Vatican : Guided Tour Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

DO NOT TOUCH THIS PROVIDER!!!

Absolute waste of time. Do not book with this provider. "Guide" gave no information about anything to do with the Vatican. She spoke a lot about Noah and little wooden boats whilst walking up the spiral entrance ramp, but the rest of the "guided tour" was a brisk walk past everything you might want to see with information offered such as "very nice room here", "very nice statue here", "here we have another very nice room", "we are lucky to see another very nice room". She spent more time on her phone than she has ever spent learning any information about Rome. There were some lovely rooms, statues and much much more to see...but you are walked past so quickly it is all a blur. We wish we had gone out separate ways at the entrance and just had a self guided tour. The tour provider offer no customer service when offered feedback either. Visit the Vatican, just not through this very poor tour provider.

Response from the operator: Dear customer, we are very sorry to read this review. First of all....Thank you for the time you are dedicating to us, as this is your third review on our social profiles... In any case..The guide who accompanied you during the tour has a decade of experience, and we have never received comments like this. We work with a lot of passion and we are really surprised. Cordially, HT

via Tripadvisor

Skip the line, learn a lot and see this amazing collection!

Taking a tour with a guide through this collection was wonderful. Philippe was so knowledgeable and sweet. His accent was at times a bit challenging, but you want locals in the know. This was my third time to the Sistine Chapel but the education we got before entering was so helpful to see it in a different way. Sadly, the crowds were just beyond what they should be, and the noise was so disrespectful it really took a lot away from what I experienced in past visits. This was NO fault of the tour - just very poor way they allow too many people through. Being jubilee year and the activities with the papal transition certainly had something to do with it I’m sure, but I was shocked and saddened for my friends who did not get the experience they should have in this sacred space. Skipping the line is the other great reason to take a tour. It can save hours of standing in line.

Response from the operator: Thank you for your review! We are glad that our guide Filippo helped you enjoyed the tour through his passion for arts and history. We hope to see you again in Rome!

via Viator

Excellent value

We had a tour this morning with Phillipe and we were astounded by his level of knowledge and passion. The ticket price was well worth the outlay as we skipped long lines and had a fascinating 3 hours.

Response from the operator: Good morning, thank you for your review! Our goal is to let our costumers live a wonderful experience inside of one of the biggest museums in the world. We hope to see you again!

via Tripadvisor

Better off getting the skip the line ticket without the tour guide (save yourself the time and the hassle)

Better off doing this as a skip the line ticket without the tour guide. If I knew this was an option I would have booked that option and gotten myself in through the checkpoints needed and once inside I would not have wasted as much time as the tour guide did. Our guide was okay. You could tell he knew his stuff but he was not engaging. He also lacked logical and reasonable assessments of what his audience wanted and was there for. First off the tour started at 11:20 instead of 11 AM and I expected the tour to last from 11 AM to 1 pm (2 hours as stated). However, that was not the case. It started late and on top of it the guide kept stopping at locations within the Vatican and kept droning on and on. The first stop he had us out in the heat and sun pointing to images of the Creation that he could have been talking about inside if he wanted to where it was cool and in the shade. It was unbearable. The tour guide and the company have to realize that people pay for a good service that is quick, efficient and to the point. We want to see the highlights. We don't need to be bombarded by facts and figures thrown at us and waste our time. We came here to see the highlights. When it was 12:43 AM and we were still nowhere near the Sistine Chapel and I asked the guide what time we would see it he said about 1:15 pm which was unacceptable. We had somewhere else to be and we also didn't believe the guide. At the rate he was going it was going to be another hour. We cut out of there and quickly made our way through the crowds of people and only by the nick of time and by begging a guard to let us go through a rope to cut across some rooms to get toward the Sistine Chapel were we able to make it out. The Vatican is a maze. We kept trying to find the street exit and it was a maze that we could not get out of easily. Even by walking quickly on our own we were out by 1:10 so I doubt that the tour ended until well after 2. A two hour tour turning into a three hour tour is unacceptable because had the tour guide been cognizant and respectful of people's time, he would have kept going and not standing and talking about things that were not the highlight of the museum or the tour. Overall, I would say that this is one tour and experience that you only need the guide for getting you into the museum and the Vatican and if you don't" want to stay there all day, and get out at a decent time, you should not do the tour but just get the skip the line tickets through the company.

Response from the operator: Good afternoon, we are sorry that you didn'it enjoy the tour after all. The meeting was at 11:00 and we told you in the office that the tour was going to start around 11:15/20. The tour did last two hours and not more.. it ended around 1:30 p.m. The guide's jobs is to give as much information as possible in order to let the tourist enjoy and understand the beauy of Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. By getting a guided tour you had the possibility to skip the line also for Saint Peter's Church, while if you go by yourself you had to exit from the Museums and stand in queue to get in the Church. In any case we appreciate any suggestions that will improve our service.

via Viator

Ok

It is nice tour and with the fast pass it is worth it as lines was extremely long and orders at sites entrance are not chaotic. The instructions is to come 30 min earlier but in fact, they ask you to come 15 after the official start time, so we had to spend 45 doing nothing. Other, it is not bad.

via Tripadvisor