How to choose a guide for Vatican tour

The early entry to the Vatican Museum is an added bonus but you will have to pay for the experience. A wonderful guide can make or break a visit to a sight. If money is not a problem, then go for it. If budget is not a concern then go for a later entry with a small group tour.

I have take the Underground Tour of the Colosseum - it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. I actually enjoyed the visiting the upper ring more than the underground level as the views of the city from there are priceless.

I am amazed to hear that Walks of Italy is the lower cost provider. They are fantastic! I have taken the Pristine Sistine twice and have sent several guests. Everyone had a great experience. Unbeatable in my opinion to have a knowledgeable guide for this tour. Highly recommend "Walks."

Since you will be there next June you might want to look into doing a tour on a Friday night if that's when you'll be there. It's much less crowded on a Friday night and you can either book a tour, use an audio guide or do it on your own.

If Fridays don't work for you you can look at the Vatican website for early tours they offer:

http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceLivelloVisita=34&step=1

or a regular hours tour with an exclusive guide:

http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceLivelloVisita=13&step=1

The underground tour of the colosseum is very interesting. I've done if a few times with different people and they all seem to enjoy it. Only you can decide if it's worth it or not for your family based on their likes and dislikes.

Donna

Thank you all for the quick reply! This board is the best. Good to know Walks of Italy gets fantastic reviews. After more reading, I think our family will enjoy seeing the underground Colosseum.

Donna, thanks for the suggestion for evening tour. I will look into that. It seems like the evening tour only covers Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. I guess if we take that tour, we will just download RS audio tour of the Basilica and tour it ourselves.

When should I book the tours? I'd like to reserve the spots, but don't want to do it too early and lose the flexibility for other activities.

Thanks!

Shirley, I agree that a good guide is really a worthwhile expense for the Vatican and Colosseum. I also took the Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine tour, found it excellent, and enjoyed that the early start meant that I finished at the Vatican mid-day, and had the rest of the day free for other visits and activities. In that tour, you walk quickly through the Vatican Museum, arrive at the Sistine Chapel when there are very few other people present, then go back through the Museum as it becomes crowded with people, walk by the Sistine Chapel again when you can observe it jam-packed with an uncomfortable number of people, then go through the tour door directly into St. Peter's. The guide takes you through St. Peter's and then you can remain there longer if you like, but you cannot get back into the Museum at that point, unless you walk all the way back to the entrance, wait in line, and buy a new ticket. One down side of the Pristine Sistine tour is that it does not allow you to spend extra time in the Museum to visit areas of special interest to you. A private guide would enable more flexibility that way, and also, if there are kids in your group, a guide could cater to their particular interests, etc.

Shirley, the night time visit does not include the basilica because it closes at the time the museums are re-opening for the evening. What I suggest is that you visit the basilica around 4 pm then had to dinner before going to the night visit. You can book this tour about 60 days ahead of time directly through the Vatican website. You'll see it appear on the website once they start taking the reservations.

I've done it a few times and really enjoyed it. When I did it in June we shared the chapel with about 50 other people. There was no issue with getting a seat on a bench and just examining the ceiling for as long as we wanted to. We spend over a half hour just sitting and admiring the artwork. It's really a great time to visit and it won't break your bank.

Donna

We did Pristine Sistine last summer and it was great! Highly recommend it!

We also did the underground of colosseum which we really liked as well - just the one you get through the colosseum ticket office that costs like 9 euro. Really was great!

I wouldn't have minded a guide to take us around the Forum - but our boys, 9 and 11, would not have made it after the underground - and that was the only day we had to do it, so we just walked through and read the guide book.

Kim