Pompeii or Herculaneum: which one, in a day

Take Herculaneum if you have half a day, small children or a hot afternoon, and Pompeii if you have a full day and want an entire city: Pompeii recorded 4,267,233¹ visitors in 2024 and caps entry at 20,000¹ a day, while Herculaneum charges a flat 16.00 euro and is open every day but Christmas.

The verdict in one table

Two rows do most of the work. Herculaneum opens an hour earlier and stays open two hours later in summer, and it does not run a cap or an ID check. If your day is short or your plan is uncertain, that is the site that will let you in.

Pompeii: 20,000 a day, and 15,000 of them before noon

Pompeii has capped admission at 20,000¹ people a day since November 15, 2024, on a named ticket checked against an identity document. From April 1 to October 31 the allocation splits: up to 15,000¹ people between 9:00 am and 12:00, then 5,000¹ between 12:00 and 5:30 pm.

The measure followed days above 36,000¹ visitors and was designed with the prefecture, the fire service and labor consultants. Three quarters of the daily places sit in the morning band, so an afternoon arrival in high season is competing for a quarter of the capacity.

There are four tickets since January 12, 2026. Pompeii Express at 20.00 euro covers the ancient city; Pompeii+ at 25.00 euro adds the suburban villas and the shuttle; Pompeii Plus 3 days at 30.00 euro is valid three days across four sites; the annual pass costs 45.00 euro, and single minor sites are 8.00 euro. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay 2.00 euro.

Hours run 9:00 am to 7:00 pm with last entry at 5:30 pm from March 16 to October 14, and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with last entry at 3:30 pm from October 15 to March 15. The site closes on December 25 and January 1, and the minor sites at Oplontis, Stabiae and Boscoreale close on Tuesdays.

One rule costs more time at the gate than any other: bags are limited to 30 x 30 x 15 cm. Anything larger goes to the cloakroom, and that is the queue nobody plans for.

Herculaneum: 16.00 euro, open 364 days

Herculaneum charges 16.00 euro full and 2.00 euro reduced for ages 18 to 25, with an annual pass at 30.00 euro individual, 58.00 euro family and 5.00 euro for 18 to 25 year olds. It is open every day of the year except December 25.

Summer hours, from March 16 to October 14, are 8:30 am to 7:30 pm with last entry at 6:00 pm. Winter hours, from October 15 to March 15, are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm with last entry at 3:30 pm. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month and on April 25, June 2 and November 4.

Two areas are closed through 2026 with no announced reopening date: the Villa dei Papiri, for excavation and maintenance, and the Ancient Theater, under restoration. That is the information most comparison pages leave out, and it matters, because the Villa dei Papiri is the single thing many people come for.

The size gap is the real difference

Pompeii recorded 4,267,233¹ visitors in 2024, third among all Italian state cultural sites; Herculaneum recorded 521,514⁴, seventeenth. Eight times the visitors, on a site you would need a full day to cross.

That ratio is the argument for Herculaneum and against it at the same time. Fewer people, shorter distances and more intact upper floors and timber, against far less ground and no forum-scale set pieces. Herculaneum is a neighborhood; Pompeii is a city with a street grid, and half a day there buys you a fraction of it.

Both on one line, from Naples

The EAV L1 line from Naples to Sorrento, leaving from Porta Nolana or Garibaldi, is the only Vesuvian line that serves both Ercolano Scavi and Pompei Scavi-Villa dei Misteri. The timetable currently in force took effect on March 28, 2026.

EAV publishes neither point to point fares nor real frequencies on any readable page, referring instead to the Unico Campania fare engine, which does not display prices either. So plan the day around the sites' own hours and treat the train as the variable, not the constant.

Doing both in one day

Doing both in one day is possible on paper: Herculaneum's last entry is 6:00 pm in summer against Pompeii's 5:30 pm. Both sites open in the morning, so the only workable order is Herculaneum first and Pompeii after noon, into the 5,000¹ place afternoon band.

The better version of that plan is two days, or one site and Vesuvius. If you must choose one and you are reading this the night before, choose Herculaneum: there is no cap to miss, no ID check to fail, and the ticket is 16.00 euro.

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