There are a number of agencies available that offer tours of a long list of destinations. When traveling with kids, it's important to look for a company that offers tours geared towards families. There is a huge difference in touring a site with children versus with adults only, and a guide who has site knowledge and expertise will make the children feel included so you too can enjoy your visit.
While we spent this summer visiting Rome with our children, we enlisted the help of Context Travel to guide us into what we thought was one of the most overwhelming sites to tour in Rome — the Vatican. We took their incredible Vatican City for Kids tour. The Vatican is an amazing site filled with tremendous artwork and history that can start to blend together for kids after a while. Luckily our tour guide from Context Travel was able to gear our tour towards things that would be of interest to our children. Tours with Context Travel are private or very small group, making your experience feel customized to your family.
When we first met with our guide she asked the kids lots of questions to get to know them and to learn about their interests. My daughter had been carrying around a book about Rome and was excited to show it to our guide. The guide made sure to integrate my daughter’s excitement about her travel book into our tour by pointing out things that she had seen in the book in the Vatican.
One of the highlights of the Vatican is seeing the Sistine Chapel. Before we went in, our guide built in a break (the tour is about 3 hours long) to sit down in one of the cafés to let our kids have a snack. She gave them a large picture of the Sistine Chapel, talked to them about what they were going to see, and gave them some history about Michelangelo. She pointed out specific things to look for on the ceiling so they had a frame of reference when we entered.
The Vatican is extremely crowded and difficult to navigate. Having a guide also made it easier for us to be aware of and abide by the strict policies at the Vatican, such as covering your shoulders, where photography is and isn't allowed, etc.. The other thing that was fantastic about our guide was her inside knowledge on how the Vatican operates. She knew some great stories that we would've never known had we tried to do the tour on our own or just used an audio guide.
At the end of the tour we were provided with suggestions for finishing up the Vatican on our own. She even gave us some tips on things to see and do, places for lunch and a great gelato shop. The tour did not feel canned at all to us, it felt very personal and tailored to our family's needs.
Guiding three children ages 8, 11 and 13 through the Vatican can be challenging. They all move at a different pace, but have different interests and Context Travel did an amazing job of matching us up with a great tour for our family. Setting up the tour with Context Travel was simple, you're able to do everything online and the day before your tour you will receive information from Context Travel with a meeting place for your guide. While there may be other sites that you can visit without a guide, having the inside expertise of somebody who knows the site is invaluable. It gives a totally different feel to your visit when you have somebody with an intimate knowledge of what you're seeing. Context Travel offers family friendly tours in cities all over Europe, they also have some of the most unique tours for families. To learn more about Context Travel’s tours check them out online and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Check out what others think about Context Travel tours by following the hashtag #deeptravel.
***
The writer received a complimentary tour of the Vatican for the purposes of this article. No other compensation was received and opinions are her own.
