Colosseum Underground All Access Tour with Ancient Rome
Rome, Italy
Colosseum Underground All Access Tour with Ancient Rome
Rome, Italy
- 3 hours (approx.)
- Offered in: English
Overview
Learn more about Ancient Rome on this tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum than you ever would exploring them by yourself. Step into these unmistakable features of Rome’s skyline with a guide to lead the way in a small group, meaning you get even more of your guide’s attention. Booking a tour ahead of time guarantees entry to these popular landmarks.
- Soak up Colosseum views you won’t get anywhere else
- Sightsee in a group of no more than 14 people
- An ideal experience for history buffs
- Walk the same path as Roman gladiators and emperors
Why Travelers Choose This Tour
See more of the Colosseum with exclusive access to the restricted underground area.
What's Included
Meeting and Pickup
Itinerary
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 10 days in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
3.4
based on 67 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
I want my money back for this booking. I was emailed not even 24 hours beforehand learning that the underground tour was cancelled. The flag & location that I was told was not the right color nor in the correct place. My mom almost fell when we were instructed to look for a blue flag. The man wasn’t even holding a flag & when he was, it was yellow. Also, I don’t understand why the underground was canceled because I have photos of people being in the underground section of the Colosseum. I never got an answer on why it was cancelled.
We booked the underground experience and once we got clear over to security we found out it had been cancelled. We are now waiting in line at 11:30 and hoping to get any ticket available but it may not happen at all. This seems like a broken system.
So this trip. Viator and our guide made it wonderful. Giovanni was fabulous.
Gave us good tips.
Richard & Kate
I was not happy with the tour overall. The coliseum is very interesting but our guide Andrea was not very nice. She quizzed us like we were in school and It was not enjoyable. Very stern and scolded me for not answering her what’s app call and gave me a hard time for using the bathroom. We paid a lot of money and did not appreciate her attitude. It put a pall on what would have been a great experience.
Our tour guide Maggie was wonderful. Empire Tours was chaotic and we had issues finding our guide and had a late start. Their were four different tours but that was not communicated to us. . I cannot say enough good things about the guide. I would highly recommend this trip. Maggie took time with us and answered questions and provided adequate time for photos.
Booked a colosseum underground tour but that wasn't what we got. We were informed halfway through out tour that the underground portion was not going to be included. We paid a good amount of money for this tour and were very disappointed that it was not as advertised. According to the information I received after the fact, this was not a Viator issue, but a tour company issue. Buyer beware when you book an underground tour, in all likelihood you aren't going to get what you paid for.
’m very disappointed with my tour. The underground tour was cancelled with no explanation. I would expect to have a good reason for the change but none has been offered
Our guide did what he could but the static and poor quality sound ruined our audio experience. We missed a lot of his information due to this substandard equipment.
I have had many guides over the years and I believe your guide is fine but he is poorly equipped with the audio system being not fit for purpose.
In short our tour is not one I can recommend so disappointing.
Yours sincerely. Cynthia
Make sure they’re getting with they pay for we bought a ticket for the Colosseum for underground too and they said the other ground was canceled. I think it was a scam.
Do not book the Underground gladiators gate portion of the your most people wont see it. The tour companies overbook that portion of the tour and then offer you 30% money back when they cant deliver. It was something we really wanted to see and booked early but they didn't deliver. Our guide was very knowledgeable and the rest was great. Just dont get your hopes up when it comes to the Underground. They really shouldn't offer it when they cant deliver. Save the money and do the routine tour. Im still waiting for my money back.
We did not get an underground tour which is what we paid for. I’m still waiting on the 30% credit purchased. We took the coliseum tour which was ok.
Beware of this booking. Our tour was cancelled two days prior because the tour company did not get a slot. These tours are sold on spec and frequently are cancelled.
We were told of changes(no Colosseum underground component) barely days before the so called guided tour. The format of the tour was also changed so that the Colosseum tour was last not first. The tour of the Colosseum was a one way setup, so we forced to only go one way and couldn't go back, as instructed by the tour guide. The staff prevented us from viewing the cross. We were given some info of the Colosseum and then told to look around ourselves. I talked to other customers who also thought that this was supposed to be a guided tour. Before the tour, as mentioned, I received an email also stating of a 30% return due to the failure of the underground portion of the tour. I assume it will come sometime in the next months?
Tour guide never showed up then on time and then was a half hour late and then they canceled our underground tour and then the Colosseum part tour was canceled
We spend the extra money to go underground in the coliseum. Read past reviews! - I noticed a trend in my research that this company and others may be underselling the risk the underground portion is cancelled, but decided to risk it. We were not told, until 3/4 of the way through. The tour guide and a coliseum employee seemed to put on a show arguing about it in Italian..
No 33% refund so far. I guess I need to initiate :(
⭐️⭐️ Very disappointing experience — not what we paid for
Unfortunately, this tour did not meet our expectations, especially considering the price we paid.
When we arrived, we were shocked to find out from the tour guide that our original tickets had been canceled. Nobody from Viator or the tour company notified us beforehand, and everyone in our group seemed equally surprised. We were never given a clear explanation as to why the tickets had been canceled or what had happened.
The tour itself also felt very limited. At the Colosseum, the guide kept us in a relatively small section and did not take us around the other side or show us many of the areas that we expected to see. We also felt that there was a lack of detailed information throughout the experience. Considering the price of the tour, we expected a much more informative explanation of the underground areas and the history of the Colosseum, but this was not really provided.
Palatine Hill was also extremely limited. We were only taken through a small portion of the site and were not shown the entire grounds or many of the significant areas that we expected to visit. It felt like we were only given a very small glimpse of what the site has to offer.
Overall, the experience felt incomplete and did not deliver what we understood we were paying for. The lack of communication regarding the canceled tickets made the situation even more frustrating, particularly because we only found out when the tour guide told us.
We are very disappointed and feel that, given the circumstances, the limited tour, and the fact that the experience did not meet the advertised expectations, we should receive a full refund.
We hope Viator will review what happened and address this appropriately.
Seeing was about it,tour guide was 20 minutes late and you had to be a track star to keep.he was a smart ass as well. So I’m not going to waste more time explaining why,,
The morning tour is crowded, but the afternoon tour is super warm. We did the underground. I thought it was worth it.
Our experience was extremely poor. I had reached out to the tour team prior and did not get any responses. They moved our ticket time up 1.5 hours. Then we didn’t even start it until an hour after our start time. Mind you we were 30 minutes early so we were waiting in an area hot with minimal shade. Then we were supposed to end in the Roman Forum but our guide brought us there first. Once we arrived there we were not even allowed in, as 2/3 of our group had their tickets cancelled. We didn’t even get to go on our tour. Leaving us with 2 hours wasted time and no chance to see the underground. Our tour guide was not pleasant before it was going either. Her attitude was poor.
The company seemed VERY sketchy. For some reason our tour guide was banned from going to the underground areas, so we needed to pretend that we weren't with her in order to go in. So the underground was NOT a guided tour as we were told it would be. When we were done there, our tour guide rejoined us and tried to explain everything to us afterwards with out us being able to see what she was talking about.
Then when we got to the Roman Forum, we were turned away and were told that our tickets had already been used yesterday. We were told we would have to go wait in line and buy our own tickets if we wanted to go in.
Another couple we were with had tickets to a morning tour and they were turned away from the Colosseum AND the Forum and told they needed to come back 6 hours later, so it completely screwed up their schedule.
Before our tour started there was another couple who came up with proof that they booked a 2pm tour, but the company said they were supposed to be there at 8 am instead and they were turned away.
In the end the Colosseum was of course amazing, and the tour guide was knowledgeable, but we did not get what we paid for. I would suggest going with a different company.
First was told to meet at a certain location pinpointed on Google Maps and look for someone holding a yellow flag with a T on it
Person was not in that spot but in another not far away (there are a bunch of tour companies meeting people so the exact spot is important) - the person had a closed yellow umbrella in their backpack. Called the company and tried to connect via chat - nothing. Luckily the tour guide called me and I found them. It you say you will be holding a yellow flag with a black T on it - please do that.
Paid almost $300 for a tour of the coliseum along with the underground. Found out when got there that they could not guarantee the underground - and of course our tickets did not work to get in there. Had to purchase a separate ticket to get in and totally missed the underground. Was given a partial refund of $120.72. The tour guide also said they asked the tour company to contact us the night before and let us know this could be the case. Had I known this, would have cancelled completely, gotten up earlier and tried on my own to get the underground. Had that not worked - I still would have paid the same 18 euros to get in - but would have been there much earlier in the day - when it was cooler.
This tour deserves 0⭐️ Horrible experience all around! Our original tour was scheduled for 2:30 pm. It was then changed to 8:30 am a few days ago resulting in us having to cancel all of our morning plans in order to accommodate the new time. I sent the tour operator several messages but never received a response, including a message to let them know we were running 4 minutes late this morning. When we arrived, I was worried we had been left behind because I could not locate our tour provider (“yellow flag with a black T”.) lt turns out they were 15 minutes late in arriving. A quick response to our message would have been extremely helpful in this case.
Then we were sent with a tour guide to begin our tour at 9:15. She began by letting us know that there was a possibility our tickets may be cancelled and we would be denied entry. As soon as I heard that, I realized she was preparing us for the inevitable because they hadn’t secured our tickets despite the fact we booked this tour months ago. She then told our group to purchase individual tickets on site and that she would still give us the tour. While our group waited in line to purchase new tickets, she returned to let us know our tour was canceled. What a waste of a morning in Rome.
We went all over the colosseum and saw way more than we thought we would. Manuela was the best guide I’ve ever had!
We paid for a guided tour of the underground and historic sites. Due to restrictions on the number of guide tickets, our guide did not accompany us in the underground area so we had no context or explanation of what we were seeing. She tried to explain what we saw from upstairs but with a lack of context, it didn't help. Outside at the rest of the sites, we were quite rushed to meet her timeline. Half the group left at that point. We would have been better of at our own pace with an audio guide.
Not good at all. Who ever viator partnered with must not have been a viable company. We got to the meeting place and followed the tour guide to the gate for entry to learn they cancelled our tour. I was not happy.
We were not able to get into the colosseum or forum at all and had to cancel the whole tour and they did refund us everything. The tour operator is not a licensed reseller and they had our names on a specific blacklist to not admit
While our tour guide was exceptional, we expected to have the underground included and more of the Forum but we just had the arena and palatine Hill. Supposedly there was a notice of the 'change' but no such email was sent. There is also supposed to be a partial refund, but no such refund yet.
I booked this especially because i wanted to see underground. But it got cancelled the day before. I was notified via WhatsApp and was asked to request a refund. I haven't got my refund yet. Upon contacting them multiple times, the tour company has asked me to contact viator now. Frustrating.!!! Not sure if I will receive it or not.
Also, the tour was supposed to start at 1pm and I reached at the location 30 min before like I was asked..the tour guide was late.!! Waited 40.min under the sun for her to show up. I suggest booking from.thw official website
We started 2 hours later than we booked. That was frustrating as the lines later in the day were long. Giovanni was very knowledgeable in Roman history and provided us with a ton of information. Going underground was great with no crowds.
We had an “English” guide but she was very hard to understand with a heavy accent and sing songy voice. To make it worse the microphone was often not clear and had static in part due to how she had it clipped on her.
She wasn’t nice to many of the people on our tour.
They told us last minute the “underground tour” was no longer going to include seeing the underground of colosseum. They also promised a partial refund which has not been done. Absolutely terrible- do not book this.
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