Ways to visit/Hub I · Tickets & entry · Surveyed August 2026
The straight answer first. Entry to Pompeii costs €20 on the official site (pompeiisites.org, sold through Vivaticket/TicketOne), €25 with the suburban villas. The skip-the-line audio tickets on this page cost $23–24 — and, honestly, they are the weakest-rated category in the entire Pompeii catalog (4.0–4.2★). The difference over €20 is a skipped ticket queue and a guide in your ear, not a better Pompeii. If you only need entry, buy official. If you want convenience plus audio, the best of this field is the $24 Digital Guide ticket, ★4.2 over 1,241 reviews.
Sorted by price, not by commission. The colour of a price carries size only — cheaper to dearer, never good to bad.
| Tour | Starts | Length | Rating | From | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skip-the-Line Entry Ticket with Audio Guide | pompeii | 1–2 h | 4.0 (2,016) | $23≈€202 options | Book |
| Skip-the-Line Entry Ticket with Digital Guide | pompeii | 2 h | 4.2 (1,241) | $24≈€215 options | Book |
| Skip-the-Line Ticket and Guidebook with Itineraries | pompeii | self-paced | 4.1 (102) | $40≈€35 | Book |
| Skip-the-Line Ticket with Audio Guide and Map | pompeii | self-paced | 4.1 (347) | $44≈€382 options | Book |
Nothing in this camp right now.
Independent guide · surveyed August 2026 · live prices via GetYourGuide
ON THE FROM PRICE — “From” is the floor GetYourGuide advertised on the day we checked, and it moves with their promotions. It is not what you pay: where a product sells several options, the cheapest one you can actually put a date against is usually dearer. We priced all 62 products option by option on 13 August 2026, for one adult on a September weekday, and on 23 of them the bookable price was more than 15% above the advertised floor. The option counts in the table are what came back on that date.
ON THE EURO FIGURES — Euro figures are conversions at the European Central Bank euro reference rates rate of 13 August 2026 (€1 = $1.1534), shown because the park charges in euro and most visitors here do too. They are an indication, not a quote: GetYourGuide bills in the currency you choose on its own site, and its rate on the day will differ from the central bank's.
$23–24
Our call — The cheapest layer over the €20 gate ticket, and the weakest-rated category we track. The platform scores the guiding on these two at 3.3 and 3.5, against 4.9 on the archaeologist walks.
$40–44
Our call — More paper, more money, thinner review bases, and guide scores of 3.5 and 3.8 — the same basement as the audio tickets. Only worth it if you want a route decided for you.
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Our call — No commission to us, no markup to you. The baseline every row above has to beat.
The honest position of this page: we cannot sell you the thing you probably want. The €20 gate ticket, the €25 villas version and the €30 three-day pass are sold only through the park's own ticketing, we earn nothing on them, and for entry alone they are the correct buy.
What our partner does sell is a different product — entry bundled with an audio or digital guide, $23–44. It is a few dollars over the gate price for a queue you skip and a voice you may or may not like, and it is the weakest-rated category in the whole catalogue we track: 4.0–4.2★ against 4.8★ for the live archaeologist walks.
So the decision splits cleanly. Entry only, and you are eligible for the €2 EU reduction or a free under-18 ticket — buy official. Want interpretation — the money is better spent on a person than on an app.
First Sunday is free — and mobbed. Entry costs €0 on the first Sunday of each month (next: Sep 6, Oct 4, Nov 1, Dec 6, 2026), but opening queues can pass a thousand people and no skip-the-line product applies. Go at 9:00 sharp or spend the €20 on a quieter day.
A ticket is not a tour. Everything on this page gets you in and, at best, narrates. Nobody meets you, nothing is guided live. If you expected a human guide, you want the guided walks at $22–60 — several rate 4.5–4.8★.
ID is actually checked. Tickets are named and matched against documents at the gate — a ticket bought under a nickname or a partner's name can be refused. Book with passport spellings for every visitor, including free under-18s.
Last entry is earlier than you think. 17:30 in summer (site closes 19:00), 15:30 in winter (closes 17:00). A cheap late-afternoon slot can mean 90 rushed minutes — the site needs two hours minimum.
Big bags go to the cloakroom. Anything over roughly 30×30×15 cm must be left at the free cloakroom by the entrance — that includes carry-on suitcases on a cruise-day or checkout-day visit. Plan a day-pack.
The official gate price is €20 for Pompeii only, €25 including the suburban villas (Villa of the Mysteries wing and Villa Regina at Boscoreale), or €30 for the 3-day Plus pass. EU citizens aged 18–24 pay €2; under-18s enter free. Sold via Vivaticket and TicketOne through pompeiisites.org. Reseller skip-the-line tickets with audio guides run $23–44 on top of that base.
In high season, yes. The park caps entry at 20,000 named tickets per day, with only 15,000 valid before 13:00 in high season — and mornings go first. Summer Saturdays genuinely sell out days ahead. November–March the cap is rarely reached and you can decide the evening before. Lead times by month in when to book.
Strictly, no — any prebooked named ticket, including the official €20 one, already bypasses the ticket-office queue (30–45 min in August). The $23–24 reseller versions add an audio or digital guide, instant mobile delivery and usually free cancellation to 24 h. Nobody skips the security bag check; that line is for everyone.
pompeiisites.org — the Archaeological Park's own site, selling through Vivaticket and TicketOne at face price (€20/€25) with no markup. That link is unaffiliated; we earn nothing when you use it. Resellers charge $23–44 for the same entry plus a guide layer and easier cancellation — they never undercut the official price.
Here's our most honest line: audio-guide tickets are the weakest-rated category in the whole Pompeii catalog we track — 4.0–4.2★, against 4.8★ for the live archaeologist walks. The audio genuinely beats a bare map, and the premium over €20 is a few dollars. But if you can stretch to $40, a live archaeologist-led group tour rates 4.5★ for the price of the $40–44 self-guided kits.
Under-18s of any nationality enter free — but they still need a named free ticket, and IDs are checked at the gate, so carry a passport or ID card for every child. Practical family notes, stroller reality included, in Pompeii with kids.
EU citizens aged 18–24 pay a flat €2 instead of €20. It's issued against documents — bring a passport or EU identity card proving age and citizenship, since tickets are named and checked. Non-EU visitors of the same age pay full price. On a $23–44 reseller bundle this reduction generally doesn't apply, which makes the official site the obvious buy for eligible 18–24s.
The suburban villas: the Villa of the Mysteries wing — home of the most famous fresco cycle on the site — and Villa Regina at Boscoreale. If you're staying longer than half a day and care at all about Roman painting, that €5 is the best-value upgrade the park sells. The €30 3-day Plus pass stretches the same coverage over three days.
Official Vivaticket/TicketOne tickets are issued to a named person for a fixed date — treat them as non-flexible. Most reseller tickets on this page offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before the visit — a real part of what the $3–5 premium buys — but policies vary per product, so read the cancellation line on the booking page before paying.
And if none of these fit — the €20 gate ticket and a good book beat a bad tour every time.
Live dates and prices for three picks from this page, served by GetYourGuide. Each is also in the table above with its rating and review count. We earn a commission on bookings made through these windows, at no extra cost to you.
The baseline here1–2 hours, 4.0★ over 2,016 reviews. The cheapest window on this page.
+$21 over itThe same entry with a printed guide and a map instead of a recording — more paper, thinner review base.
+$64 over itThe step that changes the day: a live archaeologist, three hours, and the Villa of the Mysteries, which the ticket rows never reach.