We arrived independently at the gate. We paid our €10 for the only available official audio guide. Here's why we wish we hadn't. 1. The numbers on the map do not always correlate to the audio guide. Very frustrating! 2. The audio guide would appear to be out of date. Very irritating! 3. Thirty minutes in, the audio guide blanked out then demanded a digital code to be entered on a key pad on the screen. We had been efficient and photographed the 3 phone numbers to dial in an emergency. This was an emergency so we dialed all 3 numbers to ask what to code was. The 1st was unobtainable, the 2nd rang and rang, the 3rd gave a constant beep. Very useless! 4. We saw other visitors listening to their phones for commentary. We wished we had done that and not used the official audio guide. 5. We asked for compensation when we returned the audio guide. The guy at the kiosk shrugged and punched some numbers on the screen to make it work. 'You should have come back here' he said. At 35 mins back to the kiosk this was not an option. They asked for proof we had rung. We showed them. They had no intention of refunding. We expressed discontent. His manager got involved and actually smirked at us. Very unprofessional! SO... our advice is... DO NOT USE THE AUDIO GUIDE. FIND AN ALTERNATIVE.

Our tour guide, Roberto, did an EXCELLENT job! We loved every minute of it and learned more than we have ever heard or read before about it.

Lena was very knowledgeable. She did a fantastic job showing us around showing us some of the main attractions. We would recommend her to others.

This was advertised as a 2 hour tour with an Archeologist. We started 20 minutes late because of issues with the headsets and ended 20 minutes early because the guide skipped some of the most interesting parts of the site. FYI… our guide was not an Archeologist. I do not remember the guides name only that she had a purple umbrella and had issues with stamina.

Well worth a visit but need a tour guide to make sense of the ruins. Very large area. Need to be mobile and wear sensible shoes. In my opinion it would be great to see real buildings that look like they would have in the village. Shops, poor peoples house, rich people’s house’s to give a real sense of all that has been uncovered.

Very large area with lots to see, so allow plenty of time. We hired the audio tour so we could go at our own pace. Wear comfy shoes and a hat, & take plenty of water to drink.

I booked the tickets on Tripadvisor because of everything I read about the long ticket lines. We went on a Monday and there were virtually no lines for tickets. The Tripadvisor site was easy to navigate and download the tickets. One note….directions for retrieval of tickets and guide book was lacking. We went all the way to the main gate only to be told the ticket exchange was by the train station. Not a huge deal but we walked right past it to get to the main gate. We also should have either booked a guide or an audio tour. It was interesting wandering the city and once we figured out the map we were able to go directly to specific sites we wanted to see. The cafeteria wasn’t overly expensive ( IMO-compared to places in town). I will definitely be back to Pompeii if only to do the Mt. Vesuvius shuttle and cone trek.

We had an amazing time in Pompeii. I love being able to immerse myself in such an old culture an travel back to see how advanced they were with setting up their community. This was my 2nd time visiting but my grandson an his girlfriend enjoyed as well. It saddens me that the USA has tried to erase our history an has taken it out of schools. I find we can keep the history an culture an build around it appreciating our lives more. A definite must see in Italy.

I attended the 2 hour tour on Saturday 27th July, and was hosted by a guide, who I believe her name was Manuella. The tour was meant to begin at 11am. However, the group did not enter Pompeii until 11:20. Whilst Manuella had excellent knowledge of the site, we did not visit many points of interest. She spoke about the Baths, the Amphitheatre, and the Brothels, however, we did not go into any of these. We only visited the main street, the main square, and a house. Finally, we were asked to give our radios back at 12:40. Thus, the tour only lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes, rather than the 2 hours that was advertised and paid for. Additionally, once the radios were given back, we were not given a map of the site, and so were expected to navigate out own way around. I am very disappointed with the service given and the tour that was provided. I do not feel that this met the expectations that were advertised.

Pompeii is amazing but it is so large that we decided to upgrade from the self-guided audio tour to a group tour with a guide. We are glad did. Our tour guide, Laura, was very good giving us the history of Pompeii as well leading our tour through several highlights at Pompeii. In addition, we had some time after the Group Tour to do some addition exploring on our own. Highly recommend this group tour with Laura as your guide.

Getting the tickets was very easy,and skipping the line was a great idea as we just went straight in with no queueing at all.once in the site it was amazing,one tip is to take lots of rest in any shade you can find as was very hot.and also take a reusable bottle as there is a couple of water fountains you can use.overall trip was excellent and will probably go again to see all the bits we missed probably when it’s not as hot.

Excursion from NCL was too brief, only spent 2 hours there. The audio guide could have been better paired with the ground info. Their site numbers were not visible at the Pompei sites. Through no fault of the audio guide it was 100° and too crowded to enjoy the experience to its fullest.

This Pompeii tour gave an overview of life in Pompeii. Our guide did a nice job of escorting us on a walking tour through Pompeii, teaching us the history of the area and learning about how the people who lived in the time of Pompeii conducted their lives. It's a short tour at 1.5 ish hours. While we saw some of the more significant sites within Pompeii, I had been there 20+ years ago and knew that there were a number of things that we didn't see (perhaps because they were further away and would require more walking than the <2 hour tour would permit us to see?) such as the Garden of Fugitives, the brothel (which our guide had mentioned to us but didn't take us to see), and the House of the Vettii which has some interesting decorative frescoes on the walls. So plan on spending extra time after the tour to visit these (and potentially other) additional sites while you're in Pompeii.

Just buy your tickets on site. No fast track necessary, didn't even use the tickets we purchased bc after we parked in the Zeus parking lot it was a 10 minute walk down the hill to use the TripAdvisor tickets, before you had to walk back to.the entrance. The antiquarium was closed when we visited. Don't do a tour either. It only covers the first two areas and not even the whole place. It's a LONG process from what we saw of the groups. We didn't do a tour after we did a tour at colossseum bc of how boring it was and we could move around faster on our own. They told us there weren't places to know what things were but everything had signs and labels. They just wanted us to have an upcharge to have a tour. Those people looked miserable. Don't buy on TripAdvisor, you will have to go out of your way to recieve their tickets.

Amazing place made better by our tour guide Laura. Although it was a large group, with the ear pieces provided, we could hear clearly. Highly recommend.