Vatican tour

I did the Pristine Sistine tour with Walks of Italy and enjoyed it. I think a quick search of the forum will give you more suggestions too!

The Vatican offers its own tours. They are generally less expensive (I'd call the difference "significant") than the tours offered by private companies. I haven't taken anyone's tour of the Vatican, so I have no guidance on this topic. It appears that few, if any, posters on this forum have taken one of the Vatican-operated tours of the Vatican Museums, because no one ever mentions them when this question come up--which it does very often.

I don't know whether the Vatican offers a combo tour that includes St. Peter's as well as the Vatican Museums.

Thank you for suggestions!

I took one of the official English language tours offered on the Vatican museum website In October and found it interesting. At 35 Euro (an entrance ticket alone was 17) it was reasonably priced, 2 hours long and included the Raphael rooms. See museivaticani.va.

I booked the Prime Experience right through the Vatican Musesum. You get to the museum at 7:30 before it is even open. You then spend time touring the museum with a guide. For our tour there was about 20 of us. You get the little ear piece so you can always hear them. Each guide seems to kind of highlight different pieces. The guide we had was VERY good. She highlighted pieces and even told stories about the rooms we were in as a lot of them use to be Papal apartments. After going through the museum, they brought us to the Sistine Chapel. Since the Chapel isn't open yet, you pretty much have the place to yourself. There were a couple other small tours in there with us. You are able to sit on the benches along the Chapel and listen as your guide explains each piece of art. Explains the restoration. She even busted some myths about Michelangelo and how he painted the Sistine Chapel. Once the guide is done explaing, you then get some time in the Chapel to look yourself. Since it is before the Chapel opened, we were able to talk even. After the Chapel, you go a little more through the museum and then you have breakfast. It was an American breakfast. You get some sweet breakfast breads, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, potatoes, they even had a mini pancake station and you also got whatever you want to drink. Then once you are done eating, you get to continue on in the museum on your own. I highly recommend the experience.

Thank you all for great recommendations!

daliabadaras, great question. The posts/replies will be very helpful.

Daliabadaras thanks for the question and to Brandonfickbohm for the great suggestion!
I've resisted going back to the Vatican Museum because the crowds inside the Sistine Chapel were so daunting, so the idea to book directly with the Vatican to gain early access was illuminating, no pun intended.
You may want to consider Vatican Burnout & logistics - the Vatican museum entrance isn't on the same side of Vatican City as St Peters Cathedral, so if you have time, I would see St Peters another early morning. Both places are a lot to absorb in the same day.