Top 5 Vatican Tours
Written by Viator, November 2010
RECOMMENDATION Keywords:
Must-Do Experience,
Tip - What to See & Do,
UNESCO Heritage Site
Top 5 Vatican Tours Reviews
We've found 147 Top 5 Vatican Tours reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Reply by Viator, May 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
The best tour guide we had in Rome --(out of 5) Shannon hit a home run taking our small group (8AM tour) through the Vatican. A wealth of knowledge and great English (fellow American) She was easy to engage in conversation and answered all questions about the artifacts. I would highly recommend going early and beating the crowds.
Reply by Viator, May 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Our tour of the Vatican was wonderful. Our guide was the best! I had been on your Vatican tour before and this one was the best. We were to take the walking tour of Rome the day before but took the wrong train from Assisi to Rome so we missed it, but so happy to have made this tour.
Reply by Viator, April 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
David our tour guide spoke perfect English his knowledge of the Vatican and the way he narrated the story of its history was magnificent I cannot recommend this trip highly enough the fact you miss queues was a massive bonus a must if your visiting Rome and if your English ask for David he's great
Reply by Viator, April 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
This tour really brightened up what was a very cold and rainy day in Rome :-) Our tour guide, Davide, was so interesting to listen to and incredibly knowledgeable. He was very considerate of the needs of all the individuals in the party, pointing out toilets/places to have a quick sit down for those who required them. The Vatican Museums were awe inspiring - a 'must see' - we would highly recommend this tour, especially if your time in Rome is limited. Excellent value for money and really enjoyable.
Reply by Viator, April 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
I simply cannot say enough about this experience. The three of us (who were part of a small group of 10) cannot imagine visiting the Vatican, and coming away with the experience and understanding we did, without having taken this tour. We must pay special tribute to Simon, our guide, who was brilliant and who was able to express the complex issues involved in the art, the religion, the history, the politics, the architecture in ways that we could take away with us, and in ways that will enrich us for the rest of our lives. He made the difference, with his passion for and command of the subject, as did the effective tour he led; the ear-bud devices worked very well in that setting. (By way of contrast, the next day we took a tour of the Colosseum, which was not so great; the guide was not as engaging, the radio sets they gave us to listen to her were not very good, and we dropped out of the group we paid to join.) This tour we took of the Vatican, with Simon leading the way, was the highlight of our time in Rome, and one of two highlights of our entire trip.
Reply by Viator, January 2013
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
The Vatican is absolutely a must when visiting Rome, and the basilicas in the afternoon portion are breath-taking as well. Massimo, our tour guide, was funny, extremely knowledgable and made our experience that much better! Invest in a nice camera because you will be taking lots of awesome pictures!
Reply by Viator, December 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Great tour, great guide, and definitely a must see in Rome. It is a long walking tour, so make sure you are prepared for that. There are a few places to rest during the tour but with so many others touring the Vatican they are usually already taken. Don't make the mistake we did and take the tour the same day you arrive in Italy after a long overnight flight and you should be fine. Even with both of being tired we really enjoyed the Tour!
Reply by Viator, December 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Tour guide was catherine, she was very Knowledgeable, friendly and provided an excellent service. The vatican is beautiful and a must see if you go to rome.
Reply by Viator, November 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Cannot come to Rome without visiting the Vatican this is a must see. The only draw back with this tour is that you don't get enough time in the Vatican Museum.
Reply by Viator, November 2012
Doing what: Viator VIP: Sistine Chapel Private Viewing and Small-Group Tour of the Vatican's Secret Rooms
I'm writing this the day after our VIP tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. My head still feels like sensory overload. It was brilliant. But a bit more about where I'm coming from so you'll know why I was so blown away by this tour.
This is my 11th trip to Rome. I come almost every year, for a week, just to walk around and take pictures and sit in cafes and to disconnect from everything. I love this city. I've been to the Vatican Museum 3 times in the past, and honestly, each time felt like torture. God help you if you're trying to get into that museum between March and November: prepare for 2-hour lines and thousands of people. And when you finally get to the Sistine Chapel at the end of your visit, you will be herded in along with the 400, 500, 600 other people in there that are shuffling about shoulder-to-shoulder, while guards hiss "Silencio!" and "No Photos!" I remember my first time in there: I was expecting this miraculous, overwhelming, powerful moment -- and instead I was overcome by a feeling of "oh my god I have to get out of here." I say all of this so you can get a grasp of how special this VIP tour was that my mom and I were on yesterday.
Here's what the website promised: a private tour of secret, closed-to-the-public rooms of the Vatican Museum, ending with 30 minutes spent in the Sistine Chapel, completely alone: just your group of a max of 10 people. And you know what? They delivered, tenfold. It was SPECTACULAR. So, the details:
Our guide Shannon was wonderful. She is an American transplant in Italy and had her degree in art history so she knew this stuff inside out, but her presentation was friendly and informative and never dry or boring: it was the insider scoop. It wasn't "and then Raphael painted this painting in the year ___" -- no, it was the backstory about the rivalries between these famous artists, how they lived, what influenced them -- it was the stuff that you never hear about in stuffy, stodgy old history books. And we had a guard who accompanied us on the tour, unlocking secret rooms along the way, like the Bramante Staircase and one of the pope's private chapels. The tour started around 3:15 as the museum was already emptying out, and by partway through the tour you noticed that the place was empty except for the cleaning people and the guards locking things up. You hit a few of the major attractions in the museum that are open to the public, but by the time you get to them they're empty. The Raphael Rooms? Empty. It was breathtaking. We were literally walking down empty corridors, and if you've ever been to this museum before, you know that it sees a good 15,000 people per day. The other thing I liked: the Vatican Museum is 9 miles of museum. It's filled with amazing things, but not all of these amazing things are significant. Sure, that statue might be 2000 years old and it might be pretty, but it's not "important" -- and you could spend days in this museum -- so Shannon took us to the major things worth seeing, so you know that you leave the VM having seen what you should've seen.
As we approached the finish line - the Sistine Chapel - Shannon told us what to expect: she said there was another private tour group ahead of us but that they would be ushered out as we entered, and then we'd have 30 minutes alone in the chapel. Just our group of 10. If you've been to the Sistine Chapel before, you know what it's like to enter it: it's like Grand Central at rush hour, but worse. So bad, in fact, that when friends have visited Rome and asked if they should see the Vatican Museum, I normally tell them "don't do it, you'll regret it." So I want you to imagine what we saw: we entered a quiet, empty room with a little group standing in the middle chatting as they walked out. There was silence, and the room was empty. THE SISTINE CHAPEL WAS EMPTY. Our guard closed and locked the front door and exit, and it was just us and our tour guide. A completely empty Sistine Chapel. I looked around at our group and we were all staring, slack-jawed, at what was around us. Shannon gave us a few minutes to just sit and take it all in before she started the tour-guide portion of the details of the chapel (which is another great thing, because tour guides aren't allowed to talk in the chapel, but on this VIP tour, they ARE allowed to talk -- and you'll learn more info in this 30 minutes than you will in any history class.) I can't stress enough how amazing a moment that 30 minutes was: that alone was worth the cost of the ticket. For people who appreciate art or beautiful things, this actually delivers that "oh my god" moment that you hope to experience when you see something as beautiful as the Sistine Chapel. As we entered, I think I heard 9 other audible gasps.
So let me just say that if you've never seen the Vatican Museums before -- or even if you have, but were frustrated by the experience -- this is worth the price of admission. SO worth it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience that so few people ever get to have. We were all giddy by the time we left: it felt like we had just shared something really special. On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 20 and that's not hyperbole: it was A-MA-ZING. Already looking forward to my next Rome trip so I can do it again!!!
Reply by Viator, November 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
I had really great time in Rome,especially the Vatican Tour!I didn't expect that the Viator will be so professional and kind!I enjoyed every minute!
Thank you very much!
All best!
Svetlana N
Reply by Viator, November 2012
Doing what: Viator VIP: Sistine Chapel Private Viewing and Small-Group Tour of the Vatican's Secret Rooms
This was the best tour we have been on during our visit to Rome and Paris. The tour guide Rachael was wonderful, combining great knowledge with a very personal presentation , to give us a real feel of Vatican and it''s treasures.
The private viewing experience in the Sistine Chapel was unforgeable the ordinary tour people were emptied our and we had over an hour in the Chapel just 10 people in the tour without the noise and you get a real feel of the Chapel, the other great thing I could take fantastic photos which I will treasure. They even turned on the lights which gave us another aspect of the Chapel.
Great tour and not to missed when visiting Rome.
Reply by Viator, October 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Best tour we had in Rome, Fransesca was extremely knowledgable. One thing we liked was the pacing. We weren't rushed through any of the rooms, and she explained a lot f things about the paintings etc but didn't give too much info. It was perfect. Other people we know who toured the Vatican with other companies, found their guides gave way too much information, and also walked right through places like Raphael's rooms. This tour included everything. Like the Colosseum, you are foolish NOT to buy at least a skip the line ticket; the line ups to get in are astoundingly long, even in a low season such as October when we were there.
Reply by Viator, October 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
This is a must tour for anyone who would like to get introduced to the museums of Vatican and history of Rome. Our tour guide Christina was very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and her jokes kept us engaged throughout. If the morning tour is taken then you will have time to go around the St. Peter's basilica dome, the tombs, etc.
Reply by Viator, October 2012
Doing what: Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
Our guide, David, was fantastic. He was knowledgable with facts and made the tour fun with his humor. The Vatican Museum is one of the most popular tours in the world and the Skip the Line was amazing. We walked right to the entrance, in front of hundreds of people standing in line to go in. I would recommend this tour for anyone who want to make the best of their visit to Rome.
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