We scheduled this tour on our 10-night Celebrity cruise. Our ship docked in Naples as scheduled, and our driver, Antonio, was there on the pier to greet us promptly. As noted in the tour description, this tour has three major components; Vesuvius, Pompeii and a trip to a winery. We had two major pain points with this tour.
Vesuvius – Our tour guide indicated that he graciously pre-purchased our admission tickets into Vesuvius and purchased a time slot of 9:50am. He advised us the cost for the tickets would be 20 euro per person. We paid him for the tickets, and upon inspection of the admission ticket, we noted a fee of 11 euro printed on the ticket. We inquired of the driver why we are paying a fee of 20 euro per ticket, and he said there was a 9 euro per ticket processing fee charged by the Vesuvius Park for advance ticket sales. We requested to see documentation of that charge and it was provided in a file format that was not viewable on a mobile device. We inquired of other Vesuvius tour patrons that day while we were touring. All of them said they pre-purchased their tickets and there was not 9-euro fee charged for their tickets. Our conclusion, be sure to buy your tickets in advance and absent verifiable documentation, the driver made an extra 54 euro on the group of six tickets purchased. Also, there is not cell service at the entrance of Vesuvius due to the elevation. Also, be aware that you cannot enter the Vesuvius Park any earlier than 30 minutes before your ticket time. You will be turned away.
Pompeii- Our guide dropped us off a street about two blocks from the entrance, pointed us toward the entrance, instructed us to make sure we get a paper map as a guide, then left after telling us what time he would return to pick us up. At that point, we would have about 1.5 hours to tour Pompeii. Standing in line took up at least a half hour of that, and we entered, only to find there were no more paper maps available. We strongly suggest pre-purchasing the tickets in order to skip that line. It might be beneficial to include the tickets in the cost of the price of the trip to save the customer time.
Winery – The tour included a stop at Bosco De’ Medici Winery (BDMW). While our tour costs did not include any of the fees associated with this winery, we requested to visit another winery that was closer to Vesuvius instead of BDMW. According to the driver this request could not be accommodated with no explanation provided. We requested to visit Cantina Del Vesuvio winery as we have visited before, and it is a very nice vineyard. If our tour costs included the fees for BDMW, we could better understand for not accommodating the change.
BDMW was very pricy and the quality of the wine and food was substandard. Located in the heart of Pompeii, it’s a vineyard that operates like a production line. You are whisked in and provided a prosecco, then you are immediately taken to your seats for lunch. They offer three fixed price tasting menus (ranging from 40-75 euro). This was not a tasting menu based on how it was served. It’s more of a wine flight of 4 wines that are poured quickly and does not pair with the food. The food was not anything I would go back for as well as the wine. One person ordered from the menu that included prawns, and the prawns were undercooked and sent back to the kitchen.
Our conclusion is definitely skip BDMW as it’s not worth the quality considering the price. The driver must receive a commission for the tour group he schedules which explains why he would not make the adjustment to the other vineyard. Since we concluded our meal quickly and skipped the guided tour, our driver did take us to the other vineyard, Cantina Del Vesuvio, so we could purchase a few items. We did appreciate this accommodation.
Giovanni, our guide, was on time and very kind and knowledgable of the area. Although the roads were narrow and curvy, Giovanni safely delivered to Vesuvius. The winery visit was next and the tour guide, servers, food, wine tasting and grounds were phenomenal! Our last stop was Pompeii. Giovanni was unable to guide us during this tour. If you are unfamiliar with Pompeii, I definitely recommend hiring a guide. Highly recommend this tour!
We had a wonderful time on this tour. We paid for the full experience - tickets in advance and a guide at Pompeii. I'm sure we could have spent less if we did-it-ourselves (i.e., take the train instead of having a driver) but it was worth it to me for this to be taken care of in advance.
For example, when we got to Mt. Vesuvius, there were people who were turned away because they didn't have admission tickets, but we were allowed right through. I will say that Vesuvius was a bit of a trek. We were fine (it was nice that it was cooler up there than it had been in the city!) but I could imagine some people reading the description that it was a "short walk" and thinking it won't be too hard.
Pompeii was great - with our guide Laura. I do have a feeling that there was a lot at Pompeii that we didn't get to see, but as someone with interest but not SUPER into history, this was the perfect amount of time for us. We saw the highlights, Laura was super informative, and we got as much as we wanted from it before we headed out from the heat.
The winery was wonderful. Wine was great, meal was great. Eating under the arbor/vines was so beautiful. Some of my favorite pictures from Italy!
I did get the sense that our driver was sort of setting up the day as we went. Like as we were driving to Vesuvius, he was making calls, and told us that the only available reservation time at the winery was later in the day, so did we mind doing that last. We didn't mind, and actually really liked cooling off and relaxing at the winery after our hot time in Pompeii, but still it felt a little last-minute.
Overall, a great experience for someone looking to do a moderate amount of time at each site (Vesuvius, Pompeii and winery) - not looking to do a deep dive at any of them.