Big landmarks, small kids. The tours that work for both.
Which Colosseum ticket gets a seven-year-old through the gate without a meltdown. Whether the Louvre is worth it with a stroller. How the RV trip actually goes. Family guides written by parents, and reviews of every tour at the world’s biggest landmarks.
Grand Canyon With Kids (Yes, It’s Worth the Trip) → Four bookings that carry a first trip to Europe with kids.
The Colosseum, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the Vatican, each picked for how it goes with children in tow. What each costs, and what the families who took it say.
01Rome, morning oneColosseum and Ancient Rome Family Tour for KidsA guide who talks to the kids, not over them. Arena floor if you can get it. Two hours, then gelato.
02Paris, the museum dayLouvre Private Family Tour for Kids + Reserved EntryA treasure-hunt route through the Louvre that ends at the Mona Lisa before the crowds close in.
03Paris, the climbEiffel Tower Summit or Second Floor AccessTimed lift tickets to the top. The one booking in Paris that cannot be left until you land.
04Rome, before the doors openEarly Entry to Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’sEarly entry to the Vatican Museums. Empty corridors, the Sistine Chapel with room to breathe, done before the kids fade.
Twenty places every family trip seems to end up at.
Every tour and ticket at each one, reviewed. Pick the landmark, then pick the way in that suits your crew: guided, skip-the-line, private, or just the plain ticket.
The guides parents keep sending each other.
Every family guide →National parks with a toddler, Tokyo on a rainy day, the resorts that actually earn the all-inclusive price. Written from our own trips, kids and all.
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Everything in Rome →
The Colosseum, the Vatican and a day at Pompeii are the three things everybody books, and the three things that sell out. Get those right and the rest of Rome is pizza, fountains and letting the kids run in the piazzas.
Colosseum, Forum and Palatine on one ticket
One ticket covers all three. With children the question is guide or no guide: a good guide turns the arena into a story, the plain ticket turns it into a hot walk.
Skip the Vatican line, or go in before it forms
The museums queue is the worst in Rome. Early-entry and skip-the-line tickets are the difference between an hour of shuffling and walking straight into the Raphael Rooms.
Pompeii from Rome, and whether to add Vesuvius
Kids love Pompeii: plaster bodies, a real street, a bakery with the oven still there. The choice is the fast train and a guide at the gate, or a coach day that adds the volcano.
The landmark tours more families book than any other.
Every landmark tour we have reviewed →Across all twenty landmarks, the tours that carry the most travellers, and what earns each of them the spot.
1
Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticket
Skip the ticket line to Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel via GetYourGuide, with optional audioguide for a self-paced visit.
From · $38
Read our review →
2
Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
from $39
3
Louvre Museum Timed-Entrance Ticket
from $26
4
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour with Optional Basilica
from $79
5
Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
from $78
6
Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket
from $41
7
Versailles Palace and Gardens Full Access Ticket
from $17
8
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
from $22
Paris with kids is a queue you can plan around.
The Eiffel Tower lift, the Louvre’s timed entry and the train out to Versailles all reward booking from home. Do that, and Paris becomes crepes, carousels and a boat down the Seine.
Every Paris tour →
The RV side: buying, renting, and not regretting it.
All the RV guides →
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What a landmark ticket actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price per person. Plenty of the best days at the big landmarks come in under the price of a family lunch.
Plain entry tickets, audio guides, timed slots and the short guided walks.
The full guided visits: arena floor, early Vatican entry, Versailles with the gardens, Pompeii with an archaeologist.
Private guides who pace the day around your kids, and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Three landmark days children remember.
Museums are a hard sell at seven. A salt cathedral underground, a castle with a vampire story and a palace built by a man who hated straight lines are not.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine
Miners cut this out by hand from the thirteenth century on, and somewhere along the way started carving chapels. The tourist route drops 135 metres over 800 steps and about three kilometres of tunnels, past a chapel the size of a church with chandeliers made of salt. Cool all year, which matters in a Polish August, and lit like a film set, which matters to a ten-year-old.
- 1Wieliczka Salt Mine Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 9,393 reviews
- 2Auschwitz-Birkenau and Salt Mine Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,020 reviews
- 3Wieliczka Salt Mine Guided Tour with Transport★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 7,429 reviews
Bran Castle, the one they call Dracula’s
Bran sits on a rock above the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia, and it looks exactly like a castle should: turrets, a hidden staircase, a courtyard well. Vlad the Impaler may have spent a night or two here at most; the Dracula link is mostly Bram Stoker and marketing. Kids do not care. The day trips from Bucharest and Brasov usually add Peles Castle, which is the prettier of the two.
- 1Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 17,858 reviews
- 2Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,891 reviews
- 3Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,919 reviews
The Sagrada Familia towers
Gaudí started it in 1883 and it is still not finished. Inside, the columns branch like trees and the light through the glass changes colour from morning to afternoon. The tower tickets take a lift up and bring you down a spiral stair with the city spread out below. They sell out days ahead, and children under six are not allowed up, so check the ages before you book the family in.
- 1Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 105,312 reviews
- 2Fast Track Sagrada Familia Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8,795 reviews
- 3Park Guell and Sagrada Familia Tour with Skip the Line Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,384 reviews
Four landmark tickets that will not wait until you land.
Most of a family trip can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed slots and daily caps that fill weeks ahead in summer, and turning up without a booking means a photo from the outside.
- 01Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with TicketsThe Nasrid Palaces run on timed slots with a daily cap. In summer they are gone weeks out, and a general ticket without the palaces misses the point.
- 02Sagrada Familia Tour & Optional Tower VisitTimed entry, and the tower tickets go first. Book the slot you want, not the one that is left.
- 03Louvre Museum Entry Ticket With Host and River CruiseEntry is by timed reservation. On a free-entry Sunday or a school holiday the walk-up line can cost you the whole morning.
- 04Early Entry to Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’sEarly-entry slots are few and the regular queue in July is measured in hours. Book the early one; the children will thank you by ten.
Two hours, a guide who likes children, and a way past the line.
The tours that go wrong with kids are the long ones, the crowded ones and the ones with a lecture. The ones that go right share a shape: a skip-the-line entry, a guide used to families, and something to do with their hands. These lists are sorted for exactly that.
By place
Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice: the loop most families do first.
Versailles
Florence
VeniceThe newest landmark tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Grand Vatican Tour Full-day with Sistine Chapel and Borgia Rooms
Read our review →
Vatican Semi Private Tour with Access to Museums & Sistine Chapel
Read our review →
Fast Access Private Vatican & Sistine Chapel Kids & Families Tour
Read our review →
Exclusive Vatican Guided Tour Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Read our review →
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel last entry Guided Tour
Read our review →
Best of Rome & Vatican Private Tour from Civitavecchia Port
Read our review →
Pompeii, Amalfi, Ravello Day Tour with Private Transfer
Read our review →
Private transfer from ROME to SORRENTO with 3 hours stopover in pompeii
Read our review →
Pompeii, Positano & Amalfi Coast from Rome or Naples -Semiprivate
Read our review →
From Positano: Pompeii & Wine Tasting with Lunch
Read our review →
