Travel from Naples to Pompeii on your own

We have seen ship sponsored tours of Pompeii but have also read there is a lot of walking and it is difficult to hear the guide. We want to try to arrange transportation ourselves from the ship to Pompeii and back. Then we can walk at our own pace and return early if needed. Does anyone have any suggestions on transportation, public or hire private, for this purpose. Price is also a consideration since the tour to Pompeii is approximately $100 each.

Some reading on the Italy board will get you a lot of info. I believe the train is the best route, and only costs a couple of euros.

Getting to Pompeii from Naples is very easy if that's what you want to do. There is a SITA bus that leaves from an area very near to the port and goes directly to Pompeii. It is even easier than using the local train (Circumvesuviana) and very inexpensive as well. You can read more about it here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=37634054&postcount=4

We took the train. Simple and fast! If you find a map of Naples, you can see where the port is in relation to the train station.

From the ship to the port gate is a short walk. A 10 minutes walk following the tram lines to the train station and a short ride to Naples. The gate to Pompeii is 1 minute from the station. This is a very inexpensive way to do Pompeii. A spectacular site and it makes a BIG difference to go at your onw pace. There is so much to see that you want to be able to set the pace yourself.

Go to Rick Steves; website and download free audio tours of many places in Europe, including Pompeii, with maps to print out to go with. He book Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports is an excellent reference to tell you how to do it DIY, with directions from gangway to gate and back. EM

We visited Pompei on our last cruise while we were in Naples. It was a wonderful day and we learnt so much about the place. We booked a tour through a cruising excursions company, which cost about a quarter of what the ship was charging. Fortunately, we were the only people from our ship that booked through this company on the day and we ended up getting our own mercedes, driver and guide. The guide was invaluable as he knew literally everything about Pompei and was able to describe each building, place, street, shortcut, shop, brothel, bathhouse etc. There are guides available at the gates of Pompei, but they must be registered as guides to Pompei and I am not sure what they charge. I do highly recomend getting yourself a guide. Another poster recomended the Rick Steves podcast which is ok, but I think it would be difficult to follow. We used his podcast for the Colliseum and it was fantastic, but Pompei is a mass of cross streets and much harder to follow. Just my 2 cents, but Pompei was one of the highlights of our trip and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

:D:D:D

We had originally planned to take the train from Rome, but ended up renting a car and driving to Sorrento for a few days and took the train from there. It would be similar - just the reverse. There is lots of information on Tripadvisor, too, on the Circumvesuviana train and the stop you need to take. We included Herculaneum on our train outing (Ercolano is the town's name) which was also extremely interesting, but quite a walk from the train station through a rather dreary town. This time in Naples, all I really want to do is go to the Archaeological Museum, where evidently a lot of the treasures from Pompeii are displayed.

Check out Tom Port guides, very detailed. It is easy to do outside of the port across the street is a newspaper vendor in a small newstand, get an all day pass good for the tram to the circumvesuvia also very cheap, the vendor speaks english. VicOrian, the Museum of naples the National Archaeolgical, is outstanding. One suggestion go into the book store near the ticket entrance and purchase the guide. It explains what you are seeing. In went in November of 2012, and the meseum was not as well keep up as four years before. It is still an outstanding place and really needs to be discovered by more. Great firewood pizza close by. You can walk up, really not that far from the ship, or take a local bus.

Check out Tom Port guides, very detailed. It is easy to do outside of the port across the street is a newspaper vendor in a small newstand, get an all day pass good for the tram to the circumvesuvia also very cheap, the vendor speaks english. VicOrian, the Museum of naples the National Archaeolgical, is outstanding. One suggestion go into the book store near the ticket entrance and purchase the guide. It explains what you are seeing. In went in November of 2012, and the meseum was not as well keep up as four years before. It is still an outstanding place and really needs to be discovered by more. Great firewood pizza close by. You can walk up, really not that far from the ship, or take a local bus.

Thank you for the info. So what is 'cheap'? We have a tour booked, with 8 of us it is 75 euros for Pompei, Sorrento & Amalfi Coast. I want to see as much as possible as we are only in port for one day.

Thoughts?

That's a full day touring, Dejanewkath! Sounds like a good deal to me. The Amalfi Coast is amazing, and if you're lucky you'll have a little time in Amalfi or Positano. Sorrento we absolutely loved, stayed there a few days and wandered around. Perhaps not so interesting to just drive through. Good leather shopping! You need a fair amount of time for Pompeii (the ruins "scavi"). Do you know how long a day you will have in port? When will you be there? We will be there April 28th on the Eurodam. We expect to be in port 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., so there will be plenty of time, if all goes as planned!

We hired a taxi driver to do this, had a great time, can not wait to do it again, on the way back we asked him to take us to his favorite resturant and we went to Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antica_Pizzeria_Port'Alba best pizza I ever had in my life , all the food was amazing and resonable price, it was very close to port also.

We just walked to the train station and caught the train, I think it is 4-5€/pp, very easy to do.

Try and fit in some time to visit the Archeological Museum in Naples proper so you can see the best of the Pompeii excavations up close and well preserved. Stunning. You can get a metro connection to the Museo stop from the train station.

We were a group of four who walked off the ship and met a number of cab drivers outside the gate. We talked to a few of them and chose one who sounded good and had reasonable English. He drove us to Pompeii first. We arrived just as the gates opened. He took us to a side entrance so we had the place to ourselves for the first half hour. It was magical. After a couple of hours there we drove to Sorrento and then back to Naples where we stopped for pizza and then had a mad ride through the crowded, congested streets back to the ship. I think the whole day cost about $50 each.

The Circumvesuviana train is going to be the least expensive, but you are totally on your own, and must be fit. If you have any kind of mobility issues, the DIY isn't such a good idea.

My friend and I both have mobility issues and can't walk great distances. We had planned to take the hydrofoil to Sorrento then the train back to Pompei and Naples. Upon docking however, the Captain came on the speaker and announced that we were at the far end of the pier from the hydrofoil dock. There would be a shuttle in the morning (but he neglected to state what time the shuttle would start). I had researched and wanted to be on the 9:00 am hydrofoil. We debarked at 8:15, saw the shuttle bus, walked up to it, and the driver RUDELY told us to go away, shuttle wouldn't start until 9:00. I did not have a back-up plan (SO BE SURE YOU DO), ended up letting one of the taxi drivers talk us into using his service, for 100 EURO pp. It was expensive, but it ended up being our best day of our 21 day trip. It was like watching "The Lives of the Rich & Famous", only we were living it. He was our own personal driver, stopping where & when we wanted to, escorting us across major streets, carrying our packages, sooooo concerned that two ladies would be traveling in Europe alone (where were our husbands or sons), and even allowed me to smoke in his taxi (as he was also a smoker). And he wasn't hard on the eyes either. He was not a guide, just a taxi driver, but he included a small mini-tour of Naples pointing out sites of interest, before returning us to the ship, promptly at 4:30 pm as requested.

Enjoy your trip, whatever you decide to do.

There is a guy who writes free port guides - he happen to be a Princess cruiser - his port guides have great info

I have not been able to paste the link correctly

it is www dot tomsportguide dot com

Search for Naples - under Italy

Enjoy your trip to Pompeii

frustrating that I can't post the link - if I copy I get ***** in place of Toms port guides

We docked in Naples in November and planned to take the train to Pompeii. A train engineer "slowdown" made it questionable whether we could get to Pompeii and return so we partnered up with another couple and hired a taxi roundtrip for 100 euros total (25 euros pp, approx. $33). Instead of the typical two hours at the site, we negotiated three hours on site - two hours simply isn't enough time. Before we departed our home I downloaded Rick Steves' audio tour to each of our phones and printed the accompanying map. It worked great ... we had our own guide (Rick Steves), could listen at our own pace and pause whenever we wanted (unlike a larger tour group), and moved through the city complex with no problems. We exited Pompeii at the three hour mark and our taxi was waiting for us. BTW, we also negotiated to pay him only after he returned us to the Maasdam. A very nice day.

There is a guy who writes free port guides - he happen to be a Princess cruiser - his port guides have great info

 

I have not been able to paste the link correctly

it is www dot tomsportguide dot com

Search for Naples - under Italy

Enjoy your trip to Pompeii

frustrating that I can't post the link - if I copy I get ***** in place of Toms port guides

This person has run afoul of CC guidelines which is why you cannot post his website. From personal experience, I know he has done some things I do not agree with (like getting lists of passengers emails from roll calls and sending them emails promoting his site).

His info, while good in parts, is woefully incomplete in others -- so just beware if you plan to to use it to go it alone, and always consult a second source.

Thanks !

We found another couple on our roll call and split the cost of a taxi. They are right outside when you leave the ship. One of us has mobility issues. We took the Rick Steeves guide to Pompeii and walked on our own. We met up with the other couple at the appointed time after our walk through. If you have mobility issues, the cab is a good way to go.

If you do get there on your own you can also choose to hire a guide at the gate, they charge 10€ per person.

Thank you for the info. So what is 'cheap'? We have a tour booked, with 8 of us it is 75 euros for Pompei, Sorrento & Amalfi Coast. I want to see as much as possible as we are only in port for one day.

Thoughts?

I got a driver/guide named Salvatore off Tripadvisor. He was wonderful, albeit not inexpensive. If you have 8 though, it will probably be less than you are paying the cruise line and infinitely better. We did Pompei and the whole Amalfi coast and he took us to a wonderful outdoor cafe overlooking the coast where we were the only English speaking people, that was really reasonable. We had a wonderful day, and friends have since used him with the same positive outcome. As a bonus, we were just completing our own walking tour of Pompeii when the cruise buses arrived there, so it was very quiet, just us and some feral dogs:-) There are guides right at the entrance that you can hire, but we did fine with an ipod tour...

traffic can be very bad on the coast, so I think you'll see more with a driver, as he knows where he's going and can drop you and arrange pickups. You can customize your trip with him as well, as he's very flexible (and very handsome!)