From Rome: Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa Tour with Lunch

The day ran very smoothly and the local Roman guide was knowledgeable and very good indeed. Hadrian’s Villa complex was by far the stand out part of the day and Villa D’Este is obviously beautiful but it was disappointing that the fountains were all switched off. Our local guide, however, did play music on her mobile given that the water powered organ was unable to function and our group appreciated her efforts. Transfer there and back was excellent and we would thoroughly recommend this day trip but quite obviously a lot of walking involved so not for the infirm.

Wonderful day, worth every penny. The two sites are both fascinating; Villa d'Este, Tivoli and the gardens are stunning: the history at Hadrian's Palace and the links between the two buildings offer plenty to think about. The lunch was good, not the best we have had nor the best value for money, but enjoyable nonetheless: the convenience of everything pre-booked, stepping into a nice cool restaurant after a long morning in the hot sun, great service and a lovely setting more than made up for any shortcomings. The coach trip to and from was safe, comfortable and offered some beautiful views.

The whole trip was a 1 star experience. The instructions on where to meet the guide just have a metro exit, but there were three at that stop with no clarification on which to go to. On top of that, the employee checking everyone in was 15 minutes late, so we wondered around worried we were in the wrong place. The “English” tour was actually a combined English/french tour, so half our time was spent waiting to hear the English part, which meant we saw less things and spent a bunch of time waiting around. The guide seemed bored with her job and gave no time to ask questions, had few interesting facts, jokes, or stories, and mainly just recited facts about whatever was in front of us with no real storytelling. The included lunch was mediocre at best, and apparently the offered coffee and dessert at the end of the tour wasn’t included and we had to pay, even though the description explicitly says coffee was included. This would’ve been better if it was only a bus with no guide or lunch.

The visit to Villa d’Este and Hadrian’s Villa was excellent, and the tour itself was very enjoyable. The only reason I am taking away one star is because the restaurant selected for lunch did not match the quality of the tour or the guide. Our Tivoli guide was excellent ,very knowledgeable, informative, and engaging. The historical explanations and the way the visit was organized made the experience truly worthwhile. Unfortunately, the restaurant did not meet my expectations. The entire group was served, but my friend was overlooked twice, which showed a lack of attention to the group. I also requested ice several times, and only when we were almost finished did the waitress finally tell me, in a very unpleasant way, that they did not have any. Five stars for the tour. Five stars for the guide. No stars for the restaurant. Overall, I would still recommend the tour, but I strongly suggest improving the lunch location.

Visit was well organised and timed. Excellent guide, Marcia, who made the tour both instructive and enjoyable. We had some time off to visit on our own and for purchases. Only the meal was rather basic. There were probably better places to eat around. Overall a very pleasant visit in the countryside if you want to escape the busy city of Rome!

The trip from Rome to Tivoli was very comfortable. It’s very nice when all the logistics are done for you! Hadrian Villa was nice, but there isn’t much left, since the whole place was used over the centuries as a source of materials for other places. On the other hand, Villa d’Este was amazing. Not only the Villa is impressive with beautiful wall frescoes, but the gardens are a renaissance marvel! The only thing that could be improved was the quality of the lunch. Some people in our group had opted for the tour without the lunch opinion and they were able to have a very nice lunch elsewhere.

My 11 year old daughter and I had a wonderful time on this tour despite the rainy weather. Our charming guide Alessia taught us a lot and the sites were absolutely breathtaking. One thing I would say is definitely skip the provided lunch and get your own. The lunch was horrible and I’m not particularly picky either. This tour is fantastic though and much easier than trying to figure out how to reach each site on your own.

Good: bus and driving, the sites, the lunch food was fine Could be improved: Do not make 25 plus people wait on a few late people (this happened twice in this tour). Refund their money and have the bus leave on time. We were already on too tight of a time schedule and these delays made it worse. The guide was nice enough but we could only understand about 60% of what she said. The tour was incredibly rushed. Literally dashing through things. We don’t need a 3 to 4 course lunch on a hot day and there is no way it can be served and eaten in the one hour we had. Having the guide deal with people that were only utilizing the transportation and tickets but not the guiding services or lunch was inefficient and had the rest of us standing around while she dealt with them and also meant we had to walk all the way down to Villa d’Este gate and then back up a steep hill to the lunch place. That was a waste of the little time we had.