Yay or Nay to these "front of the line" Vatican tours?
 

Took your advice and am here at work trying to book advance tickets to the Vatican, Colosseum and Sagrada Famiglia etc. Basically anywhere I can cut out the possibility of waiting on a line. Not sure about Borghese though.

The sheer amount of tours and packages and the variances in pricing are staggering. I'm the girl who pays the zillion extra dollars for the Fast Pass at Universal etc so should I spring for the " get to the front of the line" offers I am finding. Do they actually work?

Are the family tours cheesy? Geared toward 7 to 12 year olds. My kid is pretty sophisticated (but not snobby) and will be 12 in November. Reviews seem great but being that he is at the end of the age spectrum am wondering if the tour will be babyish.

Do you want a guided tour or just skip the line? Both are possible. You can book admission/timed tickets alone or you can book tickets with guide on the respective websites. Or you can book third party guided tours any number of places. Viator being a common supply source and Walks of Italy being a popular guided tour operator (among many others.)

I was very happy with the audio guide at the Vatican museums and extremely glad not to be part of a group tour. At the Colosseum we used Walks of Italy which I really hated but loved the portion of the tour guided by the dedicated Colosseum guide (certain portions must be guided my official colosseum staff by rule as I understand it) she was great, but the WOI guide was not.

You must have a ticket for the Borghese gallery, it's not optional. And they can sell out several days if not weeks in advance.

Overall I'm not a guided/group tour type. I wanted it for the Forum to know what I was looking at so I went ahead and bought the package that included the colosseum but I'll never do that again. That said, there are MANY others that love guided tours, and had great experiences with Walks of Italy.

...Certain portions must be guided *by* official colosseum staff...I meant. And *many others* had great experiences with Walks of Italy.

My fat fingers apologize!

I've done the Vatican both with a guided tour (15 years ago) and just standing in line with the rest of the plebians. It depends on what you hope to get out of it. I got way more out of the guided tour than I did wandering around by myself - if you're interested in the art, I'd go that route (and I'd be surprised if a guided tour didn't let you skip the line). If you're just going to see the big stuff and don't care much about the guided tours, well, it depends on how badly you want to skip the line. We didn't pre-purchase timed tickets last time because I wasn't sure how long our Scavi tour and seeing St. Peter's would take in the morning, and I didn't want to stress about making a certain time. We ended up standing in line for maybe 30-45 minutes. That was a perfectly fine tradeoff for me, maybe not for you. (Also note that this was four years ago and in May - may be a different story in July or August.)

Regarding the Borghese - even though I am not an art aficionado, this was one of my favorite things in Rome. The sculptures are seriously incredible, and being a smaller museum with controlled crowds, it's a more pleasant experience than the Vatican. I'd highly recommend getting tickets.

Cannot speak to the family tours, but frankly given the heat you will probably face in August, I would probably pay the extra money to avoid any amount of standing in line. Especially since you are traveling with a child and your parents.

I've read on Tripadvisor that the Family tour is not suitable for older children, as it's too babyish.

Context Travel offers good family tours, but I'm not sure of the appropriate age range.

<i>'ve done the Vatican both with a guided tour (15 years ago) and just standing in line with the rest of the plebians. </i>

The number of tourists in Rome has greatly increased in the last 15 years. Anyway, this is not a binary choice. You can skip the lines without a guided tour. Just buy your tickets online at mv.vatican.va where they have all sorts of options. I myself would never consider any guided tour at the Vatican Museums except perhaps in the dead of winter; you don't mention when you're going. (Well, maybe in November, but I understood that to be the month of your son's birthday.)

Buying tickets in advance doesn't guarantee that you'll skip the lines at the Colosseum, and maybe not even being on a tour will skip the lines. In June, some relatives and I waited in line for 45 minutes even though we already had tickets. There were also tour groups waiting in line with us. I heard a guide saying, "While we wait, I'll tell you about the history of the Colosseum."

I also meant to add that buying tickets in advance really does let you skip the lines at the Vatican Museums, unlike the Colosseum.

<i>The number of tourists in Rome has greatly increased in the last 15 years.</i>

Which is exactly why I stated how long ago it had been since my first visit. I wasn't at all saying that that experience completely applied to a 2015 visit, but rather that I got much more out of seeing what was in the Vatican with a guided tour. But as my experience is not recent, take that with however many grains of salt you like.

I have teenage sons - they loved the Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine tour (we did another 'Walks' tour in Venice which was equally as good). The information was not pitched at a little kid level - perfect for my two who are historians through and through. Even their Italian cousins liked it (although much eye rolling ensured when I mentioned they join us on the tour).
This tour admits you before general admission so it's early rising to meet the tour guide at 7.30am and then they take you straigh to the Sistine Chapel, which is mercifully empty, then they backtrack to the other parts of the museum before taking you out again via the Sistine (which is packed at this time) and down the pathway that links to St. Peter's Basilica. This is convenient because you don't have to line up at St. Peter's security for admission into there.

We didn't travel with children but my husband and I loved the pristine Sistine tour with Walks of Italy. Highly recommended!

We also loved Pristine Sistein with Walks of Italy...you want Stuart as your guide on that. The other Walks of Italy tour the day we went did not go to the Sistine chapel first. Not only is Stuart a wonderful guide, but going to the Sistine chapel when it is practically empty is so worth it.

Thanks! Pristine Sistine it is! 7:30 is a bit early but we will figure it out.

You won't be sorry. You will meet at a cafe and walk over together with your group and enter before the crowds in line for tickets. I am sure I covered it in my TR on Rome from a few years ago.

I took two tour groups to Italy in May and June, and I booked their tickets to the Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, Accademia (Florence), and Doge's Palace (Venice) in advance. It saved them countless time. They also all took the Angels and Demons tour in Rome and LOVED it.

If I may suggest that you book early entrance to the Sistine Chapel if you can afford it, do so. We got in at 7:45, and there were fewer than 100 people in the chapel. When the place opened at 9:00, we were already out and in the museum. We had to walk back through at one point, and there were probably 1000 people in there at that time. They say that there are about 2000 people on average in the chapel during the peak hours.


I also suggest going early to whichever places you can, or try to go later in the day. You'll avoid crowds.

PS I assume you wrote Sagrada Familia by mistake as it's in Barcelona. :-)

Hey Chris :)

Thanks for the Angels and Demons tip. I will look into it. We will be starting our trip in Barcelona and booked Sagrada Familia in advance as well.

Looking forward to it all!