‘Welcome to Capri!’ announces our pilot Alessandro over the tannoy as we cruise 1,000ft above the coastline in our £5m twin-engine tracker helicopter, the first of its kind in Italy.
We’re just high enough to avoid the jagged limestone cliffs, yet close enough to spy on the wealthy bronzed holidaymakers jumping off the flotilla of yachts and speedboats below, disappearing as they swim into the hidden sea caves.
Travelling at around 150mph, it has taken 15 minutes for the short hop from Sorrento to touch down in style on the Italian island, a notorious haunt for the global elite.
Just last year, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos – the third richest person in the world – flew in on a similar chopper with his wife Lauren Sanchez.
Oh the glitz, the glamour!
It’s fair to say this is not your usual Uber ride.
But this summer, you too can swap a grumpy driver in a Toyota Prius in the UK for our charismatic 50-year-old pilot here in Italy after the tech giant launched its first helicopter service in Europe (one began in New York in 2019).
‘It’s so fast, it’s so easy!’ Alessandro jokes as we land.
Jim Norton, pictured, took a ride on Europe’s first Uber helicopter, flying over the Amalfi Coast
Travelling at around 150mph, it takes 15 minutes for the short hop from Sorrento to touch down in style on the Italian island, a notorious haunt for the global elite
And reasonable too.
For just £210 each – or £1,260 if you’ve enough to fill all six seats – you can book a seat through the app for a round trip to and from the island.
It’s quite a steal.
Normally, such a journey would cost upwards of £3,300 – and that’s just one way.
Word of warning though: with a record five million tourists expected to hit the Amalfi Coast in July and August, space may be limited.
I’m here this week to sample Uber’s two new extravagant transport offerings on the Amalfi Coast, featuring not only the helicopter ride but also a new four-hour cruise from Sorrento to Positano.
Somehow, the boat ride will be free – heavily subsidised by Uber to allow everyone to experience some luxury travel, I’m told.
A publicity stunt perhaps, but a kind gesture all the same.
For just £210 each – or £1,260 if you’ve enough to fill all six seats – you can book a seat through the app for a round trip to and from the island. ‘It’s quite a steal,’ says Ian
Both are certainly an upgrade from travelling by car.
It’s not even the height of summer and the towns are already gridlocked with aggressive taxi drivers honking and young men on scooters jumping up on the pavement, while you need a stomach of steel not to feel a little queasy going round hairpin bends skirting the coastline.
At one point, as we almost hit an oncoming minibus, the driver tells us: ‘Don’t worry, I just close my eyes’.
Also on the trip are two dozen influencers and international journalists, all of us staying for two nights at the boutique five-star Belair hotel that is doing an impressive audition for the next series of White Lotus.
Set into the cliff-tops of Sorrento, I step out onto the balcony of my £1,100-a-night room on Thursday morning to be greeted by a glorious panorama of the bay spread before me.
Feeling like a Hollywood A-lister, I’m just about ready for my flight.
At 26C and clear blue skies, it’s perfect conditions – but there’s palpable trepidation among the group as we head to the helipad.
I’ll admit, I’m a nervous flyer – not helped from covering two helicopter crashes in my time as a Daily Mail reporter.
Ian is a nervous flyer, but he’s told the AW109 tracker he boards is one of the finest on the market, with only three in operation in Europe
‘We get an incredibly smooth ride, with our heads pressed to the glass as we listen to our pilots’ commentary on their favourite sights,’ he says
I seek reassurance as soon as we arrive.
‘Don’t worry, I have a family too,’ jokes Valerio, the hunky co-pilot, as the doting dad takes the opportunity to tell me about his one-year-old daughter.
Both he and Alessandro, both locals, have been flying for around two decades.
They tell me the AW109 tracker we’re about to board is one of the finest on the market, with only three in operation in Europe.
It has two powerful engines – a plus I’m told, not just in terms of power but in safety too in case one conks out. The same can be said for the pilots, they joke.
It has the capacity to go as high as 19,600ft and up to 193mph – though today we’re going at a more measured speed, flying around the height of the Eiffel Tower.
And it’s an incredibly smooth ride.
Thankfully, we don’t do the loop-the-loops Alessandro suggests through his microphone as we launch.
The Uber helicopter has ‘the capacity to go as high as 19,600ft and up to 193mph – though today we’re going at a more measured speed, flying around the height of the Eiffel Tower’
Instead we get an incredibly smooth ride, with our heads pressed to the glass as we listen to our pilots’ commentary on their favourite sights.
They run up to 18 flights a day at the height summer, yet they still sound as excited as we do.
As we plunge across the Mediterranean, the boats criss-crossing below look like Lego, and in no time we’re hovering above the Faraglioni Rocks, three giant sea stacks that mark the entry to Capri.
Though we can’t see from here, they are home to the rare blue lizard.
While its species – the Italian wall lizard – are mostly greenish-brown, this isolated population instead evolved a camouflage to reflect the vivid electric blue of the bright sky above and deep sea around. ‘The faragliona is the symbol of Capri,’ Alessandro says over the radio.
We soar over the mansion villas, nestled within the citrus and olive trees, and too quickly, we’re landing on the helipad.
For once nervous flyers, we’re now hungry for more. We’re whisked instead down to the Lido del Faro beach club in a pink six-seater open-top jeep, last seen in the Barbie movie.
It certainly gives off a Hollywood vibe to the island, and alongside my four female passengers, I feel like Ken in Capri. The only difference is my rather pink sunburnt face from the day before.
As we plunge across the Mediterranean, the boats criss-crossing below look like Lego, and in no time we’re hovering above the Faraglioni Rocks, three giant sea stacks that mark the entry to Capri (pictured)
Unfortunately, I’d been fooled by the cool breeze as we had raced around the peninsula on the four-hour boat ride.
We’d been ferried by Mario, a handsome local – aren’t they all here? – who began driving boats when he was 16-years-old.
Now 24, he is obviously proud of his heritage – and rightly so.
We gawp at the richness of colour along the rugged tree-lined cliffs, an artist’s dream. It’s no wonder J.M.W Turner brought his easel on a boat here in the early 19th century.
Our 13-metre vessel – worth around half a million pounds – is decked out with plush cream leather cushions and the minibar stocked with Prosecco.
We quickly get tucked into the extra dry vino Spumante Prima cuvee.
It might be worth no more than £8 in local shops, but to us, on this boat, with this view, it tastes like a vintage 1976 Dom Pérignon.
‘Buonjiourrrnooo!’ we hear Mario shout in the background every time he sees a friend driving another boat.
Ian later has a four-hour boat ride and says: ‘Our 13-metre vessel – worth around half a million pounds – is decked out with plush cream leather cushions and the minibar stocked with Prosecco’
We speed along the undulating coastline, passing Roman ruins and lone fishermen casting their lines out over the rocks. We can see the fish below us in the crystal water.
Our first stop just off a tiny island, with two houses, a church and a helipad, that Mario tells us can be rented for £125,000 a week.
A refreshing dip later, and we continue our journey into choppier waters as we round the bay, and see the colourful villas of Positano – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and deservedly so – nestled into the cliffside.
A heavy lunch of the saltiest pasta, and one too many Aperol Spritzes and a chocolate gelato later, and we’re back on the boat.
It’s a quieter return trip, less of a party atmosphere now and more of a peaceful solitude as we soak in a true experience of La Dolce Vita.
