What time to visit Vatican?

I would recommend the earliest possible time. It’s going to be hot and crowded (and hot) in the afternoon and evening.

I cannot stess enough the value of taking the first available morning tour, and I say this as a family with two college age males who were not shy about their objections up front.

The value is not even monetary - it is the experience value. Yes, we were loathe to make the commitment to leave our Roman lodgings to hop into a taxi at an hour that was so early, but even the boys agreed it was absolutely worth it. We had the tour direct from the Vatican museum that included breakfast, and it was a lovely experience.

It's a priceless experience to walk through the Vatican Museum without the crush of bodies, and to take in the Sistene Chapel with a relatively small group of people rather than the horde.

Waiting for a later time brings you a virtual guarantee of shuffling through the halls with at least 5 other bodies literally touching yours at all times. The crush of humanity is miserable. We didn't even get the full experience, but we strolled back into the museum after breakfast to go explore a little further and the sweaty masses were in full force so the boys had a chance to experience first hand what we'd been able to avoid earlier. The difference was stark, and they agreed that it was worth it to get there so early.

I have been fortunate to see the Vatican Museums under both set of circumstances. In July of a Jubilee year, if you can get the early morning tour you'd be crazy not to book it. There is no comparison.

Hi jamies421,
My family and I are going to be in Rome the same week as you! This could be the wrong thing to do, but I have booked the last entry of the day at 5:30 pm and plan to stay there until the museums close at 8:00 pm. Part of the reason why I'm doing it this way is the 7:30/earliest entry is very, very expensive and I have heard that the crowds are already very intense at the next entry time (0800, or whatever the next earliest time is.) Also, when we were in Florence this last summer, we had the earliest entry to the Accademia (and were among the first people in line), and we had a few blissful minutes of calm, but then the crowds poured in and it was crazy busy. We booked an evening entry for the Uffizi, on the other hand, and it was insanely UN-crowded. I have photos of my son in the long halls of the Uffizi and there is not another single person in sight. I know I can't compare Florence/Uffizi and Rome/the Vatican, especially with this Jubilee year, but I'm hoping that with an evening booking we might have a similar experience. I have heard there is no air conditioning in the Vatican museums and it could be quite hot at 5:30 pm, compared to the morning. Anyway, I'm taking a gamble, don't know if it will work out or not, but we will see. Would love to hear if anyone else has taken this approach recently and how it went!! (P.S. I'm splitting up St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican so they are on different days. I plan to be at St Peter's Basilica at 0700 am one morning, and then the Vatican is planned for the evening on a different day.)

The late afternoon plan sounds good.

Level-setting: The early tours do not get into the museums before the 8 AM opening time. They just gather their clients outside the museums before 8 AM. The situation changed when the Vatican changed its opening time from 9 AM to 8 AM and stopped allowing tours to start earlier than that.

The only way to get into the museums outside of the regular public hours is an extremely high-cost, special-access tour priced at many hundreds of euros per person. For example, The Tour Guy advertises an after-hours tour that costs over $400 per person.

I suspect an 8 AM entry time will mean somewhat less crowded conditions than a 9 AM or later entry time, if only because a lot of tourists don't fancy such an early start to their day, but it will not be like it was in the good old days when 8 AM tour groups could be an hour ahead of the masses.

How well a late-afternoon entry will work out depends on how long the earlier arrivals remain in the museum. It would take a lot longer than 2 or 3 hours to cover the museums well, but most people don't seek all that comprehensive a visit. Especially if it's uncomfortably warm inside, people may decide they've had enough and leave quickly, making it a less crowded experience for later arrivals.