Hi, I will be in Rome for 4 days later this month. I want to travel to Vatican City area attractions. I see some tour groups mention about 'skip-the-line' etc. in the promotion.
Is it better to go with tour group OR self-visit can suffice?
If tour-group, any recommendations for reasonably priced tours?
Thanks,
Order your tickets to the Vatican Museum online to avoid standing in a 4 abreast line 300 yards long on a busy day.
Agreed. You don’t need a tour just buy your tickets in advance
"Vatican City" in Rome encompasses multiple attractions open to the public but otherwise is largely closed to visitors. Of those attractions, two are free (St Peter's Basilica and the St Peter's Square) and others require entry tickets or a tour:
Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel: advance, timed-entry tickets or a tour is highly recommended as tickets lines can be very long. There is also a tour which includes St Peter's along with the museums/chapel. While the museums can be visited without a human guide, I would suggest at least an audioguide which will help explain what you're looking at. Rick offers audio tours of St. Peter's, the Sistine and the museums which can be downloaded for free to your own device:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy
But if you're interested in a guided tour, those offered though the Vatican's website (link provided below) are as reasonably priced as you're going to find: just € 38.00 per adult for a 3-hour museum highlights + Sistine+ basilica tour, or € 33.00 for a 2-hour tour of just the museum highlights +Sistine. Advance, timed-entry tickets for the museums+Sistine (no tour) are € 17.00. An additional € 4.00 fee applies to all bookings/advance tickets. Any sort of tour or timed-entry ticket can be considered "skip the (ticket) line" but everyone must pass through the security checkpoint queue. It moves along quickly, though.
Vatican Gardens: can only be visited with a guided tour; see website for price. The tour includes entry to the Museums/Sistine at its conclusion but without a guide.
Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis: can only be visited with a guided tour; see website for price. The tour includes entry to the Museums/Sistine at its conclusion but without a guide. There is also a tour which includes this +the Vatican gardens.
Tickets or tours to all of the above can be booked though the Vatican Museum website:
http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html
http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/visitatori-singoli.html
In addition, there's the Scavi excavation under the basilica. This also is available only via guided tour, tickets are much in demand, and reservations be made well in advance from this source:
I would highly recommend a tour. On our first trip to Rome, my husband and I had a tour and our friends decided to "wing it". After we were all done, we asked our friends if they saw this, or saw that and their response was, no, where was that? We are returning to Rome in a few weeks and we have already books our tour through the Vatican website. Very reasonably priced.
Personally, especially if this is your first time, I would book some sort of tour. You'll be glad you did.
We leave this week, we booked through Walks of Italy an early morning access to the Vatican (7:30am) and I believe it's a 3 hour tour. I opted for first thing to try to avoid the heat and to leave the rest of the day for us to tour the city.
"Skip-the-line" is not really a promotion although most tour companies will advertise it as one.
Your only two choices - show up and stand in line to buy tickets or buy tickets in advance. The former can mean 2-3 hours in line, the latter means you skip the ticket queue and head to the Security line (no one bypasses that one) at your assigned time. You can book a guided tour, rent an audio guide or download the RS audio guide.
Cheapest will always be thru the Vatican Museum website. There are several highly regarded third party tour companies, but you do pay more
We just got back from a 2 week trip to Italy, including Rome. We did an early entry tour of the Vatican using the Roman Guy. I would highly recommend this tour. When we were in the Sistine Chapel, before the regular admission started, we were there with maybe 50 other people so we had plenty of room to move around and see everything. The way our tour went, we went to the Sistine Chapel first and then circled around the museum before exiting through the Sistine Chapel about an hour later. At that time, the regular admission was open and it was wall to wall people. I was so glad we had paid to do the tour and see it when it was less crowded.
Thanks all for the suggestions. Looking at the recommendation, now I am inclined to book an early hour tour to cover the visiting areas and then have some fun-time in the main city. Hope the crowd is manageable in early hours.
Thanks again!
We were in Rome this past March and booked a First Entry to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum thru City Wonders. We were the first group into the museum and a good hour and a half before the general public. Tour on the way to the Sistine Chapel where we got to see the Hall of Maps and Tapestries empty of people (with the exception of security and cleaning crews). Got to see the SC with maybe two dozen people in there total and then free to wander the Vatican Museum on our own - you knew when the public was allowed in as it became packed quick.
Not having a tour guide for the rest of the museum was fine as my wife is not a fan of crowds and museums in general. We got to see quite a few things that I wanted to before we had to leave for our 11:30am Scavi Tour. That was find for us as even in mid March it was shoulder to shoulder by 10am.
