Campania
Capital of Campania and Italy's third-largest city, set on the Bay of Naples below Vesuvius, with a UNESCO-listed historic centre laid out on its Greek and Roman street grid.
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Explore by neighborhood
See every pick and jump straight to its practical details.
Hotels
Compare Isa's picks by neighborhood, character and price, then go directly to the hotel's official booking flow.
★★★★★
Chiaia & Lungomare
from ~€350/night
A seafront grand hotel of 1882 on Via Partenope, facing Castel dell'Ovo and the Borgo Marinari harbour. Its rooftop restaurant, the Caruso Roof Garden, is named after the tenor who died in the hotel in 1921.
★★★★★
Royal Naples
from ~€450/night
A contemporary design hotel on Via Cristoforo Colombo by the port, with interiors developed with Kenzo Tange's studio, a rooftop pool and spa, and the two-Michelin-star restaurant Il Comandante.
★★★★★
Chiaia & Lungomare
from ~€300/night
Opened in 1870 on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele hillside above Chiaia, this is the oldest luxury hotel in Naples. Its rooftop restaurant, George, holds a Michelin star and looks straight down over the bay.
★★★★
Chiaia & Lungomare
from ~€220/night
A belle-epoque hotel of 1909 on Via Partenope directly opposite Castel dell'Ovo, with period public rooms and a rooftop restaurant and terrace over the Santa Lucia waterfront.
★★★★
Chiaia & Lungomare
from ~€180/night
An Art Nouveau seafront hotel dating from the start of the 20th century, with 96 rooms on Via Partenope. Front rooms face the Borgo Marinari harbour and Castel dell'Ovo.
★★★★
Centro Storico
from ~€150/night
A restored 13th-century Caracciolo family palace on Via Carbonara at the northern edge of the old city, built around a glass-roofed cloister courtyard, with an indoor pool and spa.
★★★★
Vomero
from ~€160/night
A 16th-century Franciscan monastery on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele hillside converted into a hotel, with rooms in the former monks' cells, terraced gardens cut into the tufa and a rooftop pool facing the bay.
★★★★
Centro Storico
from ~€180/night
A small Liberty-style villa set behind a garden wall on Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, a few minutes' walk from the Archaeological Museum, with a courtyard pool and 19 rooms.
Activities
Search every pick, narrow it by practical constraints, and book through the official source.
Centro Storico
Free entry to the cathedral, the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte and the Basilica of Santa Restituta, but advance booking is required through the diocese's MUDD visitor project. The separate Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro and the €6 rooftop tour are ticketed.
Advance booking recommended
The Angevin Gothic cathedral begun in 1294, containing the Baroque Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro and the reliquary of the city's patron saint, whose blood is displayed for liquefaction three times a year. The same complex holds the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, whose 4th–5th-century mosaics make it the oldest surviving baptistery in the Western world.
Centro Storico
Free entry, donations welcome. The church shuts for a long midday break, so aim for the morning or late afternoon; modest dress is enforced.
Usually works as a walk-in
A Jesuit church built between 1584 and 1601 behind the diamond-point ashlar façade of the 15th-century Palazzo Sanseverino, giving it one of the strangest exteriors in Italy. Inside is a full Neapolitan Baroque interior with work by Solimena, Ribera and Cosimo Fanzago, and the tomb of Saint Giuseppe Moscati.
Centro Storico
The basilica is free; €7 full price (€5 reduced, €4 for ages 6–17) for the monumental complex covering the majolica cloister, the Opera Museum and the Roman archaeological area. Cloister open Mon–Sat 09:30–17:00 and Sun 10:00–14:00; the complex states that only tickets bought at its own ticket office are valid.
🎟 Valid all day
Usually works as a walk-in
A 14th-century Angevin Gothic basilica, stripped of its Baroque overlay and rebuilt to its medieval form after being gutted by bombing in 1943. The separately ticketed monastic complex behind it contains the Chiostro delle Clarisse, whose octagonal pillars and benches are covered in 18th-century majolica tiles designed by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.
Royal Naples
Free entry; the church closes during services and around the middle of the day. The piazza in front is open at all hours and is the standard vantage point for the façade.
Usually works as a walk-in
The Neoclassical basilica that closes Piazza del Plebiscito, commissioned by Ferdinand I and completed in 1846 to a design by Pietro Bianchi. Its Pantheon-inspired domed rotunda sits behind a portico, with a colonnade sweeping around both sides of the square.
Centro Storico
€8 full price including audio guide. Open Mon–Fri 09:30–18:30, Sat 09:30–18:00, Sun 12:30–17:30; tickets on the door or through the complex's official ticketing partner.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
Also known as Santa Maria di Monteoliveto, this is the principal Renaissance church of Naples, holding sculpture by Antonio Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano and Guido Mazzoni's life-size terracotta Lamentation of 1492. The old sacristy is frescoed by Giorgio Vasari and lined with inlaid wooden choir stalls.
Centro Storico
€20 full price, €2 reduced for EU citizens aged 18–24, free under 18 and on the first Sunday of the month. Open 09:00–19:30 with last entry at 18:30, closed Tuesdays. Worth seeing before Pompeii, since the best finds are here rather than on site.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
One of the most important archaeological collections in the world, holding the frescoes, mosaics and bronzes lifted from Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, including the Alexander Mosaic. It also houses the Farnese marbles, among them the Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules, and the Gabinetto Segreto of Roman erotic art.
Centro Storico
€12 full price. Booking is compulsory and timed slots sell out well in advance: tickets are released 60 days ahead, with a small extra batch two days before each date. Open 09:00–19:00, closed Tuesdays; photography is not allowed.
⏱ Timed entry — arrive on time
🎟 Timed entry — arrive on time
Advance booking required
A Baroque chapel remodelled in the 1750s by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, as a family mausoleum and now run as a museum. Its centrepiece is Giuseppe Sanmartino's Veiled Christ of 1753, carved from a single block of marble, alongside Queirolo's Disillusion and the so-called anatomical machines in the crypt.
Royal Naples
€15 full price sold through the state Musei Italiani portal, €2 reduced for EU citizens aged 18–25, free under 18. Open daily except Wednesday, roughly 09:00–20:00 with last admission an hour before closing; the Biblioteca Nazionale in the same building is entered separately.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
The 17th-century palace of the Spanish viceroys and later of the Bourbon and Savoy kings, filling one side of Piazza del Plebiscito. The route takes in the monumental Staircase of Honour, some thirty rooms of the Royal Apartment, the Court Theatre and the Palatine Chapel.
Vomero
€6 full price, €2 reduced for EU citizens aged 18–25, free under 18 and on the first Sunday of the month. Open 08:30–18:30 with last entry at 17:30, closed Tuesdays. Reached by the Montesanto funicular plus a short uphill walk.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
A Carthusian monastery founded in 1325 and rebuilt in exuberant Neapolitan Baroque, now a museum of Neapolitan painting, historic ship models and nativity figures, including the enormous Cuciniello presepe. The Great Cloister and the belvedere terraces give one of the widest views over the city and the bay.
Vesuvian Area
From 12 January 2026 the basic Pompeii Express ticket is €20 for the excavations only; Pompeii Plus at €25 adds the suburban villas, Villa Regina at Boscoreale and the shuttle bus, and a 3-day multi-site pass is €30. Tickets are personal and daily entries are capped at 20,000, so book ahead. Free on the first Sunday of the month.
⏱ Timed entry — arrive on time
🎟 Timed entry — arrive on time
Advance booking required
The Roman town buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and under excavation since 1748, covering some 44 hectares of paved streets, houses, bath complexes, an amphitheatre and the Forum. It is about 35 minutes from Naples on the Circumvesuviana line to Pompei Scavi–Villa dei Misteri.
Vesuvian Area
€16 full price, reduced for EU citizens aged 18–25 and free under 18. Free on the first Sunday of each month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. Open 08:30–19:30 in summer with last entry at 18:00, shorter hours in winter; about 20 minutes from Naples on the Circumvesuviana to Ercolano Scavi.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
A smaller and far better preserved Roman town than Pompeii, sealed by pyroclastic surges that carbonised wooden beams, doors, furniture and food. Upper storeys, roofs and mosaics survive largely intact, and the boat sheds by the ancient shoreline hold the skeletons of those who died waiting to escape.
Vesuvian Area
€11.68 full price including the compulsory online booking fee, €9.55 reduced. The park states that its Vivaticket shop is the only authorised seller — ignore other resellers. Timed entry, roughly 90 minutes on the trail; the summit closes in high wind, rain or fog.
⏱ Timed entry — arrive on time
🎟 Timed entry — arrive on time
Advance booking required
Trail no. 5 climbs from the car park at roughly 1,000 m to the rim of the Gran Cono, gaining about 200 m on a gravel path with views over the bay and down into the crater. Access is by timed slot and the walk is accompanied by park guides.
Royal Naples
€15 full price for the Museo Civico. Open Monday to Saturday 09:00–18:00 with last entry at 17:30, closed Sundays and public holidays; hours shift when the castle hosts exhibitions. Tickets at the gate or through the city's official ticket shop.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
The Angevin fortress begun in 1279 between Piazza Municipio and the port, its five dark tufa towers split by a white marble triumphal arch commemorating Alfonso of Aragon's entry into the city in 1443. Inside are the Barons' Hall, the Palatine Chapel and the Museo Civico.
Chiaia & Lungomare
Free entry, no booking. Generally open Monday to Saturday and holidays around 09:00–16:30, but hours change with events and parts of the complex are still under restoration, so check before making a special trip.
Usually works as a walk-in
The oldest castle in Naples, standing on the islet of Megaride where Greek settlers founded Parthenope, joined to the seafront by a causeway and ringed by the restaurants of the Borgo Marinari harbour. It reopened in spring 2026 after restoration, and the ramparts take in the whole bay from Vesuvius round to Posillipo.
Vomero
€5 full price, €2 reduced, free under 18 and on the first Sunday of the month. Ramparts open daily 08:30–19:30; the Novecento a Napoli museum inside keeps shorter hours and closes Tuesdays. Reached by the Montesanto funicular.
🎟 Valid all day
Advance booking recommended
A six-pointed star-shaped fortress of 1538 on the highest point of the Vomero hill, immediately above the Certosa di San Martino. Its open upper ramparts give an unbroken 360-degree panorama over the historic centre, the port, the bay, Vesuvius and the Campi Flegrei.
Chiaia & Lungomare
Free and open at all hours, closed to through traffic along most of its length. Best around sunset; the bars, deckchairs and boat trips along the way are charged separately.
Usually works as a walk-in
A pedestrianised seafront promenade running roughly three kilometres from Castel dell'Ovo along Via Partenope and Via Caracciolo to Mergellina, bordered by the Villa Comunale gardens. It faces Vesuvius across the water and is the standard evening walk for Neapolitans.
Toledo & Quartieri Spagnoli
Free to walk through; you pay only for what you eat, and a fried snack, a sfogliatella and a coffee will come to under €10. Busiest in the morning, with most stalls packing up by early afternoon.
Usually works as a walk-in
The oldest street market in Naples, running along Via Pignasecca just off Via Toledo at the foot of the Quartieri Spagnoli, with fish stalls, greengrocers, cheese and salumi counters, friggitorie and pastry shops. It is a working neighbourhood market rather than a tourist one.
Centro Storico
Genuinely variable: expect roughly €45–90 per person depending on the pizzeria or school, group size, and whether drinks and a full meal are included. There is no single official seller — book directly with a pizzeria or a licensed cookery school rather than through a reseller.
Usually works as a walk-in
Hands-on classes run by pizzerie and cookery schools across the historic centre, covering the dough and its long rise, San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte, and stretching and baking in a wood-fired oven. The art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo was inscribed on the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2017.
Centro Storico
Around €15 for the standard adult guided tour, which is the only way in; departures roughly hourly from Piazza San Gaetano 68 in Italian and English, lasting about 90 minutes. The operator does not publish a fixed rate table, so confirm the price when booking. Narrow candle-lit passages make it unsuitable for claustrophobia.
Advance booking recommended
A guided descent some 40 metres below Via dei Tribunali into tufa quarries and the Greco-Roman aqueduct, later reused as cisterns and then as air-raid shelters in the Second World War. The route ends in the remains of the Roman theatre, reached through the ground floor of a block of houses.
Capodimonte & Sanità
€13 full price, €9 or €6 reduced depending on category, free under 6; the ticket also covers the Catacombs of San Gaudioso down in the Sanità. Guided visits only, departing hourly 10:00–17:00, closed Wednesdays, and booking is compulsory.
Advance booking recommended
Two levels of rock-cut burial galleries under the Capodimonte hill, in use from the 2nd century and holding frescoes and mosaics from the 2nd to the 5th century plus the earliest known portrait of Saint Gennaro. They are run by a social cooperative that trains and employs young people from the Rione Sanità as guides.
Centro Storico
Free to walk; the churches, chapels and museums along the route are ticketed individually. Allow extra time for the street food and shops between Piazza del Gesù and Via Duomo, and expect heavy crowds in the run-up to Christmas.
Usually works as a walk-in
The dead-straight lower decumanus of the Greek city, which still slices the old centre in two and is visible as a cut through the rooftops from Vomero. Walking it links Piazza del Gesù, Santa Chiara, Piazza San Domenico Maggiore and the year-round nativity-figure workshops of Via San Gregorio Armeno.
Bay of Naples
Genuinely variable: hydrofoil fares from Naples run roughly €25–29 each way depending on operator (Caremar, SNAV, NLG) and season, so about €50–58 return, before the funicular (around €2.70) and the Blue Grotto. Sailings are cancelled in rough seas, and cars cannot be taken across in high season.
Usually works as a walk-in
A day on Capri from Molo Beverello, with hydrofoils crossing in about 50 minutes. The usual circuit is the funicular up to Capri town and the Piazzetta, the Gardens of Augustus above the Faraglioni, then a bus to Anacapri and the chairlift to Monte Solaro.
