Colosseum with 12 year olds

[Melon2312]

We’re going to Rome at the end of August with two 12 year old boys.

We obviously want to see the colosseum but I can’t figure out the best way to do it, there’s so much information out there it gets overwhelming! Do we do a guided tour or self guide, is it worth doing the underground bit as well? Any advice from anyone who’s been with similar aged kids would be welcome 🙏

We did a tour just one of the standard main ones maybe visitor? Definitely need to do that you will get far more out of it. We were fortunate to have a large hotel pool so we did our sightseeing but were always in the pool by 4pm - they saved us as it was august.

@dicdicnurse It’s such a minefield isn’t it! And that’s just for the colosseum, let alone planning the rest of the trip and what else to see and do!

I think I’m leaning towards booking a tour with an external company as the official ticket site and having to wait for tickets to be released on a certain day etc sounds like a nightmare to me.

Decisions now are whether to pick a daytime tour or sunset tour (which might be nice as a bit cooler), one that includes the arena floor or one that includes the attic, and whether to go for one that’s specifically aimed at kids or not!

I’m sure whatever we do it will be great, but feels like so much pressure to pick the right thing!

I think if you’re going to go to the expense of booking an external tour then I’d make it one aimed at kids. We did a Percy Jackson tour of the Capitoline and to be honest, the information shared was fine with me as well! Because of my mishap with booking a tour in Italian we used the official audio guide for the Colosseum (which was aimed at adults), and most of it went over my head to be honest!

Oh, and I’d go early. It will be very hot!

We did the Get your guide tour with our kids (7 and 10, at the time) I really recommend it - you skip the queue (and by the time I got around to checking for tickets on the official site they were all gone!). We had a lovely engaging guide who also recommended a fab place for carbonara afterwards!

OP if it's practical to go it looks beautiful lit up at night outside

Meant in addition to what you had planned not instead of

@Jackiebrambles did that go underground?

We went last year. We booked on the Colloseum website, from
what I remember. It was partly underground. The tour itself was fine, but it is unbelievably hot at that time of year, so much so that ds (11) was sick. My advice would be to do as late in the day as possible, even a sunset tour. Don’t go in the middle of the day like we did

Tickets on the colosseum website are released 30 days in advance and can sell out in seconds. But are cheap.

You can get standard, arena or underground tickets.

Underground gets you access to all 3 levels.
Arena get access to arena and standard floor.

You can practice booking before you need to actually buy to see how hard it is. But they can block you if they think you are a bot. It unblocks again.

If you really want to see the underground try booking the tour in Italian as there is less demand. You won't understand but there is an app you can download that does the tour in English too.

Third party tours are ridiculously expensive and underground isn't always guaranteed.

Go as early as you can in the morning as there is very little shade.

You also need ID to get it but they accept a photo of your passport.

No it didn’t, it was the skip the line colosseum, forum and palatine hill one.

Can I recommend the Capitoline Museums while you’re there. Fantastic

We were there last August and I managed to book the tickets through Coop Culture which is the official site for the Colosseum. It is tricky but as PP said, check the website beforehand so you know how to navigate it. Then strike when it’s 30 days to go as this is when they are released. It may show not available but they kept adding slots so just keep on checking.

We booked a guided tour, I think it was only about 45mins but it was perfect, we got to learn some various interesting bits but it didn’t go on and on and the heat will tire you out too. You are free to roam there afterwards. My DS were 12 & 15 then it was perfect.

Join any of the visit Rome FB-groups, I got a lot of valuable info from there prior to our trip.

If it’s available I would really recommend doing a night tour. There will be hardly anyone there & it’s really atmospheric. Plus if the weather is hot it avoids queuing in the heat.