Please sign in to post.

Daytrip from Rome to Pompeii

Posted by on

Visiting Rome first week of October, and would like to get more comfortable with best way to do the round trip in a day. My Rick Steves' books are all pre-pandemic--wondering what options are viable and what anyone might recommend. Details welcomed!
Gail Hahn

Posted by
3812 posts

You can take an high speed train from Rome to Naples, then either a slow commuters train or a private driver. Both will let you arrive in front of the main entrance of the archaeological site.

Posted by
16661 posts

Hi Gail -
"Best " is a subjective term so you'll probably get several suggestions. Mine is to do it on your own BY TRAIN from Rome. IMHO, the bus tours from Rome have people spending much too much of the day ON them versus sightseeing: over 6+ hours; approx. 3 hours each way.

A fast train can get you to Naples Centrale in approx. 70 minutes. From the Circumvesuviana Garibaldi station inside Centrale, cheap commuter train gets you to the station (Pompei Scavi - Villa dei Misteri) in front of the main entrance in approx. 30-40 minutes. https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/naples-to-sorrento-train-schedule

Once there, you can choose to explore on your own - and I HIGHLY recommend doing a good amount of research in advance - hire a guide at the entrance, or pre-book an online tour. The MondoGuide "Pompeii Walk" has been highly rated by most RS posters who've taken it so I'll give that one special mention:

https://www.sharedtours.com

After your tour ends, you can choose to poke about on your own before heading back to Rome, if desired. IMHO, that's the other advantage to getting to the excavation on your own versus a tour from Rome that has you returning on THEIR timetable. The site is VAST so you won't cover it in a day.

Good info for boning up on your own:
http://pompeiisites.org/en/
http://pompeiisites.org/en/visiting-info/map-and-guide-to-the-excavations/
The downloadable guide in English is quite long - 142 pages including the index - but WELL worth the read!

Posted by
190 posts

I did this myself in April. I was traveling alone. I looked into booking a van trip from Rome and I looked into booking a driver from Sorrento or Naples as well.
I decided to take the train once I found out that the high speed train only takes 1 hour from Rome to Naples.
Then you connect to the circumvesuviana which is a slower trolley-like train that takes about 30 minutes to take you from Naples to Pompeii.
In retrospect, if I could have hired a driver or taxi to take me from Naples train station to Pompeii it might have been better.
The circumvesuviana is often late and it can be crowded.
I booked my Pompeii tour guide through sharedtours.com which comes from Rick Steve's book.
The tour was great and then I took the circumvesuviana back to Naples and then the train back to Rome.
Only other problem was due to circumsuviana delays I missed my Naples- Rome train which I had already prepaid, so I had to buy another ticket. So if you do this I would say don't buy your return ticket in advance You can just buy it at the train station - it's very easy.

Posted by
51 posts

I’m going from Rome to Pompeii next week on June 29, 2022. I’m staying overnight in Naples but can let you know how the leg down goes.

I have train reservations and am taking the slow commuter train after that and then that train back to Naples.

Doing the Mondo Guide tour at Pompeii too.
Really looking forward to it and seeing Naples for a day or so too.

Posted by
1745 posts

We did a day tour with The Roman Guy (aka The Tour Guy). So, they drove us from Rome to Pompeii where we spent about 2 1/2 hours with a guide from the area (whose father and uncle had also been guides in Pompeii). Of course, this is not long enough to see all of Pompeii; Pompeii is HUGE. However, this was long enough to see the highlights, and we were happy with what we saw. We even got to see some frescoes that were newly uncovered during the pandemic. We then went to Sorrento where we had a couple of hours to have lunch and look around.

There were five of us on this tour in November, which was a nice number. In Pompeii, it was almost like having a private tour.

https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/rome-to-pompeii-day-trip

As some will tell you, it is a long drive and a long day. We didn't mind this, as, being from Western Canada, we are accustomed to long drives and enjoy looking at the countryside. We do a lot of travelling and getting ourselves from place to place on our own, and we could have done that, but we didn't feel like doing it in this case. It was nice not to have to for a change.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.