Ruins one day, cliffs the next.
Pompeii and Herculaneum stopped in ash, Vesuvius steaming above the bay, the Amalfi cliffs and a proper Margherita in the old town. The ones worth the trek, the fare per head, and a link to grab a place.
Seven you book first.
The ones a Naples week can’t skip: Pompeii with an archaeologist who knows which houses still have their frescoes, the hydrofoil across to Capri, a pizza class in the quarter that invented it.
Pompeii: Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
Self-paced Pompeii visit with audio guide and phone voucher; choose Pompeii Express or Pompeii+ with villas like Villa of the Mysteries.
From $40 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.8Safe betPompeii: Small Group Tour with an ArchaeologistFrom $4012,264 reviews
★ 5.0Books out fastSorrento, Positano & Amalfi Coast – Small Group TourFrom $768,643 reviews
★ 4.6Crowd favouriteCatacombs of San Gennaro Entry Ticket & Guided TourFrom $157,941 reviews
★ 5.0Worth the early startPompeii Small Group Tour with an ArchaeologistFrom $356,593 reviews
★ 4.9Easy winDowntown Tour with Veiled Christ & St Clare TicketsFrom $576,462 reviews
★ 4.9Local favouritePizza-Making Workshop with Drink and AppetizerFrom $395,411 reviews
The coast road earns the hype.
Positano stacked up its cliff, the lemon terraces above Amalfi, a limoncello stop and a look up at Ravello. Most of the day is the drive itself, hairpin after hairpin over the water. Let someone else take the wheel and just watch it go by.
Ash, lava, or both?
Everyone comes for the ancient sites; the trick is choosing which. Three ways to spend the day around the bay, each one priced and reviewed, so you can pick your ruin before you set an alarm.
The whole excavation
Pompeii in full
2 hours · from $35 · 19,459 reviews
Sixty-six acres of Roman city, and no signs worth reading. Go with an archaeologist who walks you straight to the brothel frescoes, the plaster casts and the House of the Faun, and skips the queue at the gate. Half a day, and you still won’t see all of it.
Compare the Pompeii tours →
The volcano itself
Up to the crater
from $120 · 11,459 reviews
The mountain that did the damage, still very much awake. A minibus up the switchbacks to the car park, then the gravel path to the rim for a look down into the smoking crater and back across the whole bay. Most people pair it with Pompeii in one day.
See the Vesuvius climbs →
The quiet one
Herculaneum instead
2 hours · from $53 · 3,439 reviews
Smaller than Pompeii, and better preserved for it: wooden doors, upstairs floors, mosaics still on the walls. A tenth of the crowd and a fraction of the walking. For a second ruin, or a first one without the coach parties, this is the smarter call.
See the Herculaneum tours →
There’s a whole city under this one.
Greek aqueducts that became wartime shelters, the catacombs of San Gennaro stacked with early Christian graves, the Bourbon tunnel dug for a king who never used it. Naples keeps some of its best rooms forty metres below the traffic.
Pizza was invented here.
The Margherita was born in this city, and Neapolitans still argue about who does it best. Eat your way through the old town with a local, or spend a morning learning to stretch the dough yourself over a wood fire.
The bay looks better from a boat.
Capri and its blue grotto, the ferry across to Sorrento, a swim off the back of a gozzo below the Amalfi cliffs. From the water you get the coastline the coach road only hints at, plus the odd hidden cove for lunch.
The old town is one long straight line.
Spaccanapoli cuts the historic centre in a dead-straight slot you can walk end to end, past the nativity workshops of San Gregorio Armeno, the baroque churches, and the Veiled Christ carved so fine the marble looks wet. Two thousand years old, still lived in at full volume.
Pick your corner of the bay.
The region comes in day-sized pieces. Pompeii for the ruins. The Amalfi cliffs for the drive. Capri for the water. Sorrento for the lemons, and the old town for the noise and the pizza.
Know how you like to travel?
Twelve kinds of day around the bay. Choose the mood and a shortlist waits behind each.
The best of it is a day trip away.
Naples sits at the middle of everything. The ruins are half an hour east, the Amalfi cliffs an hour south, the islands a fast ferry across the bay, and a royal palace bigger than Versailles just up the line at Caserta.
City, ruins, coast, in that order.
You can’t see the whole bay in one trip, but three days gets you the shape of it. This is the order we’d put them in for a friend arriving at Capodichino tomorrow.
Day 1
Start in the city
The centro storico on foot while your legs are fresh, the aqueducts underneath it, and a Margherita at the counter that started the whole thing. Ease in.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The ruins and the volcano
Pompeii at opening, before the coaches and the heat, lunch in Ercolano, then the switchback road up Vesuvius for the crater and the whole bay below.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Out to the coast
The Amalfi road or the hydrofoil to Capri, whichever the forecast rewards. Lemons, cliffs, a swim off a boat, and the drive back at golden hour.
Plan day three →
Fresh from the bay.
★ 5.0Skip-the-Line Pompeii & Volcano Vesuvius Day Tour w Hotel or Port PickupFrom $54228 reviews
★ 4.7Naples/Salerno Port: Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi TourFrom $9028 reviews
★ 5.0Exclusive Private Tour: Explore Pompeii and the Amalfi CoastFrom $38529 reviews
★ 4.5Skip the Line Herculaneum Ruins TicketFrom $2529 reviews
★ 5.0Secret Herculaneum: The Hidden Treasure of Ancient Roman CivilizationFrom $3429 reviews
★ 5.0Pompeii and Herculaneum Small-Group with an Expert ArchaeologistFrom $7829 reviews
★ 4.5Private Transfer Naples City Centre (Airport, Hotel, Port, Train Station)From $6129 reviews
★ 4.5Naples – 4 hours in the streets of the cityFrom $7229 reviews