Traveling to Rome during September 2018. Was curious to know from the travel community what the best guided tour was for Colosseum that you have experienced?
Guidelines: small group (under 6) / 2 hour max / later in the day (e.g. Saturday late afternoon or early evening) / tour in English / budget is 50 euro/person.
Thank you very much in advance for any suggestions!
Congrats on your upcoming trip to Rome, jmormak! September will be a wonderful time to visit. My first trip was in October, and I loved that time of year in Rome.
I did the Roma Antica tour with Context Travel on that first trip to Rome. It covers the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Forum. Excellent tour, and the docent/guide Dimo had done his PhD dissertation on an excavation site within the Forum. Doesn't get much more authentic than that! To clarify, Context limits their tours to 6 people max.
Context also offers a Colosseum and Imperial Rome tour that appears to be focused solely on the Colosseum. Looks like a great way to immerse in that one site.
The only caveat with the Context tours is that these tours start first thing in the morning, not later in the day as you are looking for. With that said, I recommend visiting the Colosseum first thing in the morning since that complex (Colosseum/Palatine Hill/Forum) become a zoo as the day progresses.
If you're interested in a private guide for the Colosseum and/or other ancient sites, I highly recommend Agnes Crawford (www.understandingrome.com). I first toured with Agnes through Context (2016), then 2 months ago I did a Medieval Rome private tour with her. Oh wow, highly, highly recommended!!!
Let us know if you have additional questions, and happy planning!
Thank you very much Joanna. This is super helpful.
How many people will be with you?
If it is more than 2, you may want to look at hiring a private guide. We had a group of 5 and it was cheaper to hire a good private tour guide than to pay for each of us individually on a group tour.
It was a great decision, and we really enjoyed the private tour.
We used Marta Marsili and she was great. I don't know what her current rate was, but in Sep 2016 it was 60 euro an hour with a 3 hour minimum. If you divide that by 4 people, you have a private tour under your budget.
In addition, if anyone knows of good Rome tour companies that run medium size tours (10-12 people) instead of smaller, private tours (5-6 people), I'd be interested in knowing the names of those companies.
very much appreciated.
