Half Day Morning Tour of Herculaneum from Sorrento

Herculaneum was the best part along with the tour guide. Would have preferred a hotel pick as we had to get to pick up point early and then the bus came passed our hotel! Good trip though.

Have wanted to make this trip since Art History class 40 years ago. Watch the Youtube video hosted by a British professor before you go. Herculaneum has more preserved houses, relics mosaics than Pompeii which is much larger and out in the open. We were there in May with temps in the 70's. Can't imagine doing this in the heat. Wear very comfortable shoes with good tred and a hat. Lots of walking, stairways and uneven large cobblestones. We thought it was crowded but tour guide said it is much more crowded June-Sept. Guide was excellent taking us through the ancient town and many houses, baths and forums. Amazing place to experience. Took about an hour by bus to get there from Sorrento. We were in a large tour bus. We prefer the small vans that carry six or eight but there wasn't anything like that available. However is was a nice group. Beautiful scenery of Bay of Naples, small towns and Mt Vesuvius along the way. DIdn't return to Sorrento until about 2PM which felt like a full day tour to us. Our only complaint was the communications with Viator and the actual tour company that escorted us. I was unable to download the tickets even though I had a confirmation email that it was bought and paid for in advance. Screen kept popping up "Oops there's a problem" Had me concerned that we perhaps were not confirmed for this trip after all. The description of the the meeting place was very vague. A large group of people waiting for other tours were in the same location. at 8:00AM but no buses showed up for quite a while and there were no signs to indicate that any of us were in the right place. We have taken several Viator trips. Never had this problem but we had a problem with another tour scheduled two days later. Couldn't confirm that we would be picked up at our hotel and then late the night before the full day boat trip, we got a phone call saying that it was canceled. Very disappointing. It was a beautiful day. We ended up going to Capri on our own, waiting in long lines for hours to buy ferry tickets. Never ended up going to Amalfi or Positano. We are supposed to be getting a full refund.

This tour was done on a holiday and even though there were crowds, our guide got us in and going in record time, making sure we were all accounted for and bathroom breaks appreciated. She spoke wonderful English and knew the history of the place and shared all kinds of fascinating facts that brought the tour to life. It was a half day and for someone that is slightly older, it was just the right amount of time. With that said if I were younger I could have spent the whole day there.