Naples with Kids: What Really Works, Age by Age

Naples with children is easier than the chaos of Piazza Garibaldi suggests: distances are short, the transport up the hills is a game in itself (four funiculars), and pizza is cheap and loved by everyone. The risk is the opposite: doing too much. This page lines up the things that genuinely work with children, with recommended ages, official prices verified regularly and a tried-and-tested three-day itinerary.

The eight things that work with children

Città della Scienza and Planetarium: the safe half day

The Science Centre at Città della Scienza, in Bagnoli, is the interactive museum where children touch everything without anyone telling them off: Corporea (the human body, the most successful pavilion), the temporary exhibitions on insects and robots, the weekend science shows. The Planetarium next door has 2D and live shows, some designed for 7–10 year olds: check the day’s calendar on the website, because the times change.

Prices according to the official website (cittadellascienza.it): Science Centre €10 full price, €8 reduced for children and teenagers aged 3 to 17; combined Science Centre + Planetarium €13 (2D) or €14 (live) full price, €11–12 reduced; Planetarium alone €5–6. Free under 3. Closed on Mondays; in the winter season it opens Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 am–5:00 pm.

Get there on the Cumana (EAV) from Montesanto to Bagnoli and then 15 minutes on foot along via Coroglio, or by taxi from the centre. Allow 3 hours and lunch at the café inside or on the Bagnoli beach opposite (see the guide to the beaches).

The ticket for the Planetarium and museum on GetYourGuide (Naples: Planetarium and Science Museum Entry Ticket, €11) is handy if you want everything on one voucher, but compare it with the official combined ticket.

The Aquarium in the Villa Comunale

The Aquarium of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is inside the Villa Comunale, on the Lungomare: it’s the oldest aquarium in Europe still in operation (1874), with historic tanks devoted to the animals of the Gulf. It’s small — an hour is enough — and precisely for that reason it works with children under 7. Next door is the Darwin-Dohrn Museum and, outside, the Villa’s playground and the pedestrian Lungomare for letting off steam.

The entry ticket on Tiqets (Aquarium of Naples: Entry Ticket) costs €10, the same price as the Fondazione Dohrn’s official ticket office (Aquarium + Darwin-Dohrn Museum: €10 full price from age 12, €7 reduced for ages 4–12, free under 3); it opens Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 am–5:00 pm, closed on Mondays. Combine it with a pizza in Chiaia and the Chiaia funicular up to Vomero: the Parco Margherita station is ten minutes away on foot.

Pompeii with children: how to stop them flagging

Pompeii is enormous, shadeless and full of stones to trip over. With children it holds up if you treat it as a three-hour expedition, not a museum:

1. Go in at 9:00 am through Porta Marina, two minutes from the Pompei Scavi–Villa dei Misteri station on the Circumvesuviana (35–40 minutes from Porta Nolana/Garibaldi). In summer, by 11 the heat is already a problem.
2. Choose a route: the Forum, the Stabian Baths, the streets with the cart ruts, the casts, the Amphitheatre. Not the Lupanar, not for children.
3. Give them something to look for: the “cave canem” mosaics, the fountains with faces, the ancient street signs. The Park’s Pompeii Children’s Museum has materials and routes designed for families.

Entry is free under 18, as at all state sites (free and reduced entry “as per current regulations” according to pompeiisites.org); adults pay €20 for the ancient city alone or €25 with the suburban villas and the shuttle to Boscoreale. From 16 March to 14 October the site opens 9:00 am–7:00 pm with last entry at 5:30 pm.

The Pompeii: Entry Ticket + 3D Ancient City Tour with AR Glasses (€52, 2 hours) shows the houses rebuilt in augmented reality as you walk: for children from age 8 it’s the difference between “old walls” and a city. All the details on trains, tickets and guided tours are in the guide to Pompeii.

MAV in Ercolano: the virtual museum

If Pompeii or Herculaneum went down well, the MAV – Virtual Archaeological Museum in Ercolano (via IV Novembre 44, 5 minutes from Ercolano Scavi station) shows the same houses as they were before AD 79, with reconstructions and a simulated eruption. According to the official website (museomav.it) it opens every day 10:00 am–6:00 pm; ticket €11, €9 up to age 13, free under 5. The ticket on Tiqets (MAV - Virtual Archaeological Museum of Herculaneum) starts at €6: check what it includes. A visit lasts an hour and a half and combines well with the ruins of Herculaneum, smaller and shadier than Pompeii.

Vesuvius with children: age and effort

The Gran Cono of Vesuvius is at 1,281 metres. From the car park at 1,000 m (Ercolano) the path climbs to the rim of the crater in about 30 minutes, on volcanic gravel, with a constant gradient and no shade. The rules of the Vesuvius National Park limit time on the path to 2 hours there and back on the short route.

There’s no official minimum age. In practice: from age 6 for children used to walking; no pushchairs (even backpack carriers suffer in the wind); closed shoes, hat, water, a jacket even in July because it’s windy at the top. With children under 5 it’s better to skip it or take turns at the car park.

The ticket can only be bought online at vesuviopark.vivaticket.it, for a time slot: full price €10 and reduced €8 for under-25s, plus fees (€11.68 and €9.55 the totals quoted by the Park). Crater access hours: 9:00 am–5:00 pm from April to June and in September, 9:00 am–6:00 pm in July and August, 9:00 am–4:00 pm in March and October, 9:00 am–3:00 pm from November to February. During an orange weather alert the path closes. Shuttles, combinations with Pompeii and a comparison of the tours are in the guide to Vesuvius.

Funiculars, art metro stations and Castel Sant’Elmo

For a child the funicular is an attraction, not a means of transport. The Centrale funicular leaves from via Toledo (Augusteo station) and reaches Piazza Fuga in Vomero in a few minutes; from there you walk up to Castel Sant’Elmo, with the highest terraces in the city, and to the Certosa di San Martino with its hall of nativity scenes. Come back down on the Chiaia funicular or on metro Line 1 from Vanvitelli, stopping at Toledo, the station with the blue mosaic that children want to photograph.

ANM fares verified on anm.it: €1.30 for a single ride, €4.50 for the operator’s day ticket, valid on metro, buses and funiculars. The Centrale funicular runs from 7:00 am until 10:30 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, until 12:30 am on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and until 2:00 am on Fridays and Saturdays. The Montesanto funicular is closed for its twenty-year overhaul: there’s a replacement bus.

A family pizza class

The Naples: Pizza and Tiramisu Cooking Class with Diploma and Wine on GetYourGuide lasts 3 hours, costs €22 per person and has over 1,500 reviews averaging 4.9: you knead, stretch, bake, eat your own pizza and finish with tiramisù. It’s the activity that rescues a rainy afternoon and that children remember more than any museum. Weekend dates sell out: book a few days ahead. Other classes and street food tours are on the food tours page.

Family itinerary: three days

With a fourth day add a trip to Procida (35–40 minutes by hydrofoil, beaches reachable by bus) or to the Royal Palace of Caserta with its park: see day trips from Naples.

Practical tips

• Pushchair: fine on the Lungomare, in Chiaia and in Vomero; bad in the historic centre (cobbles, steps, crowds) and at Pompeii. A baby carrier solves the first two days.
• Timing: the state museums and Pompeii open at 9; children do best in the morning. Afternoon by the sea or in the Villa.
• Food: folded pizza, frittatine, sfogliatelle. Restaurants serve dinner from 7:30 pm; small children eat earlier with a takeaway pizza.
• First Sunday of the month: Pompeii and the state museums are free for everyone, but with far more people.
• Safety: no particular risks for families; wear your backpack in front on the crowded metro and on via Toledo at weekends.

Naples with children comes down to a few right ingredients: a morning of science, a buried city with something to hunt for, a volcano sized for short legs and a pizza made with their own hands. The rest, ice cream included, takes care of itself.