Pompeii Small Group Excursion from Naples

We were upgraded to the full day tour which included Herculaneum and Pompeii with an archaeologist (Michael). It was great to do both in one day and to be guided by someone with so much knowledge. Safely driven between sites in the crazy Naples traffic too, by Antonio, with a lunch stop at a shopping mall. Fab day out! We learnt so much and saw all the main attractions at each site. We would probably go to Pompeii again sometime as you could easily spend all day there. Would recommend this tour though. Had a fab time!

Wonderful experience, made even more precious by the competence, seriousness and kindness of our guide Camillo Sorrentino, who made us discover and appreciate the uses and customs of an ancient civilization but in many ways surprisingly similar to ours.

This is a long review: We purchased a Small Group Pompeii Tour (with bus transfers) departing from Napoli Centrale for 4 people, starting at 9:45 am, for a total of €299.98 (including fees). I received a call while touring the Colosseum, saying that my tour had changed to 10 am without bus transfers. It happened less than 24 hours before the tour. So, I cannot cancel it because I won't get any refund from them. They refunded me €60. Then after we came back from Italy, I emailed them requesting another €40 because the Tour with an Archaeologist is only €49.50/person. They did refund me €36.20 only, saying fees were not included in the refund. We had planned everything accordingly. We bought fast train tickets from Rome arriving in Napoli Centrale at 9 am. So lucky that the Circumvesuviana is available at 9:20 am. That day was like an Amazing Race to us, trying to get to Circumvesuviana! What if we arrived after 9:20 am? Of course, we'll miss the tour & get zero refund! Askos have no consideration for the trouble they gave us. Our guide, Jolanda is nice but I doubt she's an archaeologist. She didn't give us the story like what an archaeologist would give. I hate the earphone. It distracted me. We were about 25 people (not a small group). This is what happened when purchasing a tour with an unreliable agent. They will put you into other tours when the number of people doesn't meet their targets. The tour was not engaging & moved quickly from one place to another. We covered a bit of Regio I, but mostly at VII & VIII. The tour ended after 2 hours at the Grand Theatre Regio VIII. We get to explore Pompeii on our own after that. But we didn't. We have to go back to Napoli Centrale to explore Napoli, then ride the train back to Rome. I regretted doing this tour with Askos. We should have done it by ourselves & just picked a guide outside Porta Marina.

We took the small group Pompeii tour with guide. The driver, Luigi, was friendly and professional, and this rating is not so much a reflection on him or the marvelous tour guide, Anna, HOWEVER, two differently scheduled tour groups were booked as part of this pick-up/drop-off. This meant that since our tour ended at 12:30 and the other group's tour ended at 1:00, we were left waiting in the car for them. Add on the fact that they were a half hour late, to meet our pick-up driver, we sat for almost :45 minutes waiting. Time that could've been spent exploring more of the ruins. Luigi called the group and did what he could (we suppose), but it would've been better if the pick-up/drop-off were all for the same time slots. Im sure the other group was inconvenienced as well, since they had to wait longer for their tour to start.

Let's start with: Our guide Jolanta was great. She guided us through Pompeii at a pleasant pace and told us the most important stories about the city for almost two hours. It was very entertaining and we could also ask questions at any time. It was a great tour. The star deduction was because of the surroundings. The driver stopped in front of the entrance on arrival and drove us in circles for about ten more minutes before letting us out - without a word of explanation. Once at the entrance we were told to wait without any indication why or how long. It all seemed a bit unprofessional and only from the time Jolanta picked up our group did we feel in good hands.