Raft a river before lunch. Sit in water that comes warm out of the ground. Take the helm of a boat, or follow a dog until it finds a truffle. All of it within two hours of Rome, all of it booked straight with the people who run it.
We order by season, by whether the operator confirms straight away, by how much you feel like doing, and by who you are going with. Places that nobody sells — a hill town, a ruin, an abbey you simply walk up to — score full marks on that second one, because there is nothing that can fall through. We never order by commission — and we never order by how far it is: how much of a journey a day is worth is yours to weigh, not ours, so the distance is on every card and nowhere in the score. The formula
Those four answers are the ones this page was built with, run against all 986 activities we hold. Nothing about you is stored, nothing is sent on to the operators, and the page is the same one everybody else gets.
These 8 come first today. See all 982, or pick the day you are actually free and the list gets ordered for it.
Every one of these is a day trip, not an overnight. Most are easiest with a hire car — you go when you like, and you come back when the light goes.
On the waterTrendingThree hours paddling across Lake Albano, gear included, children from six up.
€42.40 per person
Books on ckacademy.it
See the day
On the waterNinety minutes on Lake Bracciano with an instructor: board, paddle, dry bag.
€15 per person
Books on Sporting Club Sabazia
See the day
On two wheelsThree hours on an e-bike, out through the aqueducts and along the Appia Antica.
€8 per person
Books on Ecobike Roma
See the day
Down the riverTrendingPaddle under Castel Sant'Angelo and past Tiber Island, down the middle of Rome.
A sports club — you join them for the day
See the day
In the airTrendingLift off at first light over the Tiber valley. The transfer from Rome is included.
See the day
Down the riverYou paddle an individual inflatable kayak down the Aniene, with guides alongside.
See the day
Under the groundA guided visit to natural caves inside the Monti Simbruini park, wearing a helmet and head torch, through tunnels and narrow passages.
See the day
On the trailClimbing on an indoor artificial wall with routes for every level and an instructor always present.
See the daySame four letters. 22 minutes apart.
You've done the looking — it's the most looked-at square kilometre on earth, and you've queued for most of it. Everything here is something the city itself cannot give you, starting 22 minutes from your hotel. A river. A horse. Water that comes out of the ground at 58 °C. A dog that knows where the truffles are.
986 things to do
Rivers, boats, horses, kitchens, hot springs, thermals. If you can already do it inside Rome, it isn't on this site.
210 places
Close enough to leave after breakfast and be back for dinner. On 6 of the 986 we have timed the journey from Rome and can tell you which train, not just which town — and every card says whether it is one of them.
227 you phone, or just turn up
A thermal pool in an open field that costs nothing. The farm that answers its own phone. The club you join instead of booking. We found them and read 205 of the 986 on the operator's own page — with the date, and the source, written down.
FREE to use visitmore
No account, no booking fee, no markup. You book on the operator's own site and pay what they charge — the same as if you'd found them yourself.
Nobody flies home talking about the queue. They talk about the dog that found the truffle, the water that came out of the ground at 58 °C, and the twenty seconds before the paraglider left the hill. That's what you'll have left of this week — so spend one day of it doing something.
Where you would be going
Every place we list, at its real position from Rome, coloured by how long you would drive to it. The bigger the dot, the more there is to do there — and every dot opens what is on there.
Most to do
See them as a listLeave after breakfast, be in Rome by mid-afternoon with the evening still ahead of you. These are the ones that fit around whatever you have already booked.
On the trailA climbing session with instructors on the crags near the Marmore falls.
See the day
Down the riverA circular route inside the Valle dell'Aniene nature reserve in Rome: a guided walk along the reserve paths, then a raft descent of the river past old bridges and small rapids, …
See the day
Down the riverA raft descent of the urban stretch of the Tiber.
See the day
On the waterA surf school in front of Banzai Beach at Santa Marinella, running since 2002 with instructors certified by the Italian surf federation.
See the day
Off roadThree to three and a half hours on a quad from Bassiano up the Monte Semprevisa to Campo Rosello at 1,200 metres, about thirty kilometres of tarmac, unmade road and forest track.
See the day
Off roadThe same thirty-kilometre route up Monte Semprevisa as the classic tour, with the same briefing and practice area, but at Campo Rosello the pizzas ordered in advance arrive hot.
See the day
On the waterCast off at 9:30 for the Blue Grotto of the Dolls, snorkel kit on board.
€60 per person
Books on Gaeta Escursioni
See the day73 guides to the country around Rome, and 739 different days inside them — sorted by desire, by how far you want to drive, by who is with you and by the month you are here.
The short answer
The best day trips from Rome
Rome is surrounded by country that most visitors never see, and almost all of it is close enough to be back for dinner. These are the days that work.
60 days out · 25 places · the nearest is a 33 min drive from Rome
Read the guide
Start here
Seven directions out of Rome
Rome sits in the middle of seven different landscapes, and each one gives you a different day. Pick the direction first — the rest follows.
63 things to book · 31 places · the nearest is a 33 min drive from Rome
Read the guide
Day trips
Half an hour out, an hour, two
Choose by how long you are willing to drive, not by the photograph.
60 days out · 13 places · the nearest is in Rome itself
Read the guide
No booking site lists these — there is nothing to click, so there is no commission in them for anyone. We called each one, wrote down what they said, and left you the number.
On the waterNo boat: a cable tows you across, and one hour on it is enough to find out.
€25 their price
A sports club — you join them for the day
See the day
On the waterNinety minutes on a wakeboard on the Tiber, without leaving Rome.
A sports club — you join them for the day
See the day
On the waterWalk in from the lakeshore into a volcanic lake: shelving bottom, no current.
A sports club — you join them for the day
See the day
Under the groundWalk into the hill on wet steps, in a guided group of no more than twelve.
€10 per person
Books on grottepastenacollepardo.it
See the day982 of the 986 days out on this site are open today. 4 are shut until their season comes round again — the list above leaves them out rather than sending you to a closed gate.
127 of them publish a season, and on 15 December only 107 of those would be running. The other 859 run all year or leave their calendar unpublished, so the three figures below are counted on those 127 alone, for 24 August and for nobody else's date — 13 of the 127 carry a verification date, the rest are the operators' own published dates.
12 activities
Of the 123 running today, these 12 sit inside the peak weeks recorded in their season: 7 on the water, 2 in the air, 1 in the hot water and 2 more in other categories.
4 activities
Sulphur pools in the Sabina hills closes on 20 September, Learn to wing foil on Lake Bracciano on 30 September, Circeo sea caves by boat on 30 September and 1 more before then. Their seasons start again in May. These are published seasons, not places left: we do not hold anyone's calendar.
2 activities
Join the grape harvest opens on 1 September and Learn to surf on the Tyrrhenian on 1 September. Today they are out of season, which is why the list above leaves them out rather than sending you to a closed gate.
Photograph by MittesR, Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0. Not this place: it shows what the day looks like, and will be replaced with the operator's own photograph or ours from the field.
Most of the photographs on this site are of the place itself, from Wikimedia Commons. Where we have no picture of the place we use a landscape that cannot contradict the title — never a picture of a different activity. Every photographer, and every licence.
Links marked affiliate pay us a commission — you pay the operator's own price and we never take your money. How we rank