How to Visit Pompeii: Tickets, Hours, Tours and Everything You Need to Know
The short answer. Buy the €20 Pompeii Express ticket unless you want the Villa of the Mysteries, in which case buy the €25 one. Book ahead: entry is capped at 20,000 a day and the ticket carries your name. Arrive at 9:00. Allow two hours as a minimum and three if you can. Wear shoes with a grip, because the streets are basalt with cart ruts and raised kerbs.
Pompeii is one of the easiest world-famous sites to visit and one of the easiest to get wrong, and almost all of the going-wrong happens before you arrive. This post covers everything between deciding to go and walking through the gate. The guided tour pompeii italy listed here all handle the ticket for you. If you would rather do it yourself, this is exactly how.
Quick facts
- Where: Via Villa dei Misteri 2, 80045 Pompei, in the province of Naples.
- Hours: 9:00–19:00 from 16 March to 14 October, last admission 17:30. 9:00–17:00 from 15 October to 15 March, last admission 15:30.
- Closed: 25 December and 1 January. Every other day of the year it is open.
- Adult admission: €20 (Express) or €25 (with the suburban villas). Under-18s free; EU citizens 18–24 pay €2.
- Daily cap: 20,000 visitors, with named tickets and timed entry.
- Size: 66 hectares, 49 of them excavated.
Tickets: which one, and where to buy
This is the decision that matters, and most guides skip it. The Archaeological Park sells two tickets to the same gate:
| Ticket | Price | Opens | Buy it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pompeii Express | €20 | The ancient city only | You have two or three hours and want the Forum, the houses and the theatres |
| Pompeii with the suburban villas | €25 | The city plus the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa of Diomedes | The Dionysiac frieze is why you are coming |
| Pompeii Plus, 3 days | €30 | Adds Oplontis, Stabiae and Boscoreale | You are here for several days and want the whole group of sites |
Buy online through the park's own official seller, or from the self-service kiosks at the entrance. If you are already holding an Express ticket and change your mind, you can add the suburban villas for €8 — card only — at the Herculaneum Gate, where the Street of the Tombs route starts. The villas route cannot be bought on its own.
The named-ticket rule, and why it catches people
Pompeii introduced a 20,000-a-day cap and personal, non-transferable tickets together. Each ticket carries the holder's name and an entry slot; staff may ask for photo ID at the gate; and if the name does not match you are refused entry with no refund. Names and dates cannot be changed after purchase.
Three practical consequences. Book with each traveller's own details rather than one name for the whole party. Carry ID, including for children claiming the free under-18 rate. And do not buy from anyone outside the gate — the rule exists precisely to kill that trade, and a resold ticket is a wasted one.
Getting there
The single most common mistake at Pompeii is arriving at the wrong station. Three serve the town:
- Pompei Villa dei Misteri — Circumvesuviana, Naples–Sorrento line. Two minutes from the main Porta Marina gate. This is the one you want.
- Pompei Santuario — Circumvesuviana, Naples–Poggiomarino line. Serves the modern town and the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance.
- Pompei — Trenitalia, Naples–Salerno. Also the modern town; the Pompei Link bus connects it to the park in about fifteen minutes.
From Naples it is about 35 minutes; from Sorrento about 30. From Rome, allow two and a half hours each way by rail with the change at Naples, or take a day trip that handles it. Full detail, including driving and the Amalfi Coast, is on getting to Pompeii.
Which entrance, and what is nearest each one
There are three gates and they are not interchangeable. Porta Marina and Piazza Esedra sit together at the Forum end; Piazza Anfiteatro is at the far end by the Amphitheatre, and is also the access point for the step-free route. Almost every guided tour meets at Porta Marina. The full comparison, with the park's own suggested walking routes, is on the site map.
How long to allow
| Time | What you get |
|---|---|
| 2 hours | Forum, Temple of Jupiter, House of the Faun, Stabian Baths, Lupanar, out at Piazza Esedra. The standard guided walk. |
| 3 hours | The above plus the theatres and the House of the Menander, or the Villa of the Mysteries on the dearer ticket. |
| 5 hours | The park's own crossing route, ending at the Amphitheatre and the Large Palaestra. |
| 7 hours | Everything above plus the Garden of the Fugitives and the Nocera Gate necropolis. |
Two hours is the most common choice and it is genuinely short. The travellers who enjoy it most stay on inside afterwards on the same ticket, which is allowed as long as you do not step outside the gate.
Best time to go
Nine in the morning, in any month. The park opens then, the coach parties arrive from about 10:30, and the first ninety minutes are the emptiest the Forum gets. Between 16 March and 14 October the day is split into two admission slots, and the afternoon one takes 5,000 people against the morning's 15,000 — so if you want the quiet half, book it rather than turning up. Month-by-month figures are on the weather page.
What to bring, and what will be turned away
- Closed-toe shoes with a grip. This is the one that matters.
- Water, a hat and sunscreen from May to September. There is almost no shade.
- A bag no larger than 30 × 30 × 15 cm; anything bigger goes to left luggage.
- Photo ID for anyone claiming free or reduced entry.
- Not: bicycles, scooters, drones without authorisation, or a dog over 10 kg.
Do you need a tour at all?
If you have read about the place beforehand, no — a ticket and this page will do. What tips it for most first-time visitors is that Pompeii labels almost nothing. Streets carry small signs and the houses carry little more, so an unguided first visit is a walk through empty rooms with no idea which ones matter. The arithmetic is in the visiting page, and the case for and against is set out in the guide to whether you need one.
What to combine it with
Herculaneum is twenty minutes up the same railway line, much smaller, and preserved to first-floor height — the comparison is in Pompeii or Herculaneum. Mount Vesuvius is about thirty minutes by road and several tours pair it with the excavations, though the crater path closes readily in bad weather. Naples' National Archaeological Museum holds the originals of the Alexander Mosaic and much else taken off the site.
Book the ticket and the guide together and the two things most likely to go wrong — the cap and the name on the ticket — stop being your problem.
Every guided option, with what each fare covers, is compared on Pompeii Italy Tours.
Tours that handle the ticket for you
Pompeii Small Group Tour with an Archaeologist
Two hours, an archaeologist and the Express ticket, at the lowest fare here.
From $34 per person
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Pompeii: Entry Ticket and Guided Tour with an Archaeologist
The most-booked format here: two hours, a ticket and a licensed archaeologist.
From $57 per person
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Sorrento: Skip-the-Line Pompeii Express Tour by Train
Round-trip train from Sorrento, skip-the-line entry and two hours inside.
From $59 per person
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