Rome, without the queue.
The arena floor of the Colosseum, the Vatican before the crowds, a plate in Trastevere after dark, the long day south to Pompeii. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The bookings that make a Roman trip.
First visit or fifth, these are the ones that anchor it. The arena floor where the gladiators fought, the Sistine ceiling ten minutes before the doors open, a fork-first crawl through Trastevere, the pasta class you cook from once you are home.
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with skip-the-line entry and a guided route, plus optional St. Peter's Basilica for La Pietà.
From $79 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.5Sells out fastVatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided TourFrom $2239,149 reviews
★ 4.2Crowd favouriteColosseum & Forum with Audio Guide App -Optional ArenaFrom $4124,770 reviews
★ 4.5Worth the early startColosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill Guided TourFrom $5923,903 reviews
★ 4.0Skip the queueCity Sightseeing Hop-on Hop-off Bus with AudioguideFrom $1516,045 reviews
★ 4.0Easy winHop-On Hop-Off Panoramic Open Bus Ticket 3 Circuits x 1From $2015,405 reviews
★ 4.3Traveller favouriteVatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & Basilica TourFrom $13013,872 reviews
The Vatican rewards an early start.
Be at the gate for the first entry and walk the galleries while they are still quiet, then reach the Sistine Chapel before the room fills. Michelangelo overhead, Raphael’s Rooms on the way, and St Peter’s dome waiting at the end. An early ticket is the difference between a crush and a morning you keep.
Which Colosseum tour is yours?
Everyone books the Colosseum; how you go in is the real choice. Three ways to do it, from the full ancient core to the arena floor to a quiet hour at dusk. Pick the one that sounds like your Rome, and every option behind it is already priced, timed and compared.
The full ancient core
Colosseum, Forum, Palatine
2.5 hours · from $52 · 32,814 reviews
One guided loop through the three that started it all: the amphitheatre, the ruined heart of the Forum, and the emperors’ hill above it. The essential first visit, and the ticket that saves you three separate queues.
See the classic tours →
Down to the arena
Underground and arena floor
1.5 hours · from $105 · 4,844 reviews
Descend into the hypogeum, the tunnels where beasts and gladiators waited, then climb back up to stand on the reconstructed arena floor itself. Small groups only, and it sells out weeks ahead.
See the underground tours →
After the crowds
The Colosseum at dusk
1 - 1.5 hours · from $49 · 1,230 reviews
Go in late, when the coaches have gone and the travertine turns gold against a pink sky. The same monument, a fraction of the people, and the best light of the day for a photograph.
See the evening tours →
Rome is at its best after sunset.
The floodlit Forum, the Trevi with room to breathe, a passeggiata through lamplit lanes to a gelato you finish on the walk home. The heat lifts, the marble glows, and the queues are somebody else’s afternoon problem.
Learn Rome by cooking it.
Pull fresh fettuccine by hand, fold ravioli, finish with tiramisu and a glass of Frascati, then eat the lot. Or walk it instead: a fork-first crawl through Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto, supplì to fried artichokes. These are the food hours worth planning a day around.
See more of the city, on wheels.
Rome is bigger on foot than it looks. Cover it by golf cart through the centro, by e-bike out along the Appian Way past the aqueducts, or by Vespa with the monuments lit up at night. More ground, less blister, better photographs.
Rome keeps its oldest stories underground.
Miles of catacombs along the Appian Way, a basilica stacked over a Roman house over a pagan temple at San Clemente, bone-lined crypts beneath a quiet church. This is the Rome most visitors walk straight over, opened up by a guide who knows the way down.
Pick your Rome, sight by sight.
Colosseum for the arena floor. Vatican for the ceiling. The Forum for the ruins that ran an empire. The Pantheon for the open eye in the roof. Trastevere for dinner.
Know how you like to travel?
Twelve ways to spend a day in Rome. Pick the one that sounds like you, and every option behind it is already sorted, priced and ready to book.
Out by breakfast, back for dinner.
Some of the best Roman days start with leaving. Pompeii frozen under Vesuvius, the fountains and gardens of Tivoli, the cliff-top hush of Civita, a run down the coast to Positano. All close enough to sleep in Rome the same night.
★ 4.6From Rome: Pompeii, Amalfi Coast and Positano Day TripFrom $996,620 reviews
★ 4.6From Rome: Pompeii Day Trip with Optional Vesuvius and LunchFrom $885,067 reviews
★ 4.4Amalfi Coast & Positano Day Trip with Coastal CruiseFrom $1342,511 reviews
★ 4.5From Rome: Villa D’Este and Hadrian’s Villa Tivoli Day TourFrom $772,060 reviews
★ 4.4From Rome: Day Trip to Pompeii with TicketsFrom $1111,161 reviews
★ 4.4From Rome: Sorrento & Pompeii Day Trip with Guide or TicketFrom $1071,131 reviews
Three days, done right.
You cannot see all of Rome in one trip, but you can absolutely do the right three days. This is the order we would give a friend landing at Fiumicino tomorrow.
Day 1
Ancient Rome
The Colosseum at opening, the Forum and Palatine while the light is still soft, then up to the Capitoline for the view back over it. Two thousand years before lunch.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The Vatican and the centro
Vatican Museums and the Sistine first thing, St Peter’s after, then back across the river to the Pantheon, the Trevi and a slow loop of the piazzas.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Trastevere and the softer side
The Borghese on a timed ticket, its gardens after, then over the river to Trastevere as the lamps come on for a long dinner and gelato you eat standing up.
Plan day three →
The latest Rome reviews.
★ 4.0St. Peter’s Basilica & Dome Entry Ticket with Audio GuideFrom $36511 reviews
★ 5.0Rome Food Experience Max 6 People Group Tour | w/Private OptionFrom $216516 reviews
★ 4.4Escorted Papal Audience Experience with Entry TicketFrom $23518 reviews
★ 4.8Papal Audience Experience with Pope Leo XIVFrom $42518 reviews
★ 4.0Navona Square Underground Ticket with Audio GuideFrom $18518 reviews
★ 5.0Pantheon Guided Tour with Priority Entrance TicketsFrom $14520 reviews
★ 4.9Spanish Steps, Trevi, Navona and Pantheon Sunset TourFrom $46522 reviews
★ 4.1Castel Sant’ Angelo Ticket and Audio GuideFrom $31524 reviews