Rome: Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Small Group with Basilica

Rome, Italy

Vatican Museums No Wait Access Tour with Raphael Rooms and Sistine Chapel

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From $76.02

Select Date and Travelers

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

3 hours 30 minutes
Offered in: English

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Overview

Avoid wasting time during your Vatican visit on this Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica tour at the no-wait access entrance. Join a knowledgeable guide to pass right by the long entrance queues and start touring the massive museums. See the incomparable Raphael's Rooms, Michelangelo's stunning Sistine Chapel, as well as other museum highlights like the Maps Gallery and Tapestries Gallery. Then visit the impressive St. Peter's Basilica next door.

Tour of Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica via no-wait access entrance
Enjoy privileged access to the Vatican Museums with your guide
See the Pinecone Courtyard, Maps Gallery, Tapestries Gallery, Raphael's Rooms, Sistine Chapel and more
Visit St. Peter's Basilica after the museums to see Michelangelo's 'La Pieta'

Why Travelers Choose This Tour

Get a comprehensive Vatican experience with no-wait entry and an archeologist or art historian guide.

What's Included

Professional and informative guide
Skip the line access to Vatican Museums
All Entrance fees
Head sets when needed
Children 5 and younger are complimentary
Small group of 18 people or fewer

Hotel pickup and drop-off
Wednesday mornings St. Peter's Basilica may be closed due to weekly Papal Audience.
Basilica might be closed on religious holidays. In this case you will get extended tour of museums.

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Viale Giulio Cesare, 243, 00192 Roma RM, Italy
Meeting point is on the corner of Viale Giulio Cesare and Via Leone IV next to the flower stand (viale Giulio Cesare 243). Please arrive 15 minutes before the tour starts. Please look for a tour leader with "Rome Your Way" sign.

End point

St. Peter's Basilica
Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
The tour will conclude at St. Peter's Basilica.

What To Expect

Vatican Museums

2 hours • Admission Ticket Included

Stanze di Raffaello

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Sistine Chapel

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

St. Peter's Basilica

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Service animals allowed

Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate
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.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.0

434 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 434 reviews

Tour guide was great!

Steve_R, Apr 2024

The whole experience was interesting. We were at the Louvre in Paris 2 weeks ago and the Vatican was right up there with the Louvre. We had some people only interested in the Sistine Chappel, if you're only there for that don't go in a tour. I travel 9 time zones to be there and I want to experience the whole thing. Top it all off, one of the people complaining got sick when we walked in. Our tour guide was very patient and tried to accommodate everyone there. Please remember, a tour is not just for you. It's for all that are there.

I ❤️Roma

COSTELCORNEL_N, Apr 2024

Excellent tour, very knowledgeable guide, looked after everyone from the group, give us all the information we need.

Good experience!

Alicja_S, Apr 2024

Good experience. A lot of things to see.No long waiting time. I am glad I went there. Highly recommend.

unique experience

Fotis_G, Apr 2024

Sistine Chapel was amazing. A masterpiece is the least I can say. Looking forward to seeing it again

Perfect tour guide

Michelle_C, Mar 2024

Beautiful tour our tour guide was perfect, we could have not been more satisfied with all of her knowledge and experience i highly recommend paying for a small tour work every penny

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Thank you for the review! We are glad the guide left you impressed and hope you enjoyed Rome!

Absolutely a must

Heather_K, Dec 2023

The small group made managing the crowds so much easier. Our guide, Priscilla, was a real gem, giving enough information to bring aspects to life but not so much that we were overwhelmed. I was very glad to have a guide to lead through the labyrinth of the Vatican.

The skip the line guided tour that was not!

Julie_W, Oct 2023

We were asked to arrive 15 min prior to tour but the guide did not arrive for another 10 min then informed us he was not the tour guide as they had rung in sick he was just from agency to take us into the vatican, gave us audio aid and map and left. We had to navigate the museum and sistine chapel ourselves. Then we had to find our way to the basilica! Where the que was enormous obviously we had no one to help skip the lines, it was full midday sun with no shade available. This is not what we booked.

Not bad

Shady_M, Sep 2023

The overall experience was good in spite of beginning late for the tour and some parts of the Vatican museums that were skipped, the tour guide was a good talker and informative and had some sense of humour

Great experience. It is a...

Alejandro_P, Aug 2023

Great experience. It is a bit long, though and a lot of walking, so just keep that in mind. The guide was great with really good and detailed explanations.

Great!

Ella_t, Aug 2023

Francesca was a brilliant tour guide and was very informative. We learnt so much, thank you very much!

Bad experience

Jonahlie_M, Jul 2023

Guide would just walk off. It was our responsibility to try to follow her. She did this at the start and throughout the tour. No stickers or ways to identify the group. Very basic information given. Still had to wait in a long line to get in.. on the hottest day of the week 102F.

No Tour Guide

Tom_P, Jul 2023

Guide didn’t show for our tour. They had someone help us get into the Vatican and set us up with the headphones(he was very nice, not his fault). They gave us a 1/2 refund but not worth it since It would have been cheaper if we just went by ourselves. Probably should have been a full refund.

Review

Yvonne_R, Jul 2023

Our tour guide was ill and no replacement was appointed to give a tour . We were walked into the Vatican given headsets and map then told to go our own separate way . Very disappointing.

Would not recommend.

Wendy_R, Jul 2023

First, booking this was a nightmare. Assigned to one tour then received cancellation notice. When scheduling other tours, this becomes very frustrating. Then, our guide had no pole so I got immediately lost as soon as we got inside. Thank God my daughter was barely able to contact me but then he rolled some plastic with duct tape- he didn’t stop at any artwork, told us to move past them all and “divert” seemed like this was the “speed tour”. Pretty unprofessional and yet was pleasant and had a bit of humor. No headsets in St Peter’s- only in Vatican- hard to hear and we were left on our own inside St Peter’s. Will not recommend.

Disappointed

June_D, Jul 2023

We met our tour guide. The entrance to the Vatican was easy enough. But our tour guide would take off and rush through the whole Vatican museum. We did not see any of the actual Museum, he didn’t talk about the sistine chapel just rushed us through. We got our tickets at 9:30am after we walked to the entrance and got the tickets, and by 10:30 we were on our own at St. Peter’s. Save your money, get a skip the line ticket. We missed everything we wanted to see. We were just rushed through like the guide has something better to do later. He talked more about Politics than the actual relics/art/history

Worth while

Kanoie_H, Jul 2023

Being able to see almost everything in Vatacan city with a great guide. The audio microphone the guide had made it good too

Horrible Guide

Jill_B, Jul 2023

It was a Vatican tour. My guide slammed catholic religion 3 time before I just left the group. He even called McDonald's Mc Pope. He gave us cards advertising his business. I gave somewhere and will add his bane when I can. I asked Viator for a partial refund and was denied! This guy just liked to hear himself talk. Viator refused partial refund

Very good experience.

Wilson_M, Jul 2023

If you are lucky enough to take the tour with Barba, it will be fantastic. She knows a lot about the history, shows interesting details, keeps you connected.

The worst tour ever

Mike_S, Jul 2023

We were quite hopeful that this tour would be just as good the the last one at the colosseum booked through another operator. How wrong we were! The man taking the tour had nothing to identify himself as working for the tour operator, not even a little flag to hold up so we could see him in a crowd. He told us his name was James Bond (I think as a joke). He did guide us into the entrance and sort the tickets out though. Once we were all wired up and could hear him through headphones we were off. He seemed quite unconcerned that he’d left a woman behind who said she was just going to the toilet. I hope she found her way through. We lost him shortly afterwards. He clearly wasn’t a trained guide because he paid no attention and showed no care for the people he was guiding. Me and my partner were left to try and find our way through the tour…our earpieces had long since stopped working because he was out of range. Ultimately we paid for a tour but didn’t get one. We learned very little about the Vatican, Chapel or St Peters. I would recommend not using this your company if you want a worthwhile experience which represents good value for the €80+ euros each that they charge

Well worth the price

Dr_T, Jun 2023

Carolina was wonderful. Full of facts and great poise as well. She was very considerate and accommodating. Could not have a better tour guide.

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