Anonymous wrote:We only do private tours.

What's a public tour? One done by a national park ranger for free?

Do you mean small one family tours?

Tours conducted by for profit companies are private not government tours even if they have 30 guests.

We only do private tours.

Loved the tours in Italy and I rarely do tours in any other country. The Italians we've met were very friendly and knowledgeable. I have no doubt I learned a lot more on the tour than I would have gotten out of exploring on my own. And it's fun to chat with locals about other topics as well.

I've also found private tours to be very convenient and if you ask, accommodating to reasonable requests -- they will pick you up and drop you off wherever you want, even in different places, to optimize your day. And for an upcoming trip, the tour guides are picking up and dropping off in two different cities on the Amalfi coast, saving us a train ride! For another tour, the guide is completely customizing the itinerary for us to skip the more popular sites (which we've seen on a previous trip) and spend more time seeing things of specific interest.

I'd highly recommend doing a food walking tour as well.
Absolutely one of my personal highlights. .

Anonymous wrote:No we never do them.

We will do a private tour of a specific museum or building, that is really more to not have to wait and for better overall access than the “tour” itself.

Hate to break it to you, that's a tour And what everyone here is talking about!

If the tours are sold out, consider a tour in another language to still get the skip the line benefits. My husband took the Spanish tour because there were no English ones left. He does speak passable Spanish though.

No we never do them.

We will do a private tour of a specific museum or building, that is really more to not have to wait and for better overall access than the “tour” itself.

Walks of Italy is great. Had mixed results with With Locals, probably will not use them again.

I'm going to echo what a lot of people have said: yes skip the line tours will save you a ton of time at big sites. The Vatican especially, you can go in a full 2 hours earlier with a tour and then don't have to wait separately to go into St. Peter's.

I would definitely do tours for the Colisseum and The Vatican.

I will say, though that just wandering around Rome sticking your head into random churches is a good strategy (obviously they're active churches, be respectful). My very devout Catholic Aunt died this year so I lit a candle for her in a lot of Basilicas (carry euro coins if this is something you're interested in doing).

Resurfacing this thread for an update because I used it before our July vacation to Rome. It was either this thread or another thread where someone recommended Rome4Kids tours, and we used them and they were GREAT. We did three different tours three different days and all three guides were highly educated, great English speakers who gave my kids a lot of attention and were deeply knowledgeable about the sights we saw. All three of them were women around my age, some of them were moms, and they were so kind and understanding with my sometimes grumpy teens (mostly because of the heat).

Also, I totally get the snobbery about tours, but I have to say this felt like the high-end route actually - we had a private guide everywhere we went and all of them knew how to get us in quickly - the front of the line of the front of the line. The golf cart tour sounds cheesy (and I thought it would be) but it wasn't at all, it's just another little open car on the crazy streets of Rome. It didn't have a tour company's name on it or anything. We had read advice to do the golf cart tour our first day because we would be jet lagged, and it was perfect - they just scooted us around the city and it was a perfect introduction, and the guide and driver were fun to be with.

Just a little follow up and rec for Rome tours! Do it!

We used Liv Italy for a Vatican private tour and Walks of Italy for a small-group (9 people) Colosseum tour. Both were very good.

I’ve never done a tour in Italy, except at Pompeii, but the history and rich culture lends itself to such tours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. For those who did small or private tours in Rome, would you please post the name of the company you used if you would recommend them? Also looking at this. Thinking about a golf cart tour and an early entry for the Vatican. TIA

we'd started using Get Your Guide post covid for tours and car transfers. I've found the reviews there to be helpful and accurate.
Even if you end up not booking the tours, the reviews can offer lots of good info

PP thanks for the recommendation. I hadn't heard of this site. Is this like a Trip Advisor or Viator where they resell tours?

yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. For those who did small or private tours in Rome, would you please post the name of the company you used if you would recommend them? Also looking at this. Thinking about a golf cart tour and an early entry for the Vatican. TIA

we'd started using Get Your Guide post covid for tours and car transfers. I've found the reviews there to be helpful and accurate.
Even if you end up not booking the tours, the reviews can offer lots of good info

PP thanks for the recommendation. I hadn't heard of this site. Is this like a Trip Advisor or Viator where they resell tours?

Anonymous wrote:NP. For those who did small or private tours in Rome, would you please post the name of the company you used if you would recommend them? Also looking at this. Thinking about a golf cart tour and an early entry for the Vatican. TIA

we'd started using Get Your Guide post covid for tours and car transfers. I've found the reviews there to be helpful and accurate.
Even if you end up not booking the tours, the reviews can offer lots of good info