Day trip from Rome to Pompeii

The RS book for Rome lays out all the exact steps. Personally I wouldn't do it because it would take way too long for my patience. I suggest Ostia Antica instead.

A trip to Pompeii is a wonderful way to spend the day. The trip only takes 1.5 hours to Naples then another half hour to the ruins. It's a long day but very worthwhile. Buy your tickets to Naples at the termini station. When you get to Naples you go downstairs to the commuter line. You can buy your tickets along the way at the counter, machines or newsstands. Get on the train heading to Sorrento and get off at the Pompeii scavi stop. The entrance is less than a 5 minute walk up the road. Donna

Take a high speed EuroStar Italia train from Termini to Napoli Centrale (1hr10min). Go to the lower level of the station and take a Circumvesuviana commuter train to Pompei-Scavi (35 min). Seat reservations are required on ES trains, but they are included in the price of the ticket and you can buy a ticket right up until just before departure time.

A day trip to Pompeii is a snap from Termini. We just did it the day before yesterday. 65 minutes on the Eurostar each way, plus the local trains which seem to run every half hour from Naples to Pompeii. We only spent 3 hours in Pompeii so it was a relaxing day trip. If you want to really study all the ins and outs of the eruption and its impact on Pompeii,you can spend many more hours there. We were just completing 5 weeks of intense touring and just wanted to learn what Pompeii looked like in person. Three hours with the audioguide were more than enough.

Reading between the lines of the other comments, you can see that you're still looking at best-case-scenario of five hours on the train or waiting for the train. But it's good to hear that for some people it's worth it. Just not for me. :-)

Just to throw one other thing into the ring: You can certainly do Pompeii in a day trip. But in my opinion, if you see Pompeii without seeing the Naples Archaeological Museum, you're really only seeing half the site. In terms of art (sculpture, frescoes, mosaics) and everyday finds (pottery, tools, jewelry), most of the finds from Pompeii [INVALID] and Herculaneum, and Stabaie [INVALID] are no longer in Pompeii. They're in the Archaeological Museum. And you could still do both Pompeii and the museum in a day if you limit yourself to 3-4 hours in Pompeii. That's especially doable if you get a good guide who can take you to the best and most important parts of Pompeii, as otherwise, the site is pretty vast and confusing. Otherwise, just plan your route and you'll be fine. You'd then just hop on the Circumvesuviana to Naples, take the metro one stop over, and you're at the museum. Well worth it, in my opinion, even though a lot of the museum is under renovation now, so the mosaics and "gabinetto segreto" are closed. But there's still enough fresco and incredible sculpture and other finds there to keep you occupied for 2-3 hours. Hope that helps! www.revealedrome.com

The FASTEST and most expensive way to travel between Rome and Pompei takes 100 minutes in each direction, as follows: 70 minutes on the nonstop high-speed AV train, and 30 minutes on the Circumvesuviana commuter train. Allow 15 minutes to connect between trains at Napoli Centrale. That means about two hours travel time in each direction, or four hours round trip. Fare: 88 Euros round trip for the AV train; 4.80 Euros round trip for the Circumvesuviana. Too expensive???: take the IC train between Rome and Naples for only 41 Euros round-trip (takes two hours in each direction). Look up schedules and fares at www.ferroviedellostato.it&#59; www.vesuviana.it

Go to Ostia Antica instead.

I just got back from Italy and I did the daytrip on Monday. We were going to do it ourselves, but at the end decided to book with one of those tour operators. It cost 115 euro and included an edible lunch. By bus it was about 3 hours one way. We left at 8 am and was back in Rome by 8 pm. We were in Pompeii a total of 2.5 hrs. We had been touring Italy for a week and were just tired and this was the easy way to go. We stopped in Naples for 1 hr and walked around, didn't go to the Archeological Museum. Maybe next time!

Wow, 3 hours by bus! That's horrible. I understand about being worn out at the end of a vacation and wanting to do what seems to be the easiest but spending 6 hours on a bus had to be torture. It would for me anyway. I hope you enjoyed the site and when you go back you get to see the archeological museum. It's well worth the trip. Donna

I did this about 3 years ago. However, I wanted to climb Mt Vesuvius too. If you are just wanting to tour Pompeii, the above recommendations regarding the train are good. There are also plenty of days tours that take you by private bus. However, you go it WILL take all day, a very long day.

If you also wanted to go to Vesuvius too, there are no tours directly from Rome for both the volcano and pompeii (at least there wasn't 3 years ago). However, if you take the early fast train from Rome to Naples: there are tours that originate in Naples that will take you to both. But you won't have as much time as you'd might like at Pompeii with a guided tour. Hope this helps.

The 3 hour bus ride each way wasn't bad at all considering we were picked up and dropped off at our hotel. If we had schlepped to termini, waited for the train, then transferred to the Circumvesuviana in Naples to Pompeii, we figured it would roughly work out to be the same. Plus, we got dropped off right at the Pompeii entrance and included a 2 hour guided tour. Much as I would have liked to spend more time in Pompeii, this worked out well for a first trip.

We just did a day trip from Rome to Pompeii. It did take all day, but we were staying in Rome for a week so could afford the time. We took the "cheaper" train which was apx. 2 hours but cost half as much. We didn't mind and the ride went by quickly. We spent four hours exploring Pompeii and it was well worth it. We took the train back to Rome and got into Termini at about 8:30 or 9 p.m. Made for a long day, but would certainly do it again. You have to decide it it's worth it to spend one-fourth of your time in Rome, though. You will certainly have to cut a day's worth of Rome sightseeing out to see Pompeii.