The Colosseum lit from the west at the end of the afternoon

Ruins, old towns and the guides who know the doors

The history tour, from a Roman arena to a Charleston side street.

Which Colosseum ticket actually reaches the arena floor. What a Lisbon walking guide costs. Whether the Prague underground earns a second morning. Reviews of the history and heritage tours you can book in 45 countries.

Start in ancient Rome See the whole list →

1,776history tours you can book

$8cheapest guided morning

935under $50 a head

MedievalOldtown, Medieval Underground & Dungeon History TourCellars and a dungeon under the Old Town Square. from $31
RenaissanceVenice’s Best: Basilica, Doge’s Palace, Gondola & History GalleryThe Doge’s Palace, the basilica and the gallery above it. from $129
ColonialHistoric Charleston Guided Sightseeing Walking TourChurch steeples, single houses and the alleys behind them. from $30

Start here

Rome, Lisbon, Edinburgh, Boston: four history mornings already solved.

The bookings a first history trip tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.

Six cities to start in

Six old cities where the history is the reason you booked.

A Roman arena, a Lisbon hillside, two Southern ports that kept their eighteenth-century street plan, a castle on volcanic rock and two thousand years of London. The best guided day in each.

Best ofRomeThe arena, the forum and the layers below Best ofLisbonAlfama, the earthquake and the tiles Best ofCharlestonSingle houses, alleys and the harbour forts Best ofSavannahSquares, brick and the stories after dark Best ofLondonRoman wall to Victorian pub Best ofEdinburghA castle, a shut-up close and the New Town

The American history tour

American history is mostly a walking tour, and it starts in the old ports.

Charleston, Savannah, Boston and New Orleans hold more standing eighteenth-century street than anywhere else in the country. Three kinds of history day, what each costs to join, and how much ground it covers.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour

On footA guide, two hours, and the streets the plaques stand on. from $10

After darkLantern routes through the old burying grounds and the court records behind them. from $23

On wheelsMore ground per hour where the historic district is spread thin. from $38 All 317 history tours in the USA →

On foot

The history walking tour is still the best two hours in an old city.

A guide, a fixed route and enough stops to make the street plan legible. Salem, Lisbon, Boston and Charleston lead the field. In summer, book the early slot.

1History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tourfrom $36
2History, Stories and Lifestyle Walking Tourfrom $29
3London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubsfrom $40

Guided walks Old town walks Small group Private guides Audio routes

All the walking routes, city by city →

What fills up first

These are the history tours the queues form for.

Every history tour on the site →

What earns each of them the slot, and what it costs to join.

★★★★★★★★★★5.0· 14,564 reviews

History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour

Explore Salem’s witch trial history, haunted lore, and colonial streets on a two-hour guided walk, with lantern-lit evening tours available.

From · $36

Read our review →

2 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 12,691 reviews Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tour from $160

3 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 10,902 reviews History, Stories and Lifestyle Walking Tour from $29

4 ★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10,422 reviews London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubs from $40

5 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 10,277 reviews Oldtown, Medieval Underground & Dungeon History Tour from $31

6 ★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10,023 reviews Charleston’s Old South Carriage Historic Horse & Carriage Tour from $50

7 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,933 reviews Edinburgh Castle Guided History Tour with Tickets from $49

8 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8,006 reviews Beneath The Streets Underground History Tour from $29

The oldest stones

Ancient history tours: the arena first, then everything under it.

Rome sells the Colosseum three different ways and only one of them puts you on the arena floor. Delphi, Corinth, Pompeii and Syracuse are day trips with a bus timetable attached. Take the guide.

Best ofThe ColosseumBest ofPompeiiBest ofDig sitesBest ofWorld Heritage

Every ancient history tour →

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tour

Historical Delphi One Day Tour with Arachova Stop & Expert Guide

Small-Group Rome to Pompeii & Amalfi: Day of History & Sea

What it costs

What a guided history day actually costs.

Every priced tour on the site, grouped by what you pay to join it. Most of the great city walks sit in the cheapest band.

Under $50

Old-town walks, audio routes, single site entries and the two-hour city guides.

1History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tourfrom $36
2History, Stories and Lifestyle Walking Tourfrom $29
3London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubsfrom $40

$50 to $150

Full days: Pompeii out of Rome, the arena-floor Colosseum slots, small-group walks with entry included.

$150 and up

Private historians, whole-day escorted trips and the once-a-trip splurge.

1Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tourfrom $160
2Colosseum & Ancient Rome with Arena Floor Option I Max 6 Peoplefrom $180
3Dubai Evening Heritage Safari by Vintage G Class Al Marmoom Oasisfrom $189

Only in one place

Three history tours that cannot be taken anywhere else.

Ruins and old towns repeat across the map. An arena floor in Rome, a street buried under Prague and a hillside of Ottoman glass above the Osum do not.

Rome

The arena floor

Most Colosseum tickets put you on the two upper tiers looking down. A limited number of guided slots go the other way, onto the reconstructed arena floor and into the hypogeum below it, where the lifts and the animal pens were. Each slot is capped, the underground closes in heavy rain, and none of it is included in the standard ticket.

1Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 12,691 reviews
2Colosseum with Arena, Roman Forum and Palatine Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 5,598 reviews
3Colosseum with Arena, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,526 reviews

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Prague

The street underneath

Old Town Square sits roughly three metres above the ground the city was first built on. The Vltava flooded so persistently that Prague simply raised the level and left the old ground floors intact underneath. Tours drop into the vaults and the dungeon, where the temperature holds at about twelve degrees all year, which is the real argument for going in August.

1Oldtown, Medieval Underground & Dungeon History Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 10,277 reviews
2Prague Old Town, Medieval Underground and Dungeon Historical Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,227 reviews
3Templar Tour Convent of Christ & Almourol Castle from Lisbon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 704 reviews

See the full list →

Albania

A thousand windows

Berat stacks Ottoman houses up two facing hillsides above the Osum, each one glazed with so many panes that Albanians call it the town of a thousand windows. The quarter across the river is still lived in, the castle above it holds a working neighbourhood inside the walls, and the whole thing is a two-hour drive from Tirana.

1World Heritage Shirakawa-go and Experience Tours from Kanazawa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,049 reviews
2Berat UNESCO Heritage & Belshi Lake Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,863 reviews
3Bali: Tanah Lot UNESCO World Heritage Sites Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,947 reviews

See the full list →

Rules of entry

What actually gates a history tour: slots, closed days and dress.

Almost none of this runs on the weather. It runs on timed entry, on the one day a week a site shuts, on whether a guide can get you inside at all, and on covered shoulders at the door.

01Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome TourEntry runs on timed, capped slots, and the arena floor and the tunnels underneath are sold separately from the standard ticket.
02Discover the Ancient Ruins of Pompeii: Day Trip from RomeForty-four hectares of open stone with almost no shade, and the gates shut long before dark. Go at opening, with a guide who knows the short route.
03Córdoba: Skip-the-Line Great Mosque-Cathedral History TourThe cathedral inside the mosque holds services, so the first hour is the only reliably quiet one, and covered shoulders are expected at the door.
04Budapest Jewish Heritage Memorial Walking Tour & Synagogue EntryAdmission closes for Shabbat and the high holidays, and the memorial garden beside it asks for a quiet group. Book the tour that carries the ticket.

After dark

Ghost walks are history tours with the lights off.

Salem, Savannah, New Orleans, Edinburgh and Stockholm all run them, and the good ones are led by guides who know the court records as well as the stories. A lantern, a burying ground, a two-hour route and an early sell-out.

Every night walk

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,235 reviewsSavannah History and Haunts Candlelit Ghost Walking Tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,685 reviewsGhost Walk and Historical Tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,289 reviewsNew Orleans Small-Group Haunted History Carriage Tour

Best ofGhost walksBest ofSouthern nightsBest ofDungeons

The recent past

Twentieth-century history is guided differently, and that is the point.

Memorials, ghetto walls, bunkers and wartime sites are ticketed, often timed, and led by guides trained for them. Expect a fixed route, a small quiet group, and no photography where a site asks for none.