Pompeii and Vesuvius Day Trip with Guide and Crater Walk

This Pompeii and Vesuvius day trip packs the two great sights of the Bay of Naples into one day. You leave early in the morning from Naples or Sorrento, which helps you avoid the worst of the traffic and the crowds, and you start at the ruins of Pompeii, where the ticket line is skipped.

A guide leads you through the site for about two and a half hours. You see well-preserved ruins, artworks, mosaics, frescoes, the Forum and the Temple of Apollo, and the plaster casts of people caught by the eruption of AD 79. Headsets keep the guide easy to hear, and you finish with some time among the nearby shops and cafes.

Then the vehicle drives you up Mount Vesuvius to about 1,000 metres, which saves most of the climb. From there it is a walk of roughly 30 minutes to the edge of the crater, with views over the whole bay. Your guide cannot enter the park, so you climb and come down on your own, and an official park guide may be there to share the volcano's history.

• Transfers from Naples or Sorrento, priority access to both sites
• Food, drinks and hotel pickup are not included

If bad weather closes the volcano, you are offered a skip-the-line ticket for Herculaneum.