Tour Package
Skip the Lines Vatican Tour: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica
Take Our Tour and Skip-The-Lines – Get More Time to Admire Vatican History
The Vatican Skip-The-Lines Tour gets you an inside look at the best of Vatican City without, like the name implies, long waits in lines. Our group gets early entrance to the museums and Sistine Chapel. You can also add on a 45-minute tour of St Peter’s Basilica where you’ll see Michelangelo’s Pietà and Bernini’s Baldachin.
Don’t miss the Vatican Skip the Lines Tour. You’ll walk with an intimate group and we’ll cover all the major highlights of Vatican City.
Availability: Monday – Saturday
Group Size: Semi Private Tour (Max 14) | Group Tour (Max 25)
Meeting Point: Via Leone IV, close to Vatican Museums entrance (full details sent with confirmation email)
Departure Time: 8.30am, 9.00am, 9.30am, 1.30pm & 2.00pm
Check In Closes: 15 minutes prior to departure time
Duration: 3 Hours. Optional add-on of a Guided Tour of St Peter’s Basilica, lasting 45 minutes extra.
What’s Included: Skip the line early entry tickets to the Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel, expert guide who speaks fluent English, headsets that enable you to explore your surroundings without missing anything.
- This tour of the Vatican gives you an easygoing, yet entertaining glimpse into the world’s most fascinating array of historical treasures
- During your Vatican excursion, you’ll get to admire the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s frescoes.
- At St. Peter’s Basilica (optional), you’ll be stunned by Michelangelo’s Pietà and Bernini’s Baldachin at the largest church in the world and the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture
- Avoid the infamous Vatican lines with skip the line access at both the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica (optional)
Group Tour: Maximum 25 people. Average is around 18 people.
Semi-Private Tour: Maximum 14 people. Usually sold out.
Group Size | Group Tour: Maximum 25 people | Semi-Private Tour: Maximum 14 people | ||
Season | High season | Low season | High season | Low season |
Adult | 69 | 59 | 89 | 79 |
Senior | 65 | 55 | 85 | 75 |
Youth | 65 | 55 | 85 | 75 |
Teen | 59 | 49 | 79 | 69 |
Child | 55 | 45 | 75 | 65 |
Infant | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Family 1 Package (2 adults, 2 children) | 240 | 200 | 320 | 280 |
Family 2 Package (2 adults, 2 teens) | 250 | 210 | 330 | 290 |
Waste No Time with a Vatican Skip-The-Lines Tour
The Vatican has stood as the center of the Catholic Church since the early decades of Christianity when it was a place of martyrdom and the place where St Peter is believed to have been crucified upside down. So much history sits inside the Vatican museum complex that as little time as possible should be spent waiting on the outside.
As the most visited place in Rome, the Vatican serves 4.2 million people a year. The lines, as you can imagine, can be long, sometimes hours long, and exhausting for anyone who has to wait in them. Keep your energy for the good parts, the Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter’s Basilica. With a Vatican Skip-The-Lines Tour, you get to go in a small group through a special museum entrance. Once inside your guide will take you a journey of the best known and some of the obscure parts of a place that contains some of the world’s most important historical treasures.
Optional Extra: St Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour (45 minutes)
Continue with your tour guide into the Basilica of St Peter. Known as the greatest architectural masterpiece in Rome, St Peter’s took over a century to complete.
Your guide will tell you the story of the nine master architects who each carried the project forward until their deaths; including how that genius Michelangelo – again! – would be the one to finally complete the design for the most challenging aspect of the ambitious design – the great dome which is one of the most iconic images of Rome today.
Inside St Peter’s you will visit a selection of the many ornate monuments, statues and mosaics (there are no paintings in the Basilica – find out why from your guide!), and stand in front of the sacred altar of St Peter, from where the Pope says mass on very special occasions.
Note 1:
Unfortunately, due to unavoidable steep stairways in the Vatican Museums, we cannot accommodate guests with mobility impairments or strollers on this tour. Please send us an email and we will work with you to find a suitable alternative
Note 2:
Please note that St Peter’s Basilica is not available on the Wednesday 08.30 tour, due to the Papal Audience in St. Peter’s Square. Please do not book the Basilica add-on if you are booking the tour on Wednesday mornings.
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Our Reviews
Review of: Skip the Line Ancient Rome and Colosseum Underground Tour
“Wow, what a fab experience! Our group of four had the pleasure of having Nick (Nicoli) as our tour guide and made full use of his knowledge as a historian of Ancient Rome he was magnificent. Best ever guided tour and fully recommended.”
Review of: Skip the Lines Vatican Tour: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica
“So glad we took the skip the line tour. Not only did we go right into the tour and skip the long lines), but our tour guide Andrea (spelling?) was very knowledgable and made our tour very enjoyable. It was awesome to be in the presence of such history and to learn the special back stories. I would do this again!”
Review of: Skip the Line Ancient Rome and Colosseum Underground Tour
“We were so excited (and not disappointed) to see the Colosseum, underground included, but were so impressed by the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill portions of this tour ... absolutely stunning! You know you are going to get a history lesson on a tour like this but it was more than a lesson ... it was a history experience.”
Review of: Skip the Line Ancient Rome and Colosseum Underground Tour
“Marley, our tour guide did an outstanding job with the tour. She was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. I highly recommend this tour especially if you would like to see all the accessible areas of the Colosseum.”
Review of: Ostia Antica Private Tour - Day Trip from Rome
“We did two tours (Ostia Antica and Best of Rome Half-Day Tour). Both guides went above and beyond to make sure we enjoyed ourselves on the tours. They were knowledgeable and gave us insights and details above and beyond what we expected. I would strongly recommend.”