Vatican Tours

There are several tour companies that get you inside the Sistine Chapel by 8-8:30am. There are different self-guided tour paths as well. Plan a break or light lunch at the courtyard cafe. I recently took a tour with Through Eternity, group size is limited to fewer than eight people. Took until 1pm because the guide was so enthusiastic, and included Saint Peter's Basilica. Price was about €110/person. There was a break in the middle.

I don't know how many people you will be, or where the 250 $ or € came from. But, many of us here on this forum have enjoyed Walks of Italy "Pristine Sistine" tour, which involves an early morning, early entry to the Museum/Sistine Chapel before they are crowded, direct passage into St. Peter's Basilica, and an excellent guide. You start early, and are finished at the Vatican by about mid-day. Much better than battling the heavy crowds through the day. I believe Walks of Italy still offers a ten percent discount to readers of RS travel books.

Thank you! We will look at the Walks of Italy tour. The 250 turns out to be for a private tour on the Vatican website.

And the other option is to book a tour through the Vatican itself. They offer a 2-hour tour of just the museums (€ 32,00) and a 3-hour which includes the museums AND the Basilica (€ 37,00). The latter allows direct access to the church via a back stairway so it saves some time. You don't get that early entry offered by some of the companies mentioned but if price is an object, they're supposed to be fine.

Are the other tours offered by Walks of Italy worthwhile as well? Would you recommend a tour of the Colosseum for instance? We are going to be in Venice and Sorrento too.

Back in 2013, I took several Walks of Italy tours while in Rome, and they were all excellent. If you have time, you might look at their tour called something like "Catacombs, Crypts and Caverns". It went to three different interesting and unusual sites, with a tour bus for transport in between the sites. On my own, it would have been very difficult if not impossible to cover all those sites in one afternoon, plus of course the tour included a fine guide. I'm sure their tours in other cities are very good too, not sure if they cover Sorrento. Of course there are many other good tour companies too, with varying offerings and schedules. Walks of Italy has a very good US-based Customer Service Department with a toll-free number, and you could discuss your needs and options with them.

Thanks, Larry. Very good to know. And thanks to everybody for all the suggestions as well.

You are on the right track to book a tour in advance. Just showing up without a tour group (which allows you to skip the line) will land you in the longest line you've ever seen...it stretches several blocks. You may also be able to buy a skip-the-line ticket without a tour, but whatever you do, don't just show up like you would to many other museums).

I think you will be much happier to book a tour if you get burnt out after 2 hours. I often take the economical route and often use Rick's free audioguides, but would never attempt the Vatican as a DIY. The museum is multiple miles long and when we were there, we were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people at times. There is a ridiculous amount to navigate, so it was invaluable to not be in charge of figuring out what we needed to see and where it was. A guide will just walk you quickly through each room and point out the highlights - with a museum this big, seeing the highlights is more than enough for a first visit in my opinion (as somebody who also gets burnt out).

Since we were on a budget, we took a tour directly from the Vatican rather than a higher end tour company. We booked the Art and Faith tour - as you can see here, the tours are more in the 30-40 euro range: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Servizi_Visite.html#arte . So perhaps that will be an option if you don't want to do the $250E one.

Hello Marcia and everyone else!

We are going to the Vatican in July and booked with the Vatican website a guided tour. We are a couple and it was 74 euros total for the both of us. Our tour will not be private, but this was the best way for us to be able to have a guided experience on the cheap.
There are many companies that run tours, we are using "Dark Rome" when we go to Milan. I am sure they have something also for the Vatican if you want to look them up.