I would like to book a guided tour of the Vatican Museum through the Vatican website. Unless I am misunderstanding the website, it appears that you can only purchase tickets the day of the tour. Has anyone used the Vatican Museum tour before and, if so, how did you make reservations

I realize I read the website incorrectly--it says reservations can be made via fax between one month and one week in advance.

Anyway, has anyone taken this tour? Is it worth it (at least not to have to wait on line)? Or is the Context Rome tour the best guided group tour--people seem to really like it.

You are correct, you fax to the Vatican and then wait until the day before the tour to get your answer. However, with that said, I have never found anyone that did not get the tour requested.

Is it worth it? Absolutely!!!! You have a scheduled time, no lines, guide in your language and you do not have to stay with the group.

In your fax, tell them your name, language, preferred dates and number in group. Make absolutely certain to add in the fax number for your hotel.

hope that helps,

dave

Well, count me as one who did not get the tour. I had our B&B fax the vatican with a tour request 3-1/2 weeks before we arrived, but sadly, no fax confirmation ever arrived at the B&B. We went anyway (absolutely no line at 1:00 PM two weeks ago), and enjoyed the museum/Sistine Chapel, but I was bummed that we didn't get the tour.

That is actually good to know. I've done a couple of posts asking if anyone ever missed out and never got a negative, so at least now I know that it does happen.

dave

The apartment agent in Rome I worked with faxed the Vatican for me several times. Never got a reply.

I think this reservation process is difficult for people who will already be in Europe and do not have access to a fax machine.

I ended up going into the museums early entry with Rome-museum.com at 8:15. No tour included but it was great to go in without waiting in line and be inside with few crowds.

Thanks for all the responses. I am going to try to make reservations via fax a month before and just cross my fingers! If I don't get them. I will try to visit around 1.

We recently returned from Rome and were able to get a tour. We faxed 1 month before and heard the day before we were to leave. However, the tour itself was not satisfactory. We were happy to bypass the very long line, but the tour guide was terrible. The woman that we had was clearly tired of giving tours. She actually ended many of her sentences with "blah, blah, blah, blah". We saw other groups with guides that seemed much more interesting. After awhile people in our group were just removing their headsets and wandering around on their own. Was it worth it? I'm not sure I'd do it again, but the line was very long and there was a hot sun that day, so skipping that part was worth it.