Colosseum tours

Hands down Walks of Italy. They are very highly rated and I used them three times last time I was in Italy and we loved every tour. We really felt like it was great use of our limited time in both Rome and Florence.

Part of my brain wants the most detailed or most complete tour, another part of my brain wants to avoid feeling too silly for paying for a tour when I could have picked a cheaper tour that would have been approximately equivalent or which would have been good enough.

I took the Through Eternity tour for the Vatican Museums and Saint Peter's Basilica. The guide was an expert in art history; the tour started with meetup at 7:30 (entry to Museums a little after 8). The tour lasted five hours. Cost and length of time is similar to what you describe for the Colosseum, etc.

If you love history, this is an investment.

The official tours are very good. This tour offers great information on the structure, how it was built and what it was used for. For 25 euros you can book the underground tour and entry to the forum and palatine hill.

If you are really into the history of Rome and want an in-depth tour you might want to book with a company that offers a tour of the forum as well as the colosseum. The official site no longer offers group tours of the forum.

Donna

What does page 816 say ???

I have no idea what Mike saw on page 816 of the 2017 Italy guidebook. I'm looking at that very page right now and there's nothing negative about Walks of Italy. There is a mention of a 10% discount, so I don't know if he skipped getting the discount. Hmmm..

Anyway, I used City Wonders last year and did this tour with my husband http://citywonders.com/rome-tours/colosseum-underground-tour and we absolutely loved it. It was the Colosseum Underground Tour with Arena Floor, 3rd Ring, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill. It was a small group of about 12 people and our guide was great.

The other tours will join the coopculture tour for the underground and 3rd ring and go off on their own for the Forum and the Palatine Hill. If you go the coopculture way you have to be ready at 9am Rome time on the date that the tickets release for your month to order the tickets on-line or by phone. It might take you up to 2 hours to get through and get your tickets. If you wait until you wake up that day they will more than likely be gone (as all those tours also have to buy the tickets too.) After the underground and 3rd ring tour then you are on your own for the rest of the sites with CoopCulture. I did the CoopCulture tour it was great. We had the Walks of Italy people with our tour and saw them several times as we wondered around the Forum and Palantine Hill. The guide seemed very knowledgeable and attentive. Enjoy your trip.

You can see reviews of some of the tours by various people and companies on
www.tripadvisor.com
search for colosseum Rome
I saw several .

@Larlock: Do you mean that for the "official" underground tour, I would have to be awake at 3am Eastern daylight time - I live in Michigan- just to buy my ticket??

Hi Mike,
I took The Roman Guy’s “Colosseum Dungeons Tour, Roman Forum, & Palatine Hill” tour two weeks ago. The tour, a small group of 12, started at 13:30. We spent about half the time in the Colosseum and then moved on to Palatine Hill & then the Roman Form. I was pleased with the guide. The Roman Forum portion of the tour was very rushed however, as it closes at 17:00 that time of year. When I say the Forum closes at 17:00 I mean the loudspeakers start blaring and staff begin to herd everyone out at 16:30 so that by 17:00 the place is empty, the gates are locked, and staff are headed home! I had been to the Forum previously, and I was planning to return for a second visit on my own so it was not a big deal.

You did not say when you were going but the closing times varies depending on the time of the year. 

@Larlock: Do you mean that for the "official" underground tour, I
would have to be awake at 3am Eastern daylight time - I live in
Michigan- just to buy my ticket??

This from Larock:

"If you go the coopculture way you have to be ready at 9am Rome time on the date that the tickets release for your month to order the tickets on-line or by phone. It might take you up to 2 hours to get through and get your tickets. If you wait until you wake up that day they will more than likely be gone (as all those tours also have to buy the tickets too.) "

Yes, it means you need to be up at 9:00 AM Rome time to try and snag tickets the minute they become available: they go that fast. And yes, it could take you a couple of hours. This very recent thread from an RS poster who had to do just that:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/coliseum-underground-tickets

Buying entrance tickets through the official website, is too much trouble for me. I thought I would save money but now I am going to just reserve a spot in a group tour, even if I end up paying 75 to 119 euros (or however much more it ends up being in US dollars). I hope the Through Eternity tour won't be a strange mistake. They say they offer a break in the middle, so I hope that is enough time to use the men's room. Only professional group tour leaders should bother getting tickets on the official website. Normal visitors like me should just pick a tour offered by one of the companies listed on page 816 or another similar tour company. But I am a single man traveling alone, I am already saving money by staying in hostels and buying my own food at grocery stores or fruit markets like local Italians do.

Hi Mike,

Congrats on your upcoming trip to Rome! You're going to have a fantastic time on the tour that you booked. Remember, guide books are precisely that: a guide. Spin the wheel, take confidence in your booking decision, and enjoy the experience.

And kudos for your solo adventure! I've enjoyed 2 solo trips to Rome in less than 6 months, and to say I'm hooked would be the biggest understatement ever. Italy is a wonderful experience for solo travelers, especially for the opportunity to meet great people on the group tours like you'll be taking. My favorite memories of Rome trip #1 were the people I met on 2 group tours in particular.

If you're looking to take more tours, also consider Context Travel (www.contexttravel.com). I've been on 6 different tours with Context in Rome, and loved all but 1 of the tours. You'll be in great hands with their highly educated docents, and Context has a dizzying lineup of tours in Rome.

Enjoy!

Mike,
You probably made the right decision. And yes I did mean you would have had to get up at 3am to get the tickets. It was a very frustrating experience but the tour was great. Let us know how your tour works out.

LarLock

We did the Through Eternity tour two years ago. We used them for both the Colosseum tour that you mentioned as well as the Vatican/Sistine chapel. Both were wonderful!! The Colosseum tour, if you can request Lucca, he was amazing. We had a group of 8. The break gave us enough time for some to grab a QUICK bite and use of the restroom, which Lucca gave good suggestion of where to go. Going back to Lucca, he is an archiologist who studied/excavation work at the Forum, so his knowledge is quite expansive! He studied in the states, so his English is quite good.

The through Eternity website only allows 2-9 people to register, not just one person. I wasn't going to bother contacting them and waiting days for a reply. The Roman Guys got my business. The other ones listed on page 816 or the open internet either don't go to the basement/ third tier of the Colosseum, or give too little detail.

I woke up at 2 am on March 20th to snag Underground tickets for April 13. It was a frustrating two hours but I'm so glad I did. I got the tickets for the day I wanted and was able to go back to sleep for another two hours. im so happy I did it and am extremely happy that I saved money. It might seem daunting at first, but believe me, you won't regret it...at least not two days later...maybe a day later you'll be grumbling a bit. Lol

I just was able to grab my tickets for the underground tour through the official website last night, I was glad I did. It took about 15 minutes of constant refreshes to get in. I had to wake up at what was 9 am Rome Time (3 am Eastern). A group of 5 of us are going and we all woke up with every laptop we had on hand. After the complicated signup process (All of which is in Italian). We grabbed our tickets for the day and time we wanted. After we got in, I curiously looked again to see how many tickets were left. There was just one the entire day and probably only a handful for the entire month. I went back to bed and woke up this morning and looked again. All gone!

I've done this tour before and Loved it. Its worth getting special underground access. Only a handful of people get to go down each day.