Pompeii tours: how the site works and which format to book

Every ticket shows a name, a day and a time slot, the document is checked at the gate, and the ticket cannot be passed on or changed. A name that does not match means no entry and no refund. The cap is 20,000 entries a day. From 16 March to 14 October it is split into 15,000 places for 9:00 to 13:00 and 5,000 for 13:01 to 17:30, and from 15 October to 15 March the two slots run 9:00 to 13:00 and 13:01 to 15:30. One ticket is one entry: there is no leaving and coming back.

The park's official online seller is Vivaticket. On the first Sunday of the month, and on other free days, the rules flip: you cannot book, nobody asks for a name, you go straight to the turnstiles, and the cap of 20,000 still applies. On 4 May 2025 it was reached and entries were stopped for hours, according to The Art Newspaper. A free day is the one day on which buying an entry ticket from anyone makes no sense.

One ticket is one entry: there is no leaving and coming back.

The Parco Archeologico di Pompei runs Pompeii, Oplontis, Boscoreale and Stabiae. Herculaneum has its own park, its own ticket and its own rules, which is why no Pompeii ticket gets you in. The map shows Pompeii, Oplontis and Stabiae of the park, Herculaneum outside it, and Naples and Sorrento as the two places most tours start from.

The gates matter more than the map. Porta Marina and Piazza Esedra are reached from the Pompei Scavi-Villa dei Misteri stop of the Circumvesuviana. Piazza Anfiteatro is reached from Pompei Santuario and is the entrance for the 'Pompeii for all' route for visitors with reduced mobility. Ticket offices exist only at these gates, inside the area.

The houses rotate. Since 15 August the park lists as open the Houses of Menander, of Octavius Quartio, of the Tragic Poet and of Pansa, and the Fullonica of Stephanus; as closed the Houses of the Ceii, of the Lararium of Achilles and of the Silver Wedding, and the Praedia of Julia Felix; and the 'house of the day' is gone. But the winter list still shows two of those closed ones as open. Two official pages disagree, so check before planning around one house.

The park publishes no visit time. Its only measure is the 1.5 hour themed visit, so these are our planning budgets, not official durations. The 5 to 6 hour route must start with the 9:00 slot: begun at 13:01 in winter, it runs into the 17:00 closing.

The two ends of route B are about 1.5 km apart in a straight line, so budget for the walk between them. Both leave out the Antiquarium, partly closed from 4 to 22 November and closed from 23 November to 7 December.

In the park's own counts for Pompeii and its three satellites, April 2025 had 522,046 entries, August 398,476 and January 133,788. The Naples airport station, 25 km away, averages highs of 31.0 C in August with a record of 40.0. The park has issued heat advice but, as far as we found, no rule that closes the site.

The cool hours and the crowded hours are the same hours.

The morning slot is the cooler one and the one that holds 15,000 people. The Italy page sets Pompeii against the other sites.

One name, eight different days: each dot is the median of one format and each bar the middle half of its listings. Eight pages of 20 tours make 160, but only 140 are distinct, so 20 listings sit under two formats.

A private guide of 2.2 hours costs 230.6 EUR, nearly twice the 12 hour day from Rome, so length is not what sets the price. What moves it is who handles the transfer and what the price includes. The two longest formats, from Rome and with the Amalfi Coast, sit at 122.9 and 130 EUR, and the 12 and 10 hours at the median are mostly time on the road. The cheapest, a guide at the site, is 50 EUR for about two hours. For half a day from the bay, from Naples and Sorrento is 75.3 EUR. Herculaneum, Vesuvius, a cruise call and a private guide each add a cost on top.

Audio guides are allowed only if the park rents them: 9 EUR for one, 14 EUR for two, 7.50 EUR from the third, collected at Porta Marina, Piazza Esedra or Porta Anfiteatro against an identity document. The rules ban any other audio guide and say nothing about phone apps. Since 2 March 2026 the park also runs a 1.5 hour themed visit for 8 EUR plus the ticket, free under 10, starting at Porta Marina Superiore or Piazza Anfiteatro.

Luggage and bags above 30 x 30 x 15 cm are not allowed in; a deposit exists at Porta Marina and Piazza Anfiteatro, and the park does not say what it costs. Organized groups need a ticket in a tour operator's name: at least 5 people, at most 35, with headsets above 15.

On who may guide, our reading of the national law of 2023 (Law 190/2023) is that guiding requires registration on the national guides' list, and that a tour operator must give the guide's registration number. The guided tours page explains what an archaeologist, a licensed guide and an audio guide are, and what the price includes.