Tiqets: the ticket platform, read through the Naples catalogue

In one line: when to use it

Tiqets is the platform to open when you want an entrance ticket, not an organised day. In the Naples catalogue we track it has 47 products from €5 to €135, with a median of €31: fewer than half the 89 of GetYourGuide, but with a dozen tickets the other catalogue does not carry. Prices verified regularly.

It is good for two things: the museum or the hypogeum nobody else sells online, and the decision taken the night before, because all 47 products are on instant confirmation.

What it is: a ticket office for museums and attractions

The site is run by Tiqets International BV, based in Amsterdam at James Wattstraat 77-P, registered with the Dutch chamber of commerce under number 59620285 and VAT number NL853573876B01. The chief executive is Laurens Leurink; the founder and chairman is Luuc Elzinga, and the company gives 2014 as the year it started trading. It declares more than 50 million customers, over 4,000 partner venues, more than five million app downloads and a staff of more than 30 nationalities; among the news it publishes is a 60 million dollar funding round led by Airbnb.

In its terms it defines itself as an intermediary: the purchase is not with the platform but with the museum, the park or the tour operator selling through it, and the supplier’s conditions apply on top of the general ones. On Trustpilot the score is 4.3 out of 5 from more than 60,000 reviews.

The Naples catalogue in numbers

All 47 products carry a published rating, averaging 4.4 out of 5 across more than 26,000 reviews in total; 30 sit at 4.5 or above. Seventeen cost up to €20, only three go over €100.

The most reviewed is the skip-the-line ticket with the Napoli Sotterranea tour at €18, on 4.5 from more than 7,000 reviews. Right behind it, the Pompeii tour with an archaeologist at €49.50 (4.6 from more than 3,500 reviews). The highest ratings sit on the small products: the underground Spanish Quarter at €18, the Reggia di Caserta with a guided tour at €38 and Paestum skip-the-line at €39.50, all on 4.9 from more than a hundred reviews each.

Where it does badly is the ticket-only entry to the archaeological sites: Pompeii at €27.50 sits on 3.6 from 717 reviews, the version without a time slot at €27 on 3.9, Vesuvius with fast access at €16 on 3.8 from more than 2,300 reviews, the triple Vesuvius–Herculaneum–Pompeii pass on 3.7. Those ratings speak about queues and expectations, not about the platform: the context is in Naples underground and in Pompeii in a day.

Cancellation: the number that counts

The site promises flexible cancellation options across all its venues. In the Naples catalogue the real picture is more layered, and this is it:

The non-cancellable ones are almost all on the big sites: both Pompeii tickets, Vesuvius, Herculaneum with a guide, Napoli Sotterranea, the Cappella Sansevero, the Alibus, the city passes. In its general terms the platform writes that cancellation is possible only when it is stated on the product listing, and that refunds can be claimed up to 28 days after the ticket’s validity date.

What it really adds in Naples

Fifteen product groups exist only here. The most useful: the entrance ticket for Herculaneum at €19.50, the Catacombe di San Gaudioso at €13, the Ipogeo dei Cristallini at €12, the Museo Jago at €10, the Lapis Museum at €12, the MAV at Herculaneum at €6, the Aquarium at €10, the Paestum tour at €39.50, the Cappella Sansevero with the Santa Chiara cloister at €48.50 and Vesuvius with transport from Herculaneum at €31.

On everything else it overlaps with the other partner platform, and there the comparison has to be made product by product: on the Cappella Sansevero, for instance, the versions in the catalogue start at €14.

How to check before you pay

Three lines, in this order: the cancellation condition, whether entry is on a timed slot or open, and whether the price includes a guide or only the ticket. Then the price, set against the official desk: the MANN is €20 on the door, the Cappella Sansevero €12, Herculaneum €16. The reference figures are in tickets and passes.

One note on the museums that close one day a week: the Museo Archeologico Nazionale and the Cappella Sansevero close on Tuesday, the Catacombe on Wednesday. The platform will not sell you a slot that does not exist, but a multi-day pass bought badly costs you a visit.

What to keep in mind

Use it for the entrances you cannot find anywhere else and when you need instant confirmation; do not use it expecting a discount on the official desk, because as a rule there is none. And if the product you are looking at is one of the eighteen non-cancellable ones, settle the date with the same seriousness you would give a train ticket.

To work out who actually opens the underground sites and the catacombs, the profiles are in operators and platforms; the museum-by-museum comparison is in Museo Archeologico Nazionale and Cappella Sansevero.