Civitatis reviews: is it legit for Florence tours? Prices, free tours and cancellation

Civitatis is a Madrid platform for tours and excursions, built for the Spanish-speaking public and now the reference point of that market in Europe. For Florence it offers 78 activities: the smallest catalogue among the big platforms, and not necessarily a flaw.

The verdict in two sentences: it is selective, it has the cleanest reviews in the sector and one product the others do not own in the same way, the tip-based free tour. On admission tickets it is expensive, and support is its documented weak point.

It suits anyone after a tour in Spanish, or a walk with no commitment and nothing paid upfront. It does not suit anyone who wants an Accademia ticket at the best price, or who needs to talk to somebody quickly.

Disclosure: we are not affiliated with Civitatis and receive no commission from this platform. The official prices quoted come from the museums’ own sites.

Civitatis at a glance

The real strength: the Spanish market and tours in Spanish

Civitatis presents itself as the leader in the Spanish-speaking market, and in Florence you can see it: whatever you look for, the Spanish version exists, with regular departures and guides who work with that audience every day. It is the only platform where Spanish is not a fallback language.

For Italian and English the picture reverses. The catalogue is there but thinner, and Italian departures depend on a guide being available: among the recurring complaints are precisely tours in Italian cancelled for want of a guide. If language is a deal-breaker, check on the listing which language is guaranteed and which is “on request”.

The comparison with other platforms’ walking tours is brutal on price: the heart-of-Florence tour on Tiqets starts at €19 and the Medici tour on GetYourGuide at €12, with daily departures in English and Spanish. The full picture of guided walks and audio guides is on city tours.

The tip-based free tour: how it actually works

You book online without paying, you turn up at the meeting point, you walk for two and a half hours and at the end you leave what you think it was worth. That is the “payment on site” people talk about: there is no fare, there is a tip. On the platform the Florence Free Walking Tour has 9.20 out of 10 from 9,444 reviews and 107,674 participants at the time of checking — numbers no paid tour reaches.

How much to leave? The tour listing names no amount: the suggestion sits in Civitatis’ guide to free tours, which talks about “between 10 and 20 euros a person”, noting that the figure depends on the city and on the quality of the guide. Other platforms push it to €50. With two people you easily reach the price of a paid tour, so the honest comparison is that one, not “free against €19”.

There is also a legal point worth knowing, set out in full on our free tours page. In Italy tour guiding is a regulated profession: law 190 of 2023 created the national register and the exam, with fines up to €15,000 for operators and €12,000 for individuals. The city of Florence has treated free tours run by unlicensed guides as unlicensed trading and has in the past fined unlicensed guides in Piazza del Duomo. The tip-based model itself is legitimate: what is not is a guide without a badge. Ask for it, it is a normal question.

Museum tickets: this is where you pay

On admission tickets Civitatis is among the dearest. The Uffizi with an audio guide costs €41.50 against the €29 of the official advance sale, and that product’s score is low, 7 out of 10 from 269 reviews. The guided Uffizi tour at €69 does far better, 8.90 from 856 ratings: confirmation that the value here is in the guide, not in the ticket.

At the Accademia the skip-the-line package with an audio guide costs €35.99 against the official €24 (€20 plus a €4 booking fee). In fairness it includes a tasting at the Mercato Centrale: so it is not pure margin, but it is not a like-for-like comparison either.

Civitatis cancellation, refunds and support

The policy is clear and in line with the sector: free cancellation up to 24 hours before the activity starts, nothing after that, nothing for a no-show. The general conditions refer to each service’s own policy and exclude withdrawal for services with a fixed date. Free tours can be cancelled online at no cost, and actually doing so is a courtesy to the guide.

Support is the least impressive chapter. A phone number exists and is published, but negative reviews describe difficulty reaching a human, with automated chats that send you back to the start, and refund requests turned down.

What the reviews say

At the time of checking Trustpilot gives Civitatis 4.5 out of 5 from 194,072 reviews, with 77% five stars and just 5% one star: the lowest share of bad reviews among the platforms we examined, about a quarter of GetYourGuide’s. The company replies to 98% of reviews.

That figure should be read alongside the catalogue. Seventy-eight curated activities produce fewer disappointments than five hundred uploaded by anyone: the platform sells less, but it sells things that work. The negatives cluster on three points: support that is hard to reach, refunds refused, tours in Italian cancelled.

Pros and cons

In favour

• The best review ratio in the sector: 4.5 from 194,072 with only 5% at one star.
• A curated catalogue: fewer products, fewer surprises.
• A free tour with 9,444 reviews at 9.20 and nothing to pay upfront.
• Tours in Spanish guaranteed every day; free cancellation at 24 hours.

Against

• Expensive museum tickets: Uffizi €41.50 against €29, Accademia €35.99 against €24.
• Support hard to reach, according to the negative reviews.
• Departures in Italian not always guaranteed.
• The free tour is not free: the expected tip can exceed the price of a normal tour.

Verdict

3.5 out of 5. Civitatis is the most curated platform in the group: it picks few products, keeps them under control and collects the best review profile in the sector. If you travel in Spanish, there is no contest. If you want to walk for two and a half hours without paying upfront, its free tour is the most reviewed in Florence.

It does not go higher for two reasons. The first is the price of admission tickets, where a 43% premium on the Uffizi is justified by nothing. The second is support: on a platform selling experiences with fixed dates, not being able to reach anyone is a serious problem.

Buy tours here, especially in Spanish. To get into the museums, use another channel.

Alternatives

For walking tours in Italian and English with more departures look at GetYourGuide; for a museum ticket with an instant voucher, Tiqets; for the full picture of free tours in Florence, with the names of the active operators, see our free tours page.

Before paying €41.50 for an admission, compare the price lists on Uffizi and Accademia and David.