Rome tours

[flipflop]

We booked several tours for our family of 6 in Rome for the days before we leave on the dream. One of those tours is through "the tour guy" and is an underground tour of the colosseum. I got a text today that they couldn't secure tickets because enough were not released. I booked this tour in December for June 25. There was apparently small print in the booking that they could both change the tour and the departure time. Posting here so others do not get stuck with a bait and switch. They informed us so late that we can't even book a normal tour with another company and dispute it with our credit card.

 

[anricat]

This happened to us when we booked a skip the line ticket for the Tower of Pisa through a third party on Viator. Apparently they said that they were allowed to change the time of the entry to their will, despite me choosing a specific time when I purchased them. (Why even have a time if that's the case.) The new time would have put us going up when we had to be back on the ship. I tried to go to Viator and ask them to intervene and they refused citing the vendor's terms and conditions (second page, fourth paragraph or some craziness). My bad for not reading the Ts and Cs? But I think the vast majority of us scroll down and just sort of click "accept."

 

[ArtieRyder]

We're actually going in July and have been looking into tours.

We did use the tour guy on a trip to Paris and it was great. I was nervous about a scam, but our tour was amazing. We lucked out, as we were the only two that booked that specific tour. It was just my wife and I and our tour guide. We basically had a private tour of the Louvre. Since it was just the two of us, we moved quick and our tour guide was able to get us into some locked off areas. She even went 30 minutes beyond the end of the tour because she was really excited to show us 'the apartment' in the louvre.

My point in sharing that is that I do think the tour guy is a pretty good brand. We booked them for two tours in Italy for next month

We were looking into the underground tour, and we noticed that it is via special permission from the city/government. We just got an email from another tour company letting us know that their access was declined, so they could no longer offer the underground tour. Sounds like its a bit of a government thing. Maybe they didn't pay off the right guy. Might not be a bait and switch, but more of a situation out of their control

 

[anricat]

It looks like The Tour Guy is basically a middleman like Viator, Shore Excursion Group, Trip Advisor, etc. I've become so leery of these places since my experience above and another one I had in another port. I've decided I'm not going to use any of these large tour aggregators for the following reasons:

1. It's hard to communicate directly with the local tour guide ahead of time if you have questions or need help.
2. The middleman doesn't always have your back if the tour company ends up being flakey (exhibit A and B above)
3. The middleman taking a chunk of the profit may not even reside in the country in which the tour is taking place. Basically less money for the local guides and local economy and more money for some rando executive sitting in an office somewhere else.

 

[ldo]

So sorry. The Rome Colosseum ticket issue is a problem-also discussed at length on Ricksteves.com. Tour companies book before tickets are available and then do their best. Apparently, getting underground access tickets is much harder. We're booking for Sept and are just booking "regular" access. Fingers crossed.

 

[flipflop]

So sorry. The Rome Colosseum ticket issue is a problem-also discussed at length on Ricksteves.com. Tour companies book before tickets are available and then do their best. Apparently, getting underground access tickets is much harder. We're booking for Sept and are just booking "regular" access. Fingers crossed.

My husband and I were able to go underground when we were in italy before covid without our children. I hope you are able to secure tickets - it is quite the experience.

 

[flipflop]

It looks like The Tour Guy is basically a middleman like Viator, Shore Excursion Group, Trip Advisor, etc. I've become so leery of these places since my experience above and another one I had in another port. I've decided I'm not going to use any of these large tour aggregators for the following reasons:

1. It's hard to communicate directly with the local tour guide ahead of time if you have questions or need help.
2. The middleman doesn't always have your back if the tour company ends up being flakey (exhibit A and B above)
3. The middleman taking a chunk of the profit may not even reside in the country in which the tour is taking place. Basically less money for the local guides and local economy and more money for some rando executive sitting in an office somewhere else.

Agree. It was a mistake on my part. I usually go with local companies.

 

[Pens Fan]

It looks like The Tour Guy is basically a middleman like Viator, Shore Excursion Group, Trip Advisor, etc. I've become so leery of these places since my experience above and another one I had in another port. I've decided I'm not going to use any of these large tour aggregators for the following reasons:

1. It's hard to communicate directly with the local tour guide ahead of time if you have questions or need help.
2. The middleman doesn't always have your back if the tour company ends up being flakey (exhibit A and B above)
3. The middleman taking a chunk of the profit may not even reside in the country in which the tour is taking place. Basically less money for the local guides and local economy and more money for some rando executive sitting in an office somewhere else.

I agree with this. I always try to book directly with the local company if at all possible. I'll admit that I do use Trip Advisor to research local guides, though. Then I book directly with the local company. I realize that's probably not the nicest thing to do, but I also haven't lost any sleep over it . Like you, I much prefer my money going directly to the local economy.

 

[o&smom]

Yes, it seems lots of changes are happening to tours in Rome recently. I was looking at two tours we booked for next week, and read reviews about parts of the tour changing. They always have the option to change them. Fingers crossed ours end up what we booked.

 

[anricat]

I agree with this. I always try to book directly with the local company if at all possible. I'll admit that I do use Trip Advisor to research local guides, though. Then I book directly with the local company. I realize that's probably not the nicest thing to do, but I also haven't lost any sleep over it . Like you, I much prefer my money going directly to the local economy.

Agree. I've used Trip Advisor for years to research - long before they were selling tours. I find it harder now to actually get to find options that aren't their own. It seems like they bury tours that they themselves aren't selling, but they are still there. I try to leave reviews for tour companies that work well for me to try to keep the information flowing!

 

[brentm77]

We booked several tours for our family of 6 in Rome for the days before we leave on the dream. One of those tours is through "the tour guy" and is an underground tour of the colosseum. I got a text today that they couldn't secure tickets because enough were not released. I booked this tour in December for June 25. There was apparently small print in the booking that they could both change the tour and the departure time. Posting here so others do not get stuck with a bait and switch. They informed us so late that we can't even book a normal tour with another company and dispute it with our credit card.

We had mixed results with the The Tour Guy too and wouldn't use them again unless there were not alternative options. One of our tours was great and we loved the tour guides on all of them. But, we changed the colosseum tour date and even though they confirmed the change, I had a hunch to double check, which I did, and was promised they had us down for the right date and time. If there is one thing I have learned when traveling, it is that when you make changes to anything scheduled, it gets screwed up by the vendor. For some reason, change is hard for most of them.

Or course, we show up at the double-confirmed day and time and they say they didn't have us in the group because they had us booked on the old date, and "no," there wasn't room in this group, but they could fit us in three hours later that day. Than meant we went from purposely touring prior to the heat of the day to doing it mid-day, when it was very difficult for a family member with health issues, which meant we had to bow out early and completely miss the Forum, which I was looking forward to. I understand mix-ups, but when I reach out to confirm everything is set, giving you a second chance to make sure you haven't messed up, and you just lie and say it is all correct, there is no excuse.

Similarly, we paid for early entry to the Vatican, where were promised to be let in an hour before the rest of the tour groups. Our tour ended up entering long after dozens of other groups and wasn't early entry at all. We were lucky that it was soon after Rome was opening after the pandemic and it wasn't very busy anyway.

That said, all the tour guides were great, so I at least appreciated that they found qualified local guides. I would use them again in a pinch.

When we go back to Europe though, I am going to do more transportation and self-guided tours (which include front of the line entry but no guide once in), because I found we like to explore at our own pace, and for most of the important sights, Rick Steve's has exceptional audio tours that included more detail than even the local guides provided.

The one tour I liked the most was the half-day tour where the guide just took us around the city. It was fun because she took us to several places we wouldn't have known about, and knew the great stops for gelato and snacks. It was one of our most enjoyable tours. It was also nice to be able to just chat with a local and get a better feel for the city to start our four days there. I might do that to start our stay at any major Europe city from now on.

 

[pjacobi]

I agree that it is best to buy tickets directly, but there are exceptions.

For example, I once found that an own-your-own Paris tour from London via Eurostar was actually cheaper than the equivalent Eurostar ticket. Tour tickets are fixed price while Eurostar tickets price increase as the train become full. This is especially important when booking last-minute trips.


-Paul

 

[flipflop]

We had mixed results with the The Tour Guy too and wouldn't use them again unless there were not alternative options. One of our tours was great and we loved the tour guides on all of them. But, we changed the colosseum tour date and even though they confirmed the change, I had a hunch to double check, which I did, and was promised they had us down for the right date and time. If there is one thing I have learned when traveling, it is that when you make changes to anything scheduled, it gets screwed up by the vendor. For some reason, change is hard for most of them.

Or course, we show up at the double-confirmed day and time and they say they didn't have us in the group because they had us booked on the old date, and "no," there wasn't room in this group, but they could fit us in three hours later that day. Than meant we went from purposely touring prior to the heat of the day to doing it mid-day, when it was very difficult for a family member with health issues, which meant we had to bow out early and completely miss the Forum, which I was looking forward to. I understand mix-ups, but when I reach out to confirm everything is set, giving you a second chance to make sure you haven't messed up, and you just lie and say it is all correct, there is no excuse.

Similarly, we paid for early entry to the Vatican, where were promised to be let in an hour before the rest of the tour groups. Our tour ended up entering long after dozens of other groups and wasn't early entry at all. We were lucky that it was soon after Rome was opening after the pandemic and it wasn't very busy anyway.

That said, all the tour guides were great, so I at least appreciated that they found qualified local guides. I would use them again in a pinch.

When we go back to Europe though, I am going to do more transportation and self-guided tours (which include front of the line entry but no guide once in), because I found we like to explore at our own pace, and for most of the important sights, Rick Steve's has exceptional audio tours that included more detail than even the local guides provided.

The one tour I liked the most was the half-day tour where the guide just took us around the city. It was fun because she took us to several places we wouldn't have known about, and knew the great stops for gelato and snacks. It was one of our most enjoyable tours. It was also nice to be able to just chat with a local and get a better feel for the city to start our four days there. I might do that to start our stay at any major Europe city from now on.

The half day or full day guide is what we are doing in several other cities we are visiting off the cruise ship - private guide, sites, local food, etc. We did that in Stockholm and it is still our families' favorite day on that trip. We walked around - ate Swedish meatballs in a off-the beaten-track place and just had fun with the guide.

Having been to Rome before, we know what we want to show the kids so we skipped the guide. We have a private early morning Vatican tour booked and I do hope it is as promised! The Vatican gets crazy.

 

[kiford]

We went to Italy a few years ago and bought a lot of our tickets well in advance. We were planning to get tickets to the underground tour - purchasing direct from the Colosseum site - and we both (friends of ours we were travelling with) logged on as soon as they went on sale. They sold out practically faster than we could log on. Those underground tickets sell like hotcakes and there are not many available and only released periodically. We had planned to buy our tickets earlier than we did but they kept changing the rules about when you could buy so I suspect that no one ever knows reliably whether or not and when tickets will be available.

We ended up opting for another ticket that was a tour up to the top areas that are still intact. Amazing views and a great tour that we really enjoyed. I've known people who've done the underground and some thought it was greater and others were meh about it. All in all, I'm glad we did the tour that we ended up doing instead.

 

[o&smom]

So far, no email about not being able to visit the lower area of the colosseum. We have our tour scheduled for Sunday. Fingers crossed we get what we booked.

 

[DSLRuser]

We booked a trip out of Rome for next year on 6-10-24.....it is a year away and already stressful. This thread is good info for sure.

 

[mmmears]

We just returned from Rome after a cruise on the Dream. Lots of people in my cruise group and in the two after ours have been complaining of this. It's a big issue right now. It's also been an issue for some of the Vatican tours, but the colosseum seems to be the one that is affecting most people. We took a private tour at the Vatican and our guide said that it's been very hard for them to secure tickets. It sounds like resellers are snapping them up as soon as they are available (think US concert tickets).

 

[shananigans]

I personally know someone who does tours on the back of Vespa’s in Rome. We went to HS together, she’s from Minnesota and left here to explore adventure in Rome. She goes all over and has lots of options and things to see. Her name is Annie, she owns Scooteroma. I get no incentives for telling anyone about her - she was just a HS friend.

 

[ldo]

Our friends decided last summer to do a "walk-by" the outside of the Colo. Even if you get Colo tickets, there is usually a long security line in the summer. This July, our adult kids are going to just do a Colo walk-by/photo op, and then go over to Trajan's column, and get a "free" view of Trajan's market ruins via a little walkway called Via Campo Carleo.
With only a limited time in port, this works best for us, so we can also hit other spots (St.Peters, Trevi, Spanish Steps, Pantheon). *Note--If you would like to actually walk through the Trajan's market complex and get a birdseye view of the markets, you will need a ticket. This also grants you access to the museum dedicated to Trajan’s Markets.