Herculaneum

We did visit Ercalano, but without a guide. The site is well signposted, explanations in English. We spent about two and a half hours there. The site is a 20 minute walk from the station.

I can’t answer your question, but I will say that I thought the audio guide was very good. Compared to Pompeii, the site is more compact and in a real sense easier to appreciate and explore. Like, I think a good guide would be a real add-on for Pompeii but less so for Herculaneum.

Herculaneum is a first-class visit, with a bag check that looks as good as Pompeii's. But it is just not as busy as Pompeii. I don't know if you can count of idle guides hanging out at the entrance. We arrived on the Circumvesuviana train, which stops a 12-15 minute walk straight uphill from Herculaneum. Rail station seemed completely unstaffed. When researching, remember that there is a modern city of Ercolano as well. You are going to a "Scavi", like Pompeii Scavi.

There is no food inside Herculaneum, and like Pompeii, you cannot re-enter the same day on the same ticket. We found a nice restaurant on the hill up towards the train, but they only keep standard Italian dining hours, it's not like a hot dog stand at a theme park!

We relied on Rick's guidebook description, and maybe another brand of tourist guide we also had. Like Pompeii, internal partial closures are hard to predict. But there's still plenty to see.

Yes, we hired a licensed guide at the entrance. It was costly but she was definitely worth hiring. There were three available that morning.

In 2022, we hired a guide through Askos to see Herculaneum. Our guide also took us to Oplontis and Stabiae on the same day - after the crowds of Herculaneum (and at Pompeii the previous day), Oplontis and Stabiae were practically deserted, and amazing.

https://www.askostours.com/en

https://pompeiisites.org/en/oplontis/

https://pompeiisites.org/en/stabiae/