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Herculaneum Private Tour with an Archaeologist

Recommended by 98% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Naples, Italy
  • 2 hours (approx.)
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

Why travelers loved this

4.9
·
· Lisa_B ·
Oct 2025
We had a great tour with Pina! Herculaneum was even more impressive than Pompeii - the structures, and artwork, and the fate of its people. Pina answered all of our questions with a great amount of insight and detail, and connected things from the past to things today. Highly recommended tour!
· Teresa_K ·
Oct 2025
Roberto, our guide, was a gentleman and scholar. Roberto was so knowledgeable, with excellent English and brought the whole city alive for us!!!!

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Overview

    What's Included

    • Archaeological Guide and assistance during the Tour.
    • Specialized archaeological guide
    • Private Tour
    • Main attractions of Herculaneum
    • Taxes
    • Food and drinks
    • Admission Fee - Private Tour of Herculaneum Euro 15
      €15.00 per person
    • Admission Fee - Entrance tickets to Herculaneum 15 Euro for adults and FREE TICKETS FOR UNDER 18 YEARS OLD
      €15.00 per person

    Meeting and Pickup

    Meeting point

    • Archaeological Park of Herculaneum
      Corso Resina, 187, 80056 Ercolano NA, Italy

      Meeting point is near to the ticket office located inside the excavations of Herculaneum. After passing through the entrance arch, walk to the only official ticket office in the excavations. I will wear a red badge and a sign "Eliana Sandretti"

    End point

    This activity ends back at the meeting point.

    Itinerary

    1

    Parco Acheologico di Ercolano

    Admission Ticket Not Included

    2

    La Terrazza di M. Nonio Balbo

    5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    3

    Casa dei Cervi

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    Casa del Rilievo di Telefo (Pass By)

    4

    Partem Domus lignea - Casa del Tramezzo di Legno

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    5

    Casa del Salone Nero

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    6

    Salone della Barca di Ercolano

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    7

    College of the Augustales

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    8

    House of the Skeleton

    10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    9

    Casa Sannitica

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    10

    Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite

    15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

    Additional Info

    • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
    • Not wheelchair accessible
    • Stroller accessible
    • Service animals allowed
    • Near public transportation
    • Most travelers can participate
    • This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
    Supplied by

    Cancellation Policy

    You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

    Traveler Photos

    Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)
    Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)
    Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)
    Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)
    Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

    Reviews

    4.9
    based on 63 reviews
    Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
    We perform checks on reviews

    Herculaneum Tour

    Jeffrey_G, Oct 2025
    Our guide, Amedeo, was wonderful. He was extremely knowledgeable and, equally important, very skilled at sharing his knowledge—with such enthusiasm!

    The best way to visit Herculaneum

    Teresa_K, Oct 2025
    Roberto, our guide, was a gentleman and scholar. Roberto was so knowledgeable, with excellent English and brought the whole city alive for us!!!!

    We had a great tour with...

    Lisa_B, Oct 2025
    We had a great tour with Pina! Herculaneum was even more impressive than Pompeii - the structures, and artwork, and the fate of its people. Pina answered all of our questions with a great amount of insight and detail, and connected things from the past to things today. Highly recommended tour!

    Fascinating and sobering. Excellent tour!

    SUSAN_S, Sep 2025
    Having a private tour with an archaeologist made the visit incredible and worthwhile. I can't imagine wandering on our own and guessing about everything. Our guide was fantastic and answered all of our questions, providing so much insight into the lives of the people and what they must have experienced during the eruption. She taught us so much and while the tour was sobering, it was also fascinating and without the horrible disaster we might never know anything about this period and how people lived. Highly recommend!

    Excellent information....

    Clifton_W, Sep 2025
    Excellent information. Amedeo was a great guide. Very knowledgeable and passionate about the history and archeological importance.

    Mattia was an excellent...

    nataliezagari, Sep 2025
    Mattia was an excellent guide! Very knowledgeable and considerate of our needs - including my dad's use of a mobility scooter.

    Fantastic tour!

    Stephen_G, Jun 2025
    Our tour with Roberto was fantastic! He was knowledgable and friendly and made the history come alive for us. We learned so much from him. We enjoyed our time with him and our visit.

    Response from Host, Aug 2025

    Thank you! Pompeii is magical, and we're happy we could bring its history to life for you. Come back anytime—we’d love to show you even more!

    Great tour

    David_G, Apr 2025
    Ercolaneum is an entirely different experience to Pompeii. It is much smaller, but the replicas of the bodies (especially in the harbour area) that were found make it more sombre than its larger and busier neighbour. Our guide, Roberto, was very knowledgeable and he provided good insights and context during the tour.

    Response from Host, May 2025

    Thank you very much for your feedback. We are happy to read about your amazing experience with Roberto. Grazie.

    Exceptional tour with Maria

    KimM_B, Feb 2025
    You should not see Herculaneum without doing this tour. You will miss SO much. Maria was incredibly knowledgeable and tailored our tour knowing we were going to Pompeii the next day and to the archeological museum in Naples the following day. She is an archivist at the museum and you can see the passion she has for the history of the site. She was also so nice. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour.

    Response from Host, Aug 2025

    Thanks for your trust! We’re happy to have made your visit to Pompeii so special. Your feedback is truly appreciated.

    History brought back to life in Herculaneum settlement

    Lisa_P, Sep 2024
    My most favorite tour yet! Eliana took us through the events before, during and after the pyroclastic explosion of volcanic activity of Mt Vesuvius. The carbonized and later restored wooden beams in architecturally preserved buildings in the Herculaneum settlement was phenomenal. The care and detail of this passionate archeologist was apparent. Eilana, thank you for a living-history tour. l

    Response from Host, Dec 2024

    Thank you very much for your review. I am very happy to read it

    Great experience

    Brian_M, Jun 2024
    This was a great experience. Our archeologist, Francesco, was extremely knowledgable and answered every question we had. He kept a great pace even with the heat and my father who was difficulty with stairs. We would recommend this to anyone. We enjoyed this more than our trip to Pompei.

    Response from Host, Dec 2024

    Thank you very much for your review.

    Awesome guide. Only way to see Herculaneum!

    Carol_F, May 2024
    Seeing Herculaneum with my family meant we could share this unique site guided by Dr. Eliana Sandretti. Her expertise was invaluable in getting the most out of our exploration of this site. Kudos Viator.

    Fantastic tour

    Kent_J, Nov 2023
    We enjoyed every moment of this tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. She made the entire tour very interesting. Could not have been better.

    Herculaneum

    Debra_C, Oct 2023
    Our guide was patient, knowledgeable and very professional. We’ll worth it. I recommend it for any trip to Herculaneum.

    Bringing Roman culture to life.

    Ann_M, Oct 2023
    Our guide, an archeologist himself, was knowledgeable an personable. .Francesc was interesting and made the 2 hours of visit fly by. Herculaneum is such an interesting site and our group learned a lot about The Roman culture around the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I highly recommend his tour.

    Professional and knowledgeable

    Susan_Z, Aug 2023
    Our tour guide Pia and she was wondering. So informative and helped me with places to step since I have a bad knee. Her knowledge of the historical site was beyond belief! Herculaneum was a perfect choice for our family to go and see❤️

    Herculaneum brought to life

    Sheelagh_C, Jun 2023
    The guide tailored our tour to our areas of interest and brought the archaeological details to life. Highly knowledgeable guide - did a great job making the history accessible. Clear and easy to understand

    Great experience

    Alex_M, Mar 2023
    Wonderful tour! I didn’t realize the difference having a truly knowledgeable guide would make to our tour. We learned so much that would never have been apparent without Eliana explaining what we were seeing. I really appreciated that Eliana took the time to understand what we already knew about Herculaneum so she could tailor her talk exactly to our knowledge level.

    Expert guide and beautiful history

    James_M, Nov 2022
    Eliana was our friendly and knowledgeable tour guide. We learned about the way people lived in Herculaneum through her enthusiastic explanations, as well as the tragedy in 79 AD. She used her expertise as an archaeologist to answer all of our questions. I also highly recommend this tour as it wasn’t too long or too short, and there was some amazing mostly intact frescoes with beautiful colours.

    Extremely informative

    Pamela_M, Oct 2022
    I booked this for a group of friends. They gave Eliana 5 stars! She answered all of their questions and was extremely thorough. You will not be disappointed.

    Get Eliana

    Rajiv_R, Dec 2021
    Eliana did an excellent job of bringing Herculaneum to life. She patiently answered all our questions and made sure we saw all the important sites at Herculaneum. Highly recommended

    Perfect guide for this excavation

    Roger_M, Oct 2021
    Our guide Eliana is a second generation archeologist at Herculaneum (and elsewhere) who knows so much about the excavations, the history of the buried town, and gave us context to what was still buried and inaccessible due to current habitation above the 100 ft lava layer and the city it encases. In one photo of the earlier phases of excavation she pointed out her father, working the site before she was born! Eliana brought to life the site in a way not possible with an audio guide alone, sharing her insight in a pleasant give-and-take with us, not sounding at all like a rehearsed speech worn down thru repetition. Grazie mille, Eliana!!!

    Excellent tour of...

    Steven_H, Oct 2021
    Excellent tour of Herculaneum ruins. Knowledgeable guide with keen interest in the archeological discovery and preservation of the site.

    From $340.31

    per group (up to 10)

    up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

    Book ahead!
    On average, this is booked 47 days in advance.

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