Help - Salerno to Herculaneum after Pompeii

Please don't be offended, I have also asked "cruisemom42" to weigh in on this query.

We are taking the Noordam shore excursion from Salerno to Pompeii. We are soooo comfortable using public transit in Vancouver and Toronto but absolutely terrified we will totally screw up in getting the most out of our trips in Salerno and in Rome. Yes, I know Rome and Salerno are in different parts of Italy. I just added Rome in to the equation to demonstrate our scope of terror. We have been to Rome for a private excursion from Civitevecchia before and paid a guide from Context Travel, who was absolutely fabulous and she did all the subway/underground arrangements for us.

A few years ago, while in London, we must have walked 20km per day to see the sites rather than use public transit!!! Obviously we walked everywhere, even after paying for the HOHO bus in London and Canada is even a member of the Commonwealth countries!!!!

HAL, Salerno shore excursion- we have paid to get to Pompeii. I did read your (cruisemom42) advice to ask "which houses are open" - so I am not a complete idiot left handed blonde.

On our bucket list is also Herculaneum. I am hoping that when we return from our morning tour to Pompeii we can get on a train or whatever (our knees are shaking as I type this) and get to Herculaneum (please insert Italian name here). We (I need) specific, detailed instructions on how to do this, if it is even in the realm of possibility!!!

Thank you all for your understanding.

Love your sense of humor!

Would you be willing to consider leaving your ship tour after seeing Pompeii but before heading back to the ship? It would make it so much easier to get to Herculaneum, which is only about 20 minutes from Pompeii on the Circumvesuviana train line. (Rather than ping ponging back to Salerno and then back to Herculaneum...)

It would be pretty difficult to go wrong getting the train from Pompeii to Herculaneum -- really, it would. ;)

After you see Herculaneum, there might be a couple of options on getting back but one that occurs to me is to take the same train line in reverse to Pompeii, get off and walk to the other Pompeii station, serviced by Trenitalia, from where you can take a Trenitalia train back to Salerno. I think eurocruiser suggested this in reverse recently.

Unfortunately, I haven't been to Salerno myself, but others have and can no doubt chime in with other thoughts.

Dear cruisemom42;

Leave the tour in Pompeii - this sounds very adult. Yes, we would consider this, and again I answer with the shaking knees.

Isn't it interesting,and I am speaking for moi - I can travel 1/2 way around the world and still be afraid to look "dumb" in a city and with people I will probably never see again to the point I am afraid to ask for confirmation that I am taking the right train, etc to go where we want? And of course, the irony of all this - I am thrilled and more than willing to help anyone who asks me where and how to get somewhere in Vancouver!!! I'll drive them where they want/need to go if I can.

I will read yours and look up eurocruisers recommedations. See, my problem, I assume because they are "eurocruisers" they already know the lay of the land!!

Karen

Yes, leaving the tour at Pompeii is the obvious way to do it.:)

Jump on the Circumvesuviana train at Pompeii in the direction of Naples (trains every 30 minutes, 7 days a week) & get off at Ercolano Scavi.

It's a 20 minute walk down to Herculaneum from the station, or there's usually a shuttle van for about 4 euros return.

There are guides & audio guides at Herculaneum.

The site is much much smaller & more manageable than Pompeii. No imposing

amphitheatre etc but the place is very well preserved.

Sorry, can't help re Herculaneum back to Salerno.

But Cruisemom/eurocruiser's suggestion sounds right.:)

Do let your Pompeii guide or driver know you'll be leaving the tour at Pompeii.

50 - 60 of your fellow-cruisers won't appreciate having to wait for a left-handed blonde who fails to re-appear. :p

JB :)

After you see Herculaneum, there might be a couple of options on getting back but one that occurs to me is to take the same train line in reverse to Pompeii, get off and walk to the other Pompeii station, serviced by Trenitalia, from where you can take a Trenitalia train back to Salerno. I think eurocruiser suggested this in reverse recently.

That is exactly what I would do, even with the short walk between the two stations, because both train lines offer frequent service. You could take the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento, followed by a bus to Amalfi, then another bus to Salerno, but it would take forever.

I'm going to give you a map that may help: http://unicocampania.it/files/mappe/pompei.pdf

If you are arriving with a group by bus you will almost certainly enter the ruins via a different entrance/exit than Porta Marina, which is the one you need to leave from to get the Circumvesuviana train. You can see this exit in the C2 quadrant of the map and the train station in the C1 quadrant. (Groups tend to enter at Porta di Stabia, or sometimes at Piazza Anfiteatro.)

As Cruisemom says, it's easy to find the train toward Naples when you leave the ruins. There is a manned ticket office in this station. The stop you want is Ercolano Scavi, which is the second Ercolano stop when coming from Pompei. The current timetable for the northbound train is here: http://www.eavcampania.it/web/sites/default/files/ftp_orari_ferroviario/Cy.pdf

You can make yourself a google map to see the short (one half mile) walk from the train station to the entrance of the ruins. The starting point in front of the train station is Via Vittorio Veneto, 14 (according to google, anyway) and you'd walk straight down the street (which becomes Via IV Novembre after the traffic circle) until it ends at Corso Resina. At that point you'll see the entrance to the site across the street and just to your left.

You would retrace your steps back to the train station. There may or may not be a manned ticket office, I think that varies by season. You may need to purchase your ticket in a nearby bar or, perhaps easier, buy two tickets when you leave Pompei so you don't need to worry about it. The current southbound schedule is here: http://www.eavcampania.it/web/sites/default/files/ftp_orari_ferroviario/Cx.pdf

When you exit the Pompei Villa Misteri Circumvesuviana station, turn right and follow the road past the entrance to the ruins and down the hill where it will make a sharp right turn and dead-end into Via Plinio (SS 18). Turn left and walk down Via Pinio/SS 18, bearing right as it forks to stay on SS 18/Viale G. Mazzini. You'll come to the train station on this road on your right; the total walk is just over one mile and should take about 20 minutes or so, depending on how fast you walk. You can see the train station on the map in quadrant D6.

There are one or two "trains" per hour in the late afternoon/early evening from Pompei to Salerno. I use the quotes because some of these runs may actually be a Trenitalia bus rather than a train, you need to watch out for that. They can tell you in the station which it is, and where to go. You'll wind up in the same place, Salerno Centrale, whichever one you wind up on.

Maybe I'll also get business cards written in Italian with words to the effect of:

Hi,

My name is Karen and my husband is Dave. I'm a left handed blonde and Dave is dyslexic. Can you help us get to

______________________???

Seriously, thanks for the assistance and instructions. I'll print these off and take them with us. These two sites have been our bucket list for years. We are also seeing Ostia Antica while in Civitivecchia (ship excursion - just in case you thought we got brave).

John, I would definitely tell the driver we wouldn't be taking the bus back to the ship. I can't remember when this excursion occurs in the 22 day cruise, but we'd have to see these people back on board the ship and we would not want to incur the rath of anyone nor spend the rest of the cruise with our backs to the walls in case one of them decided to express said rath!!! :)

PS - if you ever meet us, don't mention the dyslexia to Dave - he is in denial!:D

Maybe I'll also get business cards written in Italian with words to the effect of:

 

Hi,

 

My name is Karen and my husband is Dave. I'm a left handed blonde and Dave is dyslexic. Can you help us get to

 

______________________???

 

 

That is too funny :). But we suggest you have those cards printed in Italian.

 

Hank

You'll do fine. Spend a little time beforehand with google maps, in street view. It really does help to know what to look for when you emerge from a train station, or what a corner you'll need to turn at looks like. Some things may have changed since the google images were taken, but most things will be the same.

I requested a copy of Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports from the library today.

Who know - we may get really brave, cancel the ship excursion and do public transit for both sites!!!! Don't get too excited for us yet, it is just a "MAY" right now.

The Google suggestion was great. I must be the only person who didn't know Ercolano Scavi was beyond Pompeii!!!

Thank you so much for all your help and I will also take the suggestion of a poster on another thread: make note of your next Port of call in case you don't make it back to the ship on time when you do a private excursion.

Between the Google map and all your information - here are our plans:

1. Take Trenitalia from Salerno to Pompei

2. Do the walk thing as per cruisemom42 to change trains in Pompei to catch the EAV (aka Circumvesuviana) to Ercolano Scavi.

3. Walk down to Ercolano Scavi and tour the site.

4. Back to the EAV train station and catch the train to POMPEI SCAVI - VILLA MISTERI. Tour the site.

5. Walk to the train station as per euro cruiser about a mile away and take the Trenitalia from Pompei back to Salerno.

Am I on the "right track" now???

Yep. The only suggestion I would offer would be to look at touring the Pompei site starting at Porta Marina, the entrance near the Circumvesuviana station, and exiting at Piazza Anfiteatro. That will reduce your backtracking within the site (and the backtracking would be uphill) and leave you slightly closer to the Trenitalia station.

Karen, I was wondering how this went for you, we are thinking of doing the same thing In November.

(Hope ur still visiting these forums :) )

Brian

Karen, I was wondering how this went for you, we are thinking of doing the same thing In November.

(Hope ur still visiting these forums :) )

 

Brian

Unfortunately, no. We ended up doing a private tour to Pompeii only. We felt the time constraints wouldn't allow a good visit to both. Now that we know better, we should have done Herculaneum only.

As an aside if you have the opportunity to do an excursion to Ostia Antica - take it. We even saw a Mithraaneum (sp?). The grounds are in great shape, the ruins and condition are incredible.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

Thx Much! we leave in a month & I'm trying to get everything organized now.....we are staying in Italy for 10 days before the cruise & doing some touring on our own.....so much to organize :) I'm still considering doing Herculinium first then Pompei if time allows.

thx again

Brian

Doing both sites in a single day might "ruin" you so be prepared to wear yourselves out. But if it is not too hot it can be a fantastic day. And you can save a few Euros by purchasing a combination ticket that covers admission to both sites. We would suggest going to Pompeii first (in the morning before it gets too hot) and then training up to Ercolano Scavi for Herculaneum. As you walk from the train station to the ruins (in Ercolano)...this would be a good time to find a small local cafe/restaurant for a quick snack or lunch (Ercolano is not nearly as touristy as the Pompeii area).

Hank

My suggestion is to just do the Pompeii tour and save Herculaneum for another trip.

On our first European cruise, our first cruise stop was Naples. We wanted to make the best use of our time in this port, so we decided to do both Pompeii and Herculaneum. We took the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii and did a self-guided tour for about 3 hours. We then got back on the Circumvesuviana and headed back towards Naples. We missed the Ercolano stop because it was so covered in grafitti that we couldn't recognize the stop. We got off at the next stop and backtracked. We walked down the hill to the Scavi and spent about 2 hours in Herculaneum. By the time we got back to the ship in Naples we were pooped!

I have since visited both sites several times on day-long educational seminars. I think each site deserves a full day to get an appreciation for what is there. I recommend that you spend a leisurely day in one or the other. If you are committed to taking the ships tour in Pompeii, go ahead, but stay and explore further on your own. You will not regret it.