The best audio guide for Pompeii, compared honestly

Short answer: the best audio guide for Pompeii is the one that still works when your phone has no signal, shows you where you are on the plan, and explains more than the Forum and the brothel. Four options are worth considering. Here is what each actually does once you are through the gate.

What actually matters at Pompeii

Pompeii is unusual among famous sites: 44 hectares of streets, almost no signage, and effectively no mobile signal inside the excavations. That turns three questions into the whole decision.

• Does it work fully offline, map included? An audio track without a map leaves you lost in a grid of identical-looking streets.
• How many places does it cover? The famous ten are easy; the difference is in the houses you would otherwise walk straight past.
• Is it in your language, and can everyone in the group listen at once?

MyPompeii, the official park app

Free, published by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. It has a map of points of interest with descriptions, opening hours and photos, suggested routes, content in Italian Sign Language, and audio guides for adults and children. The audio is unlocked by signing in with your ticket — scanning its QR code or entering the order number.

The reviews on the store are the thing to read before relying on it. The recurring complaints are that the map does not stay usable without a connection, that audio stops when the screen goes dark, that constant GPS drains the battery, and that reaching the audio takes too many steps. If you use it, sign in and download everything at the hotel, not at the gate.

The official rented audioguide

Handed out at the Porta Marina, Piazza Esedra and Piazza Anfiteatro entrances against an ID document: €9 for an adult unit and €5 for a child since March 2025. It needs no preparation at all, which is its whole appeal. The trade-off is a queue on the way in, a device to return on the way out, and no map of where you are.

Rick Steves Audio Europe

Free, downloadable, and well liked for good reason: an engaging walk through the main sights, excerpted from his guidebook. It is a single linear tour in English, built for a first visit of a few hours. Pair it with a paper map or the park’s plan, because the audio will not tell you where you are when you drift off the route — which at Pompeii everyone does.

Tessera

Ours. 73 narrated stories, a plan of the city drawn from survey data that shows where you are, and three timed routes from just over an hour to three and a half. Everything — audio, photos and map — downloads before you go and works in airplane mode. English, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, French and Chinese are all in one purchase; five stories are free, the rest is one payment, not a subscription. On iPhone and Android.

The honest limits: the narration is a synthetic voice, not an actor, and no app answers the question you think of while standing in front of a fresco. If your group wants that, book a licensed guide.

Which one to pick

• You have a Pompeii ticket and want free, official information: MyPompeii, downloaded in advance.
• You want zero preparation: the rented audioguide at the gate.
• You speak English, have three hours and want a good free walk: Rick Steves, with a map.
• You want to wander off the main route, in your own language, without signal: Tessera.
• You want to ask questions: a live licensed guide, whatever else you download.

Updated 2026-10-28