Vatican Tour Question: Shorter "Super Early Entry" or more detailed "Early Entry"?

Just throwing this one out as it has been hugely popular with, and highly rated by, RS posters whom have taken it:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/vatican-tours/pristine-sistine-chapel-tour/

It's nearly 4 hours so longer than the R.G. tour and essentially as long as the Context tour but a little less expensive. Groups are a little larger than Context at 14 or less.

Thanks, Kathy, yes I'd seen that mentioned often and I'm thinking about it also. It falls into the same category as the Context tour -- longer but with 8am entry -- which is why I didn't list it separately.

I suppose I could have just generically asked if folks think a good 2-hr tour with 7:30am entry is a better overall experience than a good 4-hr tour with 8:00am entry. :)

We just signed up for one of the Vatican Museums' Friday evening tours next month, specifically the self-guided, happy hour tour with a 7:30 p.m. entry. The facilities close at 11 p.m. so participants have until about 10:30 before the workers begin to herd folks out. Supposedly there will be far fewer tourists in the museums during that time (hope so - we'll see). We've toured the Vatican twice before with the masses and look forward to wine and buffet aperitif in relative calm before we tour on our own.

I went on the Roman guys super early 7:30 am tour at the end of June 2019. I loved that time because it was less crowded. By the time we were finished with the tour the hoards of crowds had descended on the Vatican. It was great to be leaving at 10am. You can stay longer if you like after the tours concludes but it was very hot and we had a 10:30 am golf cart tour of Rome. The time, fewer people, cooler temperatures worked well for us.

Two hours wouldn't have been long enough for us - especially if that two hours include the basilica - so I'd definitely go with a longer tour. WOI also gets in at 7:30.

@Kathy: Actually, the Pristine Sistine tour says that you enter one hour before the general public, which means you enter at 8am. That's why I'm trying to decide if the earlier 7:30am entry for the 2-hour tour is worth it. If both entered at the same time, I'd certainly choose the longer one...but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I did the early morning (not the REALLY early morning) with Walks of Italy. It allowed about 25 minutes in the Sistine Chapel, which is a fair amount of time. At that time, there are other tour groups but there was plenty of seating around the walls to sit and look at the art with a little less strain. We then grazed just the highlights of the museum through the increasing crowds, and lingered a bit at some of the ancient art like the Laocoon statue, and in the Rafael rooms. It doesn't look like that very early entry goes to the Rafael rooms (look up "School of Athens" for reference). Then I think we only had about 30 minutes or so with the guide in St.Peter's before heading out front for the changing of the guard, which is when we were let loose to go back inside St. Peter's and spend time at the Pieta, the cupola view, etc. on our own. Given how much we missed in the museum as it was before having to shortcut through the Sistine Chapel and the abbreviated walk through St.Peter's, a shorter two hour tour might be disappointing. I did a Forum tour with the Roman Guy as well, and any of them would be good, but stick with the longer tour. My 2 cents.

We did Walks of Italy Sistine Pristine. We entered at 7:30am and went directly to the Sistine Chapel, spent about 25/30 min in the chapel, since it had just opened it was less crowded. Then we backtracked to the rooms and then to the cathedral at the end. The tour was about 4 hours. At the end we went on our own and went to the top of the dome of the cathedral (not part of the tour). I would do 4 hour tour, 2 hours is not enough. It's huge!

Thanks to everyone for the advice. After reading your comments (and talking with someone at The Roman Guy), I think the longer tour will definitely be a better fit for us. :)