Great trip to Pompeii / Naples over New Years! December 26 - January 2nd 2026

365 Lite Campania Arte card worked out well - it gave us one entry into a number of attractions, €30, good for over a year, covered MANN, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Paestum, along with smaller ruins. Break even before we'd paid for 2 admissions. I had heard some Forum members had trouble getting the app to work, so took screen shots while booking and printed out copies, we ended up just showing the printed copies. companiaartecard.it.

Day 1 - Saturday - Hiking sticks inside Pompeii Scavi worked GREAT! I was concerned about standing more than walking & knew from experience how dreadful the large, irregular cobblestones would be. But walking sticks are the way to go, the ground would have been too irregular for a seat & our tour group stopped many times along the way, cumbersome to set up a seat. We used Askos Tours (€30 per person, around 15 in our group, we had headsets so could wander a bit away from group). Our tour guide Julia was EXCELLENT! Based upon my experience wandering through Pompeii with only a map 30 years ago, the cost of a well-versed archeologist guide made a huge difference! It got quite crowded by noon, our tour started at 9:30, best to get there as early as possible. Walked 7 miles.

Day 2 - Sunday, and we knew the MANN museum in Naples would be crowded, so decided to take a more leisurely stroll through a different part of Pompeii. (The tour focused on the western part of the ruins, then we walked back to the eastern most gate, just near our hotel.) So the next day we focused on the amphitheater (colosseum), one of the oldest & best preserved in the Roman world and walked into some other amazing villas we hadn’t seen & to the Insula dei Casti Amanti which is an elevated exhibit of archeological dig in action on Via dell’Abbondanza. This was a peak life experience for me, peering down into some of the latest discoveries of Pompeii! There is a lift, which I used (those walking sticks mentioned above indicated I needed it.) We got back to the hotel mid afternoon so had €14 pasta downstairs. Walked only 6 miles.

About handicap access - I noticed some people in wheelchairs with guides, there’s a wheelchair access walkway inside Pompeii starting from entrance near our hotel at Piazza Anfiteatro. I suspect you could enter at the main entrance as well, but it’s very steep ascent so I think Piazza Anfiteatro would be much easier. I noticed the wheelchair access continued all the way to the Insula dei Casti Amanti elevated exhibit, which was quite a ways inside Pompeii. There are definitely good but limited pathways, crowd dependent.

Day 3 - Monday - We took the Regional train from Pompei to Naples Central, bought RT open return tickets, maybe €6 per person, don’t recall. Getting to the MANN museum from Naples Central Station we took the VERY crowded though fun-filled with 90% Italians, subway Linea 1 line, let us off just in front of museum. The cafe was a great place to recover, and there are couches outside cafe for resting sore feet. We spent about 4 hours at museum with some short breaks, and only saw the first floor! It was SO glorious.

Overview of the different exhibits - Pompeii & Herculanum (excavated famously for the King of Naples who said, “Bring me the best of everything!”) & the amazing Farnese collection, dug out of the Roman Baths of Caracalla. Walked 8-9 miles. There were some broken escalators where you needed to climb stair inside subway, though there were always elevators if you chose to wait.

Day 4 Tuesday I came down with a bug and sadly spent 24 hours in bed, the young cleaner was so kind to bring me extra towels, tea kettle needed attention, etc. Hubby decided he wanted to see EVEN more of Pompeii so he took a long walk and ate at the little cafe with panini right down the street. I guess what we'd like to stress is if all you have is a day, enjoy Pompeii, if you end up going back again & again, there's so much more to see!

Day 5, NYE I was pretty tired from the bug, so we went back to Pompeii again. I know, crazy right? But it was right there! 5 minutes walk from the hotel with no train ride and we planned to see Herculaneum on NY day.. Saw an incredible exhibit on the women of Pompeii, just across from the amphitheater near our entrance. The exhibit was delicately handled with beautiful statues, explanations about what life was like for women in 79AD. Decided we needed to roam further afield, and also saw the two theaters which were amazing. Needless to say, we were pretty fascinated by the ruins! I stayed up and watched an incredible NYE midnight fireworks celebration across the city from our balcony, it went on for 45 minutes, quite loud and also magnificent, what a show. Walked 4 miles, short day.

January 1, 2026 - We thought we would make it to Herculaneum, January 1, (open every day of the year like Pompeii except for Christmas Day. ) But H got my bug, sadly, so he stayed in bed & we were both pretty worn out by then, and knew we'd be traveling back to Sweden the next day. I decided to hang out in town, took a few walks to see the town, +1,000 locals watching as a fireman on an extension ladder raised a crown of flowers to put on the Virgin’s head on top of the church… And BTW the church is worth a wander, 18C plus heavy restoration after WW2, it’s packed with statues & ceiling paintings, quite nice. By then I was old friends with the proprietor of the panini shop just down the street, who greeted me warmly with a handshake & 'Happy NY' in Italian.

Departure January 2 -The next day we left the hotel to fly NAP via AMS, where we got caught in the chaos of the snow & ice storm, so instead of 6 hours, it took us 14 hours to get home… But we still had a GREAT time! And even a week later, still waiting for our checked bag (with my hiking poles and ahhh the luxury of reusable ice packs can't carry through security, that hotel kindly froze for me each day!) that has inched it’s way to ARN, we’re delighted we took the trip despite the inconvenience of getting sick & AMS delayed flight.

Thoughts after the trip. Being flexible really helped! We had the luxury of no jet lag and being able to say that we were tired after Christmas, traveling to Naples & the first intense day in the scavi, so we stayed local instead of going into Naples. We will certainly consider any alternative to flying out of Naples during the holidays, it was VERY chaotic, herded through long security lines, & a very noisy terminal. (Bose headsets helped.) I was VERY glad I'd done my PT exercises for 6 months, Pompeii is NOT easy walking.

Shopping There's quite a nice gift shop at the far eastern exit "Piazza Anfiteatroto" of Pompeii, I bought some small purses with the mosaic of the guard dog & many, many postcards. In the departure area of NAP, there's also a good gift shop before security, where I bought some porcelain house numbers, they had that incredible instant coffee (don't recall the name) & I'm sure there's more to tell than this but we're just not keen shoppers.....

Ah, I have been looking forward to this report and I am really glad you had a good trip despite BOTH of you getting sick! That is not fun.

I’ll be honest - I haven’t researched Pompeii at all but this is the first time I’ve read about multiple days there and it makes so much sense! And you are inspiring me with the pool walking. That is definitely something I could do this summer.

Thanks for writing up about all the research you did before going. Very helpful as well. :)

Thanks TTM, it worked out really well & it still ends up being a better experience if we have it planned out... and then throw that out the window when we realize we want to go back into Pompeii multiple times! Maybe it was my colorful head band, but when I bought tickets the second time speaking Italian, the woman at the ticket counter said she remembered me from a few days before, "Oh, you've been here before!". "Yes, we loved it so much we came back." The best of compliments!

Wow, if I ever return to Pompeii, this is how I want to do it! Your trip report makes me want to go back, just to follow your plan.

I had to look to see that it was over 25 years ago that I went. And I have the foreign transaction fees from my oldest credit card to prove it ;-) I stayed in Sorrento, but I love your idea to stay in Pompeii. And how fun to go over the course of a few days to see more and more.

Do you know if the exhibit on the women of Pompeii is a permanent exhibition? That sounds fascinating.

Glad you had such a great trip. Except for getting sick, of course.

Great trip report! Sounds like your plan to stay in Pompeii was a success and your lovely hotel worked out very well. Glad to hear that the weather was pleasant in Dec/Jan and you were well prepared with your clothing choices for that brisk breeze!

Oh, this is great! Thanks so much for the wonderful TR! I have been saying for years, "I need to get to Naples," and this really pushed it up there, thanks to your wonderful descriptions. Everything sounds great, the food, the sites, even your first hotel location sounds like it was quite find. And all your hotels sound excellent. I love the book descriptions, too, and will be looking for those if I start planning.

I'm sorry you both got sick, but it sounds like you were in great shape for your trip, so hopefully that helped you to feel better sooner.

Have I already said ‘excellent’ too many times?

Haha, I'm a firm believer in the adage "You can never be too rich or too thin or say "excellent" too many times..." and I would include "beautiful," "fantastic," "wonderful," "awesome," and "incredible" in there as well. 😂 😂 😂

Thanks Mardee, Christine & CWSocial, it was indeed an excellent trip! In answer to your question about the exhibit CWS, unfortunately it's not permanent & ends January 31st. https://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/being-a-woman-in-pompeii-the-exhibition-in-palestra-grande-in-pompeii-from-16-april-2025-to-31-january-2026/

We really lucked out with the weather, it was very rainy the week before we arrived, and since leaving it's been pouring with thunderstorms, I know they closed Vesuvius to hikers. We never used our raincoats.

I forgot to mention this documentary was our favorite about Herculaneum - https://youtu.be/qyH13mvUzBM?si=YfR8Tk_EMTTMzNTj. More to watch & learn!!! We've just finished watching it for a second time here at home where it's unbelievably snowy & dark by 3PM.

I am so glad and a bit relieved that you liked the Hotel Forum!

When you go back for Herculaneum, try to include Oplontis and Stabiae. Askos took us to all 3 in one day, and it was one amazing day.

Thanks for the TR. We’re headed to Naples for 6 nights the end of April and will spend time at the museum. We booked a private tour with a professor for Pompeii and Herculaneum.
I wrote down the Book and show you recommended to read up on the sites before we go.

What a great report! Thank you for writing it up.

What a wonderful trip! We spend every Christmas in Napoli (it’s delicious and festive!). We overlapped you a bit, heading home on the 29th. Our rule is to always get up early on the last day and take the high speed train to Rome and then a direct flight from FCO-ATL. So much better than NAP and connecting back to the US.

Thanks everyone, it really was a pleasure writing up the TR.

AbbyO - OMG we were just talking about this idea - High speed train to Rome and fly direct, the same would be true for ARN, and we would have missed the chaos of NAP airport as well as AMS closure and ice storm. Still waiting for our checked bag 8 days later…. Good thing we have Air Tag inside, we've had no updates from KLM but can see our bag made it as far as ARN.

Estimated Prophet - No worries we loved Hotel Forum! For us as we’ve ‘aged out’ of go go go all day, it was wonderful to have a place to come back to in the late afternoon and put our feet up! And access to a cute little town with many places to catch a quick bite to eat was very useful. Sigh, we really regretted not making it to Herculaneum, good idea to take a private tour to Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae. Hey don’t they say it’s good to leave a destination wanting to go back???

Barbara in NY - Looking forward to hearing all about your April trip!

Barbara N - Hoping to have share a bit more and show pictures at our next meeting in February.