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We were offered the chance to visit Pompeii or Herculaneum when we docked at Sorrento. People rave about Pompeii because it’s absolutely huge and gives you a great sense of just how sophisticated Roman civilisation was. Herculaneum, by contrast, was a Roman seaside town, a sort of holiday resort, and doesn’t offer the same kind of scale. Still. I remembered my Latin lessons, and how we’d learned that while Pompeii’s buildings were smashed and burned by the falling volcanic ash, Herculaneum was actually preserved in the thick mud that engulfed it. And it’s true: wandering around the archaeological remains of the town, you feel like you’re in a place that’s only recently been abandoned. The wine shop (above) still has its amphorae stacked to the side, the houses have beautifully preserved frescoes and mosaics. What it lacks in size it more than makes up for in detail.

What’s old is new again in Saint-Pierre, a city built under majestic Mount Pelée on Martinique’s Caribbean coast. In 1902, Mount Pelée volcano erupted, leveling the city and killing all 30,000 inhabitants– save one lucky prison inmate, whose thick cell walls protected him from the blast. Today, the rebuilt Saint-Pierre honors its fiery past at the Musée Volcanologique, a mini-Pompeii filled with carefully preserved relics. History meets modernity at the southern entrance where seven inspired, contemporary Caribbean artists have created 32 colorful totem sculptures welcoming guests. There are also popular dive sites nearby, where scuba divers can swim alongside century-old wrecks of ships that sunk in the explosion.

January is a lovely time to visit the Roman ruins at Carthage. Fewer people. Cooler temperatures. And, if you are lucky, beautiful blue skies over the adjacent sea. While the ruins themselves are quite small (especially in comparison to Pompeii or some of the other Mediterranean ruined communities), they make for a nice hour-long tour.

Imagine that beautifully serene bay as a boiling cauldron of death. It’s hard to believe, but that was the case during the 1902 eruption of Mt. Peleé on the island of Martinique. Hot magma rising from the earth’s core and a pyroclastic flow speeding down from Mt. Pelée left nowhere to run. It was a tremendous tragedy costing the lives of over 30,000 residents in under 2 minutes. Now, just south of town there’s a gorgeous overlook that grants the view above. I could spend hours there, Ti’ punch in hand, gazing back at the idyllic beauty the new St. Pierre has become.

Martinique’s former capital was a cultural hub of the Caribbean. St.-Pierre was the site of the original French settlement on the island, and it was long considered the Paris of the West Indies until 1902, when the eruption of Mt. Pelée devastated the city and left behind haunting ruins like a Caribbean Pompeii. Today, a small community has resettled here, and the remains of many historic buildings are protected as archaeological sites.

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli is home to the greatest collection of ancient art and artifacts in the world, mainly made up of the Farnese family’s fantastic haul of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and pieces salvaged from the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It is is huge, however, so be selective: Look out for the monumental Farnese Bull, the two powerful Tyrannicides (tyrant killers), mosaics on the mezzanine floor and the superb bronzes from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum.

In this week’s episode of Unpacked by AFAR, we journey to Kerala, India, to explore what tourism looks like when it truly benefits a local community—and travelers.