Landing at Naples Capodichino Airport

What NAP is like

Capodichino sits so close to central Naples that you can pick out the city on the approach. People who land here split cleanly into two groups: those staying in Naples, and those already hurrying towards the port for an island boat or onto the road for the Amalfi coast. The building is not large and fills quickly in summer, which turns the arrivals hall into the place where everyone stops at once to work out which way they are going.

On arrival

Turn the line on before you stand up, because the walk is short and you can be at the kerb minutes after the bags appear. Most European arrivals skip passport control. There are only so many belts, and when aircraft land close together the wait for luggage is the slow part. The forecourt is where every kind of vehicle converges and it is busy, so read the airport's own signs rather than guessing where your ride waits. If you intend to catch a boat the same day, check the next sailing while you are still standing in the hall, not when you reach the port.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

There is free airport Wi-Fi with the usual sign-in page, but a small hall packed at the hour several flights land together means the speed drops for everybody. What matters more is that Naples is a city where you lean on maps and ride-hailing from the first minute, and the street offers no Wi-Fi to fall back on. If you are heading for a boat or a train to Pompeii, a line that already works beats hunting free signal in a building you will leave inside ten minutes.

Getting into town

Because the airport is near the city, reaching central Naples takes very little time, and a dedicated bus runs to the main railway station and on towards the port, which is the route people bound for Capri and Ischia take. Heading for the Amalfi coast instead turns the journey into a narrow, twisting cliff road where the signal comes and goes with the shape of the mountain, so download offline maps before you leave the city. On the boats, the middle of the bay is where coverage clearly weakens before returning as an island approaches. Airport to a city hotel is light, around 100MB. A day that involves a ferry and two changes costs considerably more, because the map stays open from morning to afternoon.

What people ask about this airport

• Check the sailing before you leave — Island sailings are limited and shift with the season and the sea state. Reading the next departure while still in the hall beats discovering it at the quay.
• Offline maps for the coast road — The cliff road twists and drops signal in places. A map stored on the phone means you are not stopping on a narrow verge to wait for one.
• This city leans on the map — The old lanes are complicated and thinly signed, so most people leave the map running nearly all day, which uses more than a city you can navigate by eye.