Herculaneum Tickets

Guide to visiting Herculaneum & Pompeii: Together vs Apart

Visiting both Pompeii and Herculaneum in one day is the best way to understand the 79 AD eruption, but planning it on your own often means buying two tickets separately, timing two entrances, and figuring out the transfer between the sites. That’s time spent coordinating, not exploring.

The solution

A Pompeii + Herculaneum combo keeps the day simple and connected. You start at Pompeii, then continue to Herculaneum without worrying about separate queues or schedules. Explore each site at your own pace, and if needed, you can add transfers from Pompeii or Naples, or join an onsite guided tour for context.

See the scale, then the detail

Pompeii shows the rhythm of a Roman city with its streets, gathering spaces, and daily routines. Herculaneum brings the focus closer, preserving private rooms, interiors, and the details of home life. Together, they complete the narrative.

Pompeii ruins with ancient brick arch and stone columns under a blue sky.

Pompeii vs Herculaneum: Why combine both?

FeaturePompeiiHerculaneumWhy combine both

Experience type

Open-air Roman city with streets, public squares, and large structures

Compact site with exceptionally preserved interiors and household details

See the eruption’s impact at both city scale and home level

Time needed

2–4 hours

1–2 hours

Works naturally as a single-day itinerary

Crowd level & navigation

Can be busy, larger area to walk

Generally quieter, easier to explore

A combined visit balances pace, scale, and comfort

Unique highlight

The Forum, theaters, bathhouses, and wide streets

Upper floors, wooden beams, and intricate frescoes

Each site completes what the other cannot show alone

Preservation style

Surfaces and spaces exposed to the volcanic ash

Details sealed and carbonized by pyroclastic flow

Provides context + detail for the same historical moment

Who is this ideal for?

This pairing is perfect for first-time visitors, history lovers, and curious travelers who want a fuller picture of life before and after the eruption, without rushing. Seeing Pompeii first provides the broad city layout, while Herculaneum brings the details into focus. It’s comfortably done in one day, and if you prefer a more relaxed pace, you can always split the visits across two days. You can choose to include guided tours or transfers, depending on how structured you prefer your day to be.

Suggested itineraries for your day trip to Herculaneum

Top things to see at Herculaneum and Pompeii

Getting from Pompeii to Herculaneum

Frequently asked questions about Herculaneum and Pompeii tours

Both offer unique insights into ancient Roman life, and one isn’t necessarily ‘better’ than the other per se. Herculaneum’s ruins are better preserved, offering an intimate insight into luxurious lives well-lived until they abruptly came to a halt. It almost feels like the residents would return to their still-standing houses. In contrast, Pompeii’s destruction is more evident — most houses have lost their second and third floors, frescoes and statues have faded over the course of time, and human casts showcase the victims’ last moments of agony and helplessness. Both equally paint a picture of preserved, ongoing loss that is haunting.

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