Top Pompeii Day Trips

Great 2 hour tour of Pompeii! We were short on time so we scheduled a 2 hour private tour with entry at 13:00. Carmine was an excellent guide. He made sure we saw all the most important sites and provided in depth explanations as well. We never would have seen as much on our own. I highly recommend Carmine as a guide.

Our tour guide Mario Celentano was very informative and knowledgeable about Pompeii, and he was very patient to answer all of our questions. Thank you Mario for all the fun facts! Your English is great! - From the American guy in blue vest who probably asked too many questions today

We really enjoyed the knowledge and company of our guide, Amadeu, on our private walking tour of Pompeii. He shared interesting facts and kept everyone in our group interested and engaged. Highly recommend skipping the line and booking a tour with Amadeu to avoid the crowds and maximize your time here at this amazing historical site.

Our day exploring Pompeii and the Mount Vesuvius area turned out to be one of those unforgettable travel experiences that remain special precisely because of their surprises. We started in Pompeii with our guide Raffaela, who was simply exceptional. She’s one of those rare guides who mix deep archaeological knowledge with a warm, engaging storytelling style that makes the ruins feel alive. Even with a light, on-and-off drizzle, she turned every stop into a meaningful moment — explaining the city’s layout, daily life, politics, art, and the very human stories behind the stones. Her passion and clarity made the tour absolutely perfect. For the Vesuvius portion, our guide Mario took over. He was friendly, attentive, and very transparent about the changing weather conditions. We drove all the way up to the upper access point of the volcano, but just as we were about to enter the crater trail, the park authorities closed the path due to heavy rain and thick fog rolling in. Visibility dropped dramatically, and the weather turned harsh — absolutely beyond anyone’s control. Mario handled the situation brilliantly. Instead of ending the day early or leaving us disappointed, he immediately proposed an alternative: visiting Herculaneum (Ercolano). And what a brilliant choice that was. Even with rain still falling, exploring Herculaneum turned into a deeply rewarding experience. The site is incredibly well-preserved, more intimate than Pompeii, and full of details that help complete the picture of what life looked like before the eruption. It ended up being a highlight of the day, and absolutely worth it. Overall, this tour delivered everything it promised — and when nature forced a change of plans, the team transformed it into something equally memorable. For anyone dreaming of hiking up Vesuvius, I’d recommend choosing a season with more stable weather, as closures can happen suddenly. But rain or shine, this tour offers rich history, fantastic guides, and a genuinely meaningful experience.

We had a great time on our private tour around Pompeii with Italo- he was a brilliant guide, really knew his stuff and had a nice relaxed style too. Obviously the site is massive so we didn’t get to see everything on the tour, but we saw some of the main headlines and it helped having a guide to point out all of the little details that you’d easily miss on your own. Once the tour was completed Italo left us in the forum area and showed us how the grid system worked and that meant that we could use the map provided to go and see other bits of the site that the tour hadn’t included. A great experience.

My husband and I had a wonderful time learning some history, science, and archeology from our tour guide. He was very open to and knowledgeable about the questions we had. We would have loved to explore the whole space with our guide but when our tour was finished, he helped send us in the direction we were interested in continuing to explore. I would highly recommend!

Tour was amazing. Sonia met us on time and was very attentive to the group thoughout. Extremely knowledgeable about the site and made the whole tour interesting and easy to follow. Would definitely recommend both Sonia and Viator to friends and family.

Our tour with Lello was amazing. He was funny and full of knowledge. It’s so cool that he has done archeological work on the site himself and knows the people actively working and can tell you what they are doing. He kept the tour so fun while we learned a lot. Would highly recommended!