Rome
Top Rome landmarks

Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour

Badge of ExcellenceRome, Italy
Likely to Sell Out

From $80.37

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

  • 3 hours
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

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Overview

Discover the Vatican on a group tour of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums with an expert guide. Navigate the vast complex of rooms, artwork, and history with a guide, who brings the ancient collection to life. Skip all the entrance lines to explore halls such as the Gallery of the Maps; step inside the Sistine Chapel to admire ‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo and finish your tour visiting St. Peter's Basilica. Choose from several departures, or upgrade to a small-group tour.
  • Enjoy the Vatican highlights including the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica
  • Choose from several different departure times, or upgrade to a small-group tour
  • Audio headsets are provided to make sure you can hear your guide clearly
  • Avoid long queues with skip-the-line entrance tickets

Why Travelers Choose This Tour

“Skip the line” with this tour means using a special entrance to bypass even the fast-track line.

What's Included

  • Reserved Priority Access to the Vatican Museums
  • Guided visit of St. Peter’s Basilica (except: Vatican Museums only / Evening / Wed morning options)
  • Access to the Sistine Chapel
  • Audio headsets so you can always hear your guide
  • Group of 20 people or less
  • Gratuities
  • St Peter's Basilica Tour [for: Evening / Wed Mornings/ Vatican Museums only options]

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

  • Via Tunisi, 4, 00192 Roma RM, Italy

    Meeting point: At the bottom of the steps across the street from the Entrance of the Vatican Museums. The steps are located right next to Caffè Vaticano on the corner of Viale Vaticano and Via Tunisi. The closest Metro stop is Line A (Ottaviano – Musei Vaticani).

End point

  • St. Peter's Basilica
    Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

What To Expect

Vatican tours with skip-the-line access are sought-after, so even the fast-track lines are long. This experience includes admission through a special entrance, so there are no lines whatsoever. Follow your guide directly inside the vast collection of private artwork that is the Vatican Museums.

Walk through the Gallery of the Maps and Gallery of Tapestries as you listen to tales of Vatican intrigue. Gaze at artifacts such as timeworn yet fascinating Italian maps, and admire the sculptures and candelabras of the Gallery of Candelabras. Stop for photos in front of the Pigna statue in the Pinecone Courtyard, designed by Donato Bramante.

Step inside the Sistine Chapel—the pope’s personal place of worship and a highlight of any Vatican trip. Stand beneath Michelangelo’s 'The Creation of Adam,' which cloaks the ceiling, and admire 'The Last Judgement,' his colorful mural that adorns a wall.

After your Sistine Chapel visit, continue to St. Peter’s Basilica, the symbolic heart of the Catholic church. Learn about its history and see more Vatican art including Michelangelo’s 'La Pietà,' which was sculpted when the maestro was only 24 years old. Gaze at the baldachino by Bernini, and then say goodbye to your guide in St. Peter’s Square.

Keep in mind that St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square might be unavailable on Wednesdays due to the weekly Papal Audience. As an alternative, enjoy an extended itinerary within the Vatican Museums, which still includes the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms. If you want to make sure that St. Peter's Basilica and Square are included in your tour, don't select Wednesday as your travel date.

If you want to enhance your Vatican experience, select one of the following experiences:

Small-Group Tour in the morning: Enter the Vatican Museums as soon as it opens, before the other lines enter. Your tour is limited to 10 people for personal attention and information about the Vatican’s must-see sights.

Tour in the evening: Explore the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel after the doors close to the general public. A visit to St. Peter’s Basilica is not included.

Vatican City

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Vatican Museums

1 hour 15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Cortile della Pigna

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Sphere within a Sphere

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Gallery of the Maps

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Sistine Chapel

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

St. Peter's Basilica

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

St. Peter's Square

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • We regret that we are unable to accommodate guests with wheelchairs or any impairments requiring special assistance. We are also unable to accommodate strollers or baby carriages on our group tours.
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • Avoid bringing large purses, bags, or backpacks on your tour
  • At times, despite our priority access tickets, we may experience delays in getting through mandatory security checks when entering these venues
  • Near public transportation
  • No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
  • Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
  • St Peter’s Basilica is subject to last-minute closures for religious ceremonies. When this occurs, we're happy to offer customers an extended tour of the Vatican Museums. While we endeavour to tell tour groups ahead of time if there are any planned disruptions to the Basilica's opening hours, this is not always possible and in these cases we are unable to provide refunds or discounts.
  • On Wednesdays, due to the Papal Audiences, access to St Peter's Basilica is not possible until 1pm
  • St Peter's Basilica is not accessible on the evening tours
  • This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

  • For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
  • If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
  • Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
  • Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveler Photos

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Reviews

4.5
31,892 reviews
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
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Reviews by Viator travelers.
Showing 1-10 of 31,892 reviews
stressful tour
Alexander_U, Apr 2024
The museums were already extremely crowded despite the tour starting at 8 am on a weekday. Our guide, Ursus, was knowledgeable and did his best to showcase the grandeur of the museums and highlight important art pieces. However, our attention was focused on keeping up with our group in the very crowded situation. We were really tired and stressed after this excursion. Perhaps it would be better to choose a tour of the Museums only. St. Peter’s Basilica can be visited on another day as it is freely accessible
Vatican tour
Beth_K, Apr 2024
Great tour! Our guide was fantastic, and we moved through at a great pace. It was easy to meet the tour guides. I recommend doing the first tour in the morning, do to crowds and lines growing.
Vatican, Sistine Chapek and St. Peter’s
Manina_S, Apr 2024
Valentina was professional, knowledgeable and pleasant. A phenomenal tour guide who keep us going in all right rights places in a busy Vatican. Love her. Best ever. Thank you
Very enjoyable
gillian_f, Apr 2024
Valero was an excellent guide . He was extremely interesting and knowledgeable it was a very enjoyable visit to the Vatican. Gillian &Paul
Excellent walking tour of Vatican
Kathleen_D, Apr 2024
Kiara our guide was extremely well spoken and an expert in art history which made our experience exceptional
Excellent
Randall_T, Apr 2024
Excellent detail information you wouldn't find on a wall placard. Definitely worth not having to wait in that awful line!
OMG! Do not miss
Anne_A, Apr 2024
More amazing than my imagination. Paula our guide provided us with so much great information. Highly recommend.
Unforgettable
Deirdre_H, Apr 2024
This was a memorable experience. Our guide was fantastic and very knowledgeable. It was great to be able to skip the lines.
Vatican Tour
Kim_A, Apr 2024
Our guide, Elisa, was the best. So knowledgeable and passionate.! Elisa gave us so much information. It was a remarkable adventure!
Vatican tour with Lisa
Paul_F, Apr 2024
Our group is a nice size of ten people. Our guide was very knowledgeable and efficient. She made the visit seem very personal despite the number of people around us. The highlight of the trip was the Bernini staircase which is only open to tour groups.
Great tour especially the...
Stanley_S, Apr 2024
Great tour especially the Sistine chapel what a amazing works of art!!! Our tour guide was fantastic, she enlivened our tour by providing in depth details of the the significant exhibits we viewed. The presentation on the Sistine chapel was very informative and added much depth to our viewing of chapels extraordinary works of art.
Go for the smaller group of 10 tour because it's worth every penny!
Johanna_T, Apr 2024
Valentina with City Wonders Ltd is a fabulous tour guide! She knew the guards and employees and they allowed us to have the best viewing in the Sistine Chapel as well as access to the "secret door" to the St. Peter's Basilica. What really made this tour so special was Valentina's approach to "teaching" us about the Vatican and the art work it contains. Her way allowed us to see the art work as an extension of the artist's personality. And SHE was also loaded with personality! hilarious and inviting! Learning our names and making us feel welcome in this special place. We definitely got our money's worth and more!
Excellent guide!
Genny_S, Apr 2024
The pleasant character of our guide! She explained us the most important monuments of Vatican with great enthousiasm !
Wonderful guide!
Jonathan_C, Apr 2024
Amy was an excellent guide!!! She was funny and informative. The best guide we have had in Rome. And the Vatican was beautiful.
Very educational, and well worth the price.
Dan_K, Apr 2024
The tour was amazing and so informative. It was busy but we expected it would be. The organization of the manys tours prevented delays along the way.
Best guide ever!
Jan_K, Apr 2024
Alessandra was an absolutely excellent guide! She was knowledgeable and charming, and clearly loved everything in this tour! She made this very long tour so interesting and fun!
The guide was very...
Douglas_B, Apr 2024
The guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. I believe this was a worthwhile tour. I am happy. I did not have to wait in the line because they were very very long.
Must be done it’s very informative
Berrin_D, Apr 2024
Tour guide was so knowledgeable and great person Ricardo Thank you we’ve had a wonderful time And would recommend it to friends
Not worth extra cost
Wendy_M, Apr 2024
The guide determines your experience and altho she was highly educated and passionate about Vatican we couldn’t understand her due to language barrier. The Vatican museum basilica and St Peter’s square are definitely amazing but we would have preferred the English audio guide the Vatican offers as we really didn’t know what we were looking at most of the time. You can do a fast pass ticket and audio guide for a lot cheaper without the personal guide and learn more.
Our tour guide, Christen,...
Melinda_M, Apr 2024
Our tour guide, Christen, was wonderful. Super informative and very helpful. He always made sure the group stayed together and everyone was having a good time.
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Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour
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