Skip The Line Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Basilica & Papal Tomb Tour

Great experience. Very knowledgeable tour guide. Would not have been able to all of the things on our own.

Wonderful guide named Maggie. Very easy access, lots of steps though and no lifts. It's got to be the best way to go, the crowds are huge. Just standing in line to get in to get a ticket would take you over an hour. It's definitely worth it.

We took this tour at 8:30 am on a Wednesday. Our tour guide, Deborah, was excellent and provided insights into the art pieces at the Vatican Museum that influenced Michelangelo's work at the Sistine Chapel. The museum is typically very crowded but we went in late October and it was not that bad. The tour was to end in a "skip the line" entry to St. Peter's Basilica, but Wednesdays are when there is a Papal mass in the morning so we were offered to wait in the museum for a couple hours when mass would be over and we could enter St Peters with her next tour group. We decided to wait and walked all through the museum again (it is basically a long one way winding route, very difficult to do any short cut to go directly to Sistine Chapel). Once at St. Peters she gave us some instructions on the important places to see in the Papal tombs and Basilica, but a detailed tour of those places is not included. Overall I highly recommend this tour, but I would try to avoid days/times when a Papal mass is scheduled as it can affect access to the Basilica.

Skip the line is definitely the way to do it if you can as very little waiting around. It’s very busy in the museum and you only see a small section but for me it was enough. The Sistine chapel, tombs and basilica are very much worth the visit. Our guide Arnoldo was great too, very informative and friendly

NOT WORTH THE PRICE! It said 3 hour tour of the museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, and Pope tombs for over $330 for 2 people. Ultimately, we just got a 2 hour and 10 minute tour of PART of the museum, pinecone courtyard, and Sistine Chapel. Then left on our own to continue exploring. Even though it says guided tour and access to XYZ, we only got a tour of X and were told, “It’s Wednesday. The Vatican can close whenever they want and you do not get your money back. I can show you on the website where it says that.” Luckily, our tour guide was kind enough to allow us to join her next tour so we could actually see St. Peter’s Basilica since we had already paid for it. We got access to the Pope tombs, but not a tour like it advertised online. We have very mixed feeling about our tour guide, Deborah. As mentioned previously, she was kind enough to go out of her way to offer us a way to see the basilica when we were originally disappointed about not being able to see it. She was very knowledgeable and passionate about making sure everyone was “experiencing” the art. If you had a question or missed an experience, she took her time to make sure you understood. On the other hand, though, she was very aggressive and fast-paced. As soon as she arrived to give the tour, she immediately said, “Let’s go!” and started walking away before introducing herself or even checking if everyone was ready (someone was still in the bathroom). She was constantly pushing other tourists out of the way and getting mad at our group for not being able to keep up with her pace. Oddly, she really liked to touch people who were both on and not part of our tour. She grabbed me several times as if we were good friends, which could be uncomfortable for people who dislike physical touch. One time, she got really mad at one lady who didn’t speak English for taking a video that had her in the background of it and demanded it be deleted because she couldn’t be on camera. Very odd. Overall, you can find a better quality tour at a better price elsewhere. This one wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t very enjoyable.