To do a guided tour or not ????
 

My husband and I are looking to see some sites around rome and one of those is obviously is to do the colosseum. we are not sure if we should do the tour ourselves or to do a guided tour.

Would anyone have a recommendation or advice on wether to go with a guided tour or just to go and have a look around ourselves.

thanks

It really depends on available time and your budget. As an example, you can stand in line for hours waiting to get into the Vatican. If you hire a private tour company they can have someone stand in line for you. The first time we went to Rome we had very little time and hired a private tour company and it was the best thing we did because we got to see everything we wanted with a minimum of wasted effort.

The Vatican is special, because of the long lines.

We never had a guided tour in Rome. You can visit every attraction easily on your own - the Forum (IMO the most important attraction of Rome), the Colosseum, the Pantheon and many more, which saves both time and money compared to guided tours. Use the time of the intercontinental flight to read a history book and a guidebook before you are there, then your visit will be more rewarding.

It depends on how much you know about Roman history and how much research you are willing to do. If you are comfortable self-guiding it will save a lot of money (I would never do a large scale public least-common denominator group tour, but only a private one) but you may enjoy it a lot more with a private guide. (The large group guides generally don't give you more than the average guide book does.)

The Vatican you must figure out one of several options to avoid the huge lines - but again - if you go for a tour - do not pick a large public one - since they often provide minimal information.

If you want to guide youself you will need 2 things:

1) a really goo guide books (like the michelin green guide) that goes into great detail
2) some perspective on the culture and society of ancient rome - there are a number of novels that provide a feel for this very enjoyably - that helps you build in your mind what ancient rome looked like and what daily life was like

I can't see any harm in a tour. An alternative, if you are looking for one, is to download a podcast.

>>>As an example, you can stand in line for hours waiting to get into the Vatican.<<<<

There is no need to stand in long ticket lines. You can book entry tickets that bypass the line directly with the Vatican. You can also book their tours (or rent their audio gudie). Same is true for the Colosseum/Forum.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

You can book Colosseum/Forum tickets on the official booking site CoopCulture. Tickets are 12€ and good for two days (one entry to the Colosseum and one to the Forum/Palantine). They also have tours/video guides.

http://www.coopculture.it/en/

thanks everyone. Think we will do our own tour and get one of those audio tapes for the colosseum. we are not doing the vatican tour as ive done it before and hubbie has no interest.

The Colosseum's own tour is only 5€ (audio and video guides are more).