Colosseum and Roman Forum: Skip the Line Guided Tour

We were emailed the morning of the tour to be told it was going to be earlier than the time we booked. As we were staying the other side of Rome to the Colosseum this mean we had to change our travel arrangments, just made it by the skin of our teeth as the office is on a random street 5 mins from the attraction and no address was given on the booking... we were then told that we couldnt get on that tour and to come back in an hour and 15mins time!! No appology or care at all from the guy on the desk. The only saving Grace of this tour was that the guide him self was Brilliant. An art historian graduate and a native Roman so very knowledgable and enthusiastic! All in all the tour was fantastic but the experience a complete shambles!

I paid for a colosseum and Roman forum tour. But that is not what I received. At the end of the colosseum tour the guide said it was over and there was no other tour. This is not what I paid for and it was advertised as 2 tours. I am very dissatisfied and will never use this website again.

It almost seemed like they threw this together at the last minute. We got to the meeting place & the man told us to wait. He grabbed someone else & we were told to follow him to the Colosseum. Not many words or any greetings, just a hand-off.Once there, another hand-off. Our guide for the colosseum was new and very friendly, but a little shaky with her English. After that portion was over, there seemed to be confusion, & we had to wait for another guide, who was waiting for another group to lump us in with. He informed me that he didn’t even work for this company, they just called him in. We were told we weren’t going in to the Forum, just going to look at it from Paletine Hill, which we did. (See name of tour above) So a brief talk & we were done. No Forum, which was why I took this tour to begin with. The guides were okay, So very disappointed with what seemed like a bait & switch.

We booked this tour based on several considerations - the timing, the content, size of group, headsets. We were disappointed on all counts. When we first arrived at the office, we were told our entry time had been pushed back by the Colosseum. We were understanding as they had no control. But chaos ensued from there. We were told to come back in 1/2 hour, we did and then waited another 1/2 hour. We were "escorted" to the line-up area by an employee who didn't seem to care to explain what was happening or whether he lost us in the crowd. After another long wait we were introduced to a tour guide and found that our group had at least 20 people in it (not the 15 max promised). We spent most of the next hour in line (skip the line? NO). The guide used this time to introduce us to the Colosseum we were about to see. By the time we got inside, she led us to a spot to talk and then left us after 10 minutes. That was the whole "tour." There was no tour of the Colosseum. She told us that the second part of the tour (Forum) would start in over an hour! At this point our headsets were taken away. So, we could guide ourselves around the Colosseum during that time as she was done. We met our guide for the Forum over an hour and a half later and discovered that groups had been merged and we were now in a group of 50 people! With no headsets it was nearly impossible to hear our guide. What we heard was good but it was very difficult to keep up with him. We felt rushed to and through the Forum. In all, the tour that was supposed to take 3 hours took more than 5 hours but only about an hour of that was guided, most of it was waiting around.

So, we showed up to the appointed meeting place where there are 5 employees all doing nothing. One bothers to talk to us, acts surprised that we are there, makes several phone calls, then asks us to return an hour later. We show up, there are now all new employees, one walks us around the Coliseum for awhile and says he is looking for our tour group. We eventually wind up at another tour office and are eventually told all tours are gone for the day and sorry he can't hel us anymore. We we able to wak to the Coliseum and book a skip the line tour very easily, which is what I'd recommend. Luckily Viator was able to quickly refund my money so at the end of the day, it all worked out. It was just awful that this tour company wasted 2 hours of our day when we could have booked another tour right away. But judging by everything we saw they are a complete scam and they dont have a tour to provide. Hopefully they will be shut down soon.

After 3 days of trying to get our tour we were not able to and did not get to do the Palatine hill or Roman Forum (the 2 main reasons we wanted to visit Rome). We never got to do our tour and I want a refund

My husband & I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the Roman Forum & Colosseum. Our tour guide was informative & knowledgeable. We would definitely recommend this group & use for ourselves in the future.

Our guide Santos explained everything very well and allowed time for pictures! We skipped the long lines and he made sure to explain under the nice shade! Very hot in September. He also allowed bathroom breaks!

Guide was knowledgeable however took us on Forum tour before Colosseum! Disappointing because we ended up waiting in line 30 min In 35C sun with 3 kids to get past security! Lineup was way shorter at 1030am!! Too much time spent at Forum abc not enough time in Colosseum. Also the hosts at Gladiator tours gave us WARM bottles of water on a 35C day. Thanks but NO THANKS! you knew well in advance we were coming and should have prepared to have a cold bottle of water for everyone!! Disappointing!!!

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and very nice person. Two concerns: We booked this particular tour because it offered headsets. The tour operator said they didn't have them, even if the confirmation says : headsets. In our confirmation we saw that the tour was to last 3 hours. It took 2;20 hours. Which parts we didn't see?