Pompeii in December? From Rome?
 

Going to Rome next week Dec. 19-26...Is Pompeii a reasonable day trip if you start early in the day? Besides the museum in Naples, what exactly do you see in Pompeii? Would school age kids enjoy it? Sorry for my ignorance..

It's an easy day trip by train. In summer, you'd be in Pompei at the hottest and most crowded time of day. In December, I don't think Pompei is busy and it certainly won't be too hot. Daylight is more limited, so your train journeys will be at least partly in darkness, but that doesn't matter much. It's actually a good time of year to go - unless it's raining, of course. As to what you actually see, you need to read some guide books. If you don't know what you want to see, it's not worth the effort.

People make the day trip all the time -- I wouldn't call it reasonable though. There is too much to see and too little time to do it.

I would suggest taking them out to Ostia Antica. It's the former port of ancient Rome with some unique ruins -- multi-floored apartment buildings for example. Pompeii is much the richer site, but Ostia is great in its own way. And you can get there on the subway, if I remember correctly.

Just from reading reports on this, it would seem far too much of a schlep to do the Naples Arch Museum and Pompeii on a day trip from Rome. In summer there are inexpensive shuttle buses from Rome to Pompeii that make this trip a snap, but without these, I say too much trouble and too much travel time.

I don't know what "inexpensive shuttle buses" are, but the new trains do Roma-Napoli in 1 hour and 27 minutes, making it a pretty easy day trip.

There are shuttle buses that take you from Rome to the site and let you off, then take you back to Rome. One company that offers these is Enjoy Rome. The price is 55 Euro; not inexpensive but certainly convenient for some people. But not in winter. It is only transport and not an organized tour of the ruins.

In March, we took a daytrip by train from Rome to Pompeii and Naples.

We used a guidebook and audio guide as we toured Pompeii, had a late lunch in Naples, then visited the Archeological Museum. It was a long day, but well worth it.

Woody

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Regards, Walter

You have all been very helpful. Thanks.

Day trip from Rome to Pompeii will be very superficial. I think you need AT LEAST a full day to really get a feel for the place. One Tip If you want to hire one of their audio guides you MUST have a credit card with you. You CANNOT have an audio guide without a card.

December might actually be a wonderful time to see Pompeii because most, if not all, of the crowds will be gone.

Two suggestions: You can always hire a private guide at the entrance to Pompeii, someone who will shepherd you through what seems like miles of ruins, and provide you with tons of information.

Don't know how old "school age kids" are but if they're anywhere over the age of 12 (?), try reading Robert Harris's POMPEII. It's fascinating reading in historical fiction, not too long to be intimidating and will add a lot to your experience of the site.

We did a Naples/Pompeii day tour through 'viator.com' which can also be booked through 'greenlinetours.com'. A full description is given on either site. You just get a drive-by tour of the Naples sites but you get a guided tour through Pompeii and the included lunch was very good. A long day but VERY nice and I'm so glad we did it.