Vatican Tours

I have heard good things about this company on the frommers website. This is a good company to use to skip the lines from what I hear. Check it out and see what others are saying.

Through Eternity is a great company. Think twice about using a company to skip the lines of the Vatican Museum. With extended hours for 2008 skipping the lines is not really necessary.

I disagree! I have been in rome numerous times during the summer. I have had experience on a vatican tour which does not skip the line, it is a extremely frustrating! I have waited in that line for over two hours in July when the weather was over 100 degrees. Most recently i joined a group that skipped the line and we literally walked right into the vatican. Booking online in advance and skipping the line really makes the process that much easier. I would type in VIP Entrance Tour or Skip the Line Vatican Tour into google. These guides are usually the best guides as well and they have connections with the Vatican City! myvaticantour.com and prestotours.com are the two most highly recommended for vatican tours in Rome.

Katy,
I was in Rome in February 2007. I booked a tour of the Vatican online from www.througheternity.com

The tour guide was the most excellent tour guide I have ever me. He was most knowledgeable, friendly, informative. The tour of the Vatican was only meant to run for a certain amount of hours (as shown on the Through Eternity website), but our guide continued it on for no extra money for an additional 2 hours. We met at 10:00 a.m. (I think, from memory) and we lined up for no more than 10 minutes. I would not hesitate but to recommend this tour company. If you can get the guide we had, you will not regret it. His name was Tom Robinson, an American living in Rome. There were no more than 8 in our group and we each had a headset so that we could hear Tom even if he got ahead of us in the crowds. His knowledge of the Vatican and its holdings were fantastic. What more can I say?

Hope this info helps.

Has anyone been able to successfully book a guided tour directly with the Vatican via their fax number?

I faxed the Vatican requesting a tour in late Nov. (I know, I'm an early planner). Got a fax back the next day which said that you have to fax them one MONTH prior to the day you want to take the tour. So...give it a try.

I definitely recommend faxing them early in the day, because it sounds like they shut their fax off when closed. I faxed mine at 4:30pm Rome time and had no trouble.

We were successful last summer, and there were other posters to this web site last summer that also got reservations that way. We faxed from St. Louis at about 7 AM, I'm almost certain more than a month in advance of our requested date, and received a FAX back about two weeks later.

Good to know that the Vatican's Tour Fax system works for some. I faxed in early December 2007 for a tour for June 2008. I got a reply the next day saying to re-send the fax at the end of December...OK, I don't know why that would matter, but I did. I've not heard anything from them since then.

Yes...Very simple and easy. I have not been on the tour yet but an impressed with them so far. You can pay through a secure wesite and pay by credit card. They email you the confirmation and your credit voucher. Just print and take with you on the tour. Hope you have a Great Time. We are going on Valentines Day to Venice on the "fire island" tour.

For those interested in trying - I faxed the Vatican last week requesting a tour for either March 25, 26 or 27 - I got an immediate response (via email since I included my email address) stating they received my request but could not confirm the date yet - no other information was given. About 3 days later I received confirmation (via email again) of my tour and it will be on the 25th. I was directed to purchase my ticket the day of the tour only. The cost is 29.50 euro per person, not sure how that compares to the unofficial Vatican tour costs.

I spoke with a ETBD travel advisor recently and they said that they only way to ensure avoiding lines is to book directly through the Vatican -so my approach was to try them first and if that didn't work, I was going to look at some of the other tours.

Good luck to others that want to try!

Did take the tour with that tour company and it was great==Bill

I would not book directly through the Vatican. I have had the experience with a private company and a tour with the vatican.

The Tour with the Vatican was a bit cheaper, but the group was over 40 people and we could barely understand the guide (because her english was so bad!) . It was also only 2 hours opposed to 3 hours which most companies offer.

By all means, book your tour ahead of time. The lines can be horribly long depending on the time of year (and time of day) that you go.

I haven't used that particular website, but I used www.tickitaly.com to book tickets for the Colosseum and for the Uffizi Gallery & Academia in Florence. I'm not sure if they do Vatican Tours or not, but they are a reliable website. The tickets were emailed to me right away and I had no trouble using them... and it was great to walk past all of the long lines and be able to go right in!

You can easily spend an entire day in the Vatican... you don't want to waste and hour or two of it waiting to get in. Enjoy!