Where to visit to see a 'real' volcano?

[MoneySuperMeerkat]

8 yo DS would like to see a volcano - where would be good to visit? It would likely be next year so he would be 9. Flexible for time of year, would prefer short haul.

I'd second Nisyros. You can stay on Kos for a beach holiday and then do a day trip by boat to Nisyros to see the volcanic craters and the main town.

Not short haul from the UK but the Big Island of Hawaii is unbelievable.

We stayed overnight in a B&B in the little village called Volcano so we could drive up the Kilauea volcano to the observatory and see the cauldron bubbling away. Also walking with a park ranger around steam vents.

Almost scary.
www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm

We drove up at night. The volcano lit up the sky.

Another vote forLanzarote. You can take a brilliant trip up on a bus and see them light fires and cook food from the volcano.
And when you’re done with volcanoes there are nice beaches, beautiful blue sea and other holiday stuff.

Fascinating thread.

I've been to the Santorini volcano. Not one I'd recommend with a child as there's nothing to see. When you stand at the rim and look down, it's just a filled in hole, so there's shrubs and stuff down there. Very underwhelming. There's also very little for children to do in Santorini. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved it there, it's beautiful and had a brilliant time and I'd go back, but I went with a friend and we both agreed it's not somewhere we'd take the DCs.

This thread is fascinating though, I particularly like the sound of Stromboli! I've always wanted to visit Pompeii too.

We visited - and this is long long haul - Big Island Hawaii. Look for images on google. Theres a town called volcano and an active volcano called Mauna Loa. It wasn't erupting when we were there but had steam coming through cracks in the ground. The crater was huge and there was a display about how it changes over time. The whole
Island is covered in lava rock which to me looked like baked brownies - crusty on the top and 'gooey' below the crust - fascinating. I think it's got fresh lava again now.
Short haul lanzarote was great with the geyser demonstration! Enjoy

Cross posted - yes the volcano we saw was Kilauea. I can't believe how massive it was!

There's a little train that travels around the base of Etna in Sicily... you drive through lunar land scapes and old lava and can see the smoke pouring out of etna.... you can then stop off and walk up to the top with a guide
We didn't as it was 38 degrees 😂 but was a great place to see a live volcano
With added bonus of beaches and great food

Etna! A fascinating place. We did a day long tour in a land rover, so all off road, and a hike way away from the masses. And then went underneath the volcano in one of the caverns left from previous lava flow. Amazing. Sicily has other geographical wonders too - Cavagrande Cassibile and Cava d'Ispica both very memorable.

I wouldn't stay in Taormina though- it's the main tourist town on that side of the island and, whilst beautiful, is just overrun by tourists. All the packages stay there, and the cruise ships dock there.
We stayed in Mascalucia to be close to Etna - off the tourist trail, but still lots of nice restaurants and cafes (no menus in English, but that's what Google translate is for!).

I loved Sicily and would go back in a heartbeat.

Etna was brilliant when we went. Sicily is a beautiful island

I have been to Vesuvius (a few times) and Etna. Etna was by far the better volcano. Much less crowded and less tourist trap however Vesuvius has more around it.
Pompeii is fascinating (although ridiculously crowded) and Herculaneum is incredible. They both go to build a picture of the destructive power of an eruption.

But then if you went to Sicily you have a chance of seeing Stromboli which is even more dramatic (we didn’t get chance). Also totally recommend Syracuse if you go to Sicily (the park and ride is worth it, don’t take a car into the centre)

We did Sicily when my DD was 8, both Etna and Stromboli. Etna you can take the cable car up and then jeeps for the final stretch - its well organised and even if you decide to hike its very clear where you can/can't go. See steam vents, feel the hot soil, plenty of activity. Even the lower slopes are interesting.

Stromboli requires a bit more effort being an island - we stayed overnight. The hike up to crater would probably be too much, but there is a walking trail through the town which only gets steep at the end and there is a pizza restaurant with a view. It's amazing you feel the rumbles all over the island pretty much every 20 mins or so and are likely to see spitting lava light show and sometimes lava flows down the side to the sea below.

Stromboli - it’s a proper cone shaped erupting volcano. We went up at night and there were small fountains of lava spitting up, it was genuinely breathtaking. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve seen a few volcanoes.

It’s 3000 feet of ascent though from sea level so your DS would be too young but the boat trip is an alternative.

Cross post!

Sicily, you can go up Etna and also do a boat trip to Stromboli where you are pretty much guaranteed to see some action.

Vesuvius is good too, and you can combine that with Pompeii and Herculaneum which might be of interest. Not sure if Stromboli is accessible from Naples.

If you do vesuvius you can visit pompeii, which is amazing.

Stromboli has proper red Lava spitting out. I think the hike to the top at night is supposed to be quite strenuous so he may be too young but there is the option of a night boat trip to see it.

We did the night boat it was brilliant. Sicilly is beautiful and very reasonably price. The water park Etna land is fantastic if you are into that sort of thing at all.

La Palma? Volcano last erupted in1971 and there is a risk of half the island falling into the sea and causing a massive tsunami!
Apart from that, it's lovely there!

I've been to Tenerife and I know we went to see the volcano but don't remember much about it - a year later I went to Lanzarote, and remember that really well, so positively more memerable for a small child.

I went to Pompeii the same year I went to Tenerife, but don't remember much about Mt Vesuvius.

Therefore Lanzarote gets my vote.

Lanzarote is a fabulous place for a holiday. We loved the volcano tour, but there's loads to do in addition.

We saw active lava flow from a helicopter in Kauai, HI which was absolutely thrilling. It's a long way to go though, so my recommendation is Lanzarote

I’ve been to Tenerife, Iceland, the Amalfi Riviera and Sicily. Of the four, I’d definitely choose Sicily and go see Etna. It absolutely dominates the landscape on the East of the island, smoking away. Fly into Catania. You could have a beach holiday in Taormina - beautiful but I’d go out of season as it does get a lot of tourist traffic. I loved Syracuse further South which is where we’d go if we returned.

Iceland, most definitely. We went a couple of years ago, breath-taking beauty. Very, very different to what you'd expect, in every way, expensive but so worth it!

In Iceland you can actually go inside a volcano where you walk across the lava fields and are lowered down inside Thrihnukagigur volcano. It was an amazing experience.

Lanzarote definitely. But make sure you do a coach tour rather than self drive as coaches bypass the queues (world heritage site so limits on numbers). The lava fields go on for miles and look like nothing else on earth. Then, like others have said, at the top they demonstrate the heat by dipping straw into the ground and seeing it instantly gi up in flames and also putting water in which gushes up like a geyser. You can also see the food being barbecued over the volcano.
On the same trip you could also do a camel ride through red sand dunes and also visit caves formed by the volcano which had underground lakes filled with tiny albino crabs. A truly magical place.

In Madeira, you can go inside the underground lava tunnels (tubes) created by volcanic lava at the Sao Vicente caves - it is 1km long so you get plenty of time to walk through whilst the guide tells you all about it. There’s a great interactive show that illustrates how volcanoes are formed and the eruption process as well. Perfect for children and fascinating stuff.