Two thousand years of queues. Skip the right ones.
Which Colosseum ticket actually puts you on the arena floor. What the Vatican costs with a guide and without one. Whether Pompeii is worth thirteen hours on a coach. Reviews of the tours you can book in Rome.
The Sistine ceiling, the Forum, a pasta board, the road to Pompeii.
Four bookings that most first trips to Rome are built around, with what each one costs and what people said after doing it.
01The early slotVatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance TicketThe plain ticket into the Vatican Museums, ending under Michelangelo’s ceiling. Book the first entry of the day and walk past the line on Viale Vaticano.
02The ancient halfColosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided TourColosseum, Forum and Palatine with a guide, on one combined ticket. Wear proper shoes: the Palatine is all gravel and slope.
03The afternoon off3 in 1 Cooking Class near Navona: Fettuccine, Ravioli & TiramisuFettuccine, ravioli and tiramisu by hand, a short walk from Piazza Navona. You eat everything you make, with wine.
04The coach dayPompeii and Mount Vesuvius Day Trip from Rome with Pizza LunchThe ash-buried streets of Pompeii and the crater rim of Vesuvius, with a pizza lunch in between and the coach doing the driving.
Above the arena, under it, or out along the Appian Way.
The Colosseum sells three different visits under one name. Decide which level you want to stand on before you pick a ticket.
1
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 63,148 reviewsColosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
Colosseum, Forum & PalatineThe arena from the stands, then the Forum and the hill above it on the same ticket.
2
Underground & arena floorThe tunnels where the animals waited, and the sand-level view the stands never get.
3
The Appian WayBasalt paving, aqueduct arches and catacombs outside the old walls, mostly by e-bike.
All 257 Colosseum tours →
Museums, Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s: the Vatican in one long morning.
Cover shoulders and knees or the Basilica turns you away at the door. The Museums shut on Sundays except the last one of the month, when entry is free and the queue wraps the walls. A timed slot on any other day walks straight past it.
3The Rome tours people book the most.
Every Rome tour we have reviewed →Mostly the Colosseum and the Vatican, which is no surprise. What separates the ones at the top is the guide, the group size and how early they get you in.
1
Vatican: Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticket
This timed entrance ticket gives you access to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel without a guided tour. Follow galleries of ancient sculpture, maps, tapestries, and Renaissance art at your own pace, then reach Michelangelo’s famous ceiling. Choose an optional audio guide in one of ten languages. Security lines remain, and the route takes several hours.
From · $38
Read our review →
2
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica
from $79
3
Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
from $78
4
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
from $22
5
Colosseum & Forum with Audio Guide App -Optional Arena
from $41
6
Pantheon Fast-Track Ticket and Official Audio Guide
from $6
7
City Sightseeing Hop-on Hop-off Bus with Audioguide
from $15
8
Hop-On Hop-Off Panoramic Open Bus Ticket 3 Circuits x 1
from $20
Cacio e pepe in Trastevere, fettuccine you rolled yourself.
Rome eats late and plainly: four pastas, a few greens, a carafe of white from the Castelli hills. Learn to make them in an afternoon class, or let someone walk you through the trattorias across the river after dark.
- 13 in 1 Cooking Class near Navona: Fettuccine, Ravioli & Tiramisufrom $83
- 2Tuscany & Montepulciano Day Trip with Lunch & Wine Tastingfrom $83
- 3Winner 2025 Rome Twilight Trastevere Food Tour by Eating Europefrom $125
Four Roman bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of Rome can be sorted over an espresso the same morning. These four run on capped entry slots and calendars that ignore your flight times.
- 01Colosseum Underground Small Group Guided TourUnderground and arena-floor access is sold in small guided groups, and those slots go weeks before ordinary entry does.
- 02Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional BasilicaClosed on Sundays except the last of the month. Every other day runs on timed entry, and the early slots are first to go.
- 03Borghese Gallery and Gardens Guided Small-Group TourNobody walks in. Every visit is booked into a two-hour slot, and each slot admits a capped number of people.
- 04Papal Audience with Pope Leo XIV and Expert Local GuideHeld on Wednesday mornings when the Pope is in Rome, and St Peter’s Square fills hours before it starts.
What a day out in Rome actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best Roman mornings cost less than lunch at a table on Piazza Navona.
Entry tickets, audio-guided visits, the catacombs and the hop-on buses.
Guided Colosseum and Vatican mornings, cooking classes, food walks and most day trips.
Private guides, early and late access, the long coast days with a boat in them.
When the travertine holds the heat past midnight, go underground.
From late June the Forum has almost no shade and the open sites are hard work by eleven. The answer is under the street: catacombs that stay cool all year, the tunnels below the Colosseum, a gallery with the air on, a kitchen with the shutters closed.
Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Tivoli: the days that leave Rome by coach or train.
Pompeii
Amalfi Coast
Tivoli
Orvieto
Florence
TuscanyBy place: the city and the day trips
By kind of day: on foot, on wheels, at the table
Rome reviews added most recently.
Further new Rome reviews →
St. Paul’s Within the Walls New Year’s Concert Ticket
Read our review →
Neapolitan Pizza Cooking Class in Front of the Vatican
Read our review →
Navona Square and École Française Underground ticket
Read our review →
Navona Underground & Domitian Stadium Guided Tour
Read our review →
Michelangelo’s Wonders at the Baths of Diocletian Tour
Read our review →
Mamertine Prison, Colosseum Experience, & Audio Guide
Read our review →
