Seeing Pompei
 

Looking for suggestion on the best way to tour Pompei in a day. Is hiring an on-site guide worthwhile? How informative are the recorded tours? Should we "wing it" and do it on our own?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Peter M

I suggest getting some tour books (Rick Steves walks you through the area). Do research on your own. Take the maps and wander through. I have seen some tours going through with guides that are very hard to understand. Whole groups of people were straining to understand and hear. You can do it on your own with just a little effort.

I can't answer your question directly because we are just preparing for our visit in June, but this article has a lot of information -- including a suggested route and map -- that can be helpful for mapping out a visit, whether or not you hire a guide:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...080163,00.html

I'd definitely recommend a guide, unless you are already familar with the history of the city.

We (a group of 5 couples) hired a guide at the entrance to the ruins, and he did an excellent job.

He took plenty of time, answered our questions, and was pretty witty, too. His name was Luigi.

I think we paid about $10 a person.

Byrd

The last time I was in Pompeii we decided to wing it and do it on our own. I know a little about Pompeii as I had been there before on a seminar and have done some reading on it. If you take this approach I recommend you bring a good guide book. At the entrance where you buy your tickets Pompeii provides free guide pamphlets in several languages, but the day we were there they were out of English ones so we just went off of my memory and me trying to decipher an Italian guide in my survival Italian. Pompeii is fun exploring on one's own, but you probably don't get as much out of it if you don't know what you are looking at.
Later that same day we went to Herculaneum and rented a recorded tour which was ok, it told us what the various buildings were and some history, but left some things out that we were wondering what they were. I would say if your knowledge on Pompeii is limited and you don't mind following a guide around, a guide would probably be worthwhile and you would get more out of it.

We had planned to do the Rick Steve's walk in Pompeii and we had also considered getting the audio guide. But when we got there, we ended up joining one of the tours that was being organized at the entrance. It was well worth it and not very expensive.

As a suggestion, I would recommend being there when it opens, particularly if you are going to visit in the summer when Pompeii is blisteringly hot.

Hi mungrix,
We had a private guide when we toured Pompeii last May. Our driver secured her for us and she was wonderful. Our tour was three hours because I wanted to see the Villa of Mysteries. Of course, we did not see everything but at least we knew what we were seeing. I sometimes "wing it" as you put it. Are you good at this? It requires a lot of preparation on your part. If you like this and think you are good at it, go ahead. I usually get frustrated and spend time looking at the book or notes instead of the sight I want to see. For me, a guide at Pompeii was well worth the cost. Happy travels.