Recently went to Pompeii for the first time and made a huge mistake by not hiring a guide for several hours. If you’ve never been, and want to maximize the experience, please do this. I can't emphasize it enough. We balked at the price, but it was a dumb decision. The guides provide a lot of insights, and can explain much that is not intuitive, or not on the audioguide. Furthermore, they can get you into a lot of areas that are blocked or chained off for the unaccompanied tourist. The ruins aren't extremely well marked or explained, and there were about 1000 questions I wished I had someone to answer. A guide would have made all the difference—as we listened to various groups go by, they all seemed very well informed, entertaining, and all spoke excellent English. We felt like our experience wasn’t nearly as great as it could have been with a guide. Spend the money!
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
This is an easy mistake to make. I made the same mistake at the D-Day beaches. I'm guessing most of us have made this mistake at least once. It's tempting to save the money, especially when the fee for a guide is significant. Kudos to you, Pete, I always notice when someone posts a mistake in the hope that others will learn from their mistake.
Posted by
Calgary
2297 posts
Fortunately - for us - our cousin made this mistake a year before we scheduled our trip to Italy. He's a teacher and quite versed in history. Still, he very much regretted not having had a guide and told us not to make the same mistake. So we hired one of the official guides that wait for customers right next to the ticket booths. And we had no regrets whatsoever! I can't quite remember what we paid, I think in the range of 50 Euro for a 2 hour private tour for our family of 4. Definitely a great deal for what you get.
I like using guides basically in two types of situations:
a) In a place that has sooooo much to offer that it's hard to find and see the highlights by yourself in the time you have available. Examples of these include the Vatican and Pompeii.
b) Places that have a very special importance that goes beyond of what's visible. Examples of these include the D-day Beaches as mentioned or Ausschwitz.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
I agree with the OP. Went to Pompeii, trusty RS guidebook in hand, and don't think I really appreciated or understood what I saw. If I ever get a chance to go back, I will definitely get take a guided tour.
Posted by
cochranville, pa, usa
322 posts
Totally agree with a guide at Pompeii. We went in and a local guide offered us a tour for 20Euros to be paid at the end of the tour if we were satisfied. It was 20Euros well spent.
Posted by
Wodonga, Australia
440 posts
Granted, I had had a previous quick trip to Pompeii with a guide, but this time I hired the audio guide and was there for 5 hours, totally absorbed. Mostly I didn't use the audio, but was interested at one site to hear that the information given by a guide was quite different to that on the audio for the same location. Wonder who was more correct!!!
Posted by
Alameda, CA, USA
80 posts
I specifically allocated one day in Naples for the archeology museum and the next day in Pompeii!
Can you recommend tour guides, please?
The guy at the front who only wanted 20 euro---how long was the walk and what is his name/contact info?
Thank you!