The Roman Guy Tours

Great and quick email response to my questions. Loved the discount we got and the website - self explanatory and easy tour buy. Thank You!

Did the Vatican tour with Giovanni P and it was great! Giovanni P was very approachable and a great resource for questions. Would definitely recommend.

We did the combined crypt, catacombs and colosseum tour in Rome and would not recommend it. The crypt and catacombs portion in particular felt like a rip off.

The morning part with the crypt and catacombs was very disorganized. It was extremely difficult to hear the tour guide even after asking him to talk louder and his English was very difficult to understand. We were taken to the crypt and given an audio guide, the actual tour guide didn't do anything. We only had about 30 minutes due to the confusion in the morning. We were then taken to the catacombs and given a "tour" of Rome along the way but nobody could hear or understand the guide. We didn't stop to look at the sights. At the catacombs they just put us in the official tour group, and we didn't get to see anything extra than you get with the 10euro official ticket. This portion ended about 30 minutes early. We ended the morning feeling like we had been conned and at least 4 other people in the group felt the same way.

The guide for the colosseum tour was great but again the group size was much larger than advertised. A large reason we picked this tour was the 15 person max but there were 25 people in our group. The tour guide then ended the tour almost an hour early with almost no tour of the forum. We didn't get a chance to see the palentine hill because the tour guide told us it would be open 2 hours later than it actually was and we weren't given the actual tickets to be able return within 24 hours.

Overall I would not recommend this tour provider.

EDIT:
Changing from 1-star to 3-stars and providing this update: Almost immediately after posting my original review below, I was contacted by customer service with an apology and a short while later with a partial but generous refund covering more than the lost portion of the tour and our expenses to find a way off the island. Their emergency services are truly terrible, and it shouldn’t take 2 weeks and a bad review to get a response from customer service. However, they did come through in the end, and they said they would work on it.
So I offer this update: You have a 6/7 chance of getting a really great tour guide and a great tour… or there’s a 1/7 chance you’ll have a terrible tour and no functioning emergency#. When I go to London next month, I plan to use Tour Guy again, because those odds seem pretty good, and their customer service earned that trust.

ORIG POST: While most of the tours and tour guides were actually great, be aware that the tour company itself was HORRIBLE and will provide absolutely no assistance if anything goes wrong. We took 7 tours thru The Tour Guy/The Roman Guy Tours in Rome, Venice and Florence over a 2 week period. Our trip to Murano/Burano with tour guide Dahlia was terrible, her voice didn't carry over the sound of the boat and what we did hear was uninteresting. In Burano, 2 groups of people (total 4 people, didn't know each other) were left behind on the island when we all separately misunderstood the meeting time. The tour company didn't reply to calls/texts/emails and were left to figure out how to get back to Venice and our own expense. Although 2 days later I received a text that they were looking into it and I have followed up repeatedly, after 2 weeks there is no more contact from them. I am left to assume not only do they have terrible emergency services but also terrible follow thru on customer service. Either you get a great tour guide and a great tour, or you're in terrible shape with no help and with no recourse or even an apology. Take your chances.

Ramona (Ra) was an awesome guide that lent so much insight and information to our time at the Louvre! I would HIGHLY recommend this tour! She was very passionate about the information she was sharing with us. Very engaging! Made our visit so much more efficient, as well!

Highly recommended tour guide in Europe especially in Rome.
I did The colosseum and roman forum and Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica.

We did the Coliseum Tour in Rome with Paula and she was amazing! So knowledgeable and entertaining! We actually did several tours with The Tour Guy and they were all great! Highly recommend!

Guide was horrible and rude, my group- and at least 2 other groups (!) left midway through because it was a waste of our time.
Guide was snapping at our group for filling up water as we were dying in the heat, after he said we could fill up yet kept walking away after he filled his up first.
Snapped multiple other times at our friend who was hard of hearing, and then while another was talking to her significant other.
He was hard to understand, and taught the very basics to the colosseum and roman forum.
I learned more with the Rick Steves audio guide in 5 mins than the entire tour.

Took the Skip the Line Vatican tour with Serena. She was an awesome guide. Very informative and organized. Learned so many interesting facts! The tour lands you right by St Peter's Basilica which you can explore on your own.

Ability to skip the line was great as well. We took the afternoon tour which is supposed to be less crowded than the mornings. It was nice to sleep in for sure!

We booked 2 tours with TRGT: Ancient Rome and Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel/Peters Dom. Very professional service, punctual, very competent charismatic guides (Evi is a historian and Elli Archeologist/Historian). Worth every cent invested. 100% recommendable.

Our tour was great, we did the Paris in a day tour with Monmarte, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and one hour cruise on the river. We were only in Paris for a very short time, so this was the best way for me and my family to see the most famous sites. Our tour guide, Mateo was absolutely amazing. He was very knowledgeable, and seemed very sincere in wanting us to have the best experience. We were happy that we felt so comfortable with somebody that we were spending the entire day with. We highly recommend him as a tour guide!

Giovanni P.was very knowledgeable and accommodating to the entire group. He was a great professional and was amiable and able to answer lots of questions.

I can't stress enough that this was the best excursion we had throughout our entire trip, we did the "Rome in a Day" tour in mid-March.

First of all - Raffa is AMAZING. We had a couple of days in Rome, but despite this wanted to kick it off with seeing all Rome had to offer, and potentially deep diving later anywhere we didn't spend long enough on.

Y;all - I'm close to saying this tour is flawless. You walk everywhere and get to see everything at just the right pace. You get an hour break for lunch (pack a snack if you get hangry like me though). We learned so much of the history and culture throughout the day, Raffa was funny and personable and always checking we were comfortable and could hear and understand, and was wonderful with taking good photos at the spots we loved for families, us on our honeymoon, everyone!

Notes:

- There is a lot of walking, today is NOT the day for a statement show
- Bathroom breaks are a little tough to come by at different sites and at the pace we need to travel, stay hydrated but be cautious!

Terrific Vatican tour. Our tour guide, Yanira, was fantastic. Funny, lively, informative and very sweet. Our tour began at 7: 30am, and it’s definitely worth getting up a little early to take this tour and beat the crowds. Thanks again Yanira for a wonderful tour of the Vatican.

The tour was ok. However read the fine print! You are at their mercy if they change the time and it doesn't suit you due to another tour booking or already left Rome. Would never book again due to no flexibility if they change their times

We had a great experience with our tour guide Serena. My husband and I were the only ones, so it was a more personal tour. She is very knowledgeable and friendly.

Raffa was our guide of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica. She was SO knowledgeable, kind, funny & engaging. We loved being a part of her tour.
We learned so much and she moved us through the tour at a good place, never lingering over-long at any one exhibit. (he’s just so much to see and it’s hard to move through it all the time allotted!) So glad we were in her group. PLUS! Her recommendation for the gelato shop near the pantheon was absolutely correct. Thank you Raffa!

We booked the Private Family-Friendly Vatican and Sistine Chapel Tour. This is a 3 hour tour. At 2 hours our guide left us. I had to contact the company to ask why we only got a 2 hour tour. The guide was sent back to us and did the last hour. Unfortunately the guide was meant to an "expert in keeping children engaged with a fun treasure hunt and stories that’ll fuel their imagination". The kids were bored and we had to keep repeating the information to our kids so they could understand what was being said. The guide we got was not engaging at all for the kids 5 & 8. This is the 4th tour in Rome and the only one that the kids couldn't follow. Unfortunately this tour should have been amazing but it wasn't due to bored kids and a issue between the company and the guide. Also the kids didn't get to do a treasure hunt or get and prizes. The tour wasn't what was promised.

Actually our guide.she was amazing. But the tour was 7 hours.which I realised.was too long for liking. However will definitely choose a different activity with this guys

Did 2 tours with them. Vatican museums and the Colosseum. They were on time, instructions on how to find them were spot on. Tour guides were very knowledgeable and took good care of us, given we had a 9 month old baby. Vatican museums tour was better than the Colosseum tour as the guide made it feel a bit more real and added humour into the tour.

Worst tour of my recent trip to Rome. We had a guide who spent close to an hour talking endlessly before we even got into the catacombs. Nothing pithy, too much rambling on. I left the tour. A shame as we had some wonderful tour guides with other providers.

We had an amazing experience doing the Rome in a Day Tour with The Tour Guy. Our guide Carolina was extremely knowledgeable about both the Colosseum and Vatican Museum. She provided excellent suggestions for lunch and other attractions, too. I will book again with them! I love their guides.

Unfortunately I have to leave them 1 star. We booked four tours with them in Europe and all but one of them had major complications with pick up and transfer. Their communication was poor and I had 6 kids which was really disappointing to have such poor communication. The tour guides were great but the company organization was too poor to recommend them to anyone wanting a smooth and hassle free experience.

I dont usually write reviews, however i needed to on this one. We booked several tours with the Roman Guy for our Europe trip here in May. We purchased these in April.
And so it begins, we missed the first tour by 9 minutes. That was our fault as transporation was late in Rome. I did call 30 min prior to give them a heads up. (no return call)
We wound up booking another tour just immediately after.

However, we maded sure to be esarly to the next one, the Eiffel Tower. We got there 45 min early. As the meeting time went past, I finally found the guide standing at a different spot than what was instructed to us. (Also another family also was there, just as confused) After intoducing ourselves and showing her our Booking #, she said she was going to buy the tickets (for the cruise portion). She then went to the other family and I assume she said the same.
We waitied another 15 minutes for her to get the tickets, and the next thing I know she only gave the other group the tickets and stated to lead them away. I litterally had to chase her down as she never even looked our way. Finally we stopped her and she all she said is that we had another tour guide. Another tour guide? We were now 35 min past the start time and there were no other families. WHAT A JOKE!
Long story short, we bought tickest to the Tower direct and the lines were minimal. I have since left 3 messages and they have not returned my call to give back our money.
In the end, their videos seem really good, however just like anything else, this happened to be a bad experience for us. As of today, still no return call. Just a heads up I would suggest before you purchase from them, see if you can get someone on the line. If you cant, you may want to try a different company!

Our guide Sara was wonderful. Very knowledgeable, funny and gave us amazing information during the tour. We were lucky to have a small group of 4 people and she took great care of us. Highly recommend booking in advance to skip the line. There are a LOT of people daily. And don't forget to cover your shoulders and wear something that goes below the knee ;)

We did the Collisiem underground tour with "Luigi". He was great and such a nice and pleasant guy full of history. So the underground tour will be closed in 2023 so get it done. Very cool seeing the lower areas and we walked up the stairs the gladiators would enter from. Roman forum was also included and that had some fantastic ruins. Palatial Hill was okay, still interesting but not as much as the other two. I recommend seeing the Borgues Musuem in addition to the usual hot spots.

Used them for an evening Vatican tour. It was excellent. We discovered this company is even highly regarded by competitors as we took other tours. Top notch.

My husband and I had a great tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica with Giovanni through The Roman Guy! During the tour, he adjusted the route to avoid crowds at the museum. He also knew a lot about the art and history of the museum and the basilica - you can tell his tour wasn’t scripted. We’d love to do another tour with Giovanni for a different site. He mentioned he does a tour of the Colosseum as well. One regret is that the tour company changed our reservation by moving up our tour by 30 minutes, which impacted our itinerary for the earlier day. But overall, very informative tour by a caring and friendly guide!

Long but informational and intellectually stimulating. It was hot so I'd recommend doing it in September time frame. But the tour guide was amazing I would do it again. Just not in the summer.

I made a trip reservation late last night for a 9: 45 tour this morning. We made it in time, checked in with the group and then was told to wait on the steps. She told us we’d be on the tour at 10: 20 because they didn’t have a guide since it was a last minute reservation We sat there for over an hour before she told us that they’d been trying to get ahold of me (I didn’t have any missed calls, texts, or emails). Then I was told that there would be no tour. I emailed and messaged them and it’s 6 hours later and still haven’t received any communication from them. My card has still been credited, though. I was pretty upset since we’d rushed over there this morning and didn’t have breakfast and then Missed lunch and a tour since all the tours were already booked with other companies by then for the next 2 hours. I’m not loving Rome and will never come back here. I was looking forward to taking my girls on a fun guided tour today…. Our only day in rome before we move on.

We booked a Children’s Tour of the coliseum & Roman Form, and RAF was assigned to us! She was marvelous.upbeat, descriptive, educated, and very patient with our children ages 8 & 13…. As well as my older Gen needs of an elevator. She structured our tour on an individual basis… & was very attentive. We had a lovely time! My granddaughter gave her a bracelet, that she made, as a gift & they posed for me to take a photo. Cute! ️

We did the 3hr tour with Guido and he was fantastic, his depth of knowledge was astounding and injected it with his own quirky send of humour. Can unreservedly recommend The Roman Guy Tours if you plan to see the Colosseum, Palantin, and the Forum

Manola was an absolute treasure and the best tour guide I’ve ever had! So knowledgeable and passionate about the history and also made it super fun. Wish I had teachers like her in high school! Thank you so much for a magical experience Manola!

We booked the Colosseum Underground Tour with Roman Forum and Palatine Hill and would highly recommend it! Our tour group was fairly small, only around 20 people at the most. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and took us to the exclusive underground area of the Colosseum that not everybody gets to witness. Just note that during this time it almost feels like you are taking your own private tour of the historic form simply because it is your group and may be a handful of other groups that are down there at the moment. It was an extremely valuable and educational experience that the guide provided is. After the call they also took us all the way over to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum which is outside the Colosseum and it was extremely interesting to hear about all the historical things that had happened.

Please be sure to dress in comfortable footwear and bring adequate sunscreen and a hat because it is extremely hot and a very long walk.

Overall I would definitely recommend this tour simply because of the private experience of having a private experience of being underground of the Colosseum which is an experience that you will never forget. I felt like I learned a lot from our tour guide and she was extremely friendly and amenable to all the questions that each person in our group had.

I booked the doge's palace tour in Venice and the Rome in one day tour. The Venice tour was ok, but I felt that the lady guiding us was not very good as a guide. She knew her facts and history well, but she didn't explain well, often saying stuff in an awkward sarcastic "joking" manner that confused everyone. Please just get to the point in a clear manner. As far as the Rome tour is concerned however, the other lady guiding us on that tour did a good job and everything was well organized so we saw everything while skipping the lines. So 2.5 stars for Venice, 4.5 stars for Rome I would say. Cannot rate 3.5 stars. I picked 3 since the average rating is too high compared to my experience. All that said, I strongly suggest taking a guided tour and they seem to plan stuff well and pick well educated guides. I just had a hard time with the Venice guide.

We took the Trastevere food tour with Dimitri and stopped at 4 local restaurants, all of which were amazing. He was extremely knowledgeable about which local foods were best and how to avoid tourist traps. Would recommend to anyone staying in Rome!

We did two tours with The Roman Guy Tours and both were 5/5. The first was a private Colosseum tour with Roberta and she did an amazing job educating us and keeping it both factual and intriguing. We really didn't want to leave but we continued up Palatine Hill and that was equally incredible. The second was an afternoon private car tour and we covered so much ground and learned so much that we couldn't stop studying afterward. The sites were remarkable and fully customized to our interests and experience. Loved our driver and guide.

Raf was a great guide. She knew the history of everything and answered every question thrown at her. The tour moved at a good pace to get a lot seen in 3ish hours. Definitely a value for the price! Highly recommend.

I would give 0 stars if I could. I was really looking forward to doing this tour however when I booked it they charged me for a extra person. I thought no big deal I will just call and have them fix it. No one ever picks up the phone you have to leave a message and no one has ever called back same with text I got a auto text we will get back to you but no more. So I figured I would cancel the tour online and rebook. Well it cancelled my voucher but didn't send me a confirmation email or return the money I paid.

We had an amazing tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine hill with Sandra! She was so knowledgeable and clearly had a passion for history. I learned a ton and she answered my 5 million questions about Roman history with grace!

We took the Vatican/St. Peters 5 hr tour. Our guide Alessandra was FANTASTIC! I cannot imagine a better tour guide. Very organized tour and worth every penny.

The tickets we bought from the Roman Guy clearly stated it was for the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The group of 18 was notified at the beginning of the tour that St. Peter's Basilica was not included. Everyone was upset, several of us showed the guide our emails or printed vouchers that showed it was included. She said it wasn't her fault, but it was wrong. Several of us left the tour early so we wouldn't miss out on St. Peter's Basilica. Which was a great decision because St. Peter's Basilica was amazing. I am so glad we left early and did not miss it! I am frustrated and disappointed with this company. I will not use them again.

Did a group tour of the Vatican and Colosseum today with a tour guide called Luigi from the Roman Guy Tours. He was absolutely amazing, went above and beyond to make sure we got the full experience of Rome. We even stopped off at the Pantheon and Roman Forum on the way to the Colosseum, which was a lovely surprise and bonus to the tour. Luigi was genuinely so pleasant and made the the experience extremely enjoyable. Thanks again!

Incredible customer service and a great tour company! We had a flight delay, and Erin was extremely helpful in getting our tour updated. 5 stars!

Absolutely incredible, the Skip the Line Vatican Tour was the best tour I've been on in my entire life. Our guide, Fabi, was so knowledgeable, friendly, and enthusiastic. We ended up with a private tour due to no one else showing up, which made the experience even better. Fabi's relentless energy and joy for the subject were evident throughout the tour, and it made our last full day in Rome truly memorable. The owner was very understanding and accommodating when we had to change our initial reservation with little notice, highly recommend this company and this tour! Special thanks again to Fabi - you're the best!