BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello all,

I am looking to go to Paestum and Pompeii as part of my 2-week Italy trip. Right now I have a hotel booked in Salerno for two nights. Is Salerno a good place to make my base to see these two places, or is Sorrento better? I will be coming from Rome where I am staying for 4 days. Would it be better to just stay in Rome and do day trips from there?

Thanks for any help you may be able to give,

I'm not sure about Paestrum but I went to pompeii and herculaeum as a day trip from Rome. Keep in mind that it was a long long day trip.

When I was there last summer the last train from Naples to Rome is like 9:30 so if you have to get back to the train station by then.

Sorrento is just down the line from Pompeii. It's really really close. I would probably recommend staying in that area instead of a day trip from Rome.

We stayed in Sorrento as a base. It was quite easy to get to Pompeii (of course) and Capri. It was a beautiful town, but I thought it was a bit unfriendly, probably because it is overrun with tourists in the summer.

We went to Paestum between Sorrento and Rome. I looked at the train schedules out to Sorrento and it was doable but required at least one train transfer to get there plus a walk to the ruins. Since we had a child who complains bitterly about the heat and walking etc, I wimped out entirely. We went to a local travel agent in Sorrento and arranged for a car and a driver to take us to Paestum and then up to Rome. It was pricey (so it's not my first recommendation to healthy adventurous adults) but it was air conditioned bliss with the whiny one.

Paestum is definitely worth it. It's amazing. Buy one of those tourist books they sell that has overlays. You get a picture of how it looks now with an overlay of how it used to look. And the museum there is wonderful and very accessible even without speaking Italian.

If I were to do it again (without the young whiny one) I would probably have stayed overnight in Salerno. It seemed logical from the train schedules I saw.

Have a great trip.

Thank you guys for help