Private Tour: Half Day Trip Excursion to Herculaneum

Meet your private driver at your hotel or cruise port in the Naples area (including Sorrento, Salerno, and the Amalfi Coast) at about 8:30am for the drive to the excavation at Herculaneum.

Choose either to explore the ruins independently or with a guide. If you choose the latter, you'll meet your guide at the entrance to Herculaneum. Otherwise, you'll purchase your entrance ticket and walk through the remains of the city on your own. You'll have about 2 hours to visit Herculaneum before the return trip to your departure point.

The ruins of Herculaneum have a wealth of archaeological finds, from ancient advertisements and stylish mosaics to carbonized furniture and terror-struck skeletons. Indeed, this superbly-conserved Roman fishing town that was once home to about 4,000 inhabitants is smaller and easier to navigate than Pompeii.

The AD 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius submerged Herculaneum in a 16m-thick sea of mud that essentially fossilized the city. This meant that even delicate items, such as furniture and clothing, were discovered remarkably well preserved. Tragically, the inhabitants didn’t fare so well; thousands of people tried to escape by boat but were suffocated by the volcano’s poisonous gases.

Herculaneum and Pompeii offer the best look anywhere at what life in Rome must have been like around 2,000 years ago.