What is the best tour to see the vatican

The Vatican Museum is always crowded during normal business hours.
So they have early entrance tours with a set number of spots which are before they open to the general public these occur as early as 7 am up to 9 am.

Skip the line tours are after 9am and you get a live person guide narrating the tour with group of 20 or less and you skip the long lines to pay to enter the museum as well as the long line to enter St Peters Cathedral.

The early entrance tours is the best way to see it, as you will hear the guards saying "silenzioso" "niente foto" to loud cell phone selfie taking tourists at the Sistine Chapel; but we paid $58 for the skip the line tour.
We used this company https://www.mayatoursroma.com/

I have taken the Pristine Sistine tour from Walks of Italy. You get into the Vatican early and see the Sistine Chapel with relatively few people about (compared to the massive hoards that were in the Chapel at the end of our tour). I would highly recommend it.

Ditto for Walks of Italy !

Another vote for Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine (and all other tours). There is a RS discount code if you can find it and If I remember right they offer a multiple bookings discount also. The thing with them is that the tour groups are small and they sell out fast, so book as soon as you decide your date.

Has anyone taken Walks of Italy "Pristine Sistine" tour with kids? I am trying to find a good tour for our family (including a 6, 9, and 12 year old) in April. This tour looks fabulous but it's not one of the tours marked "family friendly" on the Walks of Italy website. Anyone have details or insider info?

You don't need a tour to skip the line at the Vatican Museums. You just need to book a timed ticket through the Vatican web site. I prefer to do this sort of thing on my own seeing what I want to see for as long as I wish. If you enjoy guided museum tours the Vatican Museums offer such tours on their web site; the big advantage is you can exist from the Sistine Chapel into the Basilica if you are on a tour.

Has anyone simply done their own tour while listening to the RS Vatican audio tour? That's what my husband and I are thinking of doing in April when we go to Italy.

The vatican museums are overwhelming 12 different museums packed into one, you really do need a guide of some sort. We have used the official guides of the Vatican museum and they have worked out very well on 2 different occasions. Go to museivaticani.va and check out all the tours they do (all skip the lines and they even offer early am and Friday evenings) for half the price of Walks of Italy and Viator. We have also done the Underground tour of the colosseum with the official guides and that was also great! Can't beat the price and the guides are so knowledgable.

Before discounting the importance of a tour that gets you into the Vatican Museums (including the Sistine Chapel) before the general opening hour, Google for photos and take a long, hard look at the crowds. I think if you primarily just want to see the Chapel and it's not a big-deal sight for you, spending the minimal amount of money (just buying a ticket ahead of time) might make sense. You'll be sharing the space with a large crowd, but you won't be subjected to those conditions for terribly long. If your interest in the Chapel is serious and/or there's much that you want to see elsewhere in the massive museum complex, I think you won't enjoy yourself very much if you don't try for early access.

Based on reports of recent visitors, for myself, I would not want anything other than early entry. If I had only a casual interest, I'd skip the Vatican Museums entirely and just see St. Peter's.

I have been to the museums. I was fine without a tour, but I visited the Vatican in the mid-1980s. You didn't even need to do anything special to avoid a long ticket line. The world of European tourism has changed massively since then.

Another vote for Pristine Sistine but be aware it is a very early start which may or may not be good for young children. The early admittance is wonderful and you may not appreciate it until you come back through the chapel on the way to other parts of the Vatican and see the horrific crowds. There was a pre-teen in our group who was clearly getting too much information with too much standing around! I do not have a better suggestion for young children but a quick walk through for them may be enough if you take them at all at this point....
We took a wonderful bike tour of Rome and at mid sixties my husband and I were the oldest by 20 years but we are active and able to keep up. This might be a better option for children and pre teens and teenagers. It gives you an overview of the city with wonderful background on many, many sites and then you decide which ones you want to go back and explore more in depth.