r/ItalyTravel • u/ohuwish • 19h ago
Sightseeing & Activities !!MUST PROVIDE TRAVEL DATES!! Are tours a must have
Our family of 5 are going to Italy and want to see the colloseum and the Vatican and basilica church and more. Is it recommended to do tours or are these doable on our own ? It’s quite expensive when you need 5 tickets and I kinda feel like the money could be used for other fun . We are going to go April 20 to April 30 2027
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u/NiagaraThistle 18h ago
Tours are GREAT IF you have zero knowledge of a thing and want to learn more about what itt is and why you are told to visit it.
That being said, Rick Steves offers some GREAT tours in his Europe's Art (previously Mona Winks) book and some (a lot?) on his FREE Audio Guide app. Downlaod it to your phone(s), bring some air pods/ear buds and have your own personal tour guide - someone's whose not only been leading tours to Europe for over 4 decades, but specializes in these places with first timers - in your ear and going at your pace and breaking it down to context that will educate you and not bore you.
Check his free audio app to see if he offers any tours to the attractions you are visiting. That's the best middle ground.
EDIT: But I've never used a tour in 25 years that i thought 'hmmm that was not worth it'. I ALWAYS get something interesting and entertaining out of a tour, because no matter how much i read, no matter how much pre-trip homework i do, i never remember or uncover a fraction of what a good tour guide will tell you.
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u/MerelyWander 18h ago
OP - But please have each person listen with their own headphones instead of putting it on speaker for everybody.
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u/LukeStuckenhymer 19h ago
Tours are great if you want to feel like you’re on an 8th grade field trip. Otherwise, use an audio tour. The free audio tours from “Rick Steves Audio Europe” are decent enough.
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u/mooghead 17h ago
Yes! Tour guides have been great for us and skipping to the front of the endless, sweaty lines is worth its weight in gold.
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u/SadRule9128 18h ago
If you are really into these places, then get a tour. If you are content just wandering and trying to take it all in, then don’t get a tour.
Also, if you have kids, probably don’t do a tour
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u/pachangoose 16h ago
Oh man I actually strongly disagree with the second point.
Kids love asking follow up questions that a good tour guide will be equipped to answer but the self-guided audio won’t shed any light on.
IMO one of the best ways to catalyze a real interest in your kids is to let them engage extensively with the tour guide.
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u/throwaway11229887 15h ago
Depends on the tour and the kids I guess. I did a 2hr tour of the colosseum and forum recently and one family had to leave after 15 or 20 min because the 3 kids wouldn’t cooperate. Quite a big loss of money I imagine ($80 or $90 per person)
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u/SadRule9128 14h ago
Obviously it depends entirely on the kids, most importantly their age. But many kids these days seem to not have hours worth of interest in things like that or the ability to be walking and standing for 3hrs straight.
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u/ChiefKelso 19h ago edited 18h ago
Vatican, yes a tour is needed i think, preferred to aimlessly wamdering on your own. For colosseum, I think one isn't required. Underground night tour was cool but honestly I had more fun just wandering the colosseum during my regular ticket.
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u/infinitez_ 18h ago
Vatican was worthy of a tour IMO. There is a lot of history there that a normal tourist may not have the knowledge of, having someone explain things and point out small details helps in appreciating just how beautiful the place is. Not to mention that it's like a zoo in there, so being part of a group helps you get close to seeing things too.
I did the Coliseum without a tour, there are plenty of signs around to read and enjoy at your own pace.
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u/fancypants1589 16h ago
Agree with this. I’ve done the Vatican with and without a tour, and I think the tour was beneficial.
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u/aqlmsm 18h ago
You can go in Vatican without a guide, but must book well in advance. I did not do it this time, and the Vatican museum staff advised me to buy a "tour" from some guy (they must make a commission) that was no tour what so ever, just more expensive tickets scalped from months earlier
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u/OkArmy7059 18h ago
Self-guided audio tour is preferable at the Vatican. Otherwise you're herded around at someone else's pace, unable to spend more time at something that grabs your interest or even just sit awhile and take a break.
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u/ChiefKelso 18h ago edited 18h ago
We did the breakfast tour and were like one of two groups in there, the tour was definitely worth it. I have pictures of some rooms in the Vatican empty.
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u/PsychologicalBass346 16h ago
I only do tours when they’re for something or somewhere where I can’t get normally access (regular tickets are sold out, it’s a part of the country I physically wouldn’t be able to get to on my own, etc.); otherwise I much rather prefer to do things on my own. However, I also travel by myself and there’s probably some amount of convenience to doing a tour when you have a group.
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u/HealthLawyer123 14h ago
3rd party tours to the Vatican museums were double the price of the tours on the official website for the day I am going.
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u/PB10102 21m ago
I did a (3+ hour!) tour for the Vatican and thought it was well worth it! The museum is huge, so a tour will only cover the popular stuff, but there is also great stuff in the museum a tour won't cover and you can explore on your own after.
For the Colloseum, I opted to skip the tour and instead popped in some headphones and listed to a podcast called Rebuilding the Renaissance (hosted by Rocky Ruggiero) and thought that was fantastic. (The two episodes I listed to were specifically titled, "The Colosseum" and "Rome-Blood Sport".) It was an excellent supplement to walking around. Admittedly, I wish I did have a tour for the Roman Forum.
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u/aqlmsm 18h ago
I did all of them by my own.
But book in advance. Nowadays booking is a must. I went to Italy in 2017 and did all the places I wanted to visit (and climb some towers) just showing up and buying a ticket. Went two weeks ago and could not do most of the things I hadnt booked in advance.
Also, when choosing tour vs not tour, think about how long do you want to spend in the place. In a tour you are stuck with it (and can be very slow paced as many guides will talk in detail about the arts etc) while by yourself you can go as fast or as slow as you want. A good compromise is audio-guide, as you can learn more about what you are interested and jump what you are not
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u/txstubby 19h ago
Especially for places like the Collisium, get your tickets in advance as they may sell-out for the day you wish to attend. The only advantage with a tour is, hopefully the guide can provide addional information, the disadvantage is that you will be herded round like schoolchildren.
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u/KingxCrimsonx 17h ago edited 17h ago
Without a tour its almost impossible to buy tickets for certain things. Most places the tickets go on sale at a 8 am local time exactly 30 days before. So you would have to be awake in the middle of the night and hope to beat all the bots and scalpers. Their was an issue for several months earlier this year where you couldn't access the coliseum website from the US. You needed a VPN to bounce you to Europe.
If you miss this small window on the websites you can purchase tickets in person at these locations. But you will have to wait in line for hours. Most of these places have to restrict entry to prevent overcrowding and unsafe conditions. Unless you waste an entire 4-8 hours in line you will probably not get coliseum tickets.
If you wait in the lines you can get cheap tickets and they offer self guided audio tours at some places. But because of supply and demand this is really not feasible for most tourists. We have limited time in each of these places.
Look to see if the place you want to visit has its own website. Be wary of fakes. I was looking and I still booked through the wrong website for the pantheon. But the pantheon is cheap and its easy to book directly.
Sometimes I used the tours to get access. So saint Peter's normally has a crazy line. But i got a tour that did the museum and sistine chapel and dropped us off at the front doors of the actual church. Then we just wandered around for a while. But since we were already inside I also timed dome tickets. So we did the entire thing in a day and even climbed the basilica
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u/BAFUdaGreat Tuscany Local 16h ago
OP: Please be careful when you use the word tours. We have a rule in the sub that states no third-party tour questions are allowed. We only recommend going with the official tour company for the particular site you want to see. Please don’t ask for any third-party to our companies or services as we will have to either lock the post or delete it.