Pompeii / Herculaneum entry queues?

[JannieAnne]

Have decided to have a go at visiting both Pompeii and Herculaneum on the one day (by train from Naples).

Is it easy enough to get tickets at the gate or should they be prepurchased (if so what is the website?) How much do the guides at the gate charge and how long are the tours?

JannieAnn

[cruise4usnow]

Get them at the site. There will be lots of guides offering you tours also in front of the ticket boots - combo ticket is about 2 euro cheaper than if purchased separately.

[Hlitner]

There are no queues for entrance at Pompeii or Herculanium. As to guides, as was already mentioned, there are always licensed guides hanging around the entrances and putting together groups. Last year they were charging 10 Euros per person for the guided tours (this is on top of the entrance fee of about 11 Euros). You can also rent audio tours which come with a map.

 

Hank

[kruzseeka]

We bought the radio guide at Pompeii which offered several different tours of varying length and giving an approximate time taken to do each one. We elected to do the shortest one of 2.5 hours (actually took us 3) which included all the 'hightlights' of the site. We really enjoyed seeing Pompeii this way. We got off the ship as quickly as possible, took the train (which stops across the road from the entrance to Pompeii) and managed to beat the organised tours which gave us quite some time to look around before large groups arrived.

 

The radio commentary was excellent - with the map you can navigate yourself around the site using the route suggested. Each exhibit has a number to correspond to your radio tour so you punch it in and listen. No straining to hear guides or trying to squeeze 30+ people into a small space to see the details of each location - some of them quite small rooms where 30 people obscure most of what you're trying to see! So I'd say go for it on your own but I think you'll have to keep moving to do both monuments in one day and a radio guide gives you control of the time spent on your tour. You may find trying to do both will be a bit exhausting and rushed. But good luck with your planning - enjoy your trip.

[Mike073]

You may want to consider visiting one of the sites and then the Naples Museum to see all the artifacts. There are very few artifacts a the sites.

[ncsongbird]

The audio guides at Herculaneum were excellent. They came with a little booklet with a picture and brief description of each stop that corresponded to the audio tour. We also got the big map of the site when we purchased out tickets. Each stop was well marked and the audio gave very detailed information as well as the ability to press another number for even more detailed info. on the architecture or cultural aspects of the time period. We liked that we could walk around each building while listening to the audio. We are big fans of audio tours and I have to say that the Herculaneum one was one of the best we have ever used. I would assume the Pompeii one would be similar.

[JannieAnne]

Thanks to all for your responses, particularly the info on the audio guides - it does sound a lot better than I thought and will probably go this way. And yes, ideally I would like to see the museum...now if only we'll have time to do all three.....