Positano charges €25 for a sun lounger and €18 for a spritz, but the cliffs, the footpaths and the sea are free. Sleep uphill in Montepertuso, eat from bakeries and rosticcerie, and ride the €2.20 SITA bus instead of the €30 boat taxis.
The Amalfi Coast's famous ridge trail costs nothing. Take the 08:00 SITA bus to Amalfi then to Bomerano (about €3.40 total), walk 6.5km west to Nocelle in roughly 3 hours. No ticket office, no gate, open all year.
The stone staircase from Nocelle down to Via Laurito is free and drops around 500 metres to the coast road. It passes lemon terraces and empty chapels, and delivers the vertical Positano view every paid boat tour sells.
Positano's second beach sits past the Torre Trasita and keeps a genuine free section at its western end. Pebbles rather than loungers, calmer water than Spiaggia Grande, and showers at the far edge that nobody charges for.
The paved path cut into the rock between Spiaggia Grande and Fornillo passes the Saracen watchtower and a string of sea caves. It is public, lit at dusk, and gives the same sunset angle as the €20 terrace bars above it.
Breakfast the local way: sfogliatella riccia and an espresso at the counter for well under €5 combined. Standing at the bar costs a fraction of the table price, an Italian rule that Positano's tourist cafés rely on you not knowing.
A cramped family alimentari selling made-to-order panini with mozzarella di bufala, prosciutto and local tomatoes for €6–9, plus bottles of Furore white. Almost every hiker on the coast eats lunch out of one of their paper bags.
Ten minutes uphill on the €1.30 orange Mobility Amalfi Coast bus sits the farming hamlet above Positano. Grocery prices drop by roughly half, the trattorias serve menus at €15, and the pierced rock above the square explains the name.
Rather than the €18 aperitivo terraces, buy a bottle from the supermarket on Viale Pasitea and take the steps at the eastern edge of Spiaggia Grande. The illuminated village stacks up behind you at exactly the same angle.
The €2.20 SITA ride along the SS163 is the cheapest scenic tour on the coast, hugging the cliff past Vettica Maggiore. Buy tickets at any tabaccheria beforehand and validate on board; drivers do not sell them.
The majolica-tiled terrace in front of this 16th-century church is a free public belvedere looking straight back at Positano's headland. Entry to the church costs nothing and the ceramic floor outside is a local landmark.
Praiano's west-facing beach is the only one on this stretch that gets full afternoon sun. The public staircase from Via Gavitella reaches it without paying the €5 lift, and part of the pebble shore stays free of concessions.
Back in Positano, the terrace beside the 13th-century Saracen tower on the Fornillo path is public ground with no bar attached. It faces west over Li Galli islands, which is where the sun actually sets in summer.