The Entrance, Pompeii

Favorite thing: You can get a free booklet at the entrance, which explains a lot about the different houses. On the map, which is also availabe there, you will find numbers helping to find the information for the site.
These booklets are available in different languages.

Favorite thing: Admission when we went in November 2007 was €11 per person for an adult, or €20 for a combined ticket for Herculaneum and Pompeii which is valid for three days. Visits are free of charge for EU citizens under 18 or over 65 years old, and half price for EU citizens aged 18-24 and EU permanent school teachers.

As at Herculaneum, your entry charge includes a free map and helpful brochure, “Brief Guide to Pompeii”, which gives you an historical overview of the city and a short description of nearly 70 sites. Again, as with Herculaneum, you need to know about this as you won’t necessarily be told when you pay for your ticket. The guide and map are available in several languages, and can be picked up from a separate window next to the toilets – you’ll need to buy your tickets first as you’ll be asked to show them here.

Opening times are as follows:
Winter season (November – March), 8.30 AM to 5.00 PM, with the last admission at 3.30 PM
Summer season (April – October), 8.30 AM to 7.30 PM, last admission 6.00 PM

Pompeii is closed on 1st January, 1st May and 25th December

Favorite thing: The ruins are opened from 9AM to 6PM in Summer (5Pm in Winter).
There is a parking nearby (3 euros/hour).
It needs at least 3 hours to make a visit. In some places you must wait to enter due to the number of visitors.
Some places are closed for restoration.
The main art works are now in the National Archeological Museum of Naples but the pompeian rooms are closed when we went there.

Favorite thing: Being one of the best archaeological sites, you should have expected that it would be expensive to tour this place. While not as bad as I thought it would be, it still came to
10 Euro for entrance. While a guidebook comes with it free, it hardly delves into the history of the place. That’s why I got the audio guide, and I think you should as well. While listening to the entire audio guide would probably take 10 hours, I preferred to walk around at my leisure, picking out places of interest to me on the map and going there. At every important site, there is a small number corresponding to the audio guide number and explanation. This way you do not feel like you are stuck in fixed tour, and if there is one of those damn tour groups at a site, then you can skip it and come back on your own time. The audio guide was 6 Euro for one, or 2 for 9 Euro, so it helps to be in a small group.

The site is open daily from 8:30-19:30 from April to Oct, and 8:30-17:00 from Nov to March. The ticket office closes 1 1/2 hours before these times, and you would not get to see hardly anything with only an hour here.

Favorite thing: There are other gates of entry but the Porta Marina is the one commonly used and this brings you up to the forum and temple areas.
From here many important sights in Pompei can be seen if on a tight schedule.
Other entrances and exit points include:

Porta di Ercolano - best for Villa of Mysteries
Piazza Anfiteatro - by the ampitheatre of course.

Best of all is if you can enter by one and exit by another.

Favorite thing: When you approach the entrance of Pompeii, it looks like you are approaching a thriving Italian town surrounded by an ancient rampart. When you enter, there are no people, only 2,000 -year old ghosts.

Favorite thing: Once buying your tickets you will enter the city through this gate. There are two doors. One was used for horses and chariots and the other for foot traffic. It's rather dark in the evening, so a small flashlight may help.

Favorite thing: You can purchase different types of tickets, and the best deal is to get the audioguide included, but I found it to be cumbersome while trying to take photos and read my Pompei guidebook at the same time as listening to the audioguide