Rome to AC - Pompeii on the way?
 

I'd love a little advice from the wise fodorites.

We will be arriving in Rome, spending 2 nights there before making our way to Praiano. We will be spending 5 nights in Praiano. Originally I was thinking we would make a day trip to Pompeii from Praiano, but now I am considering hiring a driver in Naples and stopping in Pompeii on the way to Praiano.

Does this seem like a reasonable idea? I contacted one driver that quoted me 120E for the trip from Naples to Praiano and 40E per hour for a side trip.

That's a good bit more than what it would be to make the trip from Naples to Praino via bus and similarly for the day trip to Pompeii, but I am thinking the convenience and lack of backtracking may be worth it?

Thanks! Carol

We went to Positano this past May. We hired a driver to pick us up at the train station in Naples and drive us to Positano. He suggested that we do a side trip to Pompeii on the way. Instead, we had him come back a few days later and pick us up in Positano to take us to Pompeii. In restrospect, that was dumb. I should have done Pompeii on the way down from Naples. I liked Pompeii, but a few hours was all we could take of it (we, as most travellers have limited time to start with.) It would have saved us some money, too. have fun.

I don't think you mentioned time of year and that is a consideration. Because of its exposed nature, Pompeii gets VERY hot and to be there for more than 2-3 hours without relief on a hot day (which in that part of Italy could be any day from May to mid-October). The option that permits you the greatest degree of autonomy over your itinierary is the best regardless of cost, IMHO.

We will be travelling from Rome to Praiano on Oct 11... so the weather "should" be pleasant.

I contacted tourofitaly.com as they offer the trip from Naples to Positano with a 2 hr stop in Pompeii for 140E. Not sure if 2 hrs is enough... my soon to be DH would probably love to spend an entire day at Pompeii - but I think 2-3 hours would be plenty for me!

Based on other posts, it seems it is pretty easy to go from Naples to Pompeii via train and then circumvensia to Praiano/AC - is this accurate???? We will have our luggage since we will be making our way from Rome.

My main concern is that with a driver we will be on a time limit (and be paying for the driver to wait).

Any idea if it is possible/what it would cost to pick up (or maybe even hire in advance) a driver in Pompeii to take us to our hotel in Praiano? Does this sound like a good idea?

From Naples you take the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii Scavi and then continue on to Sorrento. From Sorrento you have to take a SITA bus to Praiano.

To get picked up from Naples and driven to Praiano costs about 100E. Contact some local drivers to find out if you can just have them pick you up in Pompeii. It should be 100E or less.

I'm not sure about luggage storage at Pompeii though.