Herculaneum Tickets and Entrance Fee 2026

Herculaneum admission prices 2026

Prices in euros. The ticket is valid for one entry on the chosen day to the whole excavation including the ancient beach, the Antiquarium and the Boat Pavilion where open.

* Reduction for EU citizens aged 18 to 25 with ID. Prices according to Parco Archeologico di Ercolano and CoopCulture, as of 25 September 2026; the park usually adjusts its prices at the start of the year or on 1 July. Special openings of the Suburban Baths (Terme Suburbane) cost €20 including admission and take place only on selected weekends. Train and pass are operators’ prices and change.

Pompeii or Herculaneum: which is more worth it?

• Herculaneum if you have half a day: At four and a half hectares the excavation is a tenth of Pompeii, compact, shadier, with fewer visitors. In return you get upper floors, wooden stairs, carbonised doors and beds that Pompeii lacks, and on the beach the boat houses with replicas of the skeletons. Two to three hours are enough.
• Pompeii if you want the city: Forum, temples, amphitheatre, two theatres, baths, villas with wall paintings, the casts of the dead. That is a whole day, in the sun, with tens of thousands of others. To experience the Roman city as a whole you need Pompeii; to see the Roman house, Herculaneum.
• Both in one day: Feasible by Circumvesuviana: Herculaneum at 8.30 am, at midday twenty minutes on to Pompei Scavi, there until the evening. There is no combined ticket, you buy twice. Tours from Naples offer the combination by coach with a guide. A tip: Herculaneum first while you are fresh; in Pompeii afterwards the energy still stretches to the Forum and the houses along Via dell’Abbondanza.
• First Sunday of the month: Free admission and correspondingly crowded; if you can choose, come on a weekday early in the morning before the cruise and coach groups arrive.

Herculaneum opening hours

The park is open daily; it closes on a few public holidays, listed on the official site. The Villa of the Papyri is closed indefinitely for excavation, stabilisation and drainage works, and the ancient theatre beneath Ercolano opens only for special tours. The ancient beach may close for a few hours during works.

Buying tickets: online from CoopCulture or at the booth

Just the ticket? Buy it online from CoopCulture, the park’s official ticketing partner: choose a date, €16, ticket as a QR code on your phone. Or at the booth at the main entrance, Corso Resina 187, where queues are rare except on holidays and free Sundays. Free and reduced tickets are issued only at the booth with ID. Current rules and special openings are on ercolano.cultura.gov.it.

With a guide or transport? Then a package makes sense. Providers such as GetYourGuide bundle ticket and audio guide, a tour with an archaeologist, or ticket plus train from Naples; day tours combine Herculaneum with Pompeii or Vesuvius. The value lies in the guide and the organisation: little is labelled at Herculaneum, and the houses do not explain themselves.

Note: The ticket is valid for one entry; if you leave the park you cannot come back in. Large backpacks and suitcases must go in the lockers at the entrance. The way into the town leads down a ramp and stairs; there is a separate wheelchair access, ask at the booth.

Free admission and discounts

• Under 18: free with ID, regardless of nationality.
• EU citizens aged 18 to 25: €2 with ID; non-EU citizens of that age pay full price.
• People with disabilities and one companion, teachers, journalists, ICOM members: free under the Italian Ministry of Culture rules, proof at the booth.
• First Sunday of the month, 25 April, 2 June, 4 November: free for all; collect the ticket at the booth on the day.
• Annual pass: €30 individual, €58 family, €5 for 18- to 25-year-olds; worth it from the second visit.

Herculaneum with a guide: on site or from Naples

Herculaneum is small but dense: without a guide you walk past carbonised doors, shops with the remains of their goods and wall paintings without knowing what you are seeing. A two-hour tour puts cardines and decumani, baths, houses and the beach in order and tells how the town vanished in a single night. Most tours run in English, some in German; choose the language when booking.

Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. Prices, languages and availability change; the provider’s listing prevails. Selection checked on 25 September 2026.

Getting there: from Naples, Sorrento and Pompeii

Herculaneum lies in Ercolano, ten kilometres south-east of Naples. The easiest way is the Circumvesuviana (operated by EAV): from Napoli Garibaldi, on the lower level of the central station, take the line towards Sorrento or Poggiomarino to Ercolano Scavi, a good twenty minutes, trains about every half hour. From the station walk straight downhill along Via IV Novembre for ten minutes to the entrance on Corso Resina. The faster Campania Express with reserved seats also stops at Ercolano Scavi. From Sorrento the Circumvesuviana takes about 50 minutes, from Pompei Scavi about 20, so both towns can be combined in a day.

By car, take the A3 Naples–Salerno motorway to the Ercolano Scavi exit; the park’s car park is at Via dei Papiri Ercolanesi 19 by the second entrance. From Naples airport the Alibus takes you to the central station, then on by Circumvesuviana. The streets of Ercolano are narrow and parking in town is tiresome; from Sorrento or the Amalfi Coast you are better off with the train or a tour.

Entrances, ticket office and routes

Main entrance, Corso Resina 187

At the top edge of the excavation, ten minutes’ walk below the station: ticket office, lockers, toilets, bookshop. From here the ramp with the panoramic view over the whole town leads down to the ancient beach and across a bridge into the town.

Second entrance, Via dei Papiri Ercolanesi

On the west side by the Villa of the Papyri, with the park’s car park. From here you enter the town by the Suburban Baths; this entrance is not always staffed, so if in doubt use Corso Resina.

Ancient beach and boat houses

Below the terrace of Balbus, walkable again since June 2024: through a tunnel you descend to the beach level of AD 79 and stand before the twelve vaults where the skeletons were found. Replicas show the scene; the bones are in storage.

Antiquarium and Boat Pavilion

At the entrance to the beach: sculptures, wall paintings from the Villa of the Papyri, the belongings of the dead, and in the pavilion the carbonised boat of 3 August 1982. Open 8.30 am to 5 pm.

Both entrances, the station, the houses and three routes are on our Herculaneum map. How the town rose, fell and was found again is told in our history of Herculaneum.

Around Herculaneum: Villa of the Papyri, Vesuvius, Naples

The Villa of the Papyri, the largest villa in the area with the only surviving library of antiquity, lies west of the town and is closed for excavation and stabilisation works, with no reopening date. The ancient theatre beneath Ercolano, found through a well in 1709, can be seen only through the Bourbon tunnels and only on special tours. Ask about both at the booth or on the park website.

Vesuvius can be reached from Ercolano by the Vesuvio Express bus from the station; the crater has its own timed ticket. In Naples the National Archaeological Museum shows the bronzes of the Villa of the Papyri and the wall paintings from Herculaneum, the National Library the papyrus scrolls. Pompeii is twenty minutes further by train; prices are in our guide to Pompeii tickets.