Rome

Private Tour: Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica Tour

Roma, Italy
Vatican Museum and St peter Basilica private tour half day tour

From $211.56

Price varies by group size

Select Date and Travelers

Free cancellation
Up to 24 hours in advance.
  • 3 hours
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

Overview

Explore one of the world's biggest museums with a private 3-hour tour of the Vatican Museums complex plus St Peter's Basilica. Enjoy skip-the-line access to avoid the long lines, and wander through the highlights of the 2,000 rooms and 9 miles (15 km) of hallways full of priceless art masterpieces.
  • 3-hour private tour of Vatican Museums plus St Peter's Basilica
  • Enjoy skip-the-line access to the museums with your professional guide
  • Explore the vast museum complex, learning about the highlights as you go
  • Conclude in the magnificent Sistine Chapel to see the frescoes of Michelangelo
  • Move on to St Peter's Basilica next door to see the largest church in Christendom

What's Included

  • Professional guide 3 hours
  • Private tour
  • Emergency number also operational via whatsapp
  • ticket skip the line
  • Vatican Museum
  • Sistine Chapel
  • Gratuities
  • Tip
  • Pickup and drop off hotel

Meeting And Pickup

Meeting point

  • Cantina del Duca
    Via Santamaura, 60, 00192 Roma RM, Italy

Start time

02:30 PM

End point

  • Saint Peter's Square
    Piazza San Pietro, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

What To Expect

Vatican Museums

1 hour Admission Ticket Included

Stanze di Raffaello

40 minutesAdmission Ticket Included

Sistine Chapel

20 minutesAdmission Ticket Included

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • A minimum of 2 people per booking is required
  • the Churches requires appropriate clothing: shorts, miniskirts and uncovered shoulders are not allowed
  • Provide the Correct address of your accommodation , hotel, B&B
  • Wheelchair accessible
  • Stroller accessible
  • Near public transportation
  • No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
  • Provide the correct phone number with international country code
  • check that you provide all the details to the agency
  • Without this information we can not guarantee the correct service
  • Time for pick up at the hotel must be confirmed the day before between 10.00 am and 6.00 pm on the emergency phone or whatsapp
  • Emergency number also operational via whatsapp- One day before 24 H. Call to confirm the pick up
  • Coronavirus information: Below a brief list of the measures will be taken to ensure the safety of customers during the tours and on board our vehicles: - gloves and surgery masks; - disinfectant gel - Sanitization of vehicles at the end of each tour - staff, assistants, guides, drivers wearing masks and gloves - preventive information to the customer once on board the vehicles - the capacity of minivans and groups will be regulated according to the law and regulations of the virus corona in customer protection
  • Due the covid 19 restrictions the direct passage from the Sistine chapel to the basilica is not allowed. a car will wait for you at the exit of the Vatican Museums to go to St. Peter's Basilica. no drop off at the hotel
  • Most travelers can participate
  • This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

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.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

2.5
7 reviews
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
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Reviews by Viator travelers.
Showing 1-5 of 7 reviews
Please do not book this...
Peter_D, Jun 2023
Please do not book this tour. Tour guide was 40 mins late and they didn’t have tickets. We had to line up with a large group but it was sold as a private tour. Look elsewhere at Viator tours are unprofessional.
Response from Host, Jun 2023
Dear customer, we are sorry to contradict what you say but unfortunately what you are saying is not the truth. entrances are at a defined time slot. The appointment at the meeting point is given in advance to be sure that all customers arrive without problems. skip the line tickets still have a line to go to enter the museums. Viator and our company are not responsible for the management of the entrances to the Vatican Museums and you are doing negative publicity without knowing the conditions of the operators who work. the vaticnao is a separate state and has its own rules for how to manage entrances. if you want to enter and do as you please, this is not the solution for you. we all work in compliance with the rules of a sovereign state which is not the subject of discussion. if you want to see the vatican museums and the sistine chapel these are the rules and the difficulties, otherwise see other attractions
DIDN'T GET WHAT WE PAID FOR. OUTRAGED! WANT A REFUND!
David_L, Jun 2023
I was going to call about this issue, but since you are asking......... here it is. I am outraged at what I paid for this tour and how everything went down. First off, when we booked this tour we made it crystal clear that we wanted a Private tour (just us with the tour guide) and we needed to be picked up at our hotel. Days before this tour we were contacted and told that we needed to be at a certain location by a certain time to begin our tour, However when we made this purchase is was under the clarity and certainty that the tour guide would be picking us up at OUR HOTEL. We were on a cruise ship at the time and had the complete hassle of numerous phone calls both to the tour place and Viator trying to get the details on how this got screwed up. Spoke with several people and nobody could give us a straight answer as to whether or not they would pick us up at the hotel or not. It wasn't until that last minute we were told that we would indeed be picked up at the hotel. We were told that the guide would not come into the hotel, but that we needed to wait out front and he would pick us up there. So at the appointed time 1:45pm we were waiting out front for our tour guide. Nobody showed up!! Had to call 4 different times inquiring where our guide was and was given the run around that "traffic is heavy in Rome" or "He'll be there any minute" and one time "I have no idea where they are. We don't understand what is wrong". We stood there OUTSIDE 89 degrees melting in the sun for over an hour waiting before they actually showed up. We get into the tour van and it was roasting inside the vehicle. We asked the driver if there was Air Conditioning in the back and he said "No Speak English". UGH!!!! Had to get on a translator to ask about the AC. There was another couple in the vehicle with us. The driver then pointed to the AC adjustments in the 2nd row, where the other couple were sitting and they pressed every button they could find and still no AC. So we cooked on the ride to this PUB where they dropped us off. We are finally introduced to our tour guide which was a little old lady. Looked like she was about 80 years old. Did not speak clear English at all. Was very hard to understand. She proceeds to walk with us to the Vatican which was about a 15 minute walk in the heat to get there. Billions of people, which is nobody's fault. However when our little old lady guide was asked for vouchers for us to get in, she started rummaging through her purse and couldn't find them. She was speaking in italian to the security people back and forth. Don't know what she was saying but they kept telling her pretty much No Vouchers, No Entry. They kept shewing her away. Then she's on here phone trying to find the code or whatever they needed as proof of us being paid for a tour (A SKIP THE LINES TOUR) and she couldn't see her phone from the glare of the sun. Security eventually pointed us "to the back of the line" were we had to go and wait AND COOK outside like everyone else. We finally get inside and have to go through all of the security checks etc. where she had to stand in line to get the vouchers for us to get inside the museum and THEN we were able to get through. The tour actually began around 3:45. Once inside, she pulls out a "picture book" about the Sistine Chapel. She proceeds to keep us there looking through a picture book for 45 minutes talking about the Chapel. If I wanted to look at a picture book, I could've done that AT HOME!!!! We wanted to get in there at see it. 45 minutes of our tour wasted looking at a picture book and explaining every detail. She should have been explaining the details while she was showing us the real thing, not a book. That a waste of our time. We eventually proceeded on through into the museum at which time she puts on a face mask. Now this little old lady with a thick accent is already very difficult to understand, and once she put on the face mask, it was virtually impossible to understand much of anything. It was horrible. There were several times with all the people that she moved so fast ahead and we almost lost her in the crowd. She didn't check back to make sure we were keeping up with her. Then our tour was cut short by 45 minutes!!! We paid for a 3 hour tour that started at 3:45 and ended at 6pm. That's only 2 hrs. 15 min. Not only did we waste 45 minutes looking at a book, but also was shorted 45 minutes on the whole tour. We paid over $400 for this tour and received only half the time with A LOT OF HASSLE AND HEADACHES AND FRUSTRATION. I feel completely ripped off. Did not get what we paid for.
Response from Host, Jun 2023
Dear customer we are sorry but maybe you have wrong country to visit. The Vatican is a separate state and you have to respect the rules they impose and which are not questionable. The guides of the Vatican Museums are certified by them, we cannot choose. Every guide must obtain eligibility regardless of age. anyone who buys a tour of the Vatican Museums must accept the conditions they impose. The service you have purchased includes the following services: - hotel transfer if communicated - visit the Vatican museums - ticket entrance fee skip the line your information is not correct, we have a lot of respectful traffic that accepts the difficulties of a unique reality that certainly can be difficult to understand but if you don't accept compromises for this type of attractions I suggest you take less demanding tours. Please just avoid offending people's intelligence and the good work we all do to make this experience less difficult.. everything you write is your consideration to get an undue refund and free advertising.
Very poor
Peter_T, Apr 2023
We were forced into a shared tour not private, our pickup from our hotel arrived very early and we were in a bistro waiting for over 30 minutes for our guide to be told others were on our tour.Our guide made us aware at the start the basilica was closed and could not understand why a late starting tour was not appropriately discounted
Response from Host, Apr 2023
Dear customer, we are sorry for the inconvenience but one of the guides who was supposed to do the tour got sick. did she prefer that we cancel the tour? what would she have said? our company offered you as a gift a free dinner at our bistro which is the meeting point of the vatican tour. We believe your consideration is misplaced, perhaps it was better that we canceled the tour instead of trying not to make you miss this experience. the vatican tour takes place in the vatican, a different country, with its own rules. During the Easter holidays, St. Peter's Basilica has many religious services and as described in the program, if there are religious services, the church is not accessible. Having taken the tour you have accepted the conditions, otherwise you could ask not to take the tour and request a refund. this suggests that perhaps your review is incorrect. Anyway, thank you for choosing our services.
Lucy is great
Richard_C, Aug 2022
Lucy is great. She has great knowledge of history. Very Very kind. I would hire her again. We will be back.
Response from Host, Sep 2022
Dear customer, we are happy that Lucy gave you an exciting experience. All our staff of guides are carefully selected to offer you a quality and professional service. We hope to have you again on our tours in the future. Thank you for choosing Welcome Italy
Completely Bogus
edward_w, Jul 2022
This tour was chosen specifically because it was a private hotel pickup and transfer to the site. The day before the tour, I got a text message advising me of the meeting point. I assumed that this was for after our private car dropped us at the Vatican. On the 16th I texted to confirm pick up at the hotel and was told that we would no longer be picked up and we should take a taxi for a 40 minute drive to the tour. I explained that the only reason I booked this very expensive private tour was so we didn't have to find our own transportation in Rome for a 40 minute drive. The response from the tour operator was that transportation and traffic in Rome at this time of year was terrible. I explained that that was why I paid almost a $1000 for a tour with a pickup. Further, having to shift our plans (another tour and a reserved lunch) to make a 40 minute drive was impossible. His answer was tough luck. I again explained that we hired a specific service and he was no longer providing what was advertised and paid for. He laughed and said "good luck". I told him we would not be making the tour as it was impossible. He said, I've already got your money and hung up. If I have to take this to American Express, I will. I suggest you refund my money and we call this disaster closed. He has since changed the listing to not show hotel pick up, however, I have the original screenshot. How do I send that to you? Thank you.
Response from Host, Aug 2022
Dear customer, we remember very well the conversation we had and it is not as he said. Her words are false and we distrust her to divulge untrue news. You clearly said that she didn't interest you and that your American Express circuit protects you a lot. This attitude belongs to people who are not serious and try to exploit a situation to their advantage. However, we respond to her considerations: - the tour that you have booked includes only a guide, skip the line entrance and headphones if the group exceeds 9 people. - the amount he paid is based on the number of people and is not a relevant consideration. When purchasing a product, the customer must check what he is booking. All our Rome tours are walking tours and include meeting points. - you decided not to participate in the visit, if you were interested you could take a taxi to come to the meeting point and do the tour. - our service is of high quality and professionalism, we informed you a day before, you answered ok, then on the day of the visit you created the problem.

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