Hello fellow travelers.
My husband and I have booked a 2 - 1/2 day stop over in Naples Italy with the ultimate goal of seeing Pompeii and the museum in Naples. With only 2 1/2 days, I wasn’t sure about seeing all of the architectural sites including Herculean Vesuvius and the museum in Naples. Any suggestions would be welcome. Also any recommendations on getting to the sites would be most welcome, as well!
Many thanks.
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Naples&utf8=%E2%9C%93
Perhaps the above searches will have helpful info. These question come up here several times a month. Note that the transportation infrastructure south of Naples has been sadly neglected and moving about takes time and patience.
That being said, enjoy and safe travels!
You might also get more responses if post your question under Italy. We were there in Pompeii last July and it was incredibly hot almost unbearable so be sure to wear a hat and have plenty of water. We went our own but there is a guide on Italy section a lot of people recommend I just cant.remember his name. Enjoy.
Thank you and I was remiss in not including the dates!
Our trip is actually coming up shortly in mid-September in about 6 weeks
We land in Naples at 9:00 and have a taxi picking us up to take us to our hotel. I'm thinking we'll be ready to do a bit of exploring after 12 Noon. So again...input on just exploring Naples and saving the historic sites until Wed and Thurs?
Thank you.
Kathleen
Thank you very much for all the helpful input. Most appreciated,
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/train-from-naples-to-pompei-and-then-to-salerno
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/herculaneum-and-pompeii-questions
Do not overlook the famous Farnese Marbles while at the Archaeology Museum. Normal wait to enter a casual but "name" Naples pizza restaurant 1 hour.
Re Naples itself, we had many, many fine suggestions from Acraven in response to the following query: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/naples-and-environs-suggestions-per-favore.
As to our trip, we had 3 days. 4 nights in Naples.
Our highlights were the archaeology museum, a private guided tour of Pompeii, Spaccanapoli and its street life as well as churches in that centro historico neighborhood including the Duomo, the Tesoro, as well as Gesu Nuovo. (Due to bad timing on our part, we missed Miseriocordia and Sansevero.)
There are two RS Audio Europe audio guides worth downloading. One is for Naples’ Archaeological Museum and the other is the Naples City Walk.
Our other great highlight was a lovely day trip to Ischia, though you may not have time for that.
(Our one disappointment was Museo Capodimonte.)
For more about our experience, perhaps our TR will be useful. SEE https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/southern-italy-30-days-three-ways-to-travel.
To answer your Q re getting to Pompeii, there is a train from the main train station (accessible from the Metro) that goes to Pompeii (and further on to Sorrento). That’s about a one hour train ride, once you get to the Naples Centrale train station and then on board.
For better or worse, we stayed at the Hotel Decumani de Charme. Well located if you’re ok being in the gritty part of Naples and it’s an easy walking distance to the centro historico. The hotel was shades of past glory. Breakfast is in a fabulous dining room, but I would give the meal itself a sorta ok rating. The hotel is located on a quiet street. :-). The rooms were nice and clean and staff was good.
