Rick's Audio Vs Guided Tour: Pompeii and Herculaneum

I did Pompeii with the RS audio tour.--- very satisfied and had no sense I had missed anything by not having a live guide

Came from Sorrento and basically spent the day doing Pompeii. No way I would have had time or desire to do Herculaneum the same day.

You can probably rush through both but not really do justice to either, in one day

Thanks for that, Joe.

We day tripped from Sorrento, and like Joe, spent the whole day there ( and ran out of stream before we could see everything). Our trip was before the RS audio guide, so we relied on our guidebook. But we had no problems, and we're perfectly satisfied. We were there in late March. I can't imagine it in the summer heat. Both sites in one day? Not me!

I agree about allowing more time. Pompeii is a city. Yes, you can drop in and get a feel for it in an hour, just to say you've been there, but it would be a shame to travel all the way to Italy and cut it short, IMO. Herculaneum is smaller, maybe suited for half a day.

Where are you starting from and ending up? If you're talking about a day trip from Rome, that's a major undertaking just for one or the other, never mind both.

I used Rick's audio tour for Pompeii and enjoyed it. If you can handle the heat, take the longish walk to the Villa dei Misteri - one of the highlights, but it's outside the city walls so you'll need time. On the other hand, the amphitheatre is a longish walk and not worth it.