Pompeii and Herculaneum

Might depend on the time of year? In summer heat, I wouldn't advise it. In a cooler season? Probably survivable if you're OK on your feet for the described amount of time.

We booked a 8 hour tour of both Pompeii and Herculaneum through Askos Tours for next May. We will leave from our hotel in Sorrento. Our guide at both sites is included. It will be a long day but we expect those when we travel.

It's not crazy if that's the time you have. Both are worthy, and many people are completely satisfied with just the 2 hour tour of Pompeii. Perhaps your rushed visit will inspire you to come back even if you currently don't think you will.

We visited Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast off of a cruise ship in 2014 and it was a whirlwind day of rushing around on tour busses and being frustrated with how little we saw, but it inspired us to visit again in 2023 for a 2 week stay in Sorrento. For that trip we spent about 12 hours over two days in Pompeii, about 3 hours in Herculaneum and then to tie it all together, a visit to the Archeological Museum in Naples.

We spent a full day at Pompeii (and about 3/4 of a day at Herculaneum). Both sites are quite interesting, some overlap. If it were me, I'd do a full day at Pompeii and see Herculaneum at another time. Perhaps you could do a short stay in Naples on another trip and see the archeology museum and Herculaneum at that time.

Month of year? Heat and sun are major factors, especially at Pompeii, which is far bigger. Food inside Pompeii, none in Herculaneum. Herculaneum is 15 minutes downhill from the Circumvesuviana, Pompeii is 300 feet from the CIrcumvesuviana. It took us almost two hours to have a modest sit-down lunch in a very basic restaurant (but with good food) on the street in Ercolano. You don't have time for that.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/herculaneum-and-pompeii-questions

Artistically and culturally, you can make an argument for the three other ancient sites in the immediate area. Of those, I've only been to Oplontis, but it was completely unlike Pompeii or Herculaneum, and artistically quite important. Short walk from the Circumvesuviana, and even smaller than Herculaneum Scavi. Almost deserted. One reason I mention this is that at Oplontis, you enter and walk around inside and outside a rich guy (?)'s villa. At Herculaneum, the houses are behind fences, sort of like a zoo. (I'm not slamming Herculaneum, lots of people love the fact that some wood parts survive there, among other things.)

Herculaneum is wonderful. We easily spent 4 hours there. I never felt it was a lesser visit.

Pompeii and Herculaneum deserve their popularity. But consider dropping one of them and visiting Oplontis and/or Stabiae instead. A guide service like Askos can make it happen.

https://pompeiisites.org/en/oplontis/

https://pompeiisites.org/en/stabiae/

https://askostours.com/

Oplontis looks amazing.

It’s totally doable! I’d advise you to see Pompeii as early as possible, you’ll avoid the worst of the crowds and heat. As big as Pompeii is, you’ll still max out at about 4 hours. Avoid heading to the amphitheater, it’s far from the entrance and is far less interesting than the areas near the forum. Give yourself a nice break for lunch, then head to Herculaneum. Herculaneum is often open quite late in season. Check the hours.

I think my brain would be full before heading to the second one (just like I only do one museum a day as my brain would be in overload).....I also agree that spreading out over two days would be great.

If I WERE to do both, I would do a combo tour, that way there would be no overlap in info shared and you could learn and understand more with minimal effort. And it would be a LONG DAY.

Back in 2019, we were on our way from Positano back to the train station in Naples and have a guide . Not an ideal setup but . We did a 2 hour guided tour at Pompeii, and then rain came in, and our guide suggested going to Oplontis instead of the Herculaneum as planned. I am so glad we did - it wasn't crowded, much of it is covered, and it was such a different experience. I do wish we had more time at Pompeii but what we saw was fantastic! And having the guide made it so much easier to cover the large site at Pompeii - we didn't have to worry about where we were or where we needed to go. And having the guided commentary at Oplontis was really helpful to understand the historical importance of the buildings and also of the artwork.

On my first of two visits there, we visited both in one day.
We left Naples early for Pompeii, spent about three hours there, then jumped off the return train at Herculaneum and spent a couple of hours there.
I don't feel that we missed anything.
On my next visit, we spent most of the day at Pompeii only and delved a bit deeper into its history.

Thanks for all the replies and different perspectives on this topic. I think I will go ahead and plan to do both on the same day. We will have the guided tour at Pompeii first plus some extra time. Then take the train to Herculaneum and do it on our own. That way if we feel too hot or exhausted we can adjust our plans and skip Herculaneum and head straight to Naples.