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The 5 best guided colosseum tours of 2024.

Gladiators battled on the arena floor. A good guide will help you battle the crowds.

The Best Rome Colosseum Tours

Rome Colosseum views from an ArcheoRunning tour.

Courtesy of ArcheoRunning

As the most enduring symbol of the Roman Empire and one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Colosseum receives more than 6 million visitors per year – which means it's not easy to escape the crowds. A visit to see the world's largest amphitheater – once known as the Flavian Amphitheater – is well worth it, though.

Inside the ancient complex, there is very little signage explaining what you're looking at, which is why tours are a popular way to explore. A good tour will not only get you skip-the-line access but also bring this incredible place to life.

Keep in mind that most Colosseum tours only give you access to the arena floor and upper level. If you want to visit the hypogeum (Colosseum underground), you need to make sure it's included in the tour.

Best Overall: City Wonders – Colosseum & Ancient Rome Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill

Best Underground: The Ultimate Italy – Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tour

Best Private: Roma Experience – Private Colosseum Tour With Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
Best for Families: LivTours – The Best of Colosseum & Ancient Rome With Exclusive Arena Access

Best Nighttime: Rome Tours – Colosseum Night Tour

Best overall: city wonders – colosseum & ancient rome tour with roman forum & palatine hill.

Price: From $42.86 per person Duration: 3 hours

This comprehensive tour covers the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and the Via Sacra (Sacred Street), and tourgoers are given headsets so they can better hear and follow their guide. Recent reviewers praise the expert guides, saying they are knowledgable about the history of the Colosseum (as well as the entrances with the shortest lines). Reviewers also appreciate the pace of the tour.

When booking, you have the option to choose your group size – 24, 15 or 10 participants – and tour rates vary accordingly. City Wonders also offers tours of the Vatican Museums , as well day trips to Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and more.

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Price: From $87.25 per person Duration: 3 hours

This highly rated tour provides access to the underground of the Colosseum, where you'll discover the network of passages, cells and chambers that once served as the backstage area of the arena. Along the way, you'll hear about the behind-the-scenes preparations of gladiators and wild animals; then, you'll explore the arena floor, imagining what it was like for them 2,000-some years ago. Finally, you'll spend some time at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.

Recent visitors highly recommend this tour, noting the underground portion made their visit to the Colosseum extra special.

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Best Private: Roma Experience – Private Colosseum Tour With Roman Forum & Palatine Hill

View of the Colosseum exterior on a Roma Experience Private Colosseum Tour With Roman Forum & Palatine Hill.

Courtesy of Roma Experience

Price: From 499 euros per person (about $548) Duration: 2 hours and 45 minutes

For a deeper understanding of the Colosseum, a private tour with Elisa Valeria Bove, CEO of Roma Experience, is one of the best you can take. As an archaeologist, Bove has been involved in excavations at the Roman Forum and other historic sites. Her Colosseum tour typically includes the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Arch of Constantine, Via Sacra and the House of Vestal Virgin. Be sure to specify if you want to visit the hypogeum (Colosseum underground) when you book.

Roma Experience organizes bespoke private tours throughout Italy, including multiday itineraries. Bove will work with you to customize your experience and bring you to places you wouldn't think to visit, like Quintili's Villa on the ancient Appian Way.

Best for Families: LivTours – The Best of Colosseum & Ancient Rome With Exclusive Arena Access

Interior of the Colosseum from The Best of Colosseum & Ancient Rome With Exclusive Arena Access tour from LiveTours.

Courtesy of LivTours

Price: Adults from 139 euros (about $153); kids from $124 (about $136) Duration: 3 hours

Recent visitors praise the guides on this tour for bringing the stories about ancient Rome to life and entertaining everyone along the way — kids included.

Upon booking this tour, participants receive an invitation to download an app. During the tour, the guide gives everyone a cardboard virtual reality headset that works with the app and shows a reconstruction of the Colosseum and the surrounding valley. After visiting the Colosseum, the tour continues to the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, where the virtual reality headsets show you a reconstruction of the Circus Maximus and the structures in the Roman Forum. At all the sites, you get skip-the-line access.

These semiprivate tours are guaranteed to have no more than six people, making them a more personalized experience than other group tours. However, because the tours are small, the guides don't use headsets, and some participants note that it can be difficult to hear the guide over the noise in the Colosseum.

Price: From $60.46 per person Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours

A nighttime tour of the Colosseum not only affords an opportunity to see the famous landmark aglow, but it also allows visitors to avoid some of the crowds and high temps that come with a daytime visit. Recent tourgoers say they enjoyed the tour for these reasons, also noting that the guides are excellent. However, many wish the tour were a bit longer (or priced cheaper considering its short duration). The tour does not cover the Roman Forum or Palatine Hill.

Evening departure times vary by time of year.

Rome Tours offers a variety of other tours throughout the city, from a comprehensive daytime tour of the Colosseum to a bar crawl .

Frequently Asked Questions

Most tours last about three hours and require that you arrive at your departure point early. Factoring in transportation time, you'll want to allot at least a half-day of your vacation itinerary for the Colosseum.

The best time to visit the Colosseum is from November through February during the offseason (and when temperatures are cooler).

There isn't a dress code for the Colosseum, so plan to simply wear comfortable, seasonally appropriate attire (and know that summers in Rome can be extremely hot). No matter when you go, comfortable walking shoes are a must.

Why Trust U.S. News Travel

Laura Itzkowitz is a Rome-based freelance journalist who thinks about the Roman Empire all the time. She has visited the Colosseum in the morning, in the evening after the crowds have left, on group tours and private tours. To curate this list of the best Colosseum tours, she used her own experience as well as her research expertise, culling tips from locals and visitors.