How long do we want in Pompeii?

Aside from the weather factor, everyone one in the world has a different level of interest and pace exploring things.
You will know when you are ready or need to leave. I think we were there for 2 or 3 hours.

Based on your description of not being that interested in history and already going to Herculaneum, then you may not need to see Pompeii as well. On the other hand, you never know how much it will interest you until you've been. I do recommend a tour of some type whether it be private or group to help give you a full appreciation of what you're seeing. We were fascinated and spent about 10 hours over two days at Pompeii plus a side trip to Oplontis to see villa that was also buried by the volcano. We also spent 4 hours at Herculaneum on another day and then on a 4th day, about 3 hours at the Archaeological Museum in Naples which only got us through the top floor where the artifacts from Pompeii are kept.

Pompeii is huge and a 2 hour tour will get you to some of the highlights but you won't see even a quarter of the sites.

We were happy with the shared Mondo tour of Pompeii , and wandered around a bit after the tour. I can't stress how important it is to bring plenty of water and some nutrition. There are several places outside of the Pompeii entrance to buy paninis and drinks. Inside Pompeii we only saw once small place to buy food, and the lines were very long.
Getting to/ from Pompeii also takes time and energy. How are you doing this?
Safe travels!

3 hours.
Not enough to see everything, but if you stay much over 3 hours the fatigue factor will kick in, especially on a hot day.

This is how I would approach it: I would back into it thinking about what time you want to get to Rome and your plans for Rome that evening and the timeline to gather your luggage, not sure if your taking the train from Naples to Rome, but getting to the train station with plenty of time, possibly getting something to eat prior to all of this? This would determine how much time I would spend there, allowing some time to wonder around a bit on your own. I agree that you do not want to do a place like this the disservice of rushing through. I would 100% trust the Hotel to hold my luggage (and we have many times).

It all depends on the temperature that day.

I would think 1/2 day is enough if the temperature is comfortable.

We booked a Mondo/RS tour and it only ended up being two hours long which was an inadequate amount of time. We stayed another two hours. So, I would allow four hours at least.

Will we be bushed after the Pompeii day and want to spend the night in Naples

Yeah, Pompeii is exhausting. It's a city but the paving stones are massively uneven so there is a lot of stepping up and stepping down. It's more tiring than one would expect. Since you're going to Herculaneum also I say do the quick tour of Pompeii and then spend the night in Napoli

We're talking early fall, so I anticipate a bit more moderate weather than they're having now, possibly rain; I don't think the brutal heat will be a factor.

I went to Pompeii late last october and it was 80 degrees and sunny :)

You have told us all about yourself, but not the month of the year or how many people and their ages. What is the guided/transportation plan between the museum and Pompeii Scavi? How about transport to dinner? Note that it's common to wait an hour for a table at a well-known pizzeria.

It sounds like you can do the museum and Pompeii the same day. Opinion. Prepare for sun and heat. No one on this board has reported a problem with Pompeii's free baggage checking. In Naples, we used our hotel's storage. Why do you expect trouble with that?

We did Pompeii as a day trip from Naples (actually we were staying on Capri and did the trip from the island to Sorrento to Pompeii). I think we did three hours--but this was 2004. There was no line, no reservations, no guided tour. Just did it ourselves with a map. We tried to see some of the more popular parts of the ruins, but we also got off the beaten track to more remote parts of the site where there was hardly anyone. I do remember vividly that it was pouring down rain that day and the stone pathways of Pompeii were really slick. I would go back to Naples, then go to Rome after that. It will be a long day in any case.

I think 3-4 hours is good. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes, hat and sunscreen. I do not remember there being much shade there.

The cobblestones and the extraordinarily high sidewalks (leading to very tiring climbing up and down) are killers. Three hours sounds about right to me, for physical reasons, irrespective of your level of interest. And I say that as someone who visited Pompeii in February.

You might be happier skipping Pompeii and enjoying pizza and the Archeology Museum in Naples instead.

We spent an entire day in Pompeii, and another day visiting Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae. But we are super duper history people. I honestly can't imagine doing Pompeii and the Museum on the same day. Just visiting Herculaneum might be enough for your group.

Since your son is into WW2 - consider a day trip to Paestum. The Allied Landings for Operation Avalanche took place on the beaches of Paestum and Salerno. There is an interesting German bunker on a beach just a few blocks away from the Greek ruins at Paestum - which are pretty impressive, if not as extensive and overwhelming as Pompeii.

Thank you Jazz+Travels and Allan. Your range in what people like to do gave me a good laugh and got my head on straight. I'm probably right in the middle, lol.

We were happy with the shared Mondo tour of Pompeii , and wandered around a bit after the tour. I can't stress how important it is to bring plenty of water and some nutrition. There are several places outside of the Pompeii entrance to buy paninis and drinks. Inside Pompeii we only saw once small place to buy food, and the lines were very long.
Getting to/ from Pompeii also takes time and energy. How are you doing this?
Safe travels!

Thank you Pat, this was all incredibly helpful!!! I had seen about the Mondo shared tours but had completely forgotten them!! They've solved one of my little quandries with the food tour, because their shared walking tour looks like it does more what I wanted. And that flips the times (I know, in the weeds) which makes my other ideas work out better. I went ahead and signed up for the shared walking tour, which I think may already be confirmed, and the Pompeii tour which had only two other people. If that doesn't go, I still have my private guide. I may decide I like the private guide anyway, but for now I'll just plow that way and see what happens. The walking tour though is a huge win. Better price, more what I wanted, perfect.

Yes, we have a small daypack we'll throw waters in. Yes, planning to bring some food as well. So to Pompeii, assuming we keep our hotel in Naples, the plan was to take a taxi there and the train on the return. Splurge a little and take the train when the timing doesn't matter. That was my theory at least. I assume I can get a taxi, mercy. Maybe I can line that up? I don't want to spring for a driver that sits twiddling their thumbs while I tour. No money for that, sigh.

I would back into it thinking about what time you want to get to Rome

Hi Letizia, that's such a good point. We don't have any hard core plans for the day after Pompeii and can go into Rome when we want. I don't have anything super firm until the following day. I'm looking at Estimated Prophet's idea about Paestum and the bunker and I need to look into that. We almost could stay another day or do a split on hotels to get closer or something. I need to figure that out. I had looked at Paestum but that alone wasn't enough to convince me. Adding the bunker would be another deal though. That would be HUGE in his world, huge enough to be worth staying in the area longer.

We booked a Mondo/RS tour and it only ended up being two hours long which was an inadequate amount of time. We stayed another two hours. So, I would allow four hours at least.

Thank you David and the others for your comments on time. Thank you Suki for your frankness. I think you're right that if I allow for a 3 hour tour plus 1-2 hours more or a 2 hour tour with another couple hours, I'll probably be satisfied. I don't think I need 10 hours or multiple days, but I'm adventurous enough to want SOME more time, mercy. I wouldn't be bothering to go if I didn't have some sense of wanting to tromp around strange places no one gets to, lol. I almost like the Mondo tour better in that sense, because we could get there early, go all the way to the back and find less tromped things while it's still cool, then work our way forwards and meet the group for the 11am start. I kind of like that idea and think it would be preferable to a long tour that leaves you so exhausted that you're like let me out at the end, lol. And I'm definitely concerned about the heat. If we do the museum and Pompeii in the same day, it starts Pompeii late, which I'm concerned could get brutal for us.

I went to Pompeii late last october and it was 80 degrees and sunny :)

Thanks edwardius, that's would be pretty warm for us with the humidity and full sun. It's my concern with the guide and starting later. We could be starting Pompeii at 9am when it's cooler and instead we'd be starting at 12:30 or 1pm, which means the hottest part of the day. Even if we did Herculaneum then Pompeii with the guide, it still puts us into Pompeii at noon or 1. So it's the tradeoff of the better guide (a truly excellent, excellent guide, perfect english, great knowledge) or time of day. Or I guess I could have our guide tromp around the whole jolly day, haha. That would be hilarious. I don't know that anyone wants THAT many hours with my son, lol. I guess if I did that, then we could go onto Oplontis if we were truly done at Pompeii. It would be an idea.

not the month of the year or how many people and their ages.

Age doesn't matter because my ds has developmental disabilities. He's going to function young and only be interested in the thing if it interests him. He can be an incredible pain the butt and melt down because of heat, throwing the whole day, or he can engage and be an amazing joy. I took him to Bath for 4 hour walking tour, which you would not think would engage him, but the guide was so brilliant (and the snacks so good) he was totally fine. It's just hazards of traveling with him, and it leaves me wrangling values like heat/comfort, intelligibility of the guide (how good their english is), whether we have enough margin built in to keep him comfortable and allow him to have his delays, etc. Food, as the others said, is vital, lol. He's decided he not only enjoys eating but is willing to take COOKING classes, so that's exciting. I have my eye on one (gnocchi and pizza) that I so want to squeeze in. If this Paestum thing can work, maybe we could do that too with the extra day. That would be super cool.

This is the person I posted about ages ago when I was working on figuring out luggage. Y'all helped me figure out carryons, which worked out GREAT btw, and we even managed to fit a 16 lb weighted blanket into his tiny daypack sized backpack, allowing us to go carryon only for the spring trip we did. Now we're working on this trip, busy busy. :)

nd the stone pathways of Pompeii were really slick.

Thanks, Pete, I appreciate the warning!! I've been thinking about taking trail shoes instead of regular sneakers, haven't decided, sigh. It might be smarter of me as they'd have better traction for both hiking and rain. I'm so not supposed to fall anymore.

I would go back to Naples, then go to Rome after that. It will be a long day in any case.
Yes, that's the thing. There's this sense of needing closure, like you've had your moment, it's done, move on to the next thing. I need to figure out the Paestum thing but yes I think that's why I was undecided. It's always nice when you have a great moment and then don't drag it out.

I think 3-4 hours is good

Thank you, I think that's about where my mind is ending up, so it's good to hear so much repetition that that's just sort of in the average normal range for average normal people, haha.

The cobblestones and the extraordinarily high sidewalks (leading to very tiring climbing up and down) are killers. Three hours sounds about right to me, for physical reasons, irrespective of your level of interest. And I say that as someone who visited Pompeii in February.

Thank you acraven. Btw, I think I bought the same personal item you had mentioned at one point using (a travelon backpack that is sort of smallish). I used it on our last trip and it's the bomb!!! Holds a stupid ton, is firm enough that it doesn't distort, has RFID so I could put the passports in there while my purse was tucked in the carryon. What a find!! So anyways, if that was you, thank you. :)

You might be happier skipping Pompeii and enjoying pizza and the Archeology Museum in Naples instead. We spent an entire day in Pompeii, and another day visiting Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae. But we are super duper history people. I honestly can't imagine doing Pompeii and the Museum on the same day. Just visiting Herculaneum might be enough for your group. Since your son is into WW2 - consider a day trip to Paestum. The Allied Landings for Operation Avalanche took place on the beaches of Paestum and Salerno. There is an interesting German bunker on a beach just a few blocks away from the Greek ruins at Paestum - which are pretty impressive, if not as extensive and overwhelming as Pompeii.

Ok Estimated Prophet, you're complete rocking my world! I had looked into Paestum, but I gave up because I wasn't quite convinced it was worth the effort. However that PLUS the german bunker, oh yeah, now we're in unmissable, unskippable territory. We had dibs on a german bunker on our last trip and missed it for timing reasons, sigh. So this would be pretty cool and novel. I thought about going down to Anzio while in Rome, but I thought the cemeteries would be depressing. This would be much more interesting.

So I need to check into it and then may have more questions. It opens up all sorts of logistics issues, because I need to figure out the trains there. I'm not really sure if they have taxis that far out. Do you know how that would work if I am using public transportation and don't have a car? I need to figure it out. I also need to see if it would make more sense to do some kind of split stay, like a couple nights in Rome, a night somewhere else... I don't know. Just need to map it out.

Yeah, I don't really want to skip skip Pompeii. I'm trying to push Herculaneum to day 1 in our itinerary to at least give it some space, if that makes sense. Two days in a row would be a lot (train out, wander in death and rubble). But if there's a break, it will be fine. Eat some pizza, recover emotionally, lol.

Ok, I'm trying to chew on the don't do Pompeii and NNAM on the same day. I'm listening to you but I'm curious what the reason is. It's just a lot and heavy? A lot to process? I'm going to fiddle with the schedule now that I have the options for the Mondo tours. It could let me flip some things and rearrange. And I need to look at the Paestum idea. That would need a whole extra day to get out that far. Where would you STAY to do that? Is it ok to stay in Naples or is that a stay in Sorrento kind of thing? I don't mind a split stay, but I need to get my act together and get it sorted out. And the Paestum+ bunker thing only works if it can be done with public transportation.

Ok I knew there was a museum of the landing in Catania but I did not realize there was one in Salerno. I'm trying to figure out if any of this is doable (with public transportation, not a $1k guide). I had felt bad that I didn't get us down to Catania for this trip, so this could be a good compromise. And yes, I know there were battles all over and more things you can see along the way from Naples to Rome (the bombed abbey, etc.). I just can't do it all.

I almost like the Mondo tour better in that sense, because we could
get there early, go all the way to the back and find less tromped
things while it's still cool, then work our way forwards and meet the
group for the 11am start.

We also did the Mondo tour and that was my thought, however the tour meets it's group outside the gate and since Pompeii doesn't have in/out privileges, you won't be able to. I had contacted Mondo about it and told it wasn't possible. You need to be outside the gates to pay the guide and then move to another spot to collect your audio headset.

Hey Estimated Prophet, have you actually been in this Museum of the Landing in Salerno? It's saying open by request only.

It almost looks like we'd need to take our junk with us, do Pompeii, then go down to Salerno and spend the night. It's not out of the question, but then I'd need to get from Salerno to Rome at the end of the next day after seeing Paestum.

Is the train that goes from Salerno to Rome the major train? I'm looking at it on google maps and it kind of looks like it is. The train from Naples to Pompeii is the local train, which can be, um, unreliable. If I'm to be that far out, I need reliable, lol. It looks like it stops in Naples but it says FR so that's the state run trains, right?

Well I'm still digging in on this. More questions than answers, lol. If I can figure out how to do it, it's a fab idea. It's at least something I can put on the table as an option.

Yes. In 2022, we went to the Museum of the Landing in Salerno. It really was nowhere near as interesting to me as the MOA museum in Eboli - a great little town with a lot to see and great restaurants. Robert Capa, the famous D-Day photographer, was also taking pictures on the beach at Paestum - pictures I have never seen elsewhere.

To do this as a day trip from Naples I think you really need to hire a private guide - at least to meet you in Salerno. There is a train from Salerno to Eboli, but the owner of our B&B in Salerno did the driving for us.

We didn't take the train from Rome to Salerno, but I believe it is the major train. Some friends took the train from Rome to Salerno, and spent one night in Salerno to take a private boat charter along the Amalfi Coast, and then take the train back to Rome.

The bunker in Paestum is just a few blocks away from the Greek ruins near the Lido California.

In Salerno, we stayed at the Salerno Centro B&B. Francesco, the owner, was a marvelous tour guide/travel agent.

https://www.salernocentro.it/en/

Ok, I'm trying to chew on the don't do Pompeii and NNAM on the same day. I'm listening to you but I'm curious what the reason is. It's just a lot and heavy? A lot to process?

Pompeii and NNAM are both a lot and heavy. Personally, I can only absorb so much in a day, and after either Pompeii and the museum, I was brain dead on both days.

I sent you a private message.

It would also be hard on your feet--hours at Pompeii, quite a bit of it on horrible cobblestones, then hours of standing on hard museum floors.

Edited to add:

I went to the museum in Eboli in March. I just took the train from Salerno to Eboli and walked (uphill, some distance) to the museum. There's usually a transfer required in Battipaglia, but most departures take less than 40 minutes.

I might have spent at least about 6 to 6-1/2 hours at Pompeii. That included some random breaks to sit, wait in line for a men's room, eat once, and so on. I didn't do a guided tour. If any of this made a difference: it was a solo trip, I was 34 at the time, it was July and about 87 degrees and sunny, almost no clouds. I had a sun hat on. Now I realize I was too dehydrated. I saw the Archaeology museum in Naples on a different day. I have since learned to carry a bottle of water with me when I visit various places. Also before my trip I had completely read a big coffee-table-sized illustrated book about the site. You can bring food and water into the site if you keep it is concealed in a bag; you may be able to eat near the entrance or outside the cafe but not around the ancient buildings. You might want to show up when the place opens, and then if you want to randomly give up and just not care about seeing some parts of the site, so you will skip some parts and you will still be as happy. Maybe I knew what major rooms or houses I was looking for due to my advanced reading and I had to stay long enough to find it all.

Adding onto this thread. I visited Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum in Jan 2023 over two days.

We stayed in Salerno which made it easier.

Paestum. Highly recommend. It was the highlight archeology of our trip. And we did a lot over 26 nights. Getting to it is more difficult and time consuming. You would want the whole day from Naples for this. You can catch a high speed from Naples to Salerno. Then a local train (about 40 min) to Paestum. The walk is about 15 min from the train station.

I loved Paestum. The site was quieter than Pompeii and Herculaneum. We were in Jan and the place was actually empty. Massive temples. Very complete and impressive. 2-3 hours to walk round then another 45 min for the museum which is small

We also went to a buffalo farm and had a great lunch.

So what we did over the two days FYI. We did an archeological tour of Pompeii and Paestum in a day by Asko tours. They have transport options from Naples. This wears excellent. About 3 hours in Pompeii and 2 hours in Herculaneum. That’s a whole day including travel time

If you do Paestum. It’s a whole day. You could get private transfers to reduce time and perhaps do Paestum and Pompeii on a day.

We did not visit the war museum in Salerno. Did visit the normal museum which was small but high quality. I would skip this and go to the museums in Naples

Have a great trip. There is no wrong choice. .