Rome day trip to Nettuno and Pompeii?

I think it's more typical for a day trip to include Pompeii and Herculaneum, since they both pertain to the famous Vesuvius eruption. If you Google "Rome Pompeii day trip" you'll find many tour operators and a number of different places combined with Pompeii, but Nettuno doesn't appear to be among the most frequent. That could be a good thing in terms of visiting a scenic seaside town without throngs of tourists, but OTOH you may have to be creative in arranging transportation.

In terms of distance, the two destinations should be doable in a day, but you won't have very much time to immerse yourself in either Pompeii or Nettuno. Pompeii is about 2.5 to 3 hours from Rome one way; double that for round trip. Theoretically the train is faster, but that doesn't count getting from your hotel to the station, changing in Naples, and getting from the Pompeii station to the ruins. And the ruins are an entire city, so it is quite possible to spend an entire day walking through its many streets and still not see everything.

I think just to see Pompeii from Rome in one day would be a stretch unless you have tolerance for a long, tiring day (where most of your day is spent just in transit - not even on the ground). You have to consider that six hours will be spent just getting there and back. I spent more than half a day at Pompeii, but even spending as little as two hours would already amount to an eight hour day. That's without throwing anything else in. I wouldn't try to see Pompeii using Rome as your base - it's much easier if you stay overnight somewhere close by (Sorrento, etc.).

IMHO...No. Unless, you want to zip through each location and say you've been there. Roma to Pompeii is several hours in each direction and the site is huge and takes time to move through it.

Nettuno is south and west of Roma and not really close to Pompeii.

Buon viaggio,

OK. That is what I was leery of . What about if we do Ostia and Nettuno in one day. Is that more doable? I really appreciate you opinions!

Pompeii really isn't a day trip that should be combined with another site. It's just too large.

As for Nettuno, it's an hour or so drive from Ostia Antica so you could do them on the same day but you'll still be rushing to do it. I would do one or the other but not both.

Donna

I used City Wonders Tours in Oct 2015 - the Pompeii Express via high speed train - great guides, 2 hours at Pompeii with guide, and back in Rome before 2:00 or 2:30 - it's about $204 each. Pretty pricey but I was not about to get that close and not go to Pompeii. It was amazing (even with the rain)

Wow, that's a lot of money for such a short time in Pompeii. You could have taken the high speed train for 50 euro each round trip and picked up the guide on site for much less than that. Or you could have hired a private guide to meet you at the site. It pays to shop around and find out more information before booking such expensive tours. There is also a slower train that you could have booked for 20 euros round trip each.

Donna

I'd agree: an awful lot of $$ for a very short time at the scavi. We spent 5 hours there (and it was my second time) and still didn't cover it all. I realize that's a couple more hours than most people spend but I'd allow more than 2 hours unless you're minimally interested in Roman ruins: it's a huge excavation. I should mention that we also did it with a guide book versus a hired guide so we could take our time.

As mentioned above, no, Pompeii and Nettuno aren't really do-able on the same day.

Train travel time between Rome and Naples is 1 h 10 m, allow time to navigate the station, then 40 min for the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii.