Guide in Rome worth the cost?

A guide to "drive" you around Rome should be your first warning sign. Traffic is a nightmare. Is this person going to actually stop and park the car somewhere and let you out at these famous sights or are you just going to be driving by?

Forget the driving around. If you want to actually know and understand what you're seeing then a guide might be a good thing for you. I would suggest looking at www.toursbylocals.com and pick out a local guide from there. You can choose and read reviews of the guides. Plan on using metro, walking and a taxi or two. But you definitely don't want to be cooped up in a car for your entire time in Rome.

The Vatican Museums are enormous and having a guide would probably make things more interesting for you. For the teenagers maybe not so much. I've been to Rome many times with high school students in tow. Guides always want to include lots of info (they're guides after all) and after about 30 minutes the kids are over it. If you decide you want a guide you can book directly with the Vatican Museums and use one of their guides.

You'll probably be hitting the highlights: Colosseum, Pantheon, Vatican/Sistine, etc in your limited 3 days. If you really need a guide look at the toursbylocals.com site. I've used the site for Normandy, Moscow, St Petersburg, Paris and always had a very positive experience.

For 4 people, having a guide for a day would be fantastic. Not only will you see so much of the city, but you will actually understand what you're seeing. They will also know all the shortcuts to get you into the attractions without spending time getting through long lines.

We found the city buses to be the easiest and most efficient way to avoid walking our legs off. Learn how to navigate the city, and you'll be road ready.

For info on visiting Rome, I suggest you sign into RonInRome.com

I'm sorry your allotted time is only 3 days. It's a destination worthy of a week, especially since the suburbs have about as much to see as the city center.

I totally agree with Tim. A guide might be a good option, but not one that drives you around in a car. You will miss so much doing it that way.. we did. We hired a guide who drove us around.. I did not enjoy it and felt like it was a huge waste of our time and money. On that trip and another trip to Rome, when we just walked everywhere we got SO much more out of being there.

We hired a private guide for the Coliseum, and that was worth it.

Carey,

With such a short time in Rome, it may be worthwhile to hire a Guide for a few hours or even a full day, in order to cover some of the sights you're most interested in seeing. The Guide will be able to get you around to the various locations in the shortest time and you'll learn a lot more about the history, so it will be a more interesting and rewarding experience. You could (for example) hire a Guide for one day and then tour on your own for the other two days.

If you decide to use a Guide, I would highly recommend Francesca Caruso. She has an amazing knowledge of the history and I'm sure you'll enjoy touring with her. One caveat though - be sure to book WELL in advance!

I agree with Tim and the others that a tour to "drive us around" is a goofy idea. If you want to "drive around", take one of the Hop On / Hop Off Buses.

Happy travels!

When I was in Rome the last time with DH and another couple, we contracted with Context Travel for 3 private tours, including one for the Vatican & Museum and one for the Colosseum & Imperial Rome. The third was a custom-designed tour that I had specifically asked for. It was money extremely well-spent! Context isn't cheap, but you don't get a guide with a "canned" spiel...

http://www.contexttravel.com/city/rome

Just go to the Context Travel website and see which tours they normally offer (usually 6-8 participants). Find one or two that you like. Then e-mail them and ask them if they can adjust the tour for the presence of teens and to suggest one of their guides ("docent") for a private tour. They will give you a quote based on the four of you - it's a superb opportunity for the teens to have exclusive access to someone who is genuinely interested and knowledgeable, and who can answer their questions as they go along.

These tours average 3/3.5 hours or so.

We've taken Context tours in Rome (4: 3 were private with 1 being custom), Venice (2: 1 was private and custom), Florence (1) and Paris (3: 2 were private with 1 being custom). As you can see, I make the most out of who their docents are and what they can offer that match my interests. I also ask a lot of questions, so the private/custom approach works very well for me! ;-)

BTW - The comments above about a guide who drives you around are spot on - avoid! What you really want to see is best done by foot. For example: one must-do walk is from Piazza Navona to the Trevi Fountain, via the Pantheon. Not only is Rome very congested, but traffic is diverted away from many of the sites now.

PS - I think that the Christmas market in Piazza Navona starts this week-end! :-)

I second the recommendation for Context tours. I''ve used them in multiple cities, and they're now the only one that I use.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I emailed the hotel we are staying at and they recommended tours through Easitaly.com. Checked out their tours on TripAdvisor & they got rave reviews. Looks like we are going to do a half day tour of the Vatican & an all day tour of sites around Rome both w/a guide. We will have one and a half unstructured days to hit the sites we missed and walk around the city on our own before heading off to Venice. Will not have a lot of time in Rome, but hopefully our first trip of many!