Vatican Museum, guide or no guide

admittedly I am no art historian, that being said, I would love to experience more than just a passing glance, but some tours say 4 hours, some 3 and the Vatican personal tour guide says 2 hours at $250, it all becomes so overwhelming, thanks for any help you might offer

I just want to explain Vatican museum"conditions" to you. May be that will help you decide. If you travel in June (like we did), the Vatican museum is crammed pack with visitors. You can use a RS guidebook to chart the most important features for yourself and do it on your own. I think there may be a free RS audio guide as well that you can review before going. Carry a bottle of water with you. Do not take a large bag that needs to be checked - because it will be very difficult to retrieve it at the end of your visit. The museum corridors are practically one-way human traffic. A less expensive small group tour of 2-3 hours may suffice if you want a guide. Ends in Sistine chapel. Then, you take the exit at back of Sistine chapel and visit the Basilica without having to go through security again. If you go to Vatican museum on your own - then get reserved tickets at a specific time in advance. You will walk to the right of the line of people standing along the wall and go through the reserved ticket entrance. You don't want to get stuck in the line of people standing along the wall, waiting to get in.

One advantage to a live guide (at least a good one) is that they will be able to judge your group's level of interest in the material at hand and tailor the presentation accordingly. I've gone through a portion (the whole museum is quite extensive) with guides on several occasions. One time I was traveling with a group of teachers and so our guide knew he had an audience that would be more receptive to in-depth information than would be members of a typical tour. Our group was so entranced by his knowledge and passion for the subject and we wandered off into interesting corners so much that we the tour stretched rather longer than it was scheduled. Nobody minded in the least.

In 2005, we were standing in the line for the Vatican Museums when a young lady approached the line and asked if anyone would be interested in the "official" English Language Tour of the Vatican Museums that was starting in a few minutes. The price was pretty high, but we were desperate. My husband and a few other couples followed this woman to the front of the line. Turns out, it was the "official" English Language Tour - only a few people believed her.

We had a wonderful tour that was worth every Euro. There was an element of Kismet to our good fortune - but by all means take a small group guided tour.

Hello dawn tom

The vatican museums are a group of museums and very overwhelming with so much art and history. We have been to the museums four times and we have used the guides from the vatican themselves and they were fabulous and only a few euros more, money well spent. Be frugal, but not cheap, or you will miss a tremendous experience in the museums, as the guides really help decipher the meanings of the work and the history behind it. Use the actual official site museivaticani.va to get the tickets and tour guide. I would suggest either very early in the morning or after 2:00. Good luck!

No one has yet mentioned that there are early-access tours that get you into the Vatican Museums before they open to the general public. Walks of Italy's Pristine Sistine is very popular. Others have used Dark Rome, which I think is a bit less expensive. I believe there are other options, including the breakfast + early entry combo offered by the Vatican itself.

Given the horrendous crowding reported by recent visitors, an early-access tour is the way I would go. If I felt I just couldn't justify the expense, my next choice would be the Friday night option. The tours run 2 hours, but if you chose the non-tour option you'd have up to 4 hours in the museums. I don't know how much less crowded it is on Friday night than at other times, but I think there have been a few positive comments on the forum. Time of year has an impact, of course.

I agree the Tours given by the Vatican Tour Office are excellent. And they are very reasonably priced. There is so much to see before you get to the Sistine Chapel. The tour guide helps point out and gives a good perspective on the important paintings and statuary on your way to the Sistine Chapel. As there is no talking in the chapel, the guide will give you an explanation of what you are going to see before you enter They have large copies of the ceiling and can point out things to look for etc. Get you tour tickets as soon as they become available as they do sell out. Bonus is that after you tour the Vatican Museum/ Sistine Chapel you can walk right over to St. Peters Basilica. when we were there, there was no waiting.
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If you travel in June (like we did), the Vatican museum is crammed pack with visitors.

We're also planning on visiting this June...so did you end up doing a guided tour?

Looks like the official Vatican tours are more cheaper versus others. What's the difference between the official compared to the others?

No need to make a large profit? A sense of obligation to keep the experience reasonably affordable for the faithful? Just speculating.

I would like to thank you all for your help, I have decided to book a private guide thru the Vatican Museum. I may never get back here. Thank you to all who offered advice, I took each reply to heart.

good choice in going with the Vatican museum tour guide- the last three times we were there (we always schedule the 14:00 tour) they let us go back through the museum and then out the door directly to the Basilica, which saved a lot of time. The church was closing at 18:00 (6pm) and we got there at 5 pm, so it gave us a little bit of time to savor the church when it was starting to empty out.

Knhellesky asked me a question above.
My daughter was 10 at the time. We chose to do the museum on our own to control the pace due to having a young child. We purchased advanced online tickets - that was great advice from this forum. We were taken aback by the crowds. Far more crowded than we expected. Probably the most crammed in museum in the world. We used the RS guide book and did some homework before going. Being raised Catholic certainly helped as well. If I ever go back to Vatican Museum - I will schedule tickets for first thing in morning or consider a small group tour. Or, go some time between October and April. I would like to travel in "off" season.

Knhellesky asked me a question above.
My daughter was 10 at the time. We chose to do the museum on our own to control the pace due to having a young child. We purchased advanced online tickets - that was great advice from this forum. We were taken aback by the crowds. Far more crowded than we expected. Probably the most crammed in museum in the world. We used the RS guide book and did some homework before going. Being raised Catholic certainly helped as well. If I ever go back to Vatican Museum - I will schedule tickets for first thing in morning or consider a small group tour. Or, go some time between October and April. I would like to travel in "off" season.

Thanks. It's been a little overwhelming for us planning the things we want to do compared to the actual time and budget we have.
We'll most likely do the guided tour for the Vatican museum.

"If I ever go back to Vatican Museum - I will schedule tickets for first thing in morning or consider a small group tour."

That's my feeling too - and I was there back in 1994! Even then, it was so crowded and tense that I was miserable. Huge mobs of people (think Grand Central Station at rush hour) racing through miles of corridors, angry that you can't just see the Sistine Chapel without having to go through the rest of the Vatican Museums. So, once they get there, the tension can be cut with a knife. Then in the Sistine Chapel itself, despite the signs requiring silence, people start talking. When it reaches a dull roar, the guards start shushing everyone - loudly. The noise dies down for a minute or two, then starts again. Plus the ceiling is so high up, unless you've brought binoculars you can't see it well. The whole experience was extremely unhappy for me, and I'll never go again unless it's before or after the regular hours.

We did the Friday night "tours" that allowed access at 1900 hours and for only 200 people. Another group was admitted at 2100 hours but we stayed for the full 4 hours, 1900 - 2300. We had the Sistine Chapel practically to ourselves (we went there first) and used Rick's recording on our Kindles of the ceiling panels to enjoy every minute. We had no tour but were self guided and had plenty of time to savor the experience.

I wonder if a neck pillow would help in Sistine Chapel. I had trouble looking up at the ceiling and could not lay down on my back on the floor. Darn those Italians for putting art on their ceilings! (That was a joke.)
Harold reminded me of the guards saying "silenzio!" loudly through a microphone in the Sistine Chapel. That was worse than the tourists just talking.