Vatican tour in May - are they already sold out?

Sarah, the Vatican offers a variety of tours. Which one are you trying to book and for how many people?

Look like you were trying to book the open tour option and it could be that those are sold out.
It is an extremely popular place. We actually bought a private tour (there are all kinds of companies that offer these and someone will approach on the street to try to sell you one) the day before to start at 9 am and it was already a mad house not all that great.

Take a look this next week after the 25th of March. When I went on the official website they would only let me look at tickets 2 months ahead. I went on the website March 3rd looking for May 6th, but they hadn’t put out dates for May yet. I went on the website March 13th and pretty much had my pick of times.

The schedule that comes up via the link above shows openings for the Museums/Sistine tour on both the 25th and 27th. I would expect them to fill rather quickly.

Thank you everyone!

I was looking to book for two people for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel tour and hoping to book online so I could "skip the line". I am hoping that the guess above that the tickets open up week by week is accurate and I will try again in a day.

Sarah, I am seeing reservations available for 2 people on 25th.
Now I'm not seeing any availability on the 27th (I did earlier) and only for 1 person on the 28th.

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/musei-e-collezioni/musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina/visita-guidata-musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina---singoli-.html

Click "Book online your Guided tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel – individuals." under "Organize your visit" and choose May + number of participants from the dropdown.

I found the Vatican website not easy to use, and I didnt want to buy a tour in the street. We booked with a small company who do small group tours and we loved it. Hope this helps

You don't need a tour to skip the line; you just need to buy a timed ticket to the museum. No guided tour is needed.

No, you do not "need" a tour to skip the ticket line (no one skips the security queue) but a tour can be helpful for being guided to the highlights and being told what you're looking at. This forum also sees a significant amount of recommendations for early-entrance tours to see the Sistine and a few other areas without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds.

I went back to the official website tonight (biglietteriamusei.vatican.va) and it hadn’t opened tickets yet for anything after May 24th. We bought the regular admission tickets that are 17€ with an additional 4€ fee. It worked easily for me. My adult children did this 3 years ago and got the tickets that had the lunch feature as well. Without going into tons of details, doing this is super important, so we have also engaged Sonia Tavoletta to be our guide.

I went back to the official website tonight
(biglietteriamusei.vatican.va) and it hadn’t opened tickets yet for
anything after May 24th

That's so weird as I'm seeing guided tours of the museums/Sistine for 2 participants available on the 25th (but not the 27th). I don't know if this page will come up as I'm seeing it but.....

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?aaaamm=20195&numeroPartecipanti=2&codiceLinguaVisita=ENG&step=3&action=booking

I am hoping that as it is still exactly 60 days until the date I am looking at they have just not opened yet. It's strange as the guided tours have those dates available but I can't think of anything else. I'm checking every morning so hopefully tomorrow it works!

Sarah, I just checked and both days are open. You probably need to clear your browser's cache or use a different browser. If you are using a VISA card, be prepared that it needs to be verified first (Call VISA and for the Fraud Department) otherwise your payment may not go through.

Which tour/ticket option are you looking at on the website?