I'll be traveling from Tuscany to Sorrento on October 2 and considering I'll be passing right by them, was considering stopping at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

I figured if I leave Tuscany around 9:00 am, I can get to Herculaneum around 2:00 pm, spend an hour, drive to Pompeii, spend an hour or two and drive to Sorrento. However, as I've never been to Italy, I can't tell if that's too much.

My big concern is where to eat lunch as there does not appear to be much between Tuscany and Herculaneum and I've read there are not many food options in Herculaneum.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Personally, I would choose one or the other, and not try to do both. Either is well worth a visit, Herculaneum is easier to do quickly, but I would think you would still want at least two hours at the site. Pompeii is significantly bigger and you are only going to be able to do a small portion of it regardless.

As far as lunch is concerned, you are not likely to find somewhere for a proper sit down meal, and still make your 2pm target. Opening myself up to mockery, but most Autogrill service stations do a perfectly reasonable sandwich.

second that... you can stop on the Autostrada to eat, nice food at service stations, . http://www.autostrade.it/en/

but why not just go to Sorrento , and do both towns next day when you are not as rushed. your daylight is dimminishing in Oct.

You won't be doing justice to either site. Choose 1 to visit en route to Sorrento or follow Tesana's advice.

"Opening myself up to mockery, but most Autogrill service stations do a perfectly reasonable sandwich."

My 1st thought for the same reason.

Normally I would always suggest Pompeii.
I don't know about October's closing time but my past experience at Pompeii in Nov, Feb and March was that ~3:30 the custodians started closing access to outer sections of the site and slowly herding people to the areas nearer the exits.

This was not the case in the smaller Herculaneum as it was alot easily to close. Regards, Walter

[Note to self...Google 1st ]

I see that both sites close at 7:30, if all goes as planned on the road journey I would personally go for Pompeii only. Regards, Walter

It used to be sites closed one hour before dusk. but perhaps they've added a lot of lighting. The website lists last entrance is at 6 so don't be surprised if they start asking you to leave long before 7:30 (it will be dark earlier than that).

Some Autogrills offer more options than others. The cafeteria inside Pompeii is also an Autogrill.

http://www.autogrill.it/file/8212002...pa-gs08-ok.pdf

There are a number of outdoor stands with tables at the entrance to Pompeii where you can get a quick bite.


I second seeing only one site per half day.

It is hard to see how you would get anything out of trying to run around Herculaneum in an hour. It is a beautiful place and well worth seeing.

Between the train station and the archeological site, there are a few little restaurants. We simply picked one that looked nice and had a lovely fresh salad and quite good pizza, nice to sit there for an hour or so after touring.

The autogrills have better food than the terrible stuff offered at our highway rest stops. So, if you get hungry, they work fine.

> I can get to Herculaneum around 2:00 pm, spend an hour, drive to Pompeii, spend an hour or two

If you are interested in seeing these wonderful places, I think you would do better to select one. Herculaneum is smaller, and so can be seen in a rushed 2 hours or more leisurely 3 hours (or of course, more). Pompeii is extensive and IMHO truly warrants a much longer stay, at least a few hours and more like 6 or 8 hours if you want to do more than just zoom by some of the things closest to an entrance.

Hope that helps!

Even if you just want to say you've been there, at Pompeii it takes at least an hour just to get to it from the motorway, find the right parking place, get to the ticket kiosk then do the whole thing in reverse - even if you park near a ticket place first time (you almost certainly won't), and if the roads to the adjacent pilgrimage site aren't choked with buses.

Even with good preplanning from a proper site map, the most hurried visit by car takes me at least four hours, motorway turnoff to motorway turnoff (and I'm very used to driving in Italy and to predicting which bits of classical sites are going to be boring). If you're a novice at Italian driving (and your post implies you're not just unfamiliar but unable to comprehend what urban driving is like), you need to allocate a whole tourist day.

You CAN just get something out of two hours, motorway back to motorway, at Herculaneum. Again at least 30-45 minutes of this will be taken up getting to the car park, walking to the ticket office then walking to the site entrance and vv.

I'd eat on the motorway rather than inside Pompeii, where Autogrill obviously hired consultants from British motorway catering operations.

Personally, I'd prefer to have the journey over and done with, all my belongings safely stashed in the hotel and that car handed back to the rental company in Sorrento - rather than stopping in at either site....

They're then both easily visited from there by train - and would repay you allowing them at least an entire day!

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/132567370

If you'd still be onsite at lunch time, the photos here may give an idea of what the Pompei Autogrill is likely to be offering....

http://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pom...%2005%2018.htm

Peter