We recently visited Rome and one of the things that we wanted to do on our trip was to visit Pompeii.
We had seen on line that it was possible to take a day coach trip which went to Naples and then on to Pompeii. The trip started at 7 am and returned to Rome at about 7 pm and included a couple of hours in Naples for lunch, a guided tour of Pompeii and a stop in a cameo factory on the way back to Rome. The cost was about £96 per person.
We preferred the idea of planning our own trip. If you are thinking of doing the same thing this is how we got on.
We left our hotel at 9 am after a good breakfast. Using the train and metro (Cost €1) we arrived at Rome Terminii central station in time for a coffee ( €1.70) before getting on the Euro Star train to Naples at 10 am.
We had pre booked our reserved seats over the internet while still in the UK.
If you booked at least 30 days in advance the price is £62 each for the return trip.
The journey from Rome to Naples took 70 minutes at a maximum speed of 300 k/hr.
Once at Naples we got off the train and walked to the end of the platform.
In front of us was an escalator down to the lower level towards the “Circumvesuviana.”. This was the local train which would take us to Pompeii.
At the ticket office where we brought a €4.70 return ticket to POMPEII SCAVI-VILLA DEI MISTERI station. (Not Pompeii)
Down to a lower platform (No3) to catch the train towards Sorrent; ( Blue line) The trains seem to leave about every 30 minutes and ours left at 11.41
The train stopped at about 20 Stations and 35 minutes later we were on the platform at Pompeii scavi
As we did our trip in November 2010 the train was fairly empty but I would imagine that in the heat of summer with all the tourists the journey could be very uncomfortable.
We got out of the train on platform 1 and turned right out of the station, past the usual ticket sellers and small stalls selling food and drink until, 50 yards on the left was the entrance to Pompeii..
Entry to Pompeii was €11 and we paid €6.50 for an electronic audio guide. English speaking trained guides were available at €10 per person.
We spent about 3 hours walking around the site, including a quick snack in the café.(Panini and cappuccino about €10)
We could have easily stayed another hour as we did not visit the forum area however we did not want to experience rush hour on the local train and so left early.
Back at the station we caught the 15:25 train from platform 2 via the underpass just inside the ticket office in the station building.
The train arrived in Naples 35 mins later. We had booked the 17:20 Euro star back to Rome so had a quick snack at the station before boarding the train.
This took 70 minutes and we arrived at Rome Trevintia station by 18:30. To get back to Rome Termini station we had to take the B metro line for 4 stops to arrive back at our starting point 9 hours after we left.
So to sum up the journey from Rome to Pompeii took about 2 ¼ hours travel time each way including waiting for trains etc. Total cost was about €65 with €15 for entrance and guides.
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