Vatican tour?

Last time I was in Rome, I went with Viator.com and was pleased with the tour.
I had been to the Vatican twice before on other trips and thought this was great for the
price. Our guide was a young man from WA state and is studying art in Rome and engaged
to an Italian girl. It was about 4 hours and included the museums, Sistine Chapel, and then
briefly St Peters......but we stayed in St. Peters as long as we wanted.

We also used this company for an evening walking tour in Venice (included gondola ride), and a 1/2 day bus and walking tour of Milan (included the last supper).
We were looking for less expensive tours and were pleased with all 3 of these.

I know that others on this site have used and/or could recommend other tours too.

Thank you for the recommendation! Is it usually best to start the tour early in the day to avoid crowds?

People keep telling me that the bus tours go earlier that its better to wait till they are gone. Don't know how true that is? Anyone have anything to add? Thank you:-)

The tour offered by the Vatican is really good. I've done it several times with different friends and family members. It's also very inexpensive.

The larger tour companies tend to do their tours in the mornings and so do the groups coming from the cruise ships. I always like to go in the afternoons to avoid most of these types of crowds.

The museums are always crowded, going in the afternoon won't get you a museum without crowds, but you can avoid the larger groups by going later in the day.

If you plan to be there on a Friday night you may want to visit them when it's cooler inside and the crowds are much less.

Just as an aside, Viator is a reseller and doesn't conduct any tours. They sell you a tour from other tour companies who then conduct the tours. You need to find out which specific company will be giving the tour if you use Viator. After you find out who will conduct the tour you'll need to do the research into how good or bad that particular company is.

Donna

There are lots of reputable companies that can get you in the Vatican. Here are a few from Rick's book. I haven't used all of them but I do know from experience that Context Rome was very good:

Context Rome’s walking tours are more intellectual than most, designed for travelers with longer-than-average attention spans. They are more expensive than others and are led by “docents” rather than guides (tel. 06-9672-7371, US tel. 800-691-6036, www.contextrome.com). Enjoy Rome offers a number of different walks and a website filled with helpful information (Via Marghera 8a, tel. 06-445-1843, www.enjoyrome.com, [email protected]).

Rome Walks has put together several particularly creative itineraries (mobile 347-795-5175, www.romewalks.com, [email protected], Annie). Europe Odyssey, formerly named Roman Odyssey, gives readers of this book a 10 percent discount on their walks (tel. 06-580-9902, mobile 328-912-3720, www.europeodyssey.com, Rahul).

Through Eternity offers travelers with this book a 10 percent discount on most tours and a 20 percent discount on its Underground Rome; book through their website and enter the promotional code "RICKSTEVES" for the best discount (tel. 06-700-9336, mobile 347-336-5298, www.througheternity.com, [email protected], Rob).

Walks of Italy has fun guides who lead a variety of good walks for groups of no more than 12 people at a time (10 percent discount for readers of this book, US tel. 202/684-6916, Italian mobile 334-974-4274, tel. 06-9558-3331, www.walksofitaly.com, Jason Spiehler).

My mom and I booked the Pristine Sistine. Excellent reviews and the tour starts before the museum opens to the public and takes you right to the Sistine Chapel so you can enjoy without the crowds. Also there is a discount by mentioning RS. By starting the tour so early it allows us to see more sights later in the day. :-)

http://www.walksofitaly.com/pristinesistine-video?gclid=CITY5srkwr0CFRRsfgodb0MAmw