Hotels, islands, day trips & planning

Claire Morgan

Writes the hotel and area pages, Pompeii, Capri and the other day trips, the itineraries and the planning basics.

Published work

58 signed pages across 5 collections, biggest section first.

Day trips 19

PompeiiThe ruined Roman city 29 minutes from Naples by Circumvesuviana. Which of the three tickets to buy, the new winter hours from October 15, and a four-hour route that skips the dead ends.Read
HerculaneumThe Roman town the eruption buried under deep volcanic deposits rather than ash, which kept wood, upper floors and color. Easier than Pompeii in three hours, if you take the right train.Read
Mount VesuviusA guided walk up to the rim of the volcano that buried Pompeii. Tickets are sold only online, the last slot moves earlier every month from October, and the bus from Pompeii takes 55 minutes.Read
CapriThe island everyone wants to see, 57 minutes from Naples on the fast ferry. Which boat to take, what the funicular and buses cost, and how to spend a day that is not just queues.Read
The Amalfi Coast (Positano, Amalfi, Ravello)Positano, Amalfi and Ravello from Naples: the train and bus route, the seasonal ferries, what really fits in one day, and Ravello's Villa Rufolo at €8.Read
The Blue GrottoA sea cave on Capri's north-west coast lit an electric blue by sunlight through an underwater opening. You enter lying back in a rowboat, stay a few minutes, and pay €18 at the cave plus the trip there.Read
SorrentoThe clifftop town at the end of the Circumvesuviana line, facing Naples across the bay. Pleasant for an evening, useful as a base for Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, thin as a day trip on its own.Read
ProcidaThe smallest of the three islands, 4.1 square kilometers of pastel harbors, a walled citadel and quiet beaches. The closest to Naples, the cheapest to reach, and the one you can see properly in a day.Read
IschiaThe biggest island in the bay: hot springs, thermal gardens, a castle on a rock and beaches. Cheaper and less polished than Capri, and big enough that a single day only scratches it.Read
Reggia di CasertaThe Bourbon kings' palace, bigger than anything in Naples, with royal apartments to visit and a park running 3 km uphill to a waterfall. Easy by train, a full day on foot.Read
PaestumThree Doric temples standing in a field south of Salerno, among the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere, plus a museum with the painted Tomb of the Diver. A calm, easy day by train, open every day.Read
Campi Flegrei (Pozzuoli, Baia, Cuma)The volcanic area west of Naples: Pozzuoli's great Roman amphitheatre, the baths and castle museum at Baia, the Cave of the Sibyl at Cuma. Cheap and uncrowded, with the bradyseism explained without drama.Read
Anacapri, Villa San Michele and Monte SolaroThe upper town on Capri, reached by a winding bus road. Axel Munthe's villa and garden, a 13-minute chairlift to the island's highest point, and lanes that stay calm when Capri town is packed.Read
Villa JovisThe ruins of the largest of Tiberius's villas on Capri, 334 m above the sea on the island's eastern headland. No bus goes there, the path climbs all the way, and it is the quietest paid site on the island.Read
Gardens of AugustusTerraced municipal gardens beside the Certosa in Capri town, with the postcard view over the Faraglioni rocks and the hairpins of Via Krupp. Twenty minutes, cheap, and open late into autumn.Read
Castello Aragonese, IschiaA whole fortified town on a volcanic islet off Ischia Ponte: churches, a ruined cathedral, the Poor Clares' cemetery, prisons, gardens and terraces over the bay. The best single reason to cross to Ischia for a day.Read
Oplontis (Villa Poppaea)One enormous seaside villa, possibly owned by Nero's wife, with some of the finest Roman wall paintings in the region. Twenty-three minutes from Naples, free by shuttle from Pompeii, and usually quiet.Read
Giardini Poseidon TermeA terraced thermal park above Citara bay on Ischia's west coast: mineral-water pools at different temperatures, a beach and gardens. Expensive, seasonal and, on a good day, a proper rest.Read
Bagni della Regina GiovannaA natural sea pool enclosed by rocks and a stone arch at the tip of Capo di Sorrento, beside the ruins of a Roman villa. Free, a short walk from a bus stop, lovely early or late, crowded at midday in summer.Read

Hotels 14

Areas 9

Plan 9

Itineraries 7

About Claire

Claire covers where to stay and how to get around: the neighborhoods, the hotels, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius, Capri, Ischia and Procida, the Amalfi Coast, and the planning pages on ferries, the Circumvesuviana, the metro and timing. Her hotel pages quote the rate found for named dates, with the booking site and the date it was read, plus the city tourist tax per night, and her day trips give the fare and the journey time from the operators' own timetables.

She writes for travelers without a car. Most of the bay is reachable by train, ferry and bus for a few euros, timetables change with the season, and a strike or a rough sea can cancel a day, so her pages say which trips work on public transport, when the last boat or train leaves, and when a tour is worth paying for.

Claire is an editorial persona. The research, the sourcing and the arithmetic behind her pages are real; the privacy page explains how our bylines work.