Italy Travel News
Pompeii Winter Hours 2026: Last Entry at 15:30, Herculaneum and the New Trains
Pompeii winter hours run from 15 October 2026: last entry at 15:30, closing at 17:00. Herculaneum, the tickets, the free Sunday and the new train times.
Pompeii switched to its winter hours on 15 October 2026, and the last entry is now 15:30.
The park's notice sets the new schedule until 15 March 2027. Compared with summer, visitors lose two hours at the end of the day: the last entry comes at 15:30 instead of 17:30, and the gates close at 17:00 instead of 19:00.
Other changes landed in the same week. The Teatro Grande reopened on 14 October, two exits near the Stabian Baths are affected, and the Circumvesuviana, the railway most visitors use, starts a new timetable on 17 October. Herculaneum moved to winter hours on the same day as Pompeii.
Quick answer
Pompeii: open from 9:00, last entry 15:30, closing at 17:00, from 15 October 2026 to 15 March 2027. Closed on 25 December and 1 January.
Herculaneum: open from 8:30 to 17:00, last entry 15:30, with visitors out by 16:40. Closed on 25 December.
Tickets: twenty euros for Pompeii's ancient city alone, twenty-five euros with the Villa of the Mysteries. Pompeii tickets carry the visitor's name. Herculaneum costs sixteen euros.
Free days: Sunday 1 November at both sites, with no online booking at Pompeii. Herculaneum is also free on Wednesday 4 November.
Trains: from 17 October, the Circumvesuviana runs every 30 minutes between Naples and Sorrento.
The trap: a late start. Arrive after lunch and the winter last entry leaves little of the day.
What changes at Pompeii from 15 October
The official timetable splits the year in two. From 16 March to 14 October, Pompeii opens at 9:00, takes its last visitors at 17:30 and closes at 19:00. From 15 October to 15 March, it still opens at 9:00, but the last entry moves to 15:30 and closing to 17:00.
The smaller sites in the park keep a later last entry. Villa Regina and the Antiquarium at Boscoreale, the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis, and Villa Arianna, Villa San Marco and the archaeological museum at Stabiae all open at 9:00, take a last entry at 16:00 and close at 17:00. All except Boscoreale are closed on Tuesdays.
Inside Pompeii, the houses keep their own hours, listed on the park's page for the houses. In winter the last access to the houses is 16:00. The House of the Vettii, for example, opens at 9:15 and closes at 16:20.
The winter list keeps the best-known interiors, including the House of the Menander, the Lupanar, the House of the Faun and the Villa of the Mysteries. It also adds houses that open only in the colder months, among them the Casa dei Dioscuri, the Casa degli Amorini Dorati and the Casa delle Nozze d'Argento.
The Teatro Grande and other changes inside the site
The Teatro Grande, Pompeii's large theatre, reopened to visitors at 13:00 on Wednesday 14 October. The park's short notice gives no further detail.
Two other notices matter for anyone planning a route. At the Stabian Baths, the exit onto Via Stabiana is closed from 12 to 16 October and is due to reopen on Saturday 17 October. From 19 October, one room of the baths closes until further notice, and with it the exit onto Via dell'Abbondanza.
The Fullonica of Stephanus is also closed from 12 to 21 October.
Tickets, names and the daily limit
Pompeii sells three main tickets. Twenty euros buys the ancient city alone, without the villas outside the walls. Twenty-five euros adds the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa of Diomedes, Villa Regina with its Antiquarium at Boscoreale, and the shuttle, with one entry to each. Thirty euros buys a three-day ticket that extends to Oplontis, Villa Arianna, Villa San Marco and the Stabiae museum.
The villas outside the walls are reached through Porta Ercolano. There, too, the winter last entry is 15:30.
Visitors from the European Union aged 18 to 24 pay two euros. The reduction does not cover most readers from the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia. Under-18s go free under the national rules for state museums.
Tickets are sold on the park's official ticketing site and at the box offices of the three entrances: Porta Marina, Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza Esedra. Each ticket carries the visitor's name, and the park's visitor rules allow staff to ask for an identity document at every entrance. Carry a passport.
The daily limit of 20,000 entries applies all year. The park splits it into time slots only in summer.
Bags larger than 30 by 30 by 15 centimetres are not allowed into the site. Paid left-luggage desks are at Porta Marina and Piazza Anfiteatro.
Herculaneum in winter
Herculaneum's ticket page sets winter hours from 15 October to 15 March: 8:30 to 17:00, with the last entry at 15:30 and the site to be left by 16:40. It closes on 25 December.
A full ticket costs sixteen euros, online or at the box office. Entry is free on the first Sunday of every month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November, and free tickets are collected at the box office on the day.
Two of the best-known spaces stay shut. The Villa of the Papyri has no reopening date, and the ancient theatre is closed until further notice. Bags follow the same 30 by 30 by 15 centimetre limit as at Pompeii, but left luggage is free, according to the park's visitor guidelines.
One date to watch. The park has called a press conference for Wednesday 21 October on the reopening of the House of the Mosaic Atrium and the Casa a Graticcio, named after its timber-frame walls, both closed to the public for decades. No public opening date has been given.
The free Sunday on 1 November
Sunday 1 November 2026 is the first Sunday of the month, so both sites open free. It is also All Saints' Day, a public holiday in Italy.
At Pompeii, free days follow their own rules. Tickets cannot be booked or bought online, they carry no name, and the limit of 20,000 visitors still applies. At Herculaneum, free tickets are issued at the box office on the day.
A free day without booking means queues at the gates. For a first visit, a weekday with a named ticket bought in advance is the calmer choice.
Getting there by train from 17 October
Most visitors reach both sites on the Circumvesuviana, the railway between Naples and Sorrento. EAV, the regional company that runs it, announced a new timetable from 17 October, with trains repeating every 30 minutes instead of every 36 and 68 services a day between Naples and Sorrento.
The stations are Pompei Scavi - Villa dei Misteri, beside Pompeii's Porta Marina entrance, and Ercolano Scavi, a six-minute walk from Herculaneum's entrance, according to the park's directions. Pompeii's Piazza Anfiteatro entrance is closer to Pompei Santuario, on the separate line to Poggiomarino.
The timetable that ran until 16 October gives a sense of the journey: about 35 minutes from Napoli Porta Nolana to Pompei Scavi, 17 minutes to Ercolano Scavi, and about 40 minutes from Sorrento to Pompei Scavi. Check the new times on EAV's timetable page before travelling.
Trenitalia's regional trains between Naples and Salerno stop at Pompei, the town station. The park's directions page lists Pompei Link, a combined train and bus service that covers the stretch from that station to the site in about 15 minutes.
Do not plan around the Campania Express, the faster tourist train on the Sorrento line. The Naples news site Napolike reported on 12 August that it would be suspended from 1 October 2026 until further notice.
Two more dates affect the journey. The Ministry of Transport's strike calendar lists a national general strike on Friday 30 October, with rail services affected from 21:00 on 29 October to 20:59 on 30 October, and EAV marks the trains guaranteed during strikes with a G in its timetables. In November, with Naples airport closed, the train from Rome or Salerno becomes the usual way in.
The mistake to avoid
Do not arrive at Pompeii after lunch. With the last entry at 15:30 and the last access to the houses at 16:00, a 14:00 arrival leaves three hours for a site that rewards a full day. In summer, the same arrival left five.
Do not buy the cheapest ticket if the Villa of the Mysteries is the reason for the trip. The twenty-euro ticket covers the ancient city without the villas outside the walls.
And do not try to fit both sites into one winter afternoon. Herculaneum opens at 8:30, Pompeii at 9:00, and both stop admitting visitors at 15:30.
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