travelmom68

Do any of you have any recommendations for personal/semi-personal (or at least small group) tours in Rome? There are tons of websites that advertise these, but am looking for personal recommendations.

Also, we'd like to only do this for a day (explore the rest on our own) so if you were going to use a tour guide, which sights/parts of Rome is best enjoyed with a guide vs fairly well navigable on your own?

Thank you.

amamax2

Travelmom,

If you do a search here on Guides in Rome or some such wording, you will get lots of information and personal recommendations from Fodorites.

That's what I did and we ended up booking Francesca Caruso for a half-day tour of Ancient Rome for our upcoming trip. She has lots of positive reviews here and seems super nice based on our email correspondence.

The_Judge

One day for a tour guide means difficult choices have to be made & the criteria for your choosing is what you want to see-the art, history, architecture, etc. or some combination.I used ContextRome for 4 tours last October & none failed to meet our expectations. See their website & possibly one or more of their tours will help you make up your mind. Good luck

iluvitaly

Rome Walks is excellent and small groups, as is Context Rome and Three Millenia.

Uma

We used Daniella Hunt with Mirabilia Urbis Tours - www.rome-tours.com - for a tour of the Roman Forum and Colosseum. We also used ContextRome for a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's. Would highly recommend both, though if we are ever lucky enough to return to Rome, Daniella would be my first choice.

jasmine3

I can recommend Romaround Tours. Request Rosanna. She gave us our tour of Vatican and St. Peter's last week. She was excellent!

travelmom68

Great you guys! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I'll start emailing and making some calls now...
Thanks again,
Missy

travelmom68

I have photocopied walking tour guides from travel guidebooks so we can do mostly "self-touring." Which particular place in Rome is hardest to follow by yourself & would be most enjoyed and understood if a tour guide was to personally explain it to us. Forgive me for being dumb about this, we've just never been & I'm afraid that we'll never get the chance to back!

I've read just about every posting out there (I've become nuts about this) but am having a difficult time with this. I'd love your opionion....

Missy

P.S. We're traveling with kids (now that will make me nuts).
Thanks!

J62

Icon tours also offers a wide range of tours. I took two tours with them (Vatican museums and Ancient Rome) and was very happy with both.

One benefit with them is that kids 11 and younger are free.

J62

I would not bother with a general walking tour of the historic central district (Trevi, Pantheon, Navonna, etc) - those areas, in my opinion are more for enjoying the ambiance at your leisure.

The forum/colosseum is helpful to have a guide, as it's a vast area with lots of history, and it's not obvious what is what at mere glance. Lots of old ruins. A guide can bring it all to life - Forum, Palatine Hill, Colosseum, etc.

Whether a guide is needed for the Vatican museum is so-so. You will get tidbits of info about the sculpture, architecture, tapestries, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's, much of which you can read about or observe. Depends on your desire for detail about art I suppose. You can rent audio guides for a fraction of the cost, and move through the museums at your own fast or slow pace (or herded by the crowds).

Icon's website is icontours.com

I believe Context Rome tours tend to get deeper into the educational side, which has it's benefits if that's what you're looking for. When I return in the future I'll look into taking one of their tours on my own, (without kids in tow).

amamax2

This will be our first trip to Rome, and we, too, are traveling with kids.

Everyone we talked to who had been to Rome said get a guide for the Ancient sites (ie Coliseum, Palatine Hill, Forum). Those who hadn't said it was their biggest regret.

We were all set on ICON tours till I saw the time - not till 4 p.m. I thought my family would do better with a tour in the a.m. when we are all fresher.

Something to think about.

amamax2

Just to clarify...I am not trying to discourage the use of ICON Tours or promote any tour. Just that I, too, had devoured every post, trying to decide which would be best, especially with the kids, and it hadn't occured to me to check times until after all that work.....