Pompeii, the ancient Roman city that was wiped out by the Vesuvius vulcano thousands of years ago. The story of Pompeii still facinates many people and draws visitors from all corners of the world. Visiting the ruines of Pompeii has been on our bucket list for years and we think it’s one of those places that must be experienced in a life time. Why…? Because of the historical value and the fact that much of the town is relatively well preserved. We loved exploring POMPEII.

We did our research prior to the visit, but if we were to visit again we would probably do things a little bit differently.

Here are our top ‘NEED TO KNOWS’ when visiting Pompeii:

Getting to Pompeii: How you get to Pompeii depends on your budget, where you are traveling from and if you have massive lugguage with you. We had our base in Naples, and we took the train, but we would choose a private car if we were to visit again. It is not expensive and it’s way more comfortable than the crowded train.

Sett off enough time: First off – understand that Pompeii is big, it is afterall a whole city, so you can’t see everything in just 2 hours. Dedicate enough time. We had 3 hours, and we just saw a fraction of the city.

Do your research: Kick start your Pompeii experience by checking out the huge Pompeii section at the Naples National Archaeological Museum. This will give you the background story and you will find many incredibly well preserved artifacts collected from Pompeii.

Visit in the right month: visit Pompeii when the weather is mild. We traveled in June and it was way hotter than we expected. Know this – there is nowhere you can get shade inside the city, so it makes the heat even worse as you basically barbeque yourself for hours.

Bring your own survival kit: bring lots of water to drink, and a hat or umbrella for shade. We saw some people pass out because of the heat. Bring also some food as the restaurants in the area are as you would expect – overpriced and crappy. Good walking shoes goes without saying.

Choose guide wisely: we did not use a guide, and it works perfectly fine if you have done some research and read a little before the visit. Select the parts of the city you wish to explore and you’re good to go. If you do go for a guided tour, make sure to get a qualified/certified tour guide. There are many dodgy guides around the area who are looking to make quick money off tourists. We overheard some guides giving inaccurate and false information on the tours.

Park your lugguage: Ideally you leave your lugguage at the hotel and only bring with you a back pack. But if you, like us, are heading to another place after Pompeii and therefore MUST drag 23 kilos of lugguage (each) with you, then there is a storage facility at the station that works well. Remember a good lock for your bags.

Enjoy the magnificent POMPEII.