Booking 'Skip the line tickets' / Guided Tours for Vatican City

The Vatican Museums have announced there will be ticketing changes next year. I haven't seen an announcement on the Vatican Museums website, but this online article may help a bit: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255969/vatican-museums-announce-new-hours-ticket-price-and-entrance.

The Vatican Museums are mind-blowingly crowded. Even a brilliant tour guide will have limited ability to reduce the impact of the sardine-like conditions. The usual suggestion here is to choose one of the (very) early-access options that get you into the Museums before they open to the general public. The Vatican itself offers early entry with or without a guide; at least one option includes breakfast. There's an audio guide available if you want to save money.

Private companies also offer early-access tours (only with a live, human guide as far as I know). The commercial tours seem to be more expensive than the tours run by the Vatican Museums; I don't think you'll find a commercial early-access tour much below 100 euros. Walks of Italy's Pristine Sistine tour is very popular on this forum, but there are other companies in that market.

I went to the Vatican Museums in the early afternoon in March this year. They were very crowded, but I wasn't really interested in the Sistine Chapel, which was difficult even to walk through. I just took my time and was able to see what I wanted to see in the rest of the museums; some of the areas of interest to me (like the Pinacoteca) were almost deserted.

My opinion is that the unbelievable crowds along the direct path to the Sistine Chapel mean any pre-general-opening-time tour (even without a guide--rent the audio guide) is going to be better than any tour beginning after the general opening time.

Assuming you also want to see St. Peter's, you might try to find a tour that covers that as well as the Vatican Museums. As of this year, the Vatican Museums offer no such tour, but some private companies do. There's a back-door connection between the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's; sometimes tours are allowed to go through that door. That's a huge advantage, because there's quite a long outdoor walk over to St. Peter's if you take the public exit from the Vatican Museums, then you have to go through the extremely long security line (which looked like it could take hours, but I gave up so I don't know for sure).

I'm sure I've answered one of your questions before - you have a unique user name. It isn't there now. Do you delete your posts?

Thanks acraven! Do you have any idea when they might reopen ticketing for next year? Looks like I'll have to wait for their revamp to be complete but January is closing in quickly.

Nigel, I think you commented on my previous post about accidentally booking accommodation for the wrong dates in Vienna. I think my post got taken down because it was flagged as a scam (some people thought I was trying to sell the accom to you guys on the forum) hahaha - it's alright I understand where they were coming from.

I don't have any idea when the Vatican Museums will open up ticket sales for 2024, but I agree it's something you'll want to jump on as soon as you can. If it were my trip, I'd be checking that website every morning, at least--and maybe also right before going to bed at night.

Have you thought about a Walks of Italy tour? They are more than your budget but are booking into next year. I did the Pristine Sistine tour in 2019. Good, somewhat crowded, almost too many things to take in.

It did not spend as much time in the museum as I would have liked, however I can spend hours in a museum. I’ll be going back just to the museum during my trip next year. Planning to take the Prime Experience tour listed on the Vatican’s website. Because of the tour/website changes the Vatican is making, this may change.

We just did the Sistine Chapel - Extra Time guided tour in English on 11/10. It is expensive - close to $80 - but you get approximately 30 minutes inside the almost-empty Sistine Chapel as one of only 60 people, and the guide is allowed to speak, which isn't usually the case. The tour is followed by an aperitivo/happy hour in the pavilion outside. The food was acceptable. The guide was amazing.

The tour started at 16:00 - I believe that was the cutoff for last admissions for general tickets. The guide took us through the galleries preceding the Chapel, stopping at key points. The audio system worked well. The galleries were not cattle-car crowded at that point. It is a VERY long walk from the museum to the Sistine Chapel, and frankly, if I had been there on a general ticket, I wouldn't have lingered in many spots. There is a great deal of stuff, but much is repetitive - how many gigantic maps or tapestries do you want to look at?

The Raphael Rooms were spectacular, even though one had scaffolding set up for restoration work.

The notes I had made when planning my ticket purchase indicate that general tickets go on sale 60 days in advance. Right now I see that ticket sales end on 12/31 - suggesting there will be a transition to the new ticketing system.

When we approached the museum entrance at approximately 15:30, there was still a massive line waiting for walk-up tickets - obviously the vast majority of them never got inside. Having just been there, I would strongly suggest spending the money for an early or late admission tour. The new extended hours of the museum may also affect which tours are offered, and when.

We took a small group guided tour mid-October and can't imagine trying to see it all with just Skip the Line Tickets. Even with just 18 people, two of them quickly were separated from the tour due to the very large crowds. Hopefully in January you will not have to worry about the crowds. Listening to the Guide through the headsets will be more informative to you also, plus with a guide your group will be entering/exiting through different lines that are much faster than when on your own.

The Sistine Chapel was a disappointment for me personally due to the non-adherence of the crowd to be respectful of the silence requested.
Vatican City is a very big place and takes more time to see than you realize. Don't waste your time standing in line!