Top Pompeii Half-day Tours - page 2

The guide was fantastic really knowledgeable and kept everything very understandable for the whole group everyone from teens to 65+ Knew different routes to take to avoid other groups Wine tasting and meal were lovely experience. The wine on one was very new - which wasn’t great tasting but the whole experience and the staff were amazing and very professional

This was a very professionally handled tour. Pompeii is quite a chaotic tourist area (Herculaneum less so). All the tour staff handled things kindly, with a lot of care for their guests. Antonio our tour guide was an absolute legend. Amazing knowledge, humour and enthusiasm. Thanks very much from your Scottish guests Antonio !!!!

This excursion was amazing and we would recommend it to anyone wanting to explore Pompeii and the Herculaneum! We are grateful we decided to do a private tour instead of a group tour because we were able to ask questions throughout, did not have to have a headset to hear our guide, and were able to go to the locations we were most interested in. On an extremely busy day (with 4 cruise ships ported) our knowledgeable guide was able to take us to places that we wouldn't have seen in large groups, he knew where to go and what to avoid with the large crowds everywhere. Our driver, Antonio, was also our licensed tour guide so from the time we were picked up from our boat until we were dropped off at the end of the tour, we received valuable information about the sites we were seeing, as well as about Naples history. He even had photos and a Power Point presentation to prepare us for what we were going to see and to answer questions we had before we even got to the locations. Antonio was professional, had great communication, was friendly, and extremely knowledgeable. He made this trip what it was - unforgettable. Our family booked the pick-up/drop off Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Mount Vesuvius experience. Antonio let us know as soon as we booked that the tickets to Pompeii and the Herculaneum were already taken care of, but that the Mount Vesuvius experience is something that we book when the tickets open up on the park's website and he is able to take us there for the climb, but he also let us know that they are challenging tickets to get, and let us know the steps to obtain them and provided the website so we could attempt to get the tickets when they become available. (We found out later that it is so challenging to get tickets because the large tour companies are able to get them about 6 months in advance and they buy all the tickets so that small tour companies and individuals aren't able to get them at the standard price and have to go through the bigger companies to do the experience at a raised price - that is too bad, but has no reflection on Antonio or our experience, because he assured us that if we could not get the tickets he would be able to provide us with an experience we would enjoy). We ended up doing an extended tour at Pompeii taking us to an area in the back of the site, going to a delightful restaurant and having Pizza Napoletana while Antonio walked all the way back through Pompeii to get the car and we could relax and eat, we went to the Herculaneum and saw the museum there, and then did a tour of Naples seeing the beautiful panoramic views and the local buildings. Antonio was a great teacher, he prepared us well, so we could understand when we got to the sites, we could understand how to recognize shops, temples, and other significant features. Our daughter, who is 10, was able to recognize areas when he would say, "Question, what is this?" She knew it was a shop, or a temple, or a water fountain, or where awnings were, etc., because he had done a great job with showing us recognizable features and it helped us better understand what we were seeing. In addition, he brought in his tablet with the pictures so that when we were in specific areas of the site, he could say, "This is what it may have looked like" and you could picture the scene in your mind even better. He was mindful that our daughter was young and asked ahead of time whether we would like to see the "red light" district areas, or whether we would like to do another area, which was very thoughtful. He also did a great job comparing and contrasting the Herculaneum and Pompeii so we could understand the difference between the two sites. We are grateful that we booked this tour and recommend it to anyone! Antonio is amazing and we will remember this experience for a lifetime, thanks to him!!!!