On-line tickets to Colosseum worthwhile? Third tier? Underground? Night?

If you purchase print at home tickets online there is no line for you to wait in. You simply go to the turnstile and enter the site.

The underground tour doesn't cost an additional 20 euros. The cost of the tour along with entry tickets is 22 euros. If you already have tickets it will cost an additional 9 euros and the regular tour will cost an additional 5 euros. I'm not sure where you came up with 70-100 to take a tour but that is not the case at all.

The night tour is considered a special event. You cannot visit on your own and must be on a tour. It also does not include entry to the forum or palatine hill which the normal tickets include.

Basically, you can pay 22 euros each and take the underground tour, visit the rest of the colosseum, the forum and palatine hill, bypass the lines and stay as long as you wish and can take two days to do it, skipping the lines in the process. You can also book the night tour but the only thing it will include is the skip the line access.

Donna

I bet the lines are long all the time...

We did the 3rd ring/underground tour - buy tickets from the same website you listed - but you have to call to get the underground version. It was 22 euro each (that is admission and tour). Well worth it IMO. We learned a whole lot and felt very special going under and also past the locked gate to the top ring with no crowds! Don't pay $100 through a 3rd party provider....

If you don;t want the tour, you just buy the regular tickets - I would do it in advance anyway because I would guess it is always packed there...

Kim

Oh but do arrive extra early for the underground - you still had to wait to pick up your tickets - not a huge amount of time, but if you are skating in just under the wire you will be late.

kim

Thanks Donna and Kim.

Yes, I was looking at third party and/or private tours that cost from $70 each
to as much as 150Euros for our group of four. (Plus, admission fees!)

It seems like the 22Euro each is worthwhile for the underground + upper tier tour.
Is a "tour" a group of 20 ? Or 50 ? Or what?

It might be interesting to do the night thing also or instead of the regular day tour.
Is the Forum and Palatine open at night also or just the Colosseum?

For the website (referenced above) I saw no specific date or time for the "reservation",
so I guess we would still gain by avoiding the ticket line?

How about the "night tour", does that booking (by telephone) specify a certain day and time?
Should I book in now, a month ahead, or can I get it in Rome only a day or two ahead?

Thanks to being patient with me, it seems kind of complicated
with some tickets available on-line and others and requiring a voice call.
Plus, all the third party tour company offerings too.

Thanks, Bob!

The groups are limited to about 15 for the underground because the area is not that large. You won't be shoulder to shoulder but there's not enough room for groups of 50.

The forum and palatine hill close at sunset and are not included in the night tour. You won't be able to visit them the next day without buying another entry ticket as they are not included with the nighttime event.

The tickets are not time and date specific. Show up when you want before December 31, 2014. You won't wait in a line if you use the print at home option. If you choose to pick them up onsite you may encounter a few people in front of you doing the same thing but this only takes a minute or two. Nothing like the hours long wait you'll have if you don't prepurchase.

The night tour is date and time specific. They also only run the tour on specific days of the week. Right now they are for Thursday and Saturdays.

You can book entry tickets whenever you wish. They don't sell out. The tours are capacity limited and tend to sell out weeks in advance. The underground tour is very popular and sometimes can be hard to get on. If you have a large group you probably don't want to wait.

To take the confusion out of any ticket purchases you should always use the official website. If you don't know what those websites are you can always come here to ask. This will always give you the best prices and options.

Donna

Donna, I would like to know the official website for the Colosseum as all this is new to me and we are going in October. I'm not sure if the link at the top of this posting is a 3rd party or the official site. Thank you.

Junkit, it appears to be the official website.

The link at the top is for the official website.

Donna

Great! Thank you. Still trying to figure all this out and the train stuff!

Great! Thank you. Still trying to figure all this out and the train stuff!

We just got back from Rome (we were there Sept 8-13). I didn't prebook the underground/third ring tour ahead of time. I was prepared for disappointment, and would have been fine not doing the tour. We were staying at a spot a 5 min walk to the Colosseum, so I went first thing on the day we wanted to visit. (Note - you cannot buy underground tour tickets at the Forum ticket office, which is where I went first). I asked if they had any open spots, and they had some for 12:40 that day, so we were lucky. I'm not sure if it's a common experience or not. If you are going to be in Rome for more then a few days, and you don't want to prebook, head to the Colosseum first thing in the morning (8:30) and see when they can give you a time. We enjoyed the tour...after getting our reservations made, we went back to our room (well, me and my mom went to get the tix - hubby is not an early riser) then went over to the Forum for a bit, then back to the Col for the tour. We bypassed the line, and had been given little stickers to indicate which numbered waiting area to wait for the guide.

Nicole, I'm glad you were able to secure tickets but this is not normal. Occasionally they will have open slots but most of the time the tour is sold out for weeks in advance. I've had this happen to family members who kept putting off booking the tour and they ended up not getting on a tour for the entire week that we were in the city.

I'm glad it worked out for you but for others, if you really want to do this tour be sure to book as soon as you can or you could find yourself waiting until your next trip to do it.

donna