Guided Tour of Pompei

We did a guided tour out of Sorrento. We don't like group tours, but really got a lot of this one. The leader was an older woman that majored in history and was fasinating to listen to. We learned a ton on this tour.

We stopped in a travel agency in Sorrento and signed up for the tour. It wasn't too expensive. We each got our own receiver and headphones, so we could actually wander away from the group and still hear her explanations perfectly. it allowed us to explore a bit, still keeping the group in eye sight.

With the group, you get to see the major, most important parts of Pompei, but you don't get time to explore on your own, so if that is important, keep that in mind.

Our tour also included Vesuvio. We got to hike to the top at our own pace and enjoy the views.

IMO, I recommend a guided tour, if nothing else, to keep yourself on track while you explore the sight.

Hi, Leslie,

We were in Sorrento in September and simply took the Circumvensuvian train to Pompeii and used the tour in Rick's guidebook to find our way around. This worked fine. We enjoyed our visit and certainly learned a great deal. If I had to do it again, the audio tour would definitely be nice. For us the guided tour would be ok but we would probably splurge on something else. Some observations: Pompeii is much much bigger than I expected (imagine if any decently sized thriving downtown suddenly became a ghost town). It is also very dry, sunny and dusty, so dress accordingly and bring water. Many of the streets and buildings look just like another and it's sometimes hard to get your bearings on a map, but that was part of the fun. While walking around it was fun to overhear some of the tour guides interesting anecdotes about the history and excavation, but I don't think the full tour would be that necessary unless you feel more comfortable being with a group. We like to go at our own pace. Here is something I didn't read about in any guidebook - as you near the exit of the park, on the hill to the left, there is a snack bar/terrace with seating under the shady trees. They served wine, beer, and food. It was really lovely and not the least bit crowded like the main restaurant near the giftshop in the center of Pompeii. We found this quite refreshing after our hot dusty hike around the ruins, and a place to contemplate what life must have been like in this thriving seaside town before tragedy hit.

I was in Pompeii in May, as it was one of the stops on the RS South Italy tour. We were provided with the guided tour (possibly with the Guide mentioned by Bryan in a previous post?) and I would highly recommend that approach. While I-Pod tours and Audio guides can provide a good overview of the history of the site, they have one significant disadvantage - one can't ask questions of an audio guide! The guided tour is much better.

When approaching the ticket booths, we were approached several times by other Guides offering tours. I suspect that if it's a "slow day", you might be able to negotiate a good price for a guided tour?

Happy travels!

We recently did a guided tour of Pompeii with the guide mentioned in the RS books, Gaetano Manfredi. We paid 140 Euro for 5 people (28E/person). He was incredible, and well worth it. Maybe he can combine you with another couple to help with the cost.

His email address is: [email protected]

Thanks, folks for the feedback. I think that we probably will save our splurge for another day (actually, the next day, since we have a driver the next day for the Amalfi Drive).

Great tips, though, and thanks again.