Guided Mount Vesuvius Hiking Tour from Pompeii

Mario was an excellent guide. Very patient and professional. ........................................

My 20 year old grandson loves to hike. We took the tour but my husband and I stayed at the bus level. My grandson absolutely loved the hike. It was a very small group with only the guide and one other hiker. They were all used to hiking so it was great for them. He got great pictures all around.

A great experience, enjoyed by all the family. Mario our guide was superb and filled in the vast gaps in our knowledge , and was understanding of group, and heat. A nice steady hike. Would fully recommend to anyone moderately fit.

I dislike giving poor reviews but we were very disappointed by this tour. It was run by Askos Tours in Pompei. A couple of hours before the tour we received a message from them advising that there was an emergency and instead of having a tour guide accompanying us they asked us to download an audioguide. We paid substantially more for the tour than what would be expected for an audioguide tour. We were not advised what was wrong with the guide however the tour began at 2.30 and it was a very hot day... We wondered if this outcome was always going to eventuate. The instructions to download the audioguide were very polished and preprepared. We arrived at the meeting point outside Pompeii early and waited looking out for someone holding an Askos Tours sign as outlined. Eventually I went over to a group of ladies who were huddled in a corner of the Pompei entry. Luckily I noticed they had a bag that said Askos Tours. There was no sign nor were they actively looking for tour participants. There was 2 other people making 5 for the tour. The other 2 were not sure if they were able to play their downloaded audioguide. The driver was very good and we felt sorry for him. He was required to leave the vehicle and we were ferried in a local shuttle bus to the base of the walk. The driver then waited for 2 hours in the heat for us to complete the walk. We then had to push in in front of many people waiting for the shuttle to be able to get back down to the tour vehicle. The walk itself was spectacular. However the audioguide to be polite was a very ordinary AI generated short series of rubbish. I feel I could have created a much more interesting audioguide myself. Afterwards we contacted Askos Tours expressing disappointment. Surely such a tour group would have a plan B if a guide was unable at short notice to attend. The audioguide substitution felt like that was the plan from the beginning. Beware. Askos did refund 10% of the cost of the tour but even so it was a very expensive tour for the experience we received. If we had our time again we would have done it independently. I cannot recommend this tour, nor would I book with Askos Tour again.

We did the tour of the Vesuvius crater with Mario, departing from the main entrance of the Pompeii site in an air-conditioned shuttle. During the trip, Mario explained the eventful history of Vesuvius and its successive eruptions, including the one that wiped 4 surrounding cities, including Pompeii, off the map. Arriving on site, we made a 30-minute ascent to the summit of the 2nd caldera and walked around half of the crater. The view is very interesting, especially with the explanations from our guide. He showed us the discreet fumaroles that we would not have detected ourselves. Furthermore, he explained to us how the volcano still affects Naples despite the absence of a recent eruption. The decoding in connection with last week's seismic activity (4.5 on the Richter scale, no less!) was fascinating. I recommend it.