Pompeii and Herculaneum: tickets, hours and getting there from Naples

Pompeii or Herculaneum: two very different sites

Pompeii is a whole city: forum, temples, theatres, amphitheatre, baths, shops and paved streets. It is the more famous and the more tiring. Herculaneum was a smaller town, buried under volcanic material that preserved beams, doors and furniture as carbonised wood: it takes less time and gives a more intimate picture of daily life.

Both are on the same Circumvesuviana line, about twenty minutes apart on the faster trains. Many visitors pick one site and spend the rest of the day at the MANN in Naples, where the mosaics and frescoes found here are displayed.

Pompeii tickets: prices, discounts and entry rules

These are the Pompeii Archaeological Park’s current official prices:

• Ancient city of Pompeii: €20, without the suburban villas.
• Ancient city, suburban villas (including the Villa of the Mysteries), Villa Regina at Boscoreale with Antiquarium, and shuttle: €25.
• All of the above plus Oplontis, Villa Arianna, Villa San Marco and the Stabiae Archaeological Museum: €30, valid for 3 days with one entry per site.
• Single sites (Boscoreale, Oplontis, Stabiae museum): €8. MyPompeii annual pass: €45.

The reduced ticket costs €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 24. Under-18s and the other categories set by Italian law go free (check the conditions on the official site), and everyone enters free on the first Sunday of the month.

All tickets are issued in your name, so bring ID. There is no re-entry on the same ticket. Visitors are capped at 20,000 a day, after which sales stop at the box office too, and from 16 March to 14 October there are two time bands: up to 15,000 entries from 9am to 1pm and up to 5,000 from 1pm to 5:30pm. The official channel is vivaticket, plus the on-site box offices.

From 1 January 2027: a single €25 ticket

The park has announced that from 1 January 2027 there will be a single €25 ticket for all its sites, valid for 30 days with one entry per site. Single-site tickets will stay at €8 and MyPompeii at €45; named tickets, ID checks and the daily cap also stay. Until then, the prices above apply.

Pompeii opening hours and what to see

From 16 March to 14 October Pompeii is open 9am to 7pm, with last entry at 5:30pm. From 15 October to 15 March it opens 9am to 5pm, last entry 3:30pm. It closes only on 25 December and 1 January, with no weekly closing day (Oplontis and the Stabiae villas and museum, on the other hand, close on Tuesdays). There are three entrances: Porta Marina, a few steps from the Circumvesuviana station, Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza Esedra.

Don’t miss:

• the Forum, the civic and religious heart of the city, with Vesuvius behind it;
• the Villa of the Mysteries and its great fresco cycle, included only in the €25 and €30 tickets;
• the House of the Vettii and the House of the Faun, where the Alexander Mosaic now in the MANN was found;
• the Large Theatre and the Odeion;
• the Amphitheatre, built around 70 BC, the oldest surviving stone Roman amphitheatre;
• the Lupanar and the Stabian Baths;
• the Garden of the Fugitives, with casts of the victims.

Since 9 September 2026 the House of Ceres has also been open to the public, from 9:15am to 6:20pm. For accessibility, see the park’s “Pompei per tutti” page.

Herculaneum: opening hours, tickets and highlights

Herculaneum Archaeological Park is open every day, closing only on 1 January and 25 December. From 16 March to 14 October hours are 8:30am–7:30pm, last entry 6pm; from 15 October to 15 March 8:30am–5pm, last entry 3:30pm. The entrances are on Corso Resina and Via dei Papiri Ercolanesi.

A full ticket costs €16 (plus €1.50 if you buy online from CoopCulture) and the reduced ticket €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 24. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month, 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, with tickets sold at the box office only. The ticket covers the archaeological area, the Antiquarium and the Boat pavilion.

Highlights: the ancient shoreline and its boat sheds, where about 300 skeletons have been found since the 1980s; the Roman boat in its own pavilion; the House of Neptune and Amphitrite with its wall mosaic; the College of the Augustales; the House of the Bicentenary; and, everywhere, the carbonised wood of doors, beams and furniture. The Villa of the Papyri and the ancient theatre are closed until further notice.

Guided visits to the Suburban Baths

Guided visits to the Suburban Baths are back, with tickets on sale from 29 September 2026. The combined park + baths ticket costs €21 (€7 for ages 18–25, free for under-18s; under-12s must be accompanied). Visits run on Saturdays in groups of up to 15, wearing helmets, and last about an hour.

Getting to Pompeii and Herculaneum from Naples

The easiest way is the Circumvesuviana, Naples–Sorrento line, from Porta Nolana (the first stop, where getting a seat is easier) or Napoli Garibaldi, beneath the central station.

• For Herculaneum get off at Ercolano Scavi and walk to the entrance.
• For Pompeii get off at Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri, next to the Porta Marina entrance. Don’t get off at Pompei Santuario, which is on a different line.

The train is paid separately: as a guide, a one-way Naples–Herculaneum ticket costs €2.60 and Naples–Pompeii about €3.30, but fares changed in 2023 and many guides still quote the old prices, so check at the machine or in the EAV app, or simply tap a contactless card at the gates. The Campania Express tourist train is suspended from 1 October 2026 until further notice, so plan on regular trains. More in our guide to getting around Naples.

By taxi, Naples Airport’s fixed-fare list gives about €70 to Pompei Scavi: confirm the amount with the driver before you set off.

Artecard, MANN and the Royal Palace of Portici: rounding out the trip

The Campania Artecard pays off if you combine several sites. The Campania 3-day pass (€41 on the official site) includes two entries of your choice, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum (€36 at full price), regional trains including the Circumvesuviana, and discounts afterwards: at the MANN, for example, you pay €10 instead of €20. Two limits to keep in mind: at Pompeii the Artecard covers the ancient city only (not the Villa of the Mysteries), with entry through Piazza Esedra on a named ticket issued against ID; and the version sold on Tiqets (Campania 7-day or 365) does not include transport.

The National Archaeological Museum (€20, closed Tuesdays) holds the great finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Its mosaics section, including the Alexander Mosaic, is closed for works until 30 November 2026. Between Naples and Herculaneum, on the same coast, the Royal Palace of Portici is where the first Herculaneum finds were displayed, best visited at weekends.

Pompeii and Herculaneum tickets: official or Tiqets?

The official channels are cheaper. For Pompeii, Tiqets starts at €27.50 against €20 or €25 officially, with an average rating of 3.6 from 718 reviews; for Herculaneum it starts at €19.50, €2 more than buying online from CoopCulture (€16 + €1.50). Tiqets makes sense if you want all your trip tickets in one app or need flexibility: for Pompeii you can choose a refundable ticket at checkout, cancellable until 23:59 the day before, although date changes are not possible.

If you would rather not organise anything, there are tours with transport and a guide: NaplesBay, for example, sells a Pompeii tour from Naples by minibus, with entry ticket and about two hours of guided visit, from €74 direct (see our review). We are an independent guide: if you book through the Tiqets or GetYourGuide links on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Our advice for Pompeii and Herculaneum tickets: book a few days ahead in high season, go in early, carry water and ID, and if you have two days, give the second one to the MANN.