We are trying to book our Rome days with a few walking tours, and would love some advice on which to pick.
Is the Coop Culture Colosseum underground and third ring tour much different than the VIP Colosseum Underground Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill from Walks of Italy? The prices are much cheaper for the first, but we really want to get the best ( and most informative) experience!
Thanks
The only difference is the official tour doesn't include a tour of the forum/palatine hill. It just includes entry there. If you want a nice tour of the forum and are there on a Friday night you could book a tour for 15 euros.
http://www.coopculture.it/events.cfm?id=146
Donna
Walks of Italy groups are small, a maximum of 12 people. I like that ratio. Check to see how big the Coop Culture groups are. Many tour groups are very large, especially when the price is low....
The official underground tours are limited in capacity because the size of the underground area is small. They limit the tours to 25 people. You can easily see and hear the guides. These guides are excellent and answer any and all of your questions.
Donna
Thoroughly enjoyed the underground and third tier tour, as well as the money saved.
We took the Coop Culture tour because of the price. I assume that we would have gotten a better experience with a more pricey tour (I always look on TripAdvisor to see which ones have the best reviews) but decided not to splurge in this case. The tour we went on was fine - not the highlight of our trip, but no complaints. But as others have said, it doesn't include a tour of the Forum/Palatine Hill, which might make a big difference to you, as these are all ruins and you need some help to understand what you are looking at. Rick Steves has free audiotours of both the Colosseum (though you won't be able to get underground/third ring if you are doing a DIY tour) and the forum. I checked out his Rome guide from the library and made copies of his Palatine Hill walking tour to follow along with, and bought a copy of "Rome: Past and Present" to see then and now pictures. Overall, I'd say that if cost is your priority, doing the cheaper CoopCulture tour along with Rick's free materials for the Forum/Palatine hill was just fine, but if you are looking for the complete/memorable experience, you would probably be better off finding a highly-rated tour group on TripAdvisor.
