Published on Sep, 2024

If you are in Naples, then ‘From Naples: Pompeii Ruins & Mount Vesuvius Day Tour’ is a must do. Please wear comfy walking shoes, clothes and definitely a large bottle of water, as this tour’s duration is 7.5hrs, which you will be spending most of your time outdoors – no shelter. Our tour guide was excellent. He clearly showed that he has passion in this field, he was full of knowledge, very informative and straight to the point. I have been on tours where tour guides just waffle on and you can clearly see, that they have lost a lot of people’s attention by mid tour, but not our tour guide… sorry, I can’t remember his name (I have attached a photo of our tour guide – the one wearing a cap and orange quietvox device around his neck and holding a bottle of water). If you get this particular tour guide, you would know that you’re in good hands. Our tour guide described each area in great detail, that you can visually see life in Pompeii before Mt Vesuvius did its thing that is famously known for… buried Pompeii and the population beneath a blanket of ash and pumice. Our tour guide also explained that the sculptures displayed in Pompeii are replicas and if you want to see the genuine sculptures, you can find them housed in a museum in Naples ‘Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli’. You can also find the dead bodies of Pompeii at this same museum to further preserve them, the ones you see at Pompeii are made from the moulds of the original bodies. With this information, I was in two worlds, I wasn’t too sure if I should take photos of the fake sculptures or not and decided not to waste my time taking a plethora of photos of something that’s not genuine and focussed on the building structures in Pompeii instead. But on a positive note, at least the city of Pompeii couldn’t be housed in the museum. Having stated that, I highly recommend to do the tour, it’s worth your time. I found the information and seeing Pompeii in person very fascinating. If you have finished drinking your water during the tour, it’s all good because there are running water fountains in Pompeii ruins for you to refill your bottle. If you want to see the “real” Pompeii… the complete package, it is best to do the tour plus a trip to Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. We couldn’t do that, as we didn’t have time to squeeze in another day in Naples. After the tour, you return from the beginning, where you can have something to eat / refresh or do what we did and brought our own snacks instead. After our lunch break, we moved onto our next stop… Mt Vesuvius. By then, we were exhausted with the amount of walking we had done already in Pompeii in 34+ degree Celsius heatwave, in fact, our tour guide told us not to push ourselves to do the walk and just enjoy the magnificent views from the Tirone-Alto Vesuvius Forest Reserve – views are equally amazing. But I was determined to walk to the top, just to say “I did it” and see the majestic crater of Mt Vesuvius. It’s not that bad of a walk, as the bus stops close by – approximately 1100 metres walk to the top from where the bus dropped us off. It took me at least half an hour to reach the top of Mt Vesuvius, including stops in between, taking the view and catching my breath. It was an effort and I highly recommend to bring a bottle of water, you will need it. I would definitely recommend to do this tour, rather than walking aimlessly around the Pompeii ruins, let your tour guide take care of the planning and sharing the finer details about the history of Pompeii, it’s well organised as the tour guide knew the interesting places to go to and it’s also hassle-free with traveling between the two places with an aircon coach, no stress of how to get from A to B or parking – value for money.

Published on Sep, 2024

Extraordinary nature and ancient history come alive. Tough cllimb but well worth it. Excellent tour guide in Pompeii told the story well

Published on Aug, 2024

Excellent experience learning the history of pompei and seeing the sights from mount vesuvius. The site of pompei was amazing

Published on Aug, 2024

Great tour. A little more time at Mt Vesuvius would have been awesome but it’s a lot to fit into one day. There was just enough time to get to the top and back down. If you want a leisurely walk then stopping at the first station is your best bet.

Published on Aug, 2024

Pompeii was amazing, to see those ruins still standing is mind boggling. The Roman Empire it was the biggest during its time. Mount Vesuvius is a Goliath, we reached the top after a very scalding day. The view is breathtaking.