How do Hereculeneum and Pompeii compare???

If you have time for only one I would chose Herculeneum. (sp?). I found it to have more of the sense of life lived there than Pompeii. but if you have time, both are worthwhile.

Would like more opinions

We didnt make it to Herculaneum however Pompeii was really cool. You must go to Naples to the Museo Archeologico to see everything that was removed from Pompeii. All the paintings, artifacts and of course the mosaics are in Naples. You can get a cab from the train stn. to the museum. Naples can be dangerous so be careful. If your traveling through you can secure your bags at the station to pick up later. enjoy!

Herculaneum is much more intact. You can walk inside a Roman bath, walk on the actual mosaics. You can see charred wooden beams if the ceilings. They found charred furniture there. It gives you a better feel for a small Roman town, as Grandma says, more of the sense of life lived there.

nanette<BR>If you do a search on this message board you will find many past opinions on your questions as well

I agree that Herculaneum is the better choice if you can only visit one. It is more compact, and it is an amazing experience to see a city underneath a city.

Is it safe to leave luggage while parked for a visit? Does anyone know how secure the parking lot is?

I'll offer a contrary view. We visited the Archaeological Museum in Naples, then Herculaneum and Pompeii, last Ocotber. All three are spectacular so you can't go far wrong whatever you decide to do, but I got a better sense of Roman life from Pompeii and from the museum collection than from Herculaneum. By better preserved, people mean that some of the wooden elements in Herculaneum (doors and I think some ceiling panels) were carbonized and have survived. However, they aren't especially interesting, and the tile floors and wall paintings are as good and more plentiful at Pompeii. The best examples of walls and floors, plus virtually all other moveable artifacts, were moved to the Naples museum early on. Finally, size matters when you're trying to get a sense of the past, and the huge expanse of Pompeii gives you a better idea of town life than the much smaller part of Herculaneum that has been excavated. Plus the plaster casts of victims at Pompeii are touching. But as I said at the beginning, you'll enjoy any of the three that you decide to visit.