Pompeii and Vesuvius from Sorrento

We went to mt Vesuvius and Pompeii from Sorrento. For Mt Vesuvius, we bought a ticket in the Sorrento train station for a tour of sorts. I say of sorts because really what it was was van transpiration with several other people to as far as you can go. We then hiked to the top independently.

For Pompeii, we bought tickets for a tour on site-after buying entrance tickets.

In both cases.’, we took the train from sorrento and back. We were there in July and the day we came back from Mt Vesuvius it was rush hour and the train was not air conditioned. Not pleasant but everything else worked well.

The Circumvesuviana train connects Naples and Sorrento.

https://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/naples-to-sorrento-train-schedule

The transportation only tour "buses" [which we used] leave for Vesuvius from in front of the Pompeii Scavi station and go about 80% of the way up the volcano. We did not need reservations. You get to walk the rest of the way. Obviously, if you check the web there are lots of "tours" with guides that may do similar things. Separating the trip to Pompeii from the Vesuvius tour should save quite a bit of money, but leaves you managing the travel and visit on your own. Really, it is a big rocky volcanic mountain with a large hole in its top and volcanic gases steaming away at the bottom of the hole. A lot of the interest to me was looking at the suburbs of Naples that are too close to a mountain that has a history of doing bad things to its neighbors.