Tour companies

Yes Dana, I have taken several tours in Rome with Walks of Italy, and found their tours and guides to be uniformly excellent. Many other people on this forum have said similar things. There are various other good tour companies in Rome also, and most of these companies function in other major Italian cities and sometimes even in other countries. I have not used or even heard of "Rome cab" and have not arranged transfers through a tour company. By transfers, I assume you mean to and from airports, ports, etc. When visiting major sites, you often have a choice of "how to visit" including, from lowest to highest cost, (1) on your own, with a guide book or audio tour, (2) taking a guided tour offered by the site, such as the Vatican Museum or Colosseum, (3) join a small group tour with a company like "Walks of Italy", or (4) take a private tour just for your family or group, booked either with an individual guide or with a tour company. Depending on the particular site, you will find fans of all these approaches on this forum, I imagine.

Thanks Larry. We are not going until June so I know I have a few months to decide. Just noticed a difference in price between the two companies. We are a group of 6, transfer from the airport to our hotel is about 40.00 dollars difference. Rome Cab is the less expensive. The tours are closer amounts. Again, thanks for your reply.
Dana

By the way Dana, Walks of Italy has offered a 10 percent "Rick Steves discount" just by mentioning it, at least they did a year ago. I took advantage of that on group tours, but I don't know if that would apply to private tours or transfers. Walks of Italy has a toll-free number to their US office, staffed by very knowledgeable and helpful people. You might call there, tell them what you have in mind, and see what they can do for you. Depending on the interests, ages or any special needs of your group (such as children, teens or people with mobility issues), often good guides can design tours especially suited to your group. Also, while I myself have never flown in or out of Rome, I believe there is a fixed rate for taxis of 48 euros between the main international airport and hotels in the city. With six people, you might save money by just taking two taxis. No doubt others here on the forum can add their guidance from personal experience.

Dana, my wife and I went to Rome with another couple in 2009 and signed up for a Vatican tour with Walks of Italy. At the time it was a relatively new company and we were lucky enough to get the owner/founder Jason Spiehler as our guide. Being fairly cheap, I had some concerns about spending the extra money for a tour. But as it turned out, it was one of the best decisions of our trip. Jason was fantastic and we got so much more out of the Vatican tour than we would have doing it by ourselves. It was so good that when we finished, we signed up for his Ancient Rome tour taking place the next day. We again had Jason as our guide and it was again fantastic. We also ended up taking their night walk of Rome with a different guide, who was also great. We are taking another trip to Italy with our kids this April and I will definitely be signing up for the Walks of Italy tours again.

I used Rome Cabs for an airport transfer for 5 of us in 2013. I waited too late to book the regular airport transfer (they were completely booked) so went with the VIP tour which was the transfer and a 1-1.5 hour tour of Rome. It actually worked out really well. It was our first trip to Rome and somehow I thought the tour would help us get oriented. It really didn't accomplish that as the driver zigzagged thru those one way streets so I was totally confused but he showed us some excellent views including the Aventine keyhole.

The driver spoke excellent English and was very personable. I would use them again for an airport transfer!