Pompeii and Herculaneum Guided Tour with Local Lunch

Great day discovering Pompeii and Herculaneum. Our guide Francesca was very knowledgeable and passionate about her role as a guide. Nice air conditioned coach. Lunch was good with a bruschetta to start, tomato pasta for main and little cream cake for dessert - included s drink (wine, beer or soft drink) as well as bottled water at the table. Fabulous day worth ever penny.

Both sites are much bigger than expected, Pompeii particularly, so any tour can only take in so much. There are so many people at these attractions that getting around isn't easy and there is inevitably going to be some queueing and some ad-hoc changes to what you get to see or not see. This was a good tour if you want to get a flavour of both locations but didn't offer much opportunity to delve deeply into the history. The guides were friendly and informative and the included lunch was nice and plentiful. If you want more insight then you'd perhaps be better off looking for one of the day long tours at Pompeii with an archaeologist but to get a general feel for Roman life in two very well preserved and distinctly different communities, it's a day well spent. Lovely tour of the mountain villages above Sorrento on the return journey as an added bonus.

Great day trip visiting pompeii & Herculaneum. Our guide was amazing & very informative at both sights. We ate at a hotel near to pompeii & had a 3 course lunch which was lovely. It is a long day & you spend about 2 hours at each place exploring. Wear comfy shoes as much of it is uneven. Lots of walking. Avoided the queues at entrance although it was quieter when we went but when it’s busier I’m not sure you could manage pompeii without a guide as it is so big.

Me gustaron los lugares que visitamos dentro de Pompeya y Herculano. Lo que no me gustó fue la dicción en inglés de la guía, la velocidad con la que hay que caminar para no perderla de vista, cuando se mete en las casas no alcanzas a ver a dónde. Finalmente, estando en el Foro se adelantó mucho para salir y, de pronto, ya no vi la sombrilla (oscura, por cierto) y me quedé perdida sin saber hacia dónde ir, tuve que preguntar a otra guía desconocida por la salida, logré bajar pero no encontré a la guía, por 10 mins estuve caminando hacia un lado y otro hasta que pregunté a otro guía que reconocí de otro grupo si la había visto y me indicó donde la vio, fue sumamente estresante ese rato, todo esto sucedió porque ella no se aseguró que todos estábamos juntos antes de salirse ya que la salida está “escondida” para quien no conoce el sitio. En general los guías caminan demasiado rápido, aunque no tenemos problemas de movilidad, no queremos ir a toda velocidad.

Transportation ran smoothly. Our guide was very helpful with some equipment issues, spoke clearly, and kept the group together and moving. Our guide gave the impression of being “new” as he provided a limited amount of info on the stops at sites and between sites. He could have filled some of the gaps while walking with some general comments on “life in Pompeii” or geology. He had a habit of repeating facts (eg dates, observations, information) which was unnecessary. Perhaps with more experience and grooming his delivery will improve. Overall our group enjoyed the day