Pompeii and Capri Island Day Trip

We paid for VIP small group with max 8 people. The tour operator booked extra people for Pompeii, bringing the total to 17. We lost an hour siting in a hot minibus as the bus was too small for the number of people. As the group was bigger, we were slower to move around Pompeii and there were no headsets and we couldn't hear the guide. We were given one bottle of warm water at 2.30pm after being on the tour since 8am. Very dangerous bus driver swerving across the lanes on the highway as he talked on his phone and to the guide. Bus very hot as AC not working well. We we offered a partial refund of the difference in price for the larger group , but we would not have booked this if we had known it was a larger group. We requested more refund as compensation and they haven't replied, 6 days later.

This tour went above and beyond our expectations. Capri was beautiful and welcoming. Wish we had more time there. Pompeii is much bigger and amazing than any pictures can capture or you can visualize. An iconic landmark that everyone should see.

I was at the pier at the requested time, I texted twice, called 5 times and we're told different stories. The driver never arrived.

This tour was supposed to start at 8 and we met our group on time but it really didn’t start until 9. We were supposed to go to Pompeii first and then to Capri, but they switched it around. We waited in line for the boat to Capri which took 50 mins. It was so crowded being summer time and also super hot! Our guide Theresa was very nice and informative and organized however we were thrown off with the switch. Capri was beautiful but so crowded you really couldn’t do much. The stores are all high end (Chanel, Dolce etc) and the restaurants were very crowded and expensive. We didn’t have enough time to sit and eat so we grabbed a sandwich to eat while walking around. The views are gorgeous and worth seeing but not in the summer! We were also expecting to see the Blue grotto which we did not. The guide said that would take an additional 2 hours. That was on our bucket list, so again we were disappointed. When our tour got back from the boat it was already 1:30. Being a Sunday and summer the guide said the trip to Pompeii from Naples could take 2 hours with traffic (normally 45 mins). The Pompeii tour was supposed to be 2 hours ( which is barely enough time to see everything. ) We had to be back on our cruise ship at 5, so we opted to go back to our ship and skip Pompeii. We were afraid of cutting it close or not getting back in time. We had been before, but our friends hadn’t so they were disappointed, but we were all so hot and miserable from the crowds that we opted out. In the future I would choose a tour from the ship, then you are guaranteed to get back on time. Also I don’t like it when you’re not told of the changes in time, or venue ahead of time. The tour was over $150 per person, then the guide wanted to collect money for the Pompeii entrance fee. That was not mentioned in the description of the tour either. All in all a waste of time and money, but like I said the guide was very nice (from World tours) and it was not her fault. I didn’t request to get any refund, just chalked it up to a bad decision on our part.

I enjoyed both Pompeii and Capri equally… though was surprised that the order was reversed… The reasons for the low rating are 1) no water though it was supposed to be included 2) no commentary on journey to Pompeii 3) time for lunch rushed 4) no introduction or outline of the day

Guide Guiliana was very attentive and very knowledgeable. We saw everything on time and maximize our time. Thanks for everything.

Great experience! Clear meeting location! Great safe bus driver to sites. Amazing tour guide Anna at Pompeii and Terry was excellent with us all day and guiding us through Capri. Nice small group, very clear with direction. I suggest this tour!

Great for getting an introduction of Capri and Pompeii. There really isn’t much time to do much. Do not expect a deep dive of either places. However if you are looking to admire the beauty and high-level history this is a great tour! More walking than anticipated. No time to rest. The guides are knowledgeable and extremely friendly. The only downside was the bus transfer to Pompeii and then back to hotel— no air conditioning.

Wonderful guided tour through the beautiful island of Capri and the ruins of Pompeii. Our guide, Guisy, was great at keeping our group together and getting us around throughout the day. Our Pompei guide was also funny and very intelligent on the ruins as he walked us through the main sites. Good way to see two places in one day.

This was the day of our travels in Greece and Italy that I was most excited about. After hearing about Mount. Vesuvius and Pompeii as a young child I have always wanted to visit and it was finally happening - I was so excited. But the tour was an unmitigated disaster and a total waste of money. Worse, a waste of a full day and Pompeii, sadly, remains on my bucket list because after this tour I still cannot say I have really seen it. First, our guide was excellent and was only delivering the tour she was instructed by her employer to deliver, so I do not fault her for this at all. In fact, she is the reason I rated this tour 2 stars instead of 1. With that said, let me fill you in on why you should not book this tour. The tour description listed on Viator describes the day as a 2 hour guided tour of Pompeii as the first activity, communicating that it was to be the priority part of the day, "followed by" a boat trip to Capri and a brief tour with some free time to shop. This is a far cry from what we actually experienced. When we first met our guide she walked us to the ferry dock and bought tickets for the boat to Capri. She then told us we were going to Capri first and would visit Pompeii in the afternoon. This concerned me, but I felt as long as enough time is committed to both I was fine with the change in plan. When we got to Capri and took the cable car to the town we were told what time we were to come back to meet for the ride down and ferry back to Naples. That was when I realized she was leaving us to shop and walk the town of Capri for almost 3 hours. That meant we would have very limited time in Pompeii before our cruise ship would leave port. I asked "How much time will that give us to visit Pompeii?" She said we would meet a guide there and have a 90 minute tour. I knew this did not meet the 2 hour promise in the listing, but felt they are the guides and probably know how long is needed to tour the site better than I do, so maybe 90 min. would be plenty of time. So we walked the small village of Capri to "Shop". While the island is picturesque and gorgeous, Capri is basically Rodeo drive on an island. There were just a few blocks of shops and restaurants, and every shop was a high fashion, name brand store such as Armani, Versace, Valentino, Patek Philippe, Prada, Gucci, and YSL and every other fashion brand you can imagine. But among them not one shop with affordable goods, I would have to take out a loan to buy anything here. So we gave up on shopping and decided to have a quick lunch at a little pizza place. 45 minutes and $120 Euro later (for 1 pizza, 2 calzones, and 2 cokes) we were done and it was time to meet our guide. When we met we visited a little lemoncello shop that provided samples of chocolate and the yummy drink, which was nice, and then within 10 min. we were back on the tram down to the dock. After the boat ride and a shuttle over to Pompeii our guide told us there was another guide that would be doing that part of the tour for us that was an expert on Pompeii, so when we got to the entrance we waited for her for about 20 min., burning more valuable time When we finally entered Pompeii I was awestruck and wanted to spend hours exploring the well preserved and massive site. But after waiting for the other guide, we had exactly 70 minutes until we had to be back on the shuttle to reach our cruise ship on time. There were so many fascinating things in Pompeii that we almost saw. Many of the wealthy people's houses were open for entry, but only for a small number of people at a time so you had to wait outside a gate until they could let you in. With the limited time allotted for this part of the tour, we only entered one house. The remainder of the "tour" of Pompeii I can barely remember. The guide was moving so quickly through the streets that I felt we were running (and at times we were) and not really seeing anything. We had radio earpieces to hear what she was saying about different things, but often she got so far ahead of us that the signal cut out and we heard nothing. I am due for spinal surgery next week and delayed the procedure so surgical recovery would not hamper my trip, but that means I need to move carefully to avoid severe pain and I simply could not keep up with her. At one point it became so frustrating that I just removed the earpiece and said "I am going to see some things here before we leave and I'm going to stop running" Sadly, that was 10 min. before we had to meet the shuttle for the ride back to port. As we jogged down the hill to the exit, the guide said "It's unfortunate you had so little time here. It takes at least 4 hours to properly tour Pompeii." We complained to the original guide about the awful tour, the waste of almost 4 hours to visit Beverly Hills II, Italian Island. And all she had to say was "Well, next time." As if I can just travel 12,000 miles on a free weekend to come see it again. I felt we spent 3/4 of the day seeing a town steeped in wealth and fashion, which is not my thing at all, and then were robbed of the experience we really wanted as a result. It was so bad that my son, who is an 18 year old ancient history fanatic and also was most excited about visiting Pompeii, broke into tears as we ran down the hill to exit the site. He was sobbing and saying "we never even got to see anything and we couldn't even go into the buildings.". I was just as upset so I promised we would return as a part of the inland European trip we plan to take in few years. I had not planned on going any further south than Florence on that trip because we have been to southern Italy twice, but now I will add a couple of days to see Pompeii. In all this tour cost us over $600 to waste time looking at stores we couldn't afford and not see what we wanted to see plus it will be an additional $1,500+ to extend our next trip in see it again properly. A very expensive day and we are not happy. Throughout this vacation we booked 7 tours through Viator and 6 were excellent (in fact, one was the best tour and guide I have ever had in my life) but this one was awful. Avoid it at all costs.