Rome to Pompeii

Walks of Italy has a highly recommended small group tour - leaving by bus Rome early morning and returning in the evening - includes Positano in Amalfi area. 169 E per person. Based on comments from RS posters, we plan to do this next year. It's a 12-13 hr day but said to be more exhilarating than exhausting.

https://search.ricksteves.com/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=rome+AND+pompeii&button=

The age of these threads is unimportant. The only change in recent years is the Frecciarossa fast trains from Rome, very cheap if bought no-refund, no-exchange months in advance.

I suppose it's possible, but not advisable. Pompeii can take 4 hours depending on your interests, so it's better reached from further south (Sorrento, Naples, etc). Prepare for one very long day. You can certainly tour Pompeii without a tour guide, I did. They gave me a lot of descriptions/background info to read as I went along - that's why it took about 4 hours.

We just did this trip ourselves without a tour. It was easy to get the train from Tremini to Naples. We then took the local to the Pompeii Scavi stop. From there an easy walk.
Only negatives were 1) we did not get a seat on the local and had to stand and 2) on the return trip we had about an hour and a half wait until our train back to Rome...not enough time to do anything but wait in a crowded terminal.

Is it possible? Yes.
Is it advisable? Not what I'd recommend.

I've done it twice, and it's a HUGE site that deserves the better part of the day. To be honest, we couldn't cover it in the better part of a day, and that was from Sorrento and not Rome. You could take a tour but we elected to do it with information we'd gathered before the trip, and a guidebook we purchased outside the entrance. That gave us the freedom to go at our own pace and veer away from any large tour groups blocking the view.

As an alternative, Ostia Antica is highly recommended by many tourists who've done that one from Rome, and will eat up a lot less time (and money) in transport.

Even Rick gives it the thumb up:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/ostia-antica-near-rome

I've done this twice-once on a bus tour that included the spectacular Amalfi coast road and once just to Pompeii with Enjoy Rome .
I would do either trip again-I think its easier to use Rome as a base than staying somewhere closer.

Thanks for all the comments. Hopefully, I can just find an extra day and stay in Sorrento for a night. Otherwise, it sounds possible which is what I was hoping!

"I've done it twice, and it's a HUGE site that deserves the better part of the day."

This is completely misleading. It is large, yes. But much of it looks exactly the same. No need to see every nook and cranny. A few hours will give you the experience. If this is your only chance to go, then do it.

I visited Pompeii as a day trip from Rome. It worked very well and Ifelt like I had plenty of time.