Complete Pompeii Experience: Skip the Line Tour & Archaeologist Guide

Step back in time at Pompeii, exploring the significant sites and less-visited gems in the ancient city.

There’s no better place in Italy to experience life as an ancient Roman than at Pompeii. And the best way to experience Pompeii? With an expert archaeologist guide! That's not just because your guide brings the sights to life with spine-tingling tales from Pompeii's past. It's also because the site is huge, and signs on the ruins are old, hard to read, and usually with only dull, cursory information. We’ll help you make the most of your time in ancient Rome’s best-preserved city on this in-depth experience that brings the stones and streets of Pompeii to life—covering more ground than any other guided Pompeii tour.

Get the most from your visit and understand the sights before your eyes with context from a knowledgeable guide.

Experience Pompeii without the stress of following a map and trying to decipher ruins by yourself. With an expert archaeologist on hand, you'll be taken right to the coolest sights Pompeii has to offer and truly understand what they are.

You’ll see all the most popular sites throughout your Pompeii tour, including a Roman bakery and the Roman Forum. You’ll learn what Ancient Romans ate and drank, what they did for fun and the sad, misguided beliefs they held about the cause of those ground tremors they felt before the eruption, or the frequent clouds of ash from nearby Mount Vesuvius.

But while the spaces frequented by Pompeii’s public are undeniably fascinating, so are their private homes. We’ll show you around one of the city’s most famous: the stunningly preserved House of the Vettii. Owned by two wealthy brothers, this sprawling home is an excellent living testament to Roman design at the time of Pompeii’s destruction.

Of course, you’ll visit what is, for many visitors, the most unmissable aspect of their Pompeii tour: the world-famous plaster casts of those killed in the eruption. These are eerie and moving glimpses of what it must have been like to experience Armageddon.

Another highlight of our Pompeii tour is one of the city’s beautiful theaters, which is amazingly well preserved. You can easily imagine what it was like to watch a performance here in summer on a warm Italian evening.

Tour with a Pompeii archaeologist guide handpicked for their knowledge and friendliness.

Tour operators are required to use official Pompeii tour guides at the archaeological ruins. We’ve chosen only the best of the bunch to work with, hand-picking guides with passion and knowledge—not to mention the storytelling skills required to bring this incredible city to life for you. As on all our tours, we only work with the best five-star guides, because we understand that they’re the most important element of your tour.

If you take a guided tour on only one stop of your Italy vacation, make it Pompeii. With the power to enchant and delight, Pompeii is a hieroglyphic of a site, needing an expert touch to translate. But in the hands of the right archaeologist, it truly comes to life as a living, breathing city.

For details on how to reach Pompeii from Rome, Naples or Sorrento, see our Important Notes page (link below).

Please note that this description is an example and your experience may vary depending on the season, day of the week, and group size. Regardless of where your tour goes, you always have an excellent experience.