gladiator gate and underground colosseum tour

Been to the Colosseum four times and have never been on the underground part. There are plenty of YouTube videos you can see to see if it is of interest and worth the money to you.

I think some type of tour of that area is definitely worth it because they can tell you about a lot of things you would not notice otherwise.
I did do the underground tour and it was very interesting, as it tells you a lot about how they got things in and out of the coliseum & the animals that were part of the games with a lot of details about how things functioned. It's special because not everybody gets to do it. But you can live without it if you need to save money.

Did you already miss the window for buying directly from the official website? I missed the tickets for the day the tickets were released- but went back a day later and found some for the next day of our trip. I sort of wonder if it's just timing. So much cheaper.

Can you share where you found that underground tour for 300$? I am looking at LIV tours, and it is 800$+!!!

s42mahoney, the OP's kids fall into child rates, as they're a family of 2 adults, 3 kids. Yours is a family of 6 adults so that can affect the cost. I'm not familiar with LIV tours - haven't seen that company mentioned much if at all on the forums - but this LIV express tour of the underground and arena ONLY (does not include a guided tour of the Forum and Palatine) is 624€ for 6 adults.

https://livtours.com/tours/semi-private-express-colosseum-underground-arena-tour/

The best ticket price is sold by the official website for the 3 sites: Coopculture.
https://www.coopculture.it/en/tickets/

Their best tour of the underground and arena is 34.00 € pp, adult. It is also THE most difficult tickets to obtain for just about any attraction in Rome, due to that price. They've been known to sell out minutes after becoming available, and especially if traveling in high season, which you will be (July). They also have an even more economical one at 24.00 € that includes an escort to the underground (visitors are not allowed down there on their own) but no guided narration. These will also be difficult to lay hands on for 6 adults.

https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/the-wonders-of-the-colosseum-visiting-the-underground-and-the-arena/
https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/full-experience-ticket-with-access-to-the-arena-and-underground-of-the-colosseum/

These companies (linked below) have seen a fair amount of reco's on the forums, and I'd personally lean towards a tour which includes the Forum and Palatine as they're more complex sites:

https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome
https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp4mc_K7t-wIV9P3jBx2KHg1nEAAYASAAEgL7nvD_BwE
https://www.througheternity.com/en/colosseum-tours/

Do note that even the independent tour companies have had trouble getting hands on tickets; the RS forum saw some posts regarding last-minute cancellations of some underground tours. It seemed to be a bigger issue with WOI tours than Roman Guy's. Whether that will be an ongoing issue in high season of 2023 remains to be seen.

What a great answer, Kathy!

I was one of those with the last minute cancellations. I knew there was a high possibility of cancellation in advance, so it wasn’t as upsetting as if it had been out of the blue. My reservation had been with Walks of Italy..

Carol, I remember when that happened to you, and being impressed that you cheerfully rolled with that punch and didn't let it ruin your trip! You also weren't the only one who had that happen, as I recall.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/colosseum-underground-tour-cancellation

I'll admit that both my #1 and #2 visits to the Colosseum were before they'd even opened the underground to tourists. As we'd been able to see down into much of it from above, we didn't feel it was a must-do on Trip #3 and skipped the arena entirely. For us, there were just so many other things to see and do in Rome without the headache of trying to land Coopculture underground tickets, or pay the price for an indy-company tour...for just the underground piece of it, anyway. A great tour of not JUST the Colosseum but the Forum and Palatine as well is a different kettle of fish. They do tend to be rather long - 3-4 hours - but will help making sense of what remains of those other 2 sites unless you want to do a lot of research on your own.

Kathy, thank you for that great detailed helpful response. I am going back to the drawing board! I know I can always count on sage and practical advice from the RS crowd!

We were there at the end of October 1:45 pm entry, and didn’t do the underground section, just the above ground. It was crowded and overwhelming and included the Forum and Palantine Hill. Weather was sunny, hot and perfect.
BBC TV and Canadian History channel had a series [8 - 1 hour shows?) on the Colosseum showing the history and related to the history of Rome which I’m glad that I watched as I thought it was better than our tour. I wouldn’t recommend skipping the Colosseum but don’t regret not doing the underground tour. I do regret that we didn’t go back at night to see it lite up.

https://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Gladiator-Gate-and-Arena-Floor-Special-Access-Colosseum-Tour/d511-15693P36

This is where we purchased our tickets. It comes with the Forum and Palantine Hill

Glad that you found something that appealed, NK29. Have you taken your tour yet? If not, what date did you book your tour for?

Just to mention, many of us advise against booking tickets/tours though TripAdvisor/Viator as they are not a tour/guide service. They're a 3rd-party middleman for other company's services/products, and they take a cut of the profits. It can also be an issue if something doesn't go right with your trip, you need to cancel your tour, or have some other problem and you're dealing with a 3rd party instead of directly with the tour company itself.

In your case I think you'll probably be OK as it is actually run by reputable "Walks of Italy". This is the same tour offered on their own website, and what I would personally have booked instead of going through Viator as even many long-time TA members advise against booking anything though them.

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-arena-floor-tour/

It also doesn't include the underground, which had been the biggest cause of tour cancellations for them in the recent past. But curiously? I tried to do a dummy booking for that tour on Viator and it came up as unavailable for 2 adults/3 kids for every single random date I entered between now and June (didn't look any further out than that). Weird.