Complete Guide to Visiting Pompeii: Everything You Need to Know

Pompeii opening hours and seasonal schedule 2026

Pompeii operates on two seasonal schedules in 2026. From 16 March to 14 October the site opens at 9:00, last entry is at 17:30, and the site closes at 19:00. From 15 October to 15 March it opens at 9:00, last entry is at 15:30, and the site closes at 17:00. The park is closed on 25 December and 1 January; on the first Sunday of every month entry is free, with no advance booking option on those days and direct access at the gate.​

From 16 March the park also enforces time-slot capacity limits: a maximum of 15,000 visitors are admitted between 9:00 and 13:00, and a maximum of 5,000 visitors between 13:00 and 17:30, for a hard daily cap of 20,000 visitors. Tickets are nominative—they carry the visitor's name—and are non-transferable. The only official online sales channel from 2 March 2026 is www.vivaticket.it.

Pompeii tickets: prices, types, and how to book

As of 12 January 2026 the Archaeological Park sells three main ticket types. The Pompeii Express (€20) covers the ancient city only, without the suburban villas; the Pompeii+ (€25) adds Villa dei Misteri, Villa di Diomede and Villa Regina at Boscoreale with its Antiquarium, plus the shuttle bus; and the Pompeii Plus (€30) includes all those sites plus Oplontis, Villa Arianna, Villa San Marco, and the Archaeological Museum of Stabia, valid for 3 days with one entry per site. Entry to individual secondary sites such as Boscoreale, Oplontis or the Stabia museum costs €8 separately. Villa Arianna and Villa San Marco at Stabiae are currently free.​

The reduced rate (€2) applies to EU citizens and eligible non-EU residents aged 18–24 (under 25). Children under 18 enter free. There is also an annual MyPompeii card at €45 (€10 for under-25 EU citizens) valid for unlimited entries at all park sites for one year from first validation, purchasable at vivaticket.it and collected at any of the three Pompeii gates. Pre-booked tickets arrive as a PDF and are scanned directly at the turnstiles without queuing at the ticket desk.

Which entrance to use and how to get there

The park has three official entrances, each with its own ticket office: Porta Marina, Piazza Esedra (also called Porta Marina Inferiore), and Piazza Anfiteatro. Bookshop services are available at Piazza Esedra, Piazza Anfiteatro and at the Antiquarium. The recommended entrance for visiting the Antiquarium is Piazza Esedra, where an elevator also connects to the accessible route exit.​

By train: take the Circumvesuviana from Naples Porta Nolana or Sorrento to Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri, which sits directly opposite Porta Marina and Piazza Esedra, about 1–2 minutes on foot. By car: the main paid car parks are concentrated around the Porta Marina/Piazza Esedra side; from the east, Piazza Anfiteatro is closer to the modern Pompei town centre and Pompei Santuario station. The Pompeii Artebus shuttle connects all Grande Pompei sites and is included in the Pompeii+ and Pompeii Plus tickets; note it has luggage storage but no wheelchair ramp.

How long you need and suggested routes

Most visitors need between 2 and 5 hours depending on pace and interests. The park publishes three official colour-coded paths on its downloadable map. A 2-hour express visit covers the Forum, Basilica, Temple of Jupiter and a loop along Via dell'Abbondanza past the Stabian Baths.

A 3–4 hour visit allows you to add the House of the Faun, House of the Menander, the Lupanar and one of the bath complexes. A full day of 6–8 hours lets you reach the Amphitheatre and Large Palaestra on the eastern side and walk out to the Villa dei Misteri, about 15–20 minutes from Porta Marina along the ancient funerary road Via dei Sepolcri and included in the Pompeii+ ticket. From 16 March 2026, a "Casa del Giorno" programme opens a different house each day with reduced hours (9:15–18:20, last access 18:00), so checking the schedule in advance lets you plan around whichever house is open on your visit date.​

What to wear, bring, and leave behind

The park's official rules specify that only small bags up to 30×30×15 cm are allowed inside the archaeological area; larger backpacks and luggage must be left outside or stored at the park's bag deposit. Wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes with flat soles, as the ancient basalt paving stones are uneven and slippery, especially on the main streets. Bring water and sun protection: Pompeii is almost entirely exposed, with very little shade between monuments, and in summer temperatures on the site can be intense between 11:00 and 15:00. Food from outside is permitted for personal consumption during your visit.​

Leave behind: selfie sticks (prohibited inside the site), tripods without prior authorisation, and any items that could damage the ancient surfaces. Drones are not permitted. Pets are not allowed except for certified assistance animals.

Guided tour vs self-guided: which is better

A self-guided visit works well if you download the official map and follow one of the three suggested paths, but without context most of the ruins require background knowledge to understand what you are looking at—roofless buildings, faded frescoes and Latin inscriptions can feel confusing without explanation. The park offers themed guided itineraries ("Pompei Civica" and "Pompei Quotidiana") at €8 each on top of the entrance ticket, each lasting approximately 1.5 hours, and these are run by authorised park staff rather than private operators.

Private licensed guides add significant depth to house-by-house interpretation, offer flexible pacing, and can combine multiple highlights into a single logical route; they generally work in groups of up to 25 people. For a first visit or a short 2–3 hour slot, a guided tour is usually the better choice; for repeat visitors or those who have read up in advance, self-guided with the official map and the park's audio guide (available at Piazza Esedra and Piazza Anfiteatro bookshops) is a perfectly solid option.

Best time of year and time of day to visit Pompeii

The **shoulder seasons—April, May, September and October—**combine the longest opening hours (closing at 19:00) with moderate temperatures and smaller crowds compared to July and August, when the daily 20,000-visitor cap is reached early and the site becomes intensely hot. November to February sees much shorter hours (closing at 17:00, last entry 15:30) but very low visitor numbers, cooler walking conditions and no capacity restrictions in most weeks.

For time of day, arriving at opening (9:00) is consistently the most practical strategy: the light is good for photography, the site is quietest, and you secure entry before the mid-morning surge that fills the 9:00–13:00 time slot toward its 15,000-person limit. Arriving after 13:00 gives access to the afternoon 5,000-person slot, which is noticeably less crowded but leaves only 4.5 hours before last entry in summer and just 2.5 hours in winter. Avoid the first Sunday of the month unless you are happy to queue with no advance booking option, as free-entry Sundays draw very high numbers with no reservation possible.

Combining Pompeii with Vesuvius, Herculaneum, or the Amalfi Coast

Pompeii sits at the centre of one of the most densely packed archaeological and scenic regions in Italy, which makes it genuinely realistic to combine it with Vesuvius, Herculaneum or the Amalfi Coast in a single day or over two days depending on how much time you want to give each site.

Pompeii + Vesuvius is the most popular same-day combination and the most logistically straightforward. The standard approach is to spend 2–3 hours at Pompeii in the morning, then take the EAV bus from Pompei Piazza Anfiteatro or Pompei Villa dei Misteri up to the Vesuvius parking area at 1,000 m, a journey of roughly 50–55 minutes. From the parking area the walk to the crater rim takes 20–40 minutes on a steep gravel path, and you should allow 1–1.5 hours total on the volcano before catching the last return bus down. In summer the EAV bus runs several departures a day; in shoulder season services are less frequent, so checking the current timetable at eavsrl.it before your visit is essential. Vesuvius entry costs €15 (crater ticket, separate from Pompeii) and must be purchased at the site or through authorised resellers.

Pompeii + Herculaneum works particularly well for visitors who want to compare two eruption sites in one day, since Herculaneum is only about 8 km from Pompeii and both are on the same Circumvesuviana line. From Pompei Scavi station, take the Circumvesuviana towards Naples and get off at Ercolano Scavi, a journey of roughly 20–25 minutes. Herculaneum is a much smaller site than Pompeii—most visitors cover it in 1.5–2 hours—and it is arguably better preserved, with intact wooden elements, mosaics and upper-storey structures that Pompeii does not have. The standard ticket for Herculaneum is €15, or €22 for a combined ticket covering both Herculaneum and the Villa Campolieto. Because Herculaneum is compact, a practical order is to visit it first in the morning when it is freshest, then take the train to Pompei Scavi for the afternoon, though the reverse also works if you are staying near Pompei.

Pompeii + Amalfi Coast is less an archaeological combination and more a full-day logistics challenge, but it is entirely doable from a base in Sorrento or Naples. From Pompei Scavi station, take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento (about 30 minutes), then connect to the SITA bus or a ferry to the Amalfi Coast towns—Positano, Amalfi or Ravello. The SITA bus from Sorrento to Amalfi runs along the SS163 coastal road and takes roughly 1.5 hours to Amalfi town; ferries from Sorrento to Positano take about 20–30 minutes in season and are a much more comfortable option on a hot day. The realistic version of this combination is 2–3 hours at Pompeii in the morning (opening at 9:00, leaving by 12:00) and an afternoon on the coast, arriving in Positano or Amalfi by 14:00–14:30. Trying to do a thorough visit of Pompeii and a full Amalfi day in the same trip will feel rushed; it is better suited to visitors who have already seen Pompeii and want a shorter revisit, or who are happy with a single coastal town rather than the full coast road.