Recommendations for Sistine Chapel early admissions tour

We used Dark Rome/City Wonders for the Sistine Chapel Early Access tour:

https://darkrome.com/vatican-tours/sistine-chapel-early-access

They claim to be the first ones allowed in to the Vatican Museum, and that seemed to be the case, as there were very few others in the Sistine Chapel when we arrived there.

What time of the year are you going Bob?

Going next May. Thanks for the recommendation, Lola. I saw that one, and it looks good. But it doesn't mention St. Peter's. Do they also get you past the lines to get into St. Peter's?

We did the early tour with Walks of Italy. You do first to the Sistine Chapel for 30 minutes, then view some of the other Vatican Museums. Then back thru the Sistine to St. Peter’s. Last year they had a big sale on Black Friday.

We used Walks of Italy for the Vatican. We had early entry and a good guide. Used them for another walking tour in Rome and they were great.

We are looking at early entry tours for our trip next March - found Dark Rome, Italy With Us and Walks of Italy

One thing I am confused with - after the 2-3 hour guided portion of the tour ends in St Peter's Basilica/square, does anyone know if we allowed to linger at our own pace in the museum/other areas of the Vatican?

I am trying to contact each tour group, but thought I would ask here as well

..after the 2-3 hour guided portion of the tour ends in St Peter's
Basilica/square, does anyone know if we allowed to linger at our own
pace in the museum/other areas of the Vatican?

Hernerd, with any tour which wraps up in St Peter's, you cannot backtrack to the museums. You can, however, spend as much time in the basilica as you wish after your tour ends there.

I booked Walk of Italy’s Pristine Sistine tour for early May. I was surprised I could book this far in advance but am happy I could. It’s the pre-hour tour that starts at 7:15am.

We used Walks of Italy, the Pristine Sistine Tour. We went in March and were the only two that booked it, so we had a private tour for the price of a group tour. It was excellent!

Hernerd, with any tour which wraps up in St Peter's, you cannot backtrack to the museums. You can, however, spend as much time in the basilica as you wish after your tour ends there

Thanks - that's what I thought but wanted to confirm. The other option I had seen was an early entry to the Sistine Chapel but then you are left on your own to tour the rest of the museum at your leisure.

Thanks for the additional replies, everyone. I'm especially glad you replied, horsewoofie. I didn't realize that May was open now, as it wasn't when I first posted. I plan to book in the next couple of days.

But when looking, I noticed that Walk of Italy tours also offers a Sistine Chapel tour at night. By coincidence, I was talking to a friend who had done a private tour at night and she raved about it. But the Vatican museum night tour doesn't include St Peter's Basilica, whereas Pristine Sistine does. So now I'm torn. Does anyone think that the additional effect of seeing it at night would override the fact that it doesn't do the basilica? I assume I could separately tour the basilica on my own on a different day?

Thanks for any thoughts on the subject.

I also did an early access small group tour (pretty sure it was with liv italy)--the guide gave us an option:
Do the Sistine Chapel first (quickly walk there first, to beat the crowds), then backtrack and do other parts of the vatican museum, then the basilica.
OR
Do the museum, less rushed, then the Sistine Chapel (yes it would be more crowded), then the basilica

we opted to do the less rushed version, because we all decided we wanted to see other works in the museum too, to have a bit more time to appreciate them. I remember being at the vatican museum 15 yrs ago and being rushed through was annoying