Necropolis of Tarquinia tickets

Which way should you go?

You can see the necropolis and the museum three ways. Buy a site ticket from the park and go on your own. Buy a circuit ticket if you also want Cerveteri. Or book the private tour, which has the entry tickets built in and adds a guide. All three lead to the same tombs and the same museum rooms, because one park runs both places. The difference is who explains what you're looking at, and how much planning you do yourself. Whichever you pick, confirm the hours on the park's own pages before you travel.

• Own pace, no guide: the site ticket
• Cerveteri as well: the circuit ticket
• Guide and tickets in one booking: the private tour

Buying official tickets yourself

The necropolis and the National Archaeological Museum belong to the Parco Archeologico di Cerveteri e Tarquinia, known as PACT, an institute of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Its site ticket covers the museum and the necropolis of one town and stays valid for up to 30 days from issue. The circuit ticket covers all four PACT sites, two in Tarquinia and two in Cerveteri, for up to four months. An annual pass also exists. Buy through the ticket link on the park's website, which opens the national museums' ticket portal, or at the ticket offices on site. Temporary museum exhibitions carry a supplement. If you're only visiting Tarquinia, the site ticket is the one to choose.

Free entry: who pays nothing

Visitors under 18 go in free. On the first Sunday of every month the four PACT sites are free for everyone under the state museums' Domenica al Museo scheme, and the park asks for a booking where it needs one. EU visitors aged 18 to 25 pay a reduced rate. Other discounts follow the national rules of the Ministry of Culture. If one of these applies to you, a tour is mostly paying for the guide, so decide whether you want that.

What the private tour is

The tour we link to is a private guided walk for your group only, about three hours, led in English or Italian. It includes entry tickets to the necropolis and to the museum, but not gratuities. Getting to Tarquinia is up to you. You see the painted tombs first, then walk through the old town to the museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi. Your confirmation gives the meeting point, and the guide holds a sign with your name. The walk includes stairs, so wear comfortable shoes.

When the tour is worth it

A guide adds most at the tombs. The paintings are small and you see them through a transparent door, so it helps to have someone say what is on the wall and what the scenes of feasts, games and dancing meant to the people buried here. A private group also means the guide talks to you, not to a crowd. The tour suits first-time visitors, anyone interested in archaeology, and small groups who'd rather not read every panel. It also lets you ask about the museum's objects as you reach them.

When to go on your own instead

Go direct if you've been before, if you prefer to set your own pace, or if you want Cerveteri too, because the circuit ticket covers it and the tour doesn't. The park's audio guides are free, online and on site. For Tarquinia they began in Italian, with English and French announced, so check which languages are live before you rely on them. Along the path, QR codes open short virtual tours of some tombs on your phone. Because the site ticket stays valid for up to 30 days, you can also see the museum on a different day from the necropolis.

Opening rules to know

The park is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays, with the odd announced exception. Museum hours stay the same all year. The necropolis keeps shorter hours from late October to late March than in summer, and the last entry is one hour before closing. On weather-alert days the Monterozzi area can close as a precaution, and the park asks visitors to phone first. Tombs also close for maintenance, so what's open on your day can differ from a friend's report.

Which tombs you'll actually see

The park lists 22 painted tombs as open, including the Leopards, Hunting and Fishing, the Jugglers, the Blue Demons and the Warrior. Several famous tombs aren't on that list. The Bulls and the Augurs lie in other parts of the necropolis, and the Triclinium's paintings were detached and rebuilt in the museum. From time to time the park announces one-off openings of other tombs on its news page. A ticket or a tour doesn't change the list.

Read next: Tarquinia painted tombs: what you see

The museum: what the ticket adds

The National Archaeological Museum fills Palazzo Vitelleschi, a palace built for a cardinal in the 15th century, in the old town away from the necropolis. Its best-known piece is the winged horses, a terracotta relief that once decorated the temple on the Ara della Regina. It also holds the painted sarcophagus of the Priest and four painted tombs detached in the 1950s and 60s and rebuilt inside, among them the Tomb of the Triclinium. The site ticket and the private tour both include it.

Getting there, and the Rome question

Tarquinia is in northern Lazio, in the province of Viterbo. The local tourism board lists Trenitalia train and Cotral bus timetables, and notes that Fiumicino airport and the port of Civitavecchia are close. The necropolis is on Via Ripagretta, outside the town, and the museum is on Piazza Cavour in town, so plan how you'll move between them. The private tour works as a day trip from Rome only if you arrange your own transport, because the booking doesn't include it.

Who this isn't for

Skip the private tour if you hope to step inside the painted chambers: you look through transparent doors, with or without a guide. Skip it if you need a guide in a language other than English or Italian, or if stairs are a problem, since the walk includes stairs and the tombs lie down long stairways. And skip it if you only want to tick off the necropolis quickly, because the official site ticket is the simpler route.