Pompeii Guides

We just used a guide we found by the entrance. We have done it many times at other sites and have always had good result. We will engage in a few minutes of discussion about what we will see as a test for understanding their English. If it is good, we arrange at a price and a scope of the tour. We have never had a bad one. What are you getting for 440?

We use Walks of Italy and love them, they are incredibly knowledgeable. The small group Pompeii tour is 3 hours and approx. $146 total for two adults, depending on your date. Walks of Italy small group tours are 12-16 people. They also offer private toursl We have taken their tours in Rome/Colosseum, Florence, Venice and soon Pompeii. Enjoy your time!

We were very happy with Askos Tours in April 2022. We hired them for a full day tour of Pompeii, and another full day for Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae.

https://askostours.com/

This is Gaetano’s Pompeii tours office
Note that the cost includes more than what you'd get from other guides. It includes also all the admission fees tickets skip the line to the archeological site of Pompeii. The tour lasts 2.5 hours (longer than the usual tours) and it includes the visit of all the highlights and some of the new openings.
Thank you

I accept navigator's post above as a customer-service response that can be permitted per guideline #10 given that the OP's premise is effectively comparing the price of Gaetano's service vs that of others. I edited the post to better fit our guidelines.

It really depends on your budget. Gaetano is a very famous and well-reviewed guide so obviously he can charge more. We used the Rick's steves recommended Mondo shared tour guide and paid €20. I may not have known what I was missing so it depends on your knowledge and desire!

I have taken two tours with Gaetano a few years apart. Although we all have to budget this is very much worth spending your money for what you get. pompeii is a huge place and tours tend to bunch up in all the same places. Whole we certainly got the highlights, he also took us to quieter areas with amazing things to see. More than that he tells stories of the place that help you really understand and appreciate it. When i brought my family this fall his tour was the forst thing we booked months ago.

We used Askos Tours and were extremely pleased. Their guides are all degreed archeologists, and we spent just the right amount of time at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pricing was much less than a private guide; the lack of one-on-one contact with our guide was not significant for us, but obviously could be for others. The guide our group had was exceptional.

Pricing was on the order of 100 euros apiece, including entry to the parks and Circumvesuviana train transport from Pompei to Herculaneum. Total time at the two parks was about 5 hours, and none of the time was wasted.

Gaetano is worth every penny. We were just with him yesterday and it was evident that all the other tour guides love and respect him. In fact, when we were walking in with him another guide said to us, "You're with him? He's the best. Don't tell him I said that but he's the best guide here." And he is. This tour was a big splurge for us and it was worth it.

An update: we used Askos- and we visited Herculaneum instead of Pompeii. Both were wonderful. Why H? We have been moving around a bit- flying first to rome, train to Naples, ferry to Ischia, back to Naples- and H is closer and much more compact than P - easier for us to manage at this point, I thought. It was a delightful experience, our guide Luciano gave us great background and led an entertaining and informative tour. Small group of 9, about 90 euros (plus a tip of 20) for the two of us. It included admission. We did the 2 30 pm tour. While they do stick very closely to their 5pm closing time, the light, as you exit, is gorgeous this time of year.

H is 25 minutes from Napoli Centrale by the local train.

Our first visit to Naples is very positive. We will be back, and we will explore Pompeii another time.

We (just 2 of us) used Gaetano in the spring of ‘24. We met him there near the gate and in we went, he had tix in hand.

A couple of things were pretty amazing with him.

First, he really does bring Pompeii to life as he shows how people and carts and donkeys passed though the streets, how homes were both sites where families lived and business was transacted, and as he points out how all the plumbing worked 2000 years ago. (BTW, I was really glad to have been to the Anthropology Museum in Naples the day before for some orientation and preview of items removed from Pompeii and preserved at the Museum) .

Second, all the other guides just melt away in his path and they take their larger groups with them. He manages to take you right past a group with a dozen folks so you get right in front of a fresco with characters who he animates as he describes their expressions and their interactions. Other guides and their groups step back as he brings you into a room in a house where casts were made from the voids of those whose remains disappeared through the ages. I don’t have any idea how or why he gets all that respect and accommodation, but he does.

My very frugal wife felt he was worth the investment.

Whether you could pull that off with a larger group with Gaetano, I don’t know. Ask him. He’s not shy about letting you know how he works.

(LATE NOTE. Robert Harris’ novel, Pompeii, is a worthwhile read before you go, to give you a sense of place and life of the city and some real people (Pliny the Elder … and the Younger) and events at the time of Vesuvius’ eruption.

Another option, the one we used, is RS audio tour.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy

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We used Noemi Parisi 2 weeks ago.
She was excellent.
€180 for the 2 of us.
https://www.withlocals.com/host/noemip383ba1d32/reviews/