Vatican tours?

[funkylady]

..forgot to say, for anyones's information, that the entrance ticket to Vatican museums is 14 euro.

[Susan-M]

Sounds like the wandering guide in St. Peter's square i spoke of in previous post was heavily over-priced. Glad we went on our own!

 

..forgot to say, for anyones's information, that the entrance ticket to Vatican museums is 14 euro.

 

The 'wandering' guide's fee of 25E pp plus entrance fee of 14E does sound high compared to the total cost of 23.5E for entrance and a guided tour by a Vatican guide, but it's probably not out of line for a private guided tour. And if he was including a guided tour through St. Peters that would be a bonus, as with the Vatican tour, you aren't accompanied by a guide there.

 

We did the Vatican tour and felt that it was pretty reasonably priced.:)

[chrysalis]

We went last July. The Vatican offers a limited number of English guided tours each day at 10:30 a.m., noon and 2:00 p.m. You can arrange for it through the Vatican Website under "Info Museums", "Visitor Services", "Guided Tours" although it involves a fax process that in turn requires that you have a hotel fax in Rome to receive the confirmation which leaves things a little too up in the air for me. My wife and I were traveling with our two boys (ages 8 and 16) and wanted things to be as pre-arranged as possible. I booked it through "Italian Adventures" on the web at www.goporta.com. They charge a 5 euro a ticket service charge but it was worth it. They coordinated the whole process with the Vatican and we got our tour well ahead of our trip. The cost for the tour (last year) at the Vatican was 23.50 Euro for adults and 18.50 Euro for children. This is payable at the Vatican the day of the tour. Italian Adventures indicated that it would be the adult rate for each of us but the Vatican charged us the right rates when we got there.

 

So why do this....it was an extremely hot day and the lines were very long. People said that it took 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get in which would have killed us. We bypassed the entire line and went to the entrance where a guard had our names on a list and sent us right in. Tour was 2+ hours and was very good. Use the same approach at the Colosseum either through Italian Adventures or right on the web (as of this fall) from the Colosseum.

 

we used this service, also....well worth the small fee, and it worked perfectly for us.

[texancruzer]

FYI: The key here is to remember to compare apples to apples ~ and oranges to oranges.

 

A guided GROUP TOUR will be less than a guided PRIVATE TOUR.

 

Some include the admission price and some do not.

 

Some include the museums, Sistine chapel & St. Peters - and some do not

 

When reading some of these posts it is easy to misunderstand what exactly each poster got for their $$$.

 

I think that most people who come back and post an unhappy review were really just expecting one thing (an apple) for the price of another (an orange) :D

 

Same goes for "tours" some are just drivers who will drive you around but are not guides. Alot of places in Europe license their guides.....

 

So again.....compare carefully and remember "you get what you pay for" because "if it sounds too good to be true....."

[lrtucci]

I have been to the Vatican Museums numerous times, in groups, on my own with or without guides...while it's purely subjective, here are my thoughts:

 

- Live guides are good, but are not allowed to truly offer explanation in the Sistine Chapel-so you see groups huddled outside or around, and looking at book pages before going in. If you're having a personal tour, great. But, if you're part of a large group, you usually can't see everything.

 

- Audioguide of the museums is factual, written by historians and are unlike the audioguides in U.S. or UK Museums...sure, they'll provide an explanation, but nothing memorable.

 

- The Sister Wendy Tour by Artineraries, aside from covering the entire route to the Sistine Chapel, covers the entire chapel, front to finish. She is an amazing orator, and, I got goosebumps (as do my visitors). Not only that, she carries on to the St. Peter's Square and Basilica...it's an amazing thing and feels like your own personalized tour.

I would highly recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

I want to do it on my own. Found this audio tour to play on our own MP3 players. I have read great reviews on the "sister" tour. Has anyone done this?

 

http://www.artineraries.com/

 

 

As fat as getting your own tickets and avoiding hte lines, you can do this on your own, without a tour group. It appears they do this in other Italy stops as well. Has anyone used them?

 

http://www.viator.com/Rome/d511/vatican-tours

 

Jim

[Angiem]

Does a tour of the vatican museum include a look at the former Pope's chambers? I don't know what tour would include this. Can anyone help.

 

Angie

[da.pooh]

the vatican website now says $29.50 per person, with 23.50 'reduced'. Did you qualify for the reduced rate (or maybe the tour charge went up)?

[ggartner]

We just returned from Rome; did a tour with Angel Tours for the Vatican. A little humor and a lot of history. I would not recommend touring without a guide. On Sunday, we walked past a line, five people wide, and three hundred yards long, to come to a line for guides that was 150 feet long. Our wait was 15 minutes. The people in line must have had 1 and 1/2 to 2 hour wait. Don't consider going without unless you have an unlimited time budget.

[CrucianGal]

We were just at the Vatican this past Saturday. We had purchased the skip the line tickets without a tour from Viatour. I am so glad we had our tickets ahead of time. The regular line was a 2 hour wait to get tickets. We decided to tour without a guide. We had a guide book, but you can also rent headsets for self guided tours once inside. It just depends how much you want to know about each piece in the museum. My recommendation is don't wait to buy your tickets until you get there. You will spend too much time in line. Either go with a guide or buy tickets for a "skip the line" self guided tour.

[Angiem]

ggartner I thought the Vatican was closed on Sunday? Is that correct?

 

Angie

[Susan-M]

ggartner I thought the Vatican was closed on Sunday? Is that correct?

 

Angie

 

It's open on the last Sunday of each month...with free admission (and long lines!): http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Orario.html