Walk Through Time: ヴェスヴィオ火口ハイキング＆ポンペイ遺跡ツアー

The trip up to Mt Vesuvius was good, Pompeii self guided tour was awful. The headsets are junk, and you spend a ton of time looking at a map trying to figure out where to go. A live guided tour is the way to go for Pompeii ruins.

Definitely worth going up Vesusius as the views from the top across the surrounding countryside and into the crater are spectacular. The coach takes you most of the way up but there is still a good 45 minute to an hour, perhaps more, depending on you fitness, walk up from the car park. The path is pretty steep for most of the way and can be slippery. So take good shoes! Pompeii ruins are amazing and cover a very large area. So probably not realistic or necessary to try to see it all. This tour provided you with an audio guide. That was OK. However, if I was going it is again I would pay to have an actual guide. We did this at Herculaneum and it worked better for us.

Fundamentally, it was a very intense day. To be able to use all the options via the ticket. In the end, the intensity does not do justice to the activity within the timeframe.

The tour was well organized overall, but only 3 stars, because it was very difficult to find the departure point of the bus. The instructions said there were employees in yellow T-shirts, there was no one far and wide, no blackboard, no office, nothing. He drives in front of a hotel, which was also not named, a stop is nowhere visible. When we were worried about missing the bus, I was only told via the contact function in Viator that the bus leaves on time and could not wait. No help whatsoever. The contact details of the tour provider I had to laboriously search, after a waiting loop a friendly employee explained to me at the last minute where the bus runs.

The tour was really well-organised with plenty of time at both Vesuvius and Pompeii. I would highly recommend this company because they made everything so easy. Vesuvius was a struggle for my sloth-like level of fitness, but there is a stopping point at the crater where you can either turn round or continue further up. Apart from that it's a straight slog up with no benches. However, it's worth it for the views alone. Pompeii is just huge and you'd need about a week to do it fully. Personally I preferred Herculaneum and a visit to the Naples Museum, where you can see a lot of the items excavated from Pompeii but without the crowds.