Tour Guide vs Using the RS Book?

I am generally happy to use the RS audio guides. We did at the Forum in Rome, Accademia in Florence, St Marks in Venice...and it was interesting in that we def noticed things we wouldn't have on our own.

The few times we've used a tour guide was either:

1 - because we had to (the Underground/3rd tier at the Colosseum - tho the first time we visited the Colosseum, before you could access the under/3rd - we hooked up with a tour guide outside the Colosseum - mostly because this was the very first place we ever visited, so we were a little green)

2 - for convenience/time sake - we wanted to visit the Vatican but not during the usual crush of the day, so we opted for Walks of Italy after hours tour - which was still crowded. Also hooked up with one of the guided tours outside Pompeii - again - we knew we'd only have a few hours before we had to get on to the coast, and figured this would give us a good overview.

3 - lack of an easy way to get around (ie - no car) - used a private guide/service on the Amalfi Coast and used a group day tour to visit a few places in the South of France and San Francisco

I will say - we were generally happy with the tours - the Amalfi Coast one was most expensive, but we had a lovely driver/clean air conditioned car for 8 hours and no way we could have done what we did in a day on a bus. In the end, it was worth it because my mom said it was her fav day of our whole trip.

I am still more of a do-it-myselfer, but there are times when tours just make sense. I would tend more to a group tour - for a private tour of a museum or site - I'd be more inclined to use an audio guide. I'd look into whether said museum offers audio guides as well before paying for a private tour.

Just as an example of using the RS audio - we've been to Venice a few times. First visit to St Marks, we just wandered around gawking. Second time, we used the RS audio - and so many little quirky detail things were pointed out, we took longer to look around instead of just shuffling thru. I'm pretty sure we got sort of the same experience for free that we would have had we used a private guide (tho I'm sure they may have even more interesting things to point out).

Then again - unless everyone has an ipad/phone/whatever you would use to listen to it on, it's a little harder for a family to all use the audio, unless you have it on speaker - it's OK in a place like the Forum, which isn't crowded, but at St Marks, there is quite a din and could be hard to hear, and somewhere like Accademia, where it is more hushed, it would be distracting for others. Picturing me and hubby shuffling thru SM, both with an earbud in our ears, trying to stay close so they don't pop out...

I normally use Rick's tours, information from his books, or a locally-available audio guide. However, I wouldn't hesitate to choose a special guided tour that gave me access to areas not open to the public if I had a special interest in the site. Examples in Italy include the Vatican Scavi Tour, the Colosseum Underground Tour and the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace. I believe the Domus Aurea requires a tour if you want to see the site at all.

I very much enjoyed the Secret Itineraries tour. It takes you to parts of the Doge's Palace that are not open to visitors except on the tour and includes a lot of information on what life was like back in the day.