Day trip to Pompei

That sounds quite high. Day trip from where? Are you looking at guided tours, taking trains and doing it yourself, ?

280 makes no sense unless you are looking at a packaged tour from Rome. The it is probably in the ballpark. But tell us what it is.

This is such an easy day trip to do on your own using the train system...unless you have a pressing reason to do a tour you shouldn't be paying anything close to this. Are you going to Pompeii from Rome?

I am a bit embarrased because I have read Rick's book cover to cover and researched as much as I know how but I don't know what I did wrong. We were going to make the trip from Rome and alone. When I looked up train tickets from Rome this is what I found. Sounded outrageous to me too but I have no frame of reference. I had info about taking the train from Rome to Naples, then to Sorrento then to Pompeii but that's all I'm going on.
Thanks for your help.

By the way, this was the cost of the ticket alone that I found. I know.....I did something wrong.

Why not visit the ruins of the Roman city of Ostia which is on the outskirts of Rome. Easy to get to and plenty to see?

http://www.ostiaantica.beniculturali.it/en/index.php

Oh my goodness! You must have made an error somewhere!

First off, I assume this 280 euros is for train tickets only? Are you using the Trenitalia website versus some sort of independent booking agency? Picking a random August date and time, I'm seeing round trip tickets to Naples for under 50 euros pp, 2nd class. From Naples, you will need to take the local Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii and back but those tickets are very inexpensive (about 3 euro O.W). Purchase RT tickets at Garibaldi station in Naples. This is connected to Napoli Centrale - where you'll arrive from Rome.

Here's the Trenitalia website:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=4ddd1a035296f310VgnVCM1000005817f90aRCRD

And schedule for the Circumvesuviana (click on "Napoli - Sorrento" - you'll be getting off at Pompei S. Villa Misteri):

http://www.eavcampania.it/web/node/95

Your entry tickets at Pompei will be 11 euro.

Hope this helps!

Yes, that is a huge help! Thank you so much. I'm not sure what I did wrong but it's nice to know it was "user error". :) And Thank you for the tip on the Roman ruins. I thought I saw Rick Steve's do a show on that one time but couldn't remember the name. Have a great day!

HA! "User Error" is my middle name so I know how you feel.
Glad to have been of help; enjoy Pompei (and Ostia)!