Pompeii or Herculaneum
 

Goin on cruise next week and have to decide on Pompeii or Herculaneum for a shore excursion.
I have read Pompeii is larger and has more ruins but is more crowded.

Don't have to worry about transportation or guides but I have read Rick Steves descriptions but still can't decide.

Any opinions?

Pompeii is too big to be crowded (it was a city of 25,000) especially this time of year. Don't count on renting an audio guide at Herculaneum as they run out quite often. Take cash as Herculaneum entrance was cash only. Depending on how much time you have, you could do a couple of hours at each. If you decided to do both, buy the 3 day Campania Artecard for 25€ (even though you won't be there 3 days) which gets you entrance to both (11€ each site)and train transportation.
http://www.artecard.it/EN/Home.cfm

Did you look at the websites for Pompeii and Heruclaneum (Ercolano)?
http://www.pompeiisites.org/Sezione....;idSezione=205

I've been to both and it's still a tough decision. My vote would be for Pompeii simply because I liked it better. You don't have to worry about it being crowded; it's so large the only crowded spot both times I was there was the cafe.

If you could combine Herculaneum with the archeological museum in Naples then I would choose that. The museum was great and definitely added to the appreciation of both sites. It would be tough to do the museum and Pompeii in one day.

Is there something else combined with Herculaneum as I can't see that taking an entire day.

I did both this spring, and much preferred Herculaneum. Partly that was because it was more compact, so less walking up and down similar looking streets (OK, I know that sounds lazy, but it was several hours on a hot day). But also because it's more intact, so I think you get a better feel for how it would have been to live there.

I combined Herculaneum with the Villa Oplontis, but the suggestion of adding the Naples museum is a good one.

It is a difficult one this as both places are wonderful and I have been lucky enough to visit both places twice.
If you have plenty of time I would do Pompeii,the main forum area can get quite busy but out by the Ampitheatre and the Necropolis things are a lot quieter but cetrainly worth visiting,walking the long streets and seeing all the place off them is a real joy.
If time is limited then Hreculeneum can be done in a couple of hours (3 would be ideal).
The idea of including Oplontis with herculeneum is a good one.

Depending on how much time you have, if I were you I would visit both.. Don't worry about Pompeii! As someone has already said, this period of the year is never crowded and the area is too large, too. Both of them do worth a visit and are quite close to each other :-)

I found quite complete the desciptions at: http://www.summerinitaly.com/guide/c...ological-sites

have fun!!

We opted for Herculaneum, it was quicker and we bought a package deal from a tour company to visit both Herculano and Mt. Vesuvius in one day. It worked for us and they provided transportation to both.

Clea

I love both but if I had to choose I would say Herculaneum - it seems to be more personal somehow. It is more compact and easier to do justice to it if time is limited.

Difficult. Before I went to either I would have thought Pompeii would be the obvious choice.

It certainly has the theatres and amphitheatre - both bigger and more impressive than anything at Herculaneum.

That said, I loved Herculaneum - the fact that you can stand on the streets and look up at the modern buildings built on the 60ft of ash and rock that covered the place is quite invocative of the scale of the disaster.

The bath houses at the latter are among the best preserved of any of the ruins.

Neither is going to disappoint you - combining Herculaneum with a museum is an excellent idea - I feel that the museum really is a "must see" of Italy, let alone just Naples.

A note - if going to pompeii, some areas need to be "prebooked" on the internet - I found this quite annoying as the first I knew about it was at the ticket office - my own fault for not researching enough.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6hjnko