Versailles----guided tour or solo?

Good question and I would guess that's largely a personal preference.

We went with a tour leaving from Paris due to not wanting to deal with the train strike. (I know the bus still runs. We chose the tour for the convenience.)

Looking forward to other responses.

We did solo and it was fine. We could do our own pace. A lot of redundant looking rooms. Very big place and the lines for just security were very long in July.

I would not buy a guided tour with an outside company, if that's what you mean. The Private Apartments Tour offered by the Chateau itself allows you to see a few extra rooms and to enter through a different, shorter security line.

We used the Rick Steves audio tour and that was great!

Solo for the most part, but I recommend the King's apartments guided tour.

We went the "do-it-yourself" route. We didn't rush in the morning, arrived around 10:00 am or so. Spent the morning in the gardens, Made our way to the Grand Trianon by noon. Had lunch in the gardens, then returned to the chateau/palace in the afternoon and found the crowds practically non-existent.

We also did the Rick Steves audio tour. It worked well.