Pompeii or Herculaneum: which of the two buried cities to see when you have one day

Vesuvius buried two cities on the same bay in AD 79, and both can be reached today by train, without a car. Pompeii is larger, more open and more famous; Herculaneum is smaller, more compact and better preserved in the detail, so the choice comes down to what a visitor wants to see: streets and scale, or upper floors and timber.

One railway line, two stations

Both sites are reached by the Circumvesuviana commuter train from Naples, at Ercolano Scavi and Pompei Scavi. The ride to Herculaneum takes 17–20 min, to Pompeii about 40 min. The journey settles nothing; what you want to see does. Herculaneum takes half a day and Pompeii the same, so both fit into one day only when the opening hours are long.

Day tripsThe full day from Naples, with every train and ticket:Day trips from Naples →

Pompeii covered between 64 and 67 hectares, and two thirds have been excavated, so its streets of dark volcanic stone take hours and still do not come to an end. The walk begins in the Forum, a wide square once ringed by temples, a basilica and the seat of authority; from its northern end the view closes on Vesuvius, the same mountain that buried the town, and it is the picture Pompeii is remembered by. From there the route runs to the Lupanar, a small house with stone beds and writing on its walls, and across town to the Garden of the Fugitives, where in 1961 the hollows left by thirteen people were found in the ash and filled with plaster. The Villa of the Mysteries lies outside the walls and keeps frescoes of a Dionysian rite; it is worth separating from the rest of the walk. Admission is €20 and the site is open all year, shorter in winter: year-round, shorter winter hours (16 Mar–14 Oct: 9–19, last entry 17:30; 15 Oct–15 Mar: 9–17, last entry 15:30).

1 dayThe walk hour by hour, from the Forum to the Villa of the Mysteries:Pompeii in 1 day →

Herculaneum was a smaller seaside town and now lies in a hollow below the streets of modern Ercolano. It was buried by pyroclastic flows, while Pompeii lay under ash and lapilli, and so it kept what Pompeii lost: the upper floors of houses and timber beams, carbonised and still in place. Among the houses the Casa del Tramezzo and the mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite stand out, and on the shore the vaulted boat sheds are where the skeletons of hundreds of people who had sheltered there were found. Admission is €16 and the hours are 16 Mar–14 Oct: 8:30–19:30, last entry 18:00; 15 Oct–15 Mar: 8:30–17:00, last entry 15:30.

If only one fits

First-timers who want what a Roman city is supposed to offer — a forum, wide streets, the Lupanar and Vesuvius behind — should go to Pompeii. Anyone who dislikes standing in the sun among tour groups, or who already knows Pompeii, will get more from Herculaneum: less walking, more preserved detail per square metre. The same holds for both: spring and autumn (spring and autumn) are best, when heat on bare stone does not dictate the schedule.

When to goWhich month keeps Pompeii bearable:The best time to visit Pompeii →

If both fit

Herculaneum opens half an hour earlier than Pompeii and closes at 19:30 in summer, with the last entry at 18:00, so the natural order is Pompeii in the morning, while it is cooler and before the tour groups arrive, and Herculaneum in the afternoon, once the long walk is over. In winter the hours are shorter at both, and the plan hardly works, so one site then means one day.

MistakesWhat visitors miss at the gate and in the queue:Mistakes everyone makes in Pompeii →