Viator daytrip to Hadrian's Villa

Don't have any opinion about Viator as a guide group. However, Villa D'Este and Hadrian's villa is extremely easy to do on your own. See RoninRome.com for a step by step, and I mean step by step, of how to do it. What is the price for the Viator tour?

You also might look at Context Travel. I am hoping to do a group tour (3 min/6 max) with them in May for Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa. They have very knowledgeable people doing their tours.

Sharon

We'd love to do a Context tour, but at nearly 800 euros for the two of us (there's a 339 car service fee) it is WELL above our budget. Even 400 euros for the two of us is extravagant. That said, we are doing Context tours in Rome and elsewhere in Italy.

Viator is a reseller of tours from other companies and will of course add on a commission so that they make money.

I think I would look for the original company doing the tour, read their reviews, and see if you want what they offer. Check some other travel sites like Fodors or Trip Advisor for tour info.

Or do it on your own.

And you could do those tours on your own for less than a 100 euro. I think there are times when guided tours makes lot of sense, but this is not of them.

Buy a guidebook and go on your own with the CO.TRA.L bus.

Thanks all. We're nervous and I think we're just going to have to get over that.

Frank: Viator is about $90pp which is great for a 7 hour tour.

I haven't been on the tour you asked about. But we have occasionally used Viator branded tours on Viator-branded busses. That was when we wanted to do a few sites in a day and not worry about any details. It's a matter of personal taste. Sometimes it was also that our hotel was very near a Viator departure point. You have to count connection failures and roadside walking time when you D-I-Y. Sometimes, an organized tour might skip an admission booth line during peak tourist season. When we went to D'Este (a long time ago), there were sudden entry hour schedule changes due to employee action and historic monuments budgets. I believe that's not too inaccurate to describe post-Great Recession Italy today! None of that is your problem with a big provider.

Yes, sometimes you get less time than you would like at the sites. But sometimes you can decline an optional lunch and get more "free time". We've even negotiated (with the live guide on the bus) to be left behind at a site and picked up when the bus drives by on the way to the next site, after lunch.

I wasn't aware that Viator re-sold tours. I would certainly prefer to be dealing first hand with the company I put a credit card charge to, in case there's a major problem.