Vatican City

This is a duplicate post. Are you asking about Vatican CITY or the Vatican Museums?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City

https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html

Hi Charley
Could you explain further what you mean by "early"? And do you mean the Vatican Museums? There used to be tours that got into that one before the general public but very few of those do anymore, and those few are VERY expensive. Many of the tour companies call an 8:00 entry - which is when the doors open to all with 8:00 reservations, tour or not - an "early" entry.

Vatican City involves multiple parts, and there's no single tour that covers all parts that the public are allowed to visit. Those are:
St Peter's Square (free)
St. Peter's Basilica and Grottos (free; is included in some combo tours with the Vatican Museums)
Vatican Gardens (escorted tours mandatory)
Scavi/Necropolis under St Peter's (escorted tours mandatory; must be reserved in advance)

You posted a question with the same title a half hour earlier than this one, charley, but specifically asked about The Roman Guy tours, not just any tour.

There used to be a “Pristine Sistine” tour offered by the Vatican Museums themselves, where people got in a little earlier than the general public, in order to head straight to the Sistine Chapel to see it without a huge crowd. I’d heard that some people literally ran down the hallways to get an “unspoiled” view.

We hired a private guide four years ago, and got in line before the museum officially opened. There were only a few people in front of us, and once it turned 8:00 A.M., the line moved quickly. We took our time moving through the museum with everybody else, reaching the Sistine Chapel towards the end, but there was no beating the crowd - it was just less-crowded sometimes, and more crowded at other times. He did get us into the Gabinetto delle Maschere (Cabinet of the Masks), an exclusive, restricted-access room with almost no one else, which provided a nice break from the masses.

One advantage of a tour, any tour, is that the guide can get you through the guided-people-only “back door” of the Sistine Chapel, giving you a shortcut to St. Peter’s Basilica, without having to retrace your steps back to the Museums’ entrance, then get in back of a separate security line for the Basilica.

There was a Travel Forum post about a year ago, about an early tour experience with a different tour company: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/day-tours/walking-tours-of-italy-pristine-sistine-be-aware-before-you-buy:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/vatican-tours/pristine-sistine-chapel-tour/

I took this tour in 2019. From what I remember, we met the guide outside before the museum opened. She spent a few minutes talking about the Sistine Chapel while she showed pictures of it. Once inside, we went to the Sistine Chapel and spent a few minutes there. We also spent some time in a courtyard and then a garden. We also spent a few minutes in the room where the School of Athens is. We then spent some time in St. Peter’s. I can’t compare it with other tours since this is the only one I’ve taken, but it was fine.