We booked the Walks of Italy VIP Colosseum Underground Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill for May 26. I just got an email this morning that our tour has been cancelled! Our Rome trip is coming up fast. I’m looking for reliable alternatives to pre-book tickets for these entrances but I’m seeing no availability on this date. Any recommendations for other small group tours? Thank you.
By the way, I inadvertently posted this on the Spain forum first - it was the next leg of our trip. 🙃
Sadly, all of the tour companies are struggling to get tickets. You can purchase a tour (as you discovered) and then have them cancel when they discover that they were unable to get tickets.
https://www.througheternity.com/
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy
are two companies that are often suggested here.
Is a private guide, at somewhere around €60 an hour, out of the question? Individual guides may already be booked on and around May 26, but if €240-300 total isn’t beyond what you’ll consider, we all can offer some names. And if they’re busy, they can likely refer you to other guides whom they recommend.
We once had a guide cancel on us at the last minute - not cool!
I hope you can find a small group tour. The company we used for private guides in Pompei offers tours in Rome - Askos. But if if you can't find a small group guide for The Forum, Colosseum, and the Palatine - time to work on Plan B. Maybe the Baths of Caracalla, Ostia Antica, Ara Pacis....
https://www.askostours.com/top-attractions/colosseum/
https://www.rome.net/baths-caracalla
Thank you for your feedback!
Carol now retired … Yep, already checked out these groups. Heard tours can be cancelled bc of difficulty getting Colosseum tickets. Thinking cancellation would have happened much sooner since tx become available 30 days prior to entrance date.
Cyn … Pls offer names. Thank you!
Estimated Prophet … Thinking plan b is looking good. We’ve already begun our travels and I don’t want to miss anything about where I am now. Plenty to do in Rome! :)
About 10 years ago we showed up with no tickets and there were these guides walking around trying to scoop up about 10 tourists to form a group and we joined with them and they took us right in. It cost more than if you bought at the ticket booth but we skipped the line and saved time.
Charles …. Thank you for the tip.
Janz, now that advance, timed-entry reservations are required, there is NO way I'd rely on what was accurate 10 years ago. No, you didn't have to buy reserved, timed-entry tickets some years back but that has changed so I wouldn't personally buy Colosseum tickets off the street these days.
You can always try Viator...I would go with them as a last last last minute back up plan. They have availability for two people right now for one of the tours (all other were sold out!)
Janz, I hope this isn’t too little, too late. We’re in Ireland at the moment, so not continuously monitoring this Travel Forum. Hope it’s been as nice in Rome as here in County Cork.
We’ve hired several guides on past trips, but two who stood out (and we’ve used Marta multiple times) are:
Marta Marsili at martamarsili@hotmail.com
and
Sonia Tavoletta at soniatavoletta63@gmail.com
I hope they’re available, or can get you a last-minute guide referral who’ll give you an exceptional tour for an acceptable price. Compared to Walks of Italy, this might wind up being a better value.
Alternatively, skip the Colosseum and just enjoy the Forum with the audio tour Rick has. You will see the outside of the Colosseum which is really the most interesting in some ways. And then you will have something to look forward to when you come back!
I went to the Colosseum for the first time in 1985. It was free, just wandered in, sat high up in the stadium where the shade and breezes were (it was July so hot!), but it was also a Tuesday so the Forum was completely closed as it was in those days. So here I am, coming back to right this wrong and walk through the Forum. Finally. Not sure I will get back into the Colosseum, but it's all good either way.
Enjoy your trip! Heading to Ireland after Rome and France, so happy to hear you are having good weather. That is terrific!
Headed into Rome this afternoon. Had wonderful, sunny weather in Venice after a good visit but very rainy days in Ghirla and the surrounding lakes region. Thank you Cyn ... for your guide recommendations and Laura ... for your alternate plan suggestions. I’ve had the opportunity to visit the Colosseum and Forum before but this is the first time for my partner and I wanted to make sure he has a great experience.
This forum is amazing. Everyone is so gracious and generous with their feedback. Thank you!
Unfortunately we just had our Walks of Italy VIP Colosseum Underground Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill for May 30th cancelled also. They did offer another tour (not the same -colosseum only) the afternoon of the 30th so after switching other plans we will still make it to the colosseum. We did make our reservations months in advance so I guess this is reality now. Good luck!
Thanks for all help on this! I contacted a couple of the guides offered. They were already booked which is no surprise. One did quote $80 for our group of 11. Reasonable. But we both thought the problem is getting those tickets?! They likely cannot either…right? So now waiting it out until 30 day window nxt mnth. See what that looks like?
One did quote $80 for our group of 11. Reasonable. But we both thought
the problem is getting those tickets?! They likely cannot
either…right? So now waiting it out until 30 day window nxt mnth. See
what that looks like?
Was that per hour with tickets being additional, and the tour offered includes the Colosseum+ Forum+Palatine? If the underground is included, that's where I'd be skeptical that they could pull it off as, yes, those tickets are very difficult to get thus the cancellations. To be honest, I wouldn't stress if you can't access that part: they don't spend that much time down there, and you can see into the uncovered parts from above. You're safer booking something that does NOT include the underground.
Kathy nailed it. The problem is getting the underground part of the tour. We were scheduled for the underground tour and they told me - only a couple days in advance - that they couldn't get those tickets. So we had to go with the next best tour, which was the Gladiator's Entrance tour. Ground level, but not underground.
You might try thetourguy.com as a last resort to see if the gladiator tour or regular tour is available for the date you want. They seem to have lots of those tickets. I hesitate to recommend thetourguy because they've pulled a couple stunts with me that I find to be unscrupulous, but overall I think they're a well known tour company.
No the $80 for one hour and not underground. Not including tickets of course. Tickets seem like the problem…even above ground….?
