch runs its own, separate odd/even plate ordinance on the SS145, not the same one as the SS163. It's active 8am to 7pm, weekends and public holidays only from 8 April to 31 May, then daily from 1 June through 30 September. Treat it as a second rule to check rather than an extension of the Amalfi Coast one: the two roads are administered separately, and a plate that's clear to drive the SS163 on a given date isn't automatically clear on the SS145 the same day, so check both calendars if your trip crosses between the two peninsulas.

None of this is new in the sense of being unique to the Amalfi Coast — Italy's ZTL system exists in city centres nationwide, with fines commonly starting around EUR100 for an unauthorised entry into a restricted zone, camera-enforced rather than police-enforced. What's specific to the SS163 in 2026 is the switch from weekends-only to every day of the week for the whole of August and September, which is exactly the stretch most travellers are planning their trip around right now.

Italy is in the Schengen area, so the entry-requirements side of a trip here is the same as for the rest of the zone. Coastal signal along the SS163's cliffside stretches and inside Positano's ravine can still drop out in patches, so it's worth arriving with an Italy eSIM already active rather than relying on finding a local SIM shop once you're navigating a plate restriction on the fly — check device compatibility first on our compatibility checker.

FAQ

Does the Amalfi Coast plate restriction apply to rental cars?

Yes. Rental cars, including those picked up at Naples airport, are subject to the same odd/even rule as any other private vehicle on the SS163. There's no rental-car exemption.

What days does the restriction run every day of the week in 2026?

From 1 August through 30 September 2026, the SS163 Amalfitana's odd/even plate rule is active every day, 10am to 6pm. Outside that window (late March-31 July and all of October) it applies only on weekends and public holidays.

Is there a way to avoid the plate rule entirely?

Yes — travel by ferry or scooter. Motorcycles and scooters are exempt from the rule, and the Travelmar ferry network along the coast isn't affected by it at all since it runs on water, not the SS163.

How much does Positano's ZTL fee cost?

Positano's own limited-traffic zone charges EUR5 per transit for vehicles with more than five seats, paid through ztlpositano.it, separate from and on top of the SS163 plate restriction.