Years ago, I booked a private tour of Pompei and the Amalfi coast, and I would always tell people about it and how wonderful it was. So, when we booked a Med cruise with friends, I suggested (almost demanded - lol) we find a similar tour. I was a bit nervous this one would not live up to my prior experience, but that fear was totally unnecessary.
Antonio was a great guide/driver. He was waiting for us at the port, and after the initial introductions, we promptly took off for Positano. During our drive, he spoke about the area and answered questions we had. Positano is a charming town with amazing views. We spent about an hour walking around enjoying the sights and doing a little shopping. Lots of great photo opportunities.
After that, we headed to Sorrento for lunch. Lunch was a prefix menu for us, and it included beverages (wine, beer, soda and water), some great appetizers, a caprese salad (my favorite), several delicious pizzas (which we all shared) followed by a variety of amazing desserts.
After lunch, we opted to head directly to Pompei. We hired an archeological guide, and I highly recommend it. If you’re in a small private group, you get to skip the lines, and even as you are walking through the site, the guides for bigger groups allow the smaller groups to move ahead of them. It felt very VIP.
Fabio was friendly, engaging and extremely knowledgeable about the history of Pompei. Since I had experienced this before, I was careful not to say much to my friends, so I didn’t spoil the emotional reaction you have to the visuals and narrative. I wanted them to have the same feeling I had back when I first experienced it. I was so glad that they too had the same reaction. Surprisingly, I was in awe again over the history and just how advanced their society was. There wasn’t a single question given to Fabio that he couldn’t answer.
So for anyone thinking of booking this tour, all I can say is “DO IT!”. It’s well worth the money, and you’ll never forget it for the rest of your life.
Our driver/tour guide, Antonio, was very professional & personable. He was punctual & had a wealth of knowledge of the areas. Excellent driver & highly recommend.
I highly recommend the tour if you only have one day to see these sites. We were able to spend one hour each in Positano and Sorrento, which is the exact time you need to walk down through the towns to the seaside, look around, and on the way up look into a few shops. The larger buses are limited on where they can go and drop off so with the smaller vehicle you could basically park right next to the pedestrian entrance to Positano and Sorrento.
For Pompeii, our driver was able to arrange an official tour guide for pompeii (additional cost) that met us at the gates and took us into Pompei and spent 21/2 hours showing us around. She then called our driver to pick us up. You cannot give tours in pompeii unless you have the shield which are very hard to get.
Lunch was good and it was nice to relax outside in the shade and have a nice lunch.
We also stopped at a limoncella factory/store on the way down to stretch our legs and have a coffee.
Our driver Antonio was great. He spoke about life in Naples and was able to give us some additional insight into the local region. He picked us up promptly at our B&B at 8:30 and dropped us off at the train station after the tour.