Vesuvius in a day from Naples: what to know before you book
A Vesuvius day trip from Naples is half a day of effort and costs €28.88 per person on public transport, or from €39 with the Mount Vesuvius Transfer with Entry Tickets, which leaves from Naples and covers everything. Partner prices are checked regularly.
There is one constraint that comes before the price, though: the ticket for the Gran Cono cannot be bought on the spot. The park sells it online only, in ten-minute slots, fifty tickets per slot, on sale thirty days ahead. Going up without a slot means standing in the car park looking at the volcano from below. Anyone who buys a tour or a shuttle with entry included hands that step to the operator, and for many people that is the main reason to do it.
The day, hour by hour
Porta Nolana: NA2 ticket €2.60, train on the Sorrento line
Ercolano Scavi: the shuttle leaves from the forecourt in front of the station
The climb: 30 minutes of provincial road up to the quota 1000 car park
Automatic gate: a full-price ticket is valid from two hours before to two hours after your slot
Path no. 5: 4,010 metres there and back, top height 1,175 m, groups of twenty
Back down: the shuttle allows around two hours at the top, no more
Ercolano Scavi: lunch, and for €16 you have the afternoon at the Herculaneum excavations
Train from Ercolano Scavi, Porta Nolana at 17:18
The three ways up to the crater
The end point is always the same: the quota 1000 car park, at the end of the Ercolano–Vesuvio provincial road, where the path gate stands. All that changes is how you get there.
| Route | Time from Naples | Cost | When it makes sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| Train to Ercolano Scavi + shuttle | about 1 h | €5.20 + from €12 + €11.68 | The best from Naples: frequent trains, a ten-metre change |
| Train to Pompei + EAV bus 808 | about 1 h 35 | €6.60 + €5.60 + €11.68 | Only if you are already visiting the Pompeii excavations |
| Shuttle or tour from Naples | 3–4 h in total | from €39 with entry | One vehicle, crater ticket already in your name |
From Ercolano. Circumvesuviana from Napoli Porta Nolana or Piazza Garibaldi to Ercolano Scavi: a Unico Campania NA2 at €2.60 each way, around 20 minutes. The station is served both by Sorrento line trains and by Poggiomarino line ones, so the real frequency is good; on the Sorrento line the useful morning runs from Porta Nolana are at 6:48, 7:24 and 9:13. The Vesuvio Express shuttle leaves from in front of the station: from €12 return booked online against €15 at the counter, departures every 30 to 60 minutes from 9, half an hour of climbing and around two hours at the top. The service runs from 9 to 17 in summer and from 9:30 to 14 in winter.
From Pompei. The EAV 808 bus leaves from the Piazza Anfiteatro terminus and also stops at Villa dei Misteri, then climbs in around 55 minutes. Eleven runs a day, from 8:30 to 16:30 going up and from 9:35 to 18:15 coming down. The ticket costs €3.80 each way on board or €2.80 if you buy an AC3 in advance. It only makes sense if you are pairing the two sites: how that fits together is set out in Pompeii and Vesuvius in one day.
By car. There is no parking at quota 1000: the spaces are run by the Comune di Ercolano along the provincial road, with a car park at quota 800 from which you walk up in about half an hour (1.8 km) or take a municipal shuttle at €1 each way. Buy the parking space only after you have bought the crater ticket, never before. For everything else on getting around Campania there is the page on getting around Naples.
What the day costs
By public transport
- Circumvesuviana Porta Nolana–Ercolano Scavi, returnunicocampania.it
- €5.20 · NA2 €2.60 each way, about 20 min
- Shuttle Ercolano Scavi–quota 1000, returnvesuvioexpress.it
- from €12 online · €15 at the counter, 30 min up
- Gran Cono, online ticketparconazionaledelvesuvio.it
- €11.68 full · €9.55 under 25 and residents · free under 6
- Total per person
- €28.88 · 5–6 hours door to door
- Option with your own carparconazionaledelvesuvio.it
- €11.68 ticket + parking at quota 800 + €1 each way on the municipal shuttle
With a tour
The shuttle from Naples with entry included starts at €39: ten euros above doing it yourself, and it removes the change at Ercolano and the risk of turning up outside your slot. The shuttle-plus-ticket package sold at Ercolano costs €30 against the €23.68 you pay buying the two separately, so always check the sum.
The path, in practical terms
Nature path no. 5 “Il Gran Cono” starts at the car park and climbs to 1,175 metres: 4,010 metres there and back, two and a half hours according to the park, graded easy. The surface is ash and lapilli with the odd lava flow from 1944, the gradient is constant and there are no exposed sections. The rules cap numbers at 360 walkers an hour: sixty people every ten minutes, organised into three groups of twenty, with a compulsory escort from the guides of the Presidio Permanente Vulcano Vesuvio. It is not a guided visit, it is a safety measure, and anyone who wants the volcanology has to buy a tour with a guide.
On the way up, viewpoints open onto the inside of the crater, which is now elliptical, 580 metres across at its widest, and still shows fumaroles on the walls. The high rim, on the northern and eastern sides, is off limits for safety reasons, and the full loop to the Rifugio Imbò is currently impassable because of work on the route. The real destination is the Capannuccia, at 1,170 metres.
For the rucksack: closed shoes with a cleated sole (flip-flops on lapilli are a genuine problem), water, a hat and sun cream in summer, a windproof jacket always, because the wind at the top is constant even in July. At the quota 1000 car park there is no parking and for the time being no public toilets, so sort yourself out in Ercolano.
What you actually see from the top
It is worth knowing what to expect, because the crater is not a fitted-out viewing terrace. Climbing the hairpins you look first towards Monte Somma, the summit of the ancient volcano, with the Cognoli di Sant’Anastasia and Punta Nasone at 1,132 metres, and towards the depression that separates the two peaks: the Valle del Gigante, whose western part is called the Atrio del Cavallo. The 1944 flow is still recognisable, covered by the silver-grey lichen recolonising it.
Higher up, the Gulf of Naples opens out with the whole city in it, and on clear days the Campanian plain as far as the Circeo promontory; on the other side the coast towards Sorrento appears, and Capri. The crater shows fumaroles on its inner walls, which are the most concrete reminder that the volcano is dormant rather than extinct. The vegetation is almost all broom: May and June are when the path looks its best.
Who should pick what
Hours month by month and the logic of the slot
Opening is always at 9; closing changes four times a year. The visit must in any case finish within one hour of the last admission allowed.
| Months | Crater access | Visitors per day |
|---|---|---|
| January, February, November, December | 9–15 | 2,160 |
| March, October | 9–16 | 2,520 |
| April, May, June, September | 9–17 | 2,880 |
| July, August | 9–18 | 3,240 |
Official information · Vesuvio
- Address
- Quota 1000 car park, path no. 5 “Il Gran Cono”, end of the Ercolano–Vesuvio provincial road
- Access hours
- 9–15 (January, February, November, December) · 9–16 (March, October) · 9–17 (April, May, June, September) · 9–18 (July, August)
- Official price
- €11.68 full and €9.55 reduced (€10 and €8 plus booking fee), free under 6
- Ticket office
- Online only on vesuviopark.vivaticket.it, the sole authorised seller; 50 tickets every 10 minutes, on sale 30 days ahead
- Closed
- On regional weather alerts from orange level: path and ticket office close, automatic refund
- Official site
- parconazionaledelvesuvio.it
From the official website: double-check before you go.
The most useful rule is the tolerance at the gate: with a standard ticket you go in from two hours before to two hours after the printed time, always within that month’s last admission. It is a huge margin, and it means an 11 o’clock slot comfortably absorbs a missed train and a late shuttle. Last-minute tickets are a different animal: ten per slot, released thirty minutes beforehand, named, buyable only from the wifi near the entrance and capped at five per email address, and you only get in from thirty minutes before to fifteen after. Do not build a day on them.
The official price is €10 full and €8 reduced, which with booking fees becomes €11.68 and €9.55. The reduced rate applies to residents of the park’s thirteen municipalities and to anyone under 25; under 6 is free, but the ticket still has to be issued online. On the platforms the same entry costs €16 with a digital guide or priority access: the difference buys the convenience of a single booking and free cancellation.
Same product, platforms compared
Prices refreshed from the GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Headout feeds.
| Platform | Price | Rating | Duration | Cancellation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuideMount Vesuvius Excursion: Skip-the-Line Ticket and Digital Guide | €16 Lowest price | ★ 4.2 (3,644) | 2 h | Free | Book on GetYourGuide |
| TiqetsMount Vesuvius: Fast Track Entry Ticket | €16 | ★ 3.8 (2,328) | — | — | Book on Tiqets |
On transfers from Naples the picture is tighter, because almost every operator includes the entry and they all sit within a few euros of each other.
Same product, platforms compared
Prices refreshed from the GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Headout feeds.
| Platform | Price | Rating | Duration | Cancellation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuideMount Vesuvius Transfer with Entry Tickets | €39 Lowest price | ★ 4.4 (1,764) | 3 h | Free | Book on GetYourGuide |
| GetYourGuideBus Transfer to Vesuvius with Park Entry Fee | €39 | ★ 4.3 (1,838) | 3 h | Free | Book on GetYourGuide |
| TiqetsMount Vesuvius: Skip The Line Ticket + Roundtrip from Naples | €39.90 | ★ 4.1 (736) | — | — | Book on Tiqets |
One sum always worth doing: the shuttle-plus-entry package sold at Ercolano costs €30, while the two things separately cost €12 plus €11.68, that is €23.68. When a package costs more than the sum of its parts, buy the parts.
What to add to the half day
Five hours leave room for more. The two combinations that work both start from Ercolano Scavi, the station you get off at anyway.
- The Herculaneum excavations, about ten minutes downhill on foot from the station: €16 full and €2 reduced, open 8:30–19:30 with last entry at 18 from 16 March to 14 October, and 8:30–17 with last entry at 15:30 for the rest of the year. Two hours are enough, left luggage is free and there are no refreshments inside. The comparison with Pompeii is in Herculaneum in a day.
- Pompeii in the afternoon, if you did the crater at opening: from Ercolano Scavi it is twenty minutes by train, and last entry to the excavations is 17:30 in summer. The full plan is in Pompeii in a day.
On the right month to go up: from November to February the window is short and the air is the clearest of the year, while in July and August the path stays open until 18 but the climb at two in the afternoon is punishing. April, May and October are the best compromise, as explained in when to visit Naples.
The local operators on Vesuvius
The volcano is worked by small local firms selling shuttles, minivans and escorted walks, often with a bare-bones website and booking over WhatsApp. We have profiled Around Vesuvio, specialists in the crater and the park’s other paths, and VESUVIOPOMPEITOUR, which mainly sells the pairing with the excavations; anyone arriving from the Pompei side will also come across Tours of Pompeii with Lello. Three questions to ask in writing before you pay: whether the Gran Cono ticket is included and for which time band it was issued, whether the price is per person or per vehicle, and what happens if the path closes on a weather alert, because the park’s refund covers the ticket but not the transfer. The exact meeting point is on your voucher.
In short
A Vesuvius day trip from Naples gives the best ratio of time spent to what you see: half a day, €28.88 by train and shuttle, two and a half hours of path above the gulf. The one step not to get wrong is the online slot on the park’s site, bought before anything else, parking included. If you would rather have a single vehicle and the ticket already in hand, the shuttle from Naples with entry included does the job for you.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to climb Vesuvius from Naples?
€28.88 per person on public transport: €5.20 for the Circumvesuviana return to Ercolano Scavi, from €12 for the shuttle up to the quota 1000 car park and €11.68 for the Gran Cono ticket. A shuttle from Naples with entry included starts at €39.
Can you buy the Vesuvius ticket on the spot?
No. The Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio sells Gran Cono tickets exclusively online on vesuviopark.vivaticket.it, the sole authorised seller: 50 tickets every ten minutes, available thirty days ahead. If they sell out, ten last-minute tickets per slot are released thirty minutes beforehand and can only be bought from the wifi at the car park.
How long does the climb to the crater take?
Path no. 5 runs 4,010 metres there and back, reaches 1,175 metres and the park puts it at two and a half hours, graded easy. The visit must in any case finish within one hour of the last admission allowed.
What time does the Vesuvius crater close?
It depends on the month: 15 in January and February and from November to December, 16 in March and October, 17 from April to June and in September, 18 in July and August. Opening is always at 9.
Is it better to start from Ercolano or from Pompei?
From Ercolano, if you are coming from Naples: the shuttle leaves in front of Ercolano Scavi station and climbs in half an hour, with departures every 30 to 60 minutes. From Pompei the EAV 808 bus runs only eleven times a day and takes 55 minutes, so it suits you only if you are already visiting the excavations.
What should you take to climb Vesuvius?
Closed shoes with a cleated sole, because the surface is ash and lapilli, water, a hat in summer and a windproof jacket in winter: the wind at the top is constant. At the quota 1000 car park there are, for the time being, no public toilets.
Can you climb Vesuvius in the rain?
If the regional Protezione Civile issues a weather alert from orange level upwards, the ticket office and the path close automatically and tickets for the affected slots are refunded without a claim within sixty days. In light rain you can still go up, but the ash turns to mud and the view over the gulf disappears.
Is Vesuvius included in the Campania Artecard?
No. Artecard states that the passes do not give access to the Gran Cono, and the EAV Pompei–Vesuvius bus is also excluded from the transport included because it has a special fare.
Official sources
Read next
- Pompeii and VesuviusPompeii and Vesuvius in a day: €43.88 on your own or a tour from €48.75. The 808 bus, crater slots, two hour-by-hour plans. Check dates.
- HerculaneumHerculaneum in half a day: 20-minute train, €16 ticket, 4 hours door to door. The table for choosing Pompeii or Herculaneum, and the tours worth it.
- PompeiiPompeii from Naples: €26.60 on your own or a tour from €45.50. Train, time bands, named ticket and the hour-by-hour plan. Check availability.
- Getting aroundMetro, Circumvesuviana, ferries, Alibus and high-speed rail: lines, stations, minutes, fares and last useful services. Check tickets and transfers.
- When to goWhen to visit Naples and do the day trips: a month-by-month table with sea, seasonal ferries, crater hours, crowds and events. Pick the right time.