How to get to Pompeii from Naples

Maybe I was naive and thought - oh, I’ve bought tickets at lots of train stations (including in Italy) before, this won’t be hard…we were so wrong. I kinda blame google for this also.

First we took the metro (subway) - there is also a light rail, which may also be called the metro - to Garibaldi station. So first there is the subway Garbaldi and the centrale station, which is also called Garibaldi? But they are across the street from each other. Also unfortunately, google and/or Naples - just for fun, decided to number the rail and metro lines identically and make them the same colors - so it may look like you can travel through and/or you just hop off and get on the “1” - trust me, this is not what you want to get to Pompeii.

Ultimately, after asking at both main rail station lines and being told to ‘go downstairs’, we did and found someone that pointed us in the right direction. We had purchased tickets - of course they were the wrong ones, so got eatten at the gates. Okay, so we went to try and buy the correct tickets - the lines were massive and lots of confusion. There was one lady in an EAV campania express shirt. This was about 1.5 hours after we had left and Peter was about ready to just not go. Anyway, we decided to take the ‘nicer’ train - I had to book it online as the machines didn’t work and the window wasn’t open. Essentially, this is reserved seating, fewer stops, and air conditioned (would be essential in the summer as the other train is not). They even walk you down as a group to the platform. Yes, it was about $30 more expensive each way, but the crowds were really astronomical - I honestly cannot imaging this in the summer.

Getting to the station: go towards the supermarket. When you are facing the train station, this is to your right.

You head down the stairs/escalator to the station - this is ONE floor lower than the main train station. If you find you are descending two floors, you are going to the subway/metro and that is the wrong direction.

You will see areas to your right and left where you can get tickets - to your left are some ticket windows and multiple machines to buy tickets. There are also windows that sell the same tickets you can get a the machines. Don’t stand in line for the single machine on the right side near the gates to get to the trains, go to your left and there are even more machines stuck back in the corners. Alternatively, you can book the EAV express ticket online, which is what we did - you then find the person at that little kiosk and they will tell you to wait and they will escort you down to the platform in a group.

There isn’t actually a sign for platform 3, but it is just the far end of platform 1. Also note, your QR code won’t work in the machine gates, so you will need to ask for assistance, if you miss the group walk down. On the return, we tried using our code to exit, but just ended up opening the gate manually like others because it didn’t work. There were police there and they didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with it…?

The train ride itself was pleasant, though our seats were double booked, the other couple just sat elsewhere as the train wasn’t close to full. This is a much more limited route, so we would either have to catch the 2pm or wait until 5pm - we did end up getting the 2pm return and were glad we did.

We had prebooked the tickets to Pompeii, which means you essentially skip the line completely - DO make sure you look for the free map and grab it! We missed it and ended up using google maps…which kinda worked, but only because I had downloaded an offline version. We both have cellular and typically get different providers so that at least one of us always has service - the signal out there was so overwhelmed, that we were barely able to get the return tickets to Naples.

We did use the Rick Steve’s free walking tour and while it was good - the directions and little map on my phone weren’t particularly good. We ended up walking around and just listening to the history - making sure we went found spots that sounded particularly interesting. I am very glad we saw so much in the Naples museum because there wasn’t really a lot to the site. Am I glad I saw it, yes, but more in the check it off the list type of thing. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are doing a bus tour type of thing.