Follow our Rome practical guidelines to save energy, time, and your sanity when exploring this eternally beautiful city.
Properly organising your time while on vacation can be a daunting experience.
As an enduringly relevant destination for art and culture, Rome bears its own unique set of challenges.
It brims with historical gems that would take a lifetime to visit. However, many of you are traveling with a limited amount at time at your disposal.
Thus, knowing how to divide your day according to suitable tours can be a challenge.
Furthermore, you may not even know what kind of tour will be suitable to your needs!
Whether as a family vacation, a romantic getaway, or a fond revisiting, creating an itinerary in Rome is difficult with so much to see.
Not to fear!
Earlier, we shared our insider tips into choosing the perfect tour for you.
This time, we’re digging even deeper.
Below, we’ve listed practical tips for dividing your day, based on your adventuring needs.
Before we dive into the specifics, however, feel free to take a leisurely yet informative perusal of Joy of Rome’s tours.
You’ll find that their extensive portfolio is divided into various categories and subcategories.
As such, you’ll discover that this breakdown is to provide solutions for a variety of requirements.
Furthermore, tours are organized into private and small groups. There are many kid-friendly options, these are also private tours.
For example, if you’re planning to experience Joy of Rome’s Vatican tours, you have the following choices:
- Short tour – two hours
- Classic – three hours
- Extended – four hours
- In depth – five hours
- Kid – friendly
- By night
As you can see, these choice allow you to tailor your holiday based on either your requirements, or those of your group.
Not bad, right?
So, straight from the experts’ mouths, we present our Rome practical guidelines to planning your vacation.
Traveling with family
Parents, let’s admit a small secret: Usually you’re the ones that call the shots, but every now and then children hold surprising sway.
Furthermore, they’re smaller than you, and keeping them happy often requires a different set of rules.
Most of you already know that the majority of kids aren’t cut out for lengthy, five hour tours.
However, the secret to responsibly filing up your day requires a simple balancing act between kid-friendly tours, and something with an entertaining edge.
Here’s what we mean:
Educational, short tour (kid-friendly, or private) + Fun, short tour (kid-friendly or private) = Lots of learning with zero tears.
Why not try a Vatican or Ancient Rome tour for kids in the morning (starting times are 8:15 and 16:00), with your choice of a food tour (starting times are 9:00 and 15:00).
There are many options that include ice-cream and pizza tours, so you’ll be sure to find something for the whole family’s palate.
Furthermore, both of these options run for two hours. This means you can enjoy a long break between the day’s activities.
More Rome practical guidelines with the family
You could also organise between other short and private tours in the morning, and something entertaining like a picnic later in the day!
For inspiration, check out our Baths of Caracalla, Park of the Aqueducts, Villa Borghese Gallery and Ostia Antica tour for great alternatives that are also removed from the bustle of standard tours.
They provide a great and scenic setting for bringing a picnic lunch with you. If you fancy the sea breeze, then Ostia Antica’s nearby Ostia beach is a popular destination for sand and sun.
Rome is famous for being a comparatively small popular city with amazing sites that aren’t too far from one another.
Thus, if you plan on doing the Ostia Antica tour, then read this informative and handy description of how to get there. While not difficult to get to, it’s just out of the city and may take some researching.
Additionally, some parks, such as the Villa Pamphili in Monteverde, are also great settings to enjoy the city’s green spaces. Villa Pamphili is wonderful for exploring nature by foot or by bike.
It also has a restaurant, Vivi Bistrot, on its grounds that provides food AND picnic options if packing baskets isn’t your thing.
The Villa Borghese Gallery is also in the Villa Borghese park. This is a sprawling expanse of green to be enjoyed after a Borghese Gallery tour, or even after an exploration around the Vatican Museums!
For more info on park life, check out our post, “Rome’s central parks for family-friendly perks.”
Of course, there are other tours available that could catch your interest. Be sure to check them out!
Sidenote
We don’t recommend small group tours for children, as the pace can sometimes be challenging.
Keep in mind therefore, that kid-friendly tours are private to ensure that both children and parents have fun.
Our other short tours have a private option, so don’t hesitate to find our site’s Contact Us link for any questions or requests.
Have you read up on an amazing Roman fact that continues to fascinate you? Then feel free to ask your guide to elaborate on it.
With limited fitness there’s still a lot to witness
The terrific thing about our Rome practical guidelines is that anyone can take advantage of them.
Even if you’re not traveling with children, our fantastic formula can be applied to multiple requirements.
If you’re traveling with the elderly, or have limited mobility, we recommend that you opt for short tours (two hours long), or private tours.
You can also match two short tours in the same day. With one in the morning and one in the evening, you have a lengthy break to rest in between.
Furthermore, we’d suggest keeping away from some of the more crowded sites for less stress, and more personal space. Here are more short tours away from the hustle and bustle:
- The Baths of Caracalla
- Underground Rome (also a great option for beating the sun, and staying cool in these warmer months)
- The Capitoline Museums (quiet, spacious, and a perfect way to know about the nearby archeological sites without having to enter them).
- S. Clemente (also indoors, away from the heat)
- St. Peter’s Basilica (you’ve already heard that this is awesome)
Rome practical guidelines: Planning for the newbies
However, we still have lots of tips to help you organize your stay. We present a timetable of up to two days with specific tours to experience.
Read on to discover our recommended schedules for first-time travelers in the forms of families, couples, and those with limited fitness and/or elderly.
If you have one day
Get in touch with the specifics of your group, and let our guides tailor your tour.
If you have two days with the kids
Day 1 – Choose between Ancient Rome for kids or Bread and Circus’s tour in the morning. Match your choice with the Highlights of Rome tour later in the day.
Day 2 – Vatican for kids tour
If you have two days, and are traveling with the elderly
Day 1 – Ancient Rome (Short or Classic), plus Highlights of Rome.
Day 2 – Vatican City (Short or Classic), plus a choice between these three options: Villa Borghese Gallery/ Trastevere and Villa Farnesina/ Capitoline Museums.
If you have two days, are traveling without children, and want the highlights of each site
Day 1 – Ancient Rome (Classic) plus a choice between the Highlights of Rome, or the Capitoline Museums tours.
Day 2 – Vatican Museums (Classic), plus a choice between the Villa Borghese Gallery, or Underground Rome.
If you have two days, no children, no physical limitations, and want to learn everything
Day 1 – Ancient Rome (Extended), plus a choice between Highlights of Rome, or the Capitoline Museums.
Day 2 – Vatican Museums (Extended), plus a choice between Villa Borghese Gallery or Underground Rome.
If you have more time than the suggested two days, then don’t hesitate to check out other intriguing sites with Joy of Rome, such as the Jewish District . Whatever your curiosity may be, let us know what captures your imagination and we’ll take it from there!
Rome practical guidelines: Planning for returning adventurers
You’re seasoned explorers, so if you’re visiting Rome for one day then please contact us with your specifics, and we’ll start tailoring your tour.
If you have two days with children
Day 1 – Bread and Circus tour, plus a stroll around the city with a food tour.
Day 2 – Baths of Caracalla tour, plus a foray into Underground Rome tour.
If you have two days in Rome and everyone is able-bodied
Day 1 – Capitoline Museums, plus a choice between the Underground Rome tour, and On the Trail Caravaggio tour.
Day 2 – A choice between the Jewish District and Trastevere and Villa Farnesina, plus a food tour.
PHEW!
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading our Rome practical guidelines and suggestions.
As one last reminder, feel free to continue to fully explore Joy of Rome’s full portfolio of tours for even more options. And remember, should you have any questions or requests, get in touch writing at joyofrome@gmail.com!