Name: Herculaneum Private Guided Tour with an Archaeologist
Brand: Headout
Price: 126.94 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.4 (111 reviews)

Your experience

Most people experience Herculaneum as part of a group, moving at someone else's pace, hearing answers to someone else's questions. This one is different.

Getting started

Make your way to the main entrance of the Herculaneum Archaeological Park on Corso Resina in Ercolano. Your private archaeologist will meet you outside the ticket office, handle entry, and take you straight past the general queue.

What to expect

Herculaneum Archaeological Park

Herculaneum was not buried slowly under falling ash. It was sealed in seconds by a pyroclastic surge so dense it preserved things Pompeii lost entirely — wooden furniture, food left on counters, a boat still at the shore, the carbonised remains of a wooden cradle. It is, archaeologically, the more intact of the two cities.

Features

• Samnite House: One of Herculaneum's oldest surviving homes, with a well-preserved atrium and upper gallery. Your guide can walk you through the social codes embedded in its architecture: who was welcomed where, and why that mattered in Roman domestic life.

• Forum Baths: The finest intact Roman bathing complex most visitors will ever stand inside. Your archaeologist can spend as long here as your group wants, breaking down the engineering of the underfloor heating, the function of each room, and what a typical afternoon here looked like for a Roman citizen.

• Temple of the Augustales: A vividly frescoed temple to the imperial cult of Augustus, with painted surfaces still in their original location. On a private tour, your guide can address the political underpinnings of the cult — context that gets compressed or skipped entirely in a shared group.

• House of Neptune and Amphitrite: Named for its extraordinary polychrome mosaic set into a summer dining room, this is one of the most remarkable decorative survivals anywhere in the Roman world. With no group dynamic to manage, your guide can take the time this room genuinely deserves.

• The Boathouses: The site's most quietly devastating space. Over 300 skeletal remains of residents who fled to the waterfront hoping to escape by sea were uncovered here in the 1980s, and they remain exactly where archaeologists found them. On a private tour, you can linger here as long as you need, with a guide who can speak to both the archaeology and the human story without having to move the group along.

• House of the Deer: A grand villa named for its marble stag sculptures, giving a clear picture of the wealth and taste of Herculaneum's elite, and of what was lost when Vesuvius ended it in an afternoon.

After the guided portion concludes, your group is free to continue exploring the site independently, at whatever pace the rest of the day allows.

Just your group and one dedicated archaeologist. No shared queues, no shared commentary, no compromises on where you go or how long you stay.
Your guide isn't following a fixed route. They're building the visit around your group's specific curiosities, whether that's the forensic detail of the eruption, the social hierarchy written into the houses, or the remarkable organic materials — wood, food, textiles — that no other Roman site has preserved quite like this.
Explore the Samnite House, Forum Baths, Temple of the Augustales, and the House of Neptune and Amphitrite with the kind of depth and pace that a group of 20 simply never allows.
Stand at the waterfront boathouses, where over 300 residents were found exactly as the surge left them in 79 AD. Ask every question you have, without an audience or a clock.
When the guided portion ends, your group is free to stay and keep exploring the site independently.

Included

Private tour of Herculaneum
Fast-track entry to Herculaneum
Expert English, French, Italian, or, Spanish, Portuguese, or German-speaking guide (as per option selected)
Maximum of 10 guests

Not included

Transfers

Choose your option

4 options

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Meeting and pickup

1 location

Pickup detailsRead more

• Your voucher will be emailed to you instantly.

• Please arrive at the meeting point 15 mins before the scheduled time of your tour to avoid any delays.

• Display the voucher on your mobile phone with a valid photo ID at the meeting point.

Meeting point

• Meet your guide at Biglietteria Ercolano.

• Address: 80056 Ercolano, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy.

• Guide identifier: Your guide will be holding a sign with your name on it.

• Landmark: At the ticket office of the Herculaneum ruins.

Get directions to the meeting point

Meeting point1

Meeting
Biglietteria Ercolano, , Naples, Naples
Biglietteria Ercolano, , Naples, Naples, NAPLES, 80056, Italy
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End point

End

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Good to know

Bring a valid photo ID to present at the entrance.
Wear comfortable shoes suited for walking over uneven surfaces.
Since much of the site is outdoors, carry essentials like a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and water.
The site is open in all weather, so a light jacket or umbrella is useful on rainy days.
Large backpacks, suitcases, and bulky luggage cannot be brought into the site.
Eating and drinking may be restricted in certain parts of the site.