The Tour Guy Vatican Tour - Not as Advertised?

I understand your frustration and agree that you got a bit of a bait-and-switch. I would be unhappy, too.

I'm super interested in The Tour Guy's response.

While I usually roll my eyes at folks who leave negative reviews all over the place, I think this is a legitimate beef and something to share widely with other travelers so that they know a tour purchased from The Tour Guy is subject to bait-and-switch. If someone is choosing between similar tours offered by The Tour Guy and another company, your experience is a VERY important part of the decision-making process.

I also think it's reasonable to tell the company in a respectful way that your integrity requires you to share widely this experience with other travelers on review sites. It's the company's choice whether the review is "company didn't deliver advertised product and did nothing to make it right" OR "company did not deliver advertised product and responded by trying to make it right."

I am glad that you are going to go back to The Tour Guy and talk about what was advertised and what you received, And I believe that you should get some kind of refund, maybe not the entire amount but some money back.

I had a similar experience in Barcelona with Spain Day Tours when wanting to visit Montserrat . I posted about my experience on forum but then decided to complain to Spain Day Tours.

I did get a very nice apology and some money refunded. That was the most professional of my entire experience with Spain Day Tours.

But based on my one experience with Spain Day Tours, I would not want to take another tour with them nor could I recommend the company to others.

Hi Jay. You certainly deserve a partial refund from The Tour Guy and that early-entry is why you pay a premium price to a tour company. It is exhausting to tour the Vatican Museums and Basilica but the early entry helps a bit.

We have taken the Pristine Sistine tour with Walks of Italy three times and it takes them 4 hours to accomplish what you were promised in 3 hours.

Ugh. So sorry for your disappointment, Jay. I know how carefully you planned this trip! :O(

An interesting observation? I pulled up the Tour Guy website to see if the tour description included a disclaimer I often see regarding those which include the basilica + direct access to it, such as Walks of Italy's "Pristine Sistine" has, but the tour you describe isn't even among their offerings anymore. There is a private tour that starts at $544.92 that includes the basilica and which also contains the disclaimer I was looking for:

"Please note that St. Peter's Basilica is closed on Wednesdays for the Papal Audience and can occasionally experience other unexpected closures. If this happens, your guide will make up the time at other areas within the Vatican."

So butts are apparently covered in that regard. As the specific tour you purchased isn't even among the products they sell anymore, I can't take a run through reviews to see if the time change you experienced was a noted complaint among other customers. Still, they're covered by multiple disclaimers in such as this one under "Terms and Conditions":

"Sometimes, tours are subject to sudden and unexpected changes. Therefore, TTG reserves the right to change the start time, date, or meeting point of any tour or service you book through TTG. TTG will notify you of such changes by email, phone, and/or text phone using the information you provided during booking."

Curious; they didn't inform you about that until the morning of the tour, thus your long wait at the cafe?

About the change in company actually conducting the tour: associated disclaimers are tougher to find but there is these wee mentions of partners under " Disclaimer of Loss or Damages for Lost or Stolen Property":

"TTG is not responsible for the actions of its third-party service providers, such as drivers, guides and partner tour operators. However, TTG partners with reliable and professional transportation service providers, guides and partner tour operators...

While it's reasonable to assume that a company might employ vetted, quality guides who work independently across the field, the above and a mention of "partner tours" in one of their blog pages is the only mention I can see of collaboration with multiple companies. The good news is that at least you were handed an accomplished guide.

Wading through/puzzling out legalese is so much fun. Not.

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear how they respond to your questions and request for a partial refund. Hope the rest of your trip so far has been wonderful, and I'm looking forward to a report when you get back!

Tanks, guys, for your vote of confidence.

No, Kate, I did not read ALL the legalese on the original contract. Didn't know I was buying a CAR!! And I was not informed of all the changes until the day before, via EMail.

But yes, TTG seems to have covered their collective behinds on all counts. And look...the Tours in the City guide Lorena was sweet, passionate and definitely made a not-great situation better. Additionally, there was a single woman in our group that had her online ticket bolloxed up and Lorena's finagling that with the guards set us back at least 15 crucial minutes. In space they would have tossed her out the airlock!

We were doomed, I tell you! Oh, this is in theory the most sacred place on Earth in the Roman Catholic faith, no? Reports had near 50,000 of my nearest and dearest friends there on Tuesday. What I truly felt was not deification but at times a roiling bile that I couldn't believe I paid for. Being struck by lightning would have been an improvement. Had we visited St. Peter's I might have lost it all together, so maybe it's a good thing we didn't end up there!

I cannot believe how many people there have been in certain parts of Florence and Rome. Human gridlock at times. Yesterday...on the spur of the moment around noon, we signed up for an afternoon HopOnHopOff bus for 19€, resting the weary dogs that had been getting 15-20K steps a day, and although I said I'd never ride one of those suckers again, this was quite pleasant sitting up top on a cool, sunny afternoon. Made two full circles, getting some great looks at the Colosseum and Circus Maximus. A highlight was stopping for afternoon tea near the Spanish Steps. And up top of the Steps, there was a solitary guitarist playing 'Europa' by Carlos Santana. It was truly sublime, a super highlight.

I shall report back after I get a response from TTG. On to Salerno, the A.C. and Sicily!

Since I'm working into a Tour Operator, I add a couple of notes from my point of view.
I don't know TTG and the other TO, so is not referred to them in particular, but in general how this job is working.

"...oh, we work as partners--it's exactly the same tour..."

That is pretty normal: is difficult arrange a group tour with all the problems involved, so even in a city where there are millions of visitors is never easy reach a minimum amount to stay in business. So, when a TO creates a group tour advertises it to the other TOs to sell the "tickets". So probably TTG creates some tours by himself, but other are only reselling of other local tour operators.
Often is better being cooperative than competitors!

saying to meet now at 9:00 AM--not at 8:15 as confirmed by The Tour Guy. Also said because of Jubilee 2025, the tour would NOT include St. Peter's

That is the crazy - nightmareish part creating a group tours: booking in advance and changes!
In Italy every museum and monument is independent, so every one has its own rules. For the most of museums you must purchase the tickets, you cannot simply reserve them. So to be sure to have them available you must purchase the tickets before booking, or wait the booking and hoping the tickets are available. In that sites you discover the availability only at the moment of purchase!
And if the museum decides in January to change the prices, the timing for visits, the days of closure? If you have previous booking you loose the extra cost and you must change the time for the tour. And it happens more often that you suspect, but the tourist is not aware of it. And changes could happen even at the last moment for any reason.

That is not to say that the tur operator is always right, but please to understand "our" point of view and be patient.
Probably a refund is fair in your case. You purchased a tour with a cost (early entrance) and you did another tour with probably a different cost (standard entrance), so the difference in cost could be considered the fair amount of refund.
But on the other way not choosing/suggesting the same TO for that is probably too unfair. Because could happen to every TO doing this job, mostly the little local ones who doing efforts to create even something new and unusual. The other way is to leave the market to the big international groups who can sweep up all tickets at once: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/companies-fined-for-hoarding-colosseum-tickets

Thanks, Ricky. I certainly get it, this is the hard part of the booking process months in advance. But I think the TO needs to disclose these possible 'permutations' when booking so we customers are aware.

Truly the 'inside baseball' part of these tours. Let's see what TTG has to say about it!

We had a similar experience with The Tour Guy. Booked the Colosseum underground tour but then told it was closed (despite seeing people touring it from above while there). The guide was excellent but it wasn't the tour we purchased. I do love their videos though for giving a sense of a place.

Hey all--

Not anything even close to being resolved, but I received this missive today from The Tour Guy. I did respond to this by saying that our guide Lorena (with their 'partner' Tours With The City) was great and did her best with the situation.

"Hi John,

thanks so much for reaching out and for providing your feedback.
I'm truly sorry to hear your experience was not 5 stars.

I have now reached out to our partner to ask for clarification and a possible resolution of the issue.

Rest assured I'll get back to you as soon as they respond.

Cheers,

Gaetano Falco
Europe Customer Experience Manager"

Jay

Missing out on St Peter's Basilica from this advertised tour would be a real kick in the teeth in my opinion because that is always been my favorite part. Plus you missed out on walking through the front door of the Basilica which are only opened every couple of decades for Jubilee holy years. (I'm not sure because I'm not Catholic but this is supposed to absolve you of all your sins). IMO, this should have been clearly pointed out to you and not buried somewhere in the fine print.

Plus the late start put you behind a bigger crowd and slower lineups for everything. Even if the tour added the extra Basilica minutes to the Vatican museum tour, you probably ended up seeing a whole lot less because of the slower pace.

I'm not trying to make you feel any worse. But these would be the arguments that I would make to the operator to justify a partial refund which I think you deserve.

Good luck.

Jay, My guess is that with the Jubilee crowds, the passageway from the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica is closed to everyone. Second, if I remember correctly from 15 months ago during Christmas holidays, our guide left us at the entry after using the passageway and I didn’t see any other guides inside the Basilica.

Our all-day visit started at 8:30 am with the sculpture, but by after lunch when we visited the treasures, the crowds in the map room and others made this one of the worst tour experiences of my life. I am so sorry you had this happen and hope you can return another year and enter on your own at opening.

Yes, I agree that the time change and the lack of passageway access should be compensated.

'Don't cry for me, Argentina...'

I've been to both places before. Vatican Museum in 2010, St. Peter's in 2017. My two cousins that hadn't been before, this was for them.

Not only our guide--who was great--but other guides I observed looked incredibly stressed out.

My point from the start has been please don't do the bait-and-switch on me. I set this up last August solely based on their ability to do what they say they could do in the allotted amount of time. I picked The Tour Guy over at least 5 other companies that basically said they could do the same thing. Don't blame it on Jubilee 2025--even I knew that was coming up. And if there was a change, alert me immediately and don't bury it in some fine print.

Our other day tours...in Florence, Ravello and Taormina ...were more than advertised and wonderful. It can be done!

And...another travel crisis averted!

The Tour Guy came back and offered a 15% discount on our bill, not quite admitting deception or even a little ring-around-the-rosie.

But I'll take it, an $80 credit overall and--for what it's worth--a $95 credit towards another tour. I would not recommend any Vatican tours until at least next year. There are other things in Rome...

Given today's sad news, I guess your cousins were fortunate to have seen the Sistine at all, sardine-like experience aside? Other visitors - and not a few tour companies - will be needing to alter plans in the coming days.

Kate--

Here's what I wrote on social this morning re: Pope Francis' passing:

"Our visit to Vatican City 13 days ago was beautiful in many ways but almost a microcosm of the progression of life, good & bad over the last two thousand years. We toured the gorgeous Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel with as many as 50,000 others that day, making for in truth less than a desirable experience--religiously and even spatially.

But with the passing of Pope Francis, I'm reminded--even as an admitted lapsed Catholic--to try to look at the good. Do those who make the pilgrimage to Mecca or to the Wailing Wall complain about the crowds? Today I feel a little ashamed to have described our time at the Vatican in those terms.

I had made the off-handed remark, "...with 50,000 of my closest & dearest friends...", thinking that I was being cute & witty. Well...in retrospect, was there a common thread among us on that day or not?

I wish I could have had more time with and taken more pictures at the Vatican Gallery of Maps, commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII, based on drawings by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti. On the Campania map, I saw the markings of our ancestral village of Sant' Arsenio. Very cool.

Now comes more crowds, the conclave, the white smoke and eventually...the new Pope. Sail on, Pontiff. You held down the fort well...and lasted long enough to give a final Easter blessing. Not bad, not bad at all."

Beautifully written, Jay!