The Roman Forum is a free attraction ( except for Palatine Hill)

The Forum was possibly the highlight of my visit to Rome, along with the Pantheon.

BUT you need a guide book or an audio tour at least (audio tour is downloadable from audible.com for free, along with a map) ,if you arent joining one of the numerous paid walking tours. If you dont have a guide of some description, most of the time you wont know what you are looking at, so it will detract from the experience a bit.

We visited in August and it was oppressively hot. There are numerous trees within the forum you can shelter under (most of the Forum is exposed) and there are numerous water fountains, so take a bottle with you in summer - you'll need it!

The Roman Forum contains the ruins of the ancient Roman civilization. Strolling through the ruins gives an impressive sense of history. Most of the buildings are partially or completely gone, but are still impressive. There is something eerie about seeing the free-standing columns that have survived all of these years.

It’s very interesting to see the remnants of a time gone by, but hard to understand the significance of the various sites without a guide. If you aren’t on a tour there is almost no information provided (signs / guides) to help you get around. We ended up listening in on one of the tours and got much more out of it than if we had wandered around on our own. As an alternative there are several guide books which offer self guided tours and give background info on various spots.

if you want to learn about the history of the roman forum without joining the typical "we are tourists!" tour group you could try a downloadable audio walking tour from walki-talki.com.

you download the tour from their site, upload to your iPod or mp3 player and then follow the tour at your own pace. The tour includes a map showing the route but its not necessary as the directions on the audio are very clear and the route is fairly straightforward.

you can start and stop the tour whenever you like and walk the route at your own pace. and while you stroll along with your headphones in you won't even look like a tourist.

i think this is a good idea, i'd be interested to hear what other travelers think...

We went with a cruise ship tour group and spent an hour there (or less, it seemed so quick) and we loved it, although we felt we would have benefited from longer time there than what we got. We hope to return so we can explore the forum properly.
It's best to see the place with a guide though, even if it does give you less time to explore, because you will have difficulty determining what the ruins are without a guide telling you.
It's the size of the place that really gets you, it's huge! Don't forget to buy water before you go in!!!