Not to be missed, the colours and intricate details of daily life that have survived the eruption after all these years are truly amazing. The Audio Tour was informative and full of interesting details about each building within the ruins. I would have given 5 stars, but we found that the audio tour map and entrance was not all together that easy to navigate or well sign posted in English. So we ended up entering the archeological site the wrong way round over the bridge, rather than down the stairs. Other than that, I’d highly recommend a visit to Herculaneum for an incredible step back in time.

The lines are long if you don't have a reservation so I recommend doing this. Pre paying for an audio guide also speeds things up. I did the early pass to get a head start on the hords of tour groups that start at 10. The audio guide is excellent and allows more time for photos and absorbing information than a tour. I spent 3 hours at my own pace. It's an incredible site

We had previously visited Pompeii with a guide so elected to see Herculaneum without a guide. With our skip the line tickets we walked right in and picked up a free guide book at the entry. Each of the houses, etc. described in the guidebook were marked with a small metal marker with a corresponding number to the numbered description in the guidebook so it was easy to read each description as we saw each building. We spent 2 hours at the site and felt like that was the perfect amount of time to really see and appreciate the site. Compared to Pompeii, Herculaneum was much less crowded, a smaller easier to navigate area, and better preserved than Pompeii. Pompeii shows much of how business and commerce worked in 79 AD while Herculaneum shows more how people lived in their homes at that time.