Your own archaeologist, your own pace and nobody else in the group. Three private formats run at Pompeii, from an official licensed guide sold by the hour to a three-hour walk in any of nine languages. Two of them are priced per group rather than per person, which changes the arithmetic completely once there are three or four of you.
An official licensed guide for one to three hours, meeting on Piazza Esedra with your name on a sign. Guiding only — you buy the ticket — and the one option described as wheelchair and stroller accessible.
From $105 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Two private hours with a licensed archaeologist, quoted per group of up to five. An Express ticket is included on some booking options and the villas ticket is excluded by name, so read the option you choose.
From $319 per group, up to 5
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Three hours with a certified archaeologist and skip-the-line admission, offered in nine languages including Japanese, Russian and Chinese. The route reaches the Amphitheatre, which most two-hour walks never do.
From $523 per group, up to 1
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Three private formats, from an official guide by the hour to a certified archaeologist for three hours in nine languages.
Check availabilityOne guide, your party and nobody else, for one to three hours inside the excavations. There is no separate entrance, no different route and no earlier admission: you walk in through the same gate at the same time as everybody else. What you buy is the guide's whole attention and the right to change the plan.
That matters more at Pompeii than at most sites, because the constraints here are physical. Sixty-six hectares, almost no shade, and a crowd that concentrates in about six rooms. A guide with one party can route around all of it; a guide with twenty cannot.
The commonest complaint about guided walks here is group size — travellers report groups noticeably larger than the twenty their booking advertised, and both connect it to losing the guide's headset range. A private booking removes the variable entirely.
Between them these three run in English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. The three-hour archaeologist tour carries the widest spread of anything on this list.
One traveller records a party member with unannounced mobility restrictions, and a guide who simply adjusted the pace and the route. Another describes being steered away from the busiest corners and towards shade as the morning went on. Neither is possible on a fixed itinerary.
One of these sells guiding by the hour, from one to three. If you want ninety focused minutes on the Forum rather than a standard two-hour circuit, that is the only product here that lets you buy it.
| Private | Small group | |
|---|---|---|
| Fare from | From $105 per person, or From $319 per group | From $34 per person |
| Group | Your party only | Up to twenty per guide |
| Length | One to three hours, your choice | Two hours, fixed |
| Route | Adjustable on the day | Fixed |
| Languages | Up to nine | English, and often five more |
| Admission | Varies — one includes it, one excludes it, one is option-dependent | Included, usually the Express grade |
| Headsets | Not needed | Above a threshold |
| Best for | Families, mixed-ability parties, a specific language | Solo travellers, couples, a first visit on a budget |
Check private availability from From $319
The honest summary: a small-group walk is better value and a private one is better suited to a party. Three or four people turn that around, because two of these fares are quoted per group rather than per head.
This is the trap. One of these tours is priced per person, and two are priced per group — one for a group of up to five, one for a unit of one. A €300-something figure quoted per group of five is not comparable with a hundred-dollar figure quoted per head, and the cards above say which each one is.
You get the guide, the pace and the language. You do not get a different entrance, an earlier slot or any part of the site that is closed to everyone else. Admission itself varies by product: one includes skip-the-line admission, one includes an Express ticket only on some booking options and excludes the villas ticket by name, and one covers guiding alone and leaves the ticket to you.
That last one is more useful than it sounds. Buying your own ticket means you choose the grade — and if the Villa of the Mysteries is on your list, that is the only way to have both a private guide and the right ticket. Which grade opens what is set out in the ticket guide.
Three formats, one to three hours, in up to nine languages — and two of them are priced per group rather than per head.
Check availabilitySolo travellers and couples on a budget. A private fare divided by one or two is poor value against a two-hour small-group walk with the ticket included. Take the small-group walk instead and keep the difference.
Anyone starting the day in Rome. None of these collects you. From Rome you want a day trip that owns the driving as well as the guiding.
Anyone who wants Vesuvius as well. These are Pompeii only. The combination days run from Sorrento — see the Sorrento tours page.
Anyone who would rather read than listen. A ticket, an early slot and the walking order costs €20 and works perfectly well if you have done the preparation.