rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

Hey ladies...We are going to Rome (5 days) and Venice (2 days) for our honeymoon. I was looking on viator.com and they have a 13 hour day trip from rome to naples and pompei. Is is worth it to spend $180 per person for the organized tour? Or should we try to go on our own? Feel free to suggest other day trip ideas too. TIA!

Re: rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

Pompeii is AMAZING and don't miss it! I backpacked europe and saw a lot of italy on my own, no organized tours. However, there is a lot to see in Pompeii and I kind of eavesdropped in with a group to get info. I think for you guys it would totally be worth it to get a tour if you really want to know about Pompeii (or cheat like I did to save yourself $).

As far as other day trips, I think you'll have your hands full seeing sights in Rome and Venice themselves, there's so much to see!

Best of luck. Feel free to fm me with any questions

Re: rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

Oh and youre a fellow WCC bride too!!!! I just saw that!!! They did a fantastic job with our wedding, very happy with them

Re: rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

I studied in Italy, about 8 years ago.
Pompeii is very nice but for a HM I suggust you stay longer in Florence. It's less commercial than Rome and I find it very romantic.
There is a place in Rome on the other side of the river where there's a whole bunch of night clubs built in abandon roman buildings. They all play american music. It's really cool!! We took a cab there and the cab driver drove, can't remember exactly where it is. Maybe you can ask around.
You should check out Siena. It's a much smaller city with lots of history and Italian culture.
If you like to shop, go to Milan!!!! It's the fashion capital!
Naples is not worth going to. A lot of it is run down and dirty. The metro didn't run when I was there, but that was 8 years ago. It's definately a city that's past it's prime.

Re: rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

The FH and I did an overnight trip for not much more from Rome that took us to Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri . . . . I HIGHLY recommend it. You will be gone for a night though. Sorrento and Capri are the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The Naples/Pompeii day trip doesn't spend much time in Naples, but it's worth seeing all four places if you can.

Re: rome...day trip to naples/pompei?

I did the same amount of days in Rome and Venice on our HM and we did the 1 day tour to Florence booked through our hotel. Although we actually found it useful because it was packed with info and great sites, we still talk about how we missed out on exploring it on our own and wish we probably researched on traveling to Florence from Rome on our own. It was the one tour we did take and after they show you around you do get some time to visit on your own, just not as much as we would have liked! Florence has some great shopping!

As for Naples and Pompeii we only traveled through Naples and it was pretty much a rundown city from what we were able to see (we took the EuroStar there from Venice and were picked up by a driver and taken to our hotel in Positano/ on our way back to NY we took a connecting flight from the airport to Rome.) I am sure there is tons of history and culture in Naples that we were really interested in siting, but we could not find one person who had good things to say when we asked about taking a day trip there. Again, this is not to say that there isn't good things to see in Naples. I would suggest purchasing a few travel books and reading up on the sites you really loved to visit and see what they have to say. While we were there lots of tourists carried the Eyewitness travel guide and mentioned it was quite useful.

HTH

ETA: I wanted to add you can book most excursions on a whim through your hotel. We did that for Almafi and Capri as well.