Naples - Pompeii/Herculaneum/Vesuvius

We have just done a 6 day trip to this area/ Herculanium is half a day and Pompeii at least a day - the site is around 8 square miles!. I would combine Herculanium with Vesuvius and bear in mind that sometimes Vesuvius is shut due to volcanic activity. it was for a couple of days when we were there. You could easily get a bus up from Herculanium to Vesuvius. If you can prebuy tickets for Pompeii then do because even on a cold wet day the queues were very long. If you have time in Naples go to the museums.

I think you can probably find a bus tour to take you to Vesuvius from either Herculaneum or Pompeii stations. Agree Herculaneum is half a day and Pompeii a full day.

Any Naples pizza recommendations?

From Naples train station (downstairs, not the main ticket office near the entrance) you can get tickets for the local train line - Circumvesuviana - which will take you to both Herculaneum (Ercolano) and Pompeii. They are rattly old trains, but pretty frequent and dirt cheap!

At Ercolano, the coach trips up to Vesuvius leave from outside the train station, or head down the hill for the archeology. It is a longer trip to Pompeii, and double check which station you need to use as there is more than one.

Enjoy, there's so much to see there! 😊

Yes, I went in April and just waited for the next coach, which was maybe 45 minutes wait. If you are in a rush, maybe get the train there in the morning, book an afternoon coach, and then walk down to the Herculaneum archeology for the rest of the morning?

Or if you are really pushed for time, the taxis up the volcano operate from the same place as the coaches!

We used trains between Sorrento/Herculaneum/Pompeii and Naples, and found them really easy to work out and use.

Don't be tempted to skip Herculaneum, it was fantastic, and I enjoyed it a lot more than Pompeii (which was also excellent, but is HUGE and busy).

In answer to Lunicorn, try Sorbillo’s for pizzas.

Having done all three, I'd say if you're really pushed for time then go to Herculaneum and do it properly. It's more complete than Pompeii and gives a much better feel for what the cities were like and what happened when the eruption happened. Get there as early as you can before the crowds build.

Save Pompeii for another time as I had a day there and still only saw a fraction of it. Planning on a return trip!