Pompeii is the easiest day trip from Sorrento: one train, about 35 minutes, and the station is a few steps from the gate. On your own you pay the site ticket — €20, in your name — plus a short train fare. The real constraint is not the price but the clock: from mid-October to mid-March the last entry is at 15:30.
Ticket prices and hours from the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, read on 2 November 2026. The train fare is not shown: we have not been able to read it on the operator’s own table, so buy at the station and check.
Sorrento is the last stop of the Circumvesuviana, the local line to Naples. Get off at Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri, a few steps from the site entrance, not at the other Pompei stations in town.
The journey takes 30 to 40 minutes, with a train about every half hour from early morning to late evening on the timetables we read. Those tables are third-party and show the Naples → Sorrento direction: check the Sorrento → Pompei departures on the day, at the station or in the EAV app.
Since 12 January 2026 the full ticket is €20, valid for one entry (you cannot leave and come back). EU citizens aged 18 to 24 pay €2. The other sites of the park — Boscoreale, Oplontis, Stabia — are €8 each, and a one-year ticket for all of them with the shuttle is €45.
Since 15 November 2024 tickets are nominative: your name is on them, online and at the gates, and the ticket office asks for ID. The park admits at most 20,000 visitors a day, and from 16 March to 14 October entry is split into two time slots. Buy online from the park’s official seller, or at the ticket offices of Porta Marina, Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza Esedra.
Some booking sites still quote €18. That figure is out of date against the park’s own page — a good example of how a copied price goes wrong.
From 15 October to 15 March the site opens at 9:00, takes the last visitors at 15:30 and closes at 17:00. From 16 March to 14 October it stays open until 19:00, last entry 17:30.
In summer the problem is heat and crowds: there is almost no shade, so go at opening time and book a slot online. In winter the problem is the clock: leave Sorrento early, because once you are inside, the site is far larger than it looks.
On the booking marketplaces, a “Pompeii Express” tour by train from Sorrento starts around $56–60 per person (GetYourGuide, TripAdvisor, read on 2 November 2026); the description says the return train is included, so check whether the site ticket is too. Doing it yourself costs the €20 ticket plus the train.
Go alone if you like to wander and choose what to see. Take a guide if you want the context: a good guide changes what you see far more than the ticket does. Booking your own ticket online also skips the queue at the gate.
About 30 to 40 minutes on the Circumvesuviana, to Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri, next to the site entrance.
€20 for an adult since 12 January 2026; €2 for EU citizens aged 18–24. Tickets are in your name, and the ticket office asks for ID.
From 16 March to 14 October entry is by time slot and capped, so booking online is wise. In winter you can usually buy at the gate.
From 15 October to 15 March it closes at 17:00, with last entry at 15:30.
If you want context, yes: you are buying a guide. Tours from Sorrento start around $56–60 on the marketplaces; on your own you pay €20 plus the train.
You can; you should not. Each deserves a full day, and combining them means seeing neither.
Prices and opening hours read on the Parco Archeologico di Pompei’s own pages on 2 November 2026. Train times come from third-party timetables and are marked as such; the train fare is not published here because we could not read it on the operator’s table. Tour prices are marketplace “from” prices on the same date. We have no commercial agreement with any operator.