Vatican Gardens, Vatican Museums And Sistine Chapel Guided Tour

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the Museum and St Peter’s Square once you enter the gardens a calmness settles. Personally I felt 2 hours of walking the gardens is a little too much at my age ( 70) but the pace is sedate. The gardens provide a very unique view of the some of St Peter’s and also the Sistine Chapel. You have the option of staying on in the Museum after the conclusion or leaving. The last call of the tour is at the magnificent Sistine Chapel.

Danielle, the guide was very knowledgeable, we did a comprehensive tour if the gardens, then the museum and the Sistine chappel. The place was "packed" but the incomming process was quick and easy, while skipping the long lines.

This is a must see. Absolutely beautiful and a break from the crowds!

If you REALLY want to see the Gardens, then this tour might be worth your while. However, all you are really doing is paying a premium for a tour organized and given by the Vatican staff. You will have to wait outside the company office, in the elements, until they open. Then they will give you a voucher and have you walk back down the street to wait in a fairly short line to get into the Vatican. Then you have to wait in line again to get a ticket for your voucher, and then be directed to a particular tour guide, again requiring that you wait for the tour to start. Altogether it is about an hour of waiting before the tour even begins. The gardens are nice and historical, but not as lovely as many city arboretums. This experience can be enhanced or lessened by the quality of your guide, which is random. Also, there is a LOT of uphill and downhill walking. No problem if you are in good shape, but purgatory if you are unaccustomed to the exertion, have arthritis, or are disabled.

Absolutely terrible experience. The swindle you into thinking the guided tour is worth it to gain access to St Peter’s basilica for an additional €25 per person. The guide we got was horrific, her English was awful and she just rambled on in an incoherent fashion. The tour was 3 hours rather than the advertised two. Do not book this!

The person who assisted us at the meeting point was very helpful and definitely allowed us to skip the lines waiting to get into the museum. We would have missed our tour without her assistance even though we were early to pick up our tickets. However, this tour was meant to be 1 hour in the gardens and 2 hours in the museum with a final 10 minutes in the Sistine Chapel. What we got was 2 hours of walking through the gardens. Followed by 20 minutes of a presentation about the chapel while standing in front of an interactive screen. Another 30 minutes walking through hallways in huge crowds with no stopping to get to the chapel. And 5 minutes of being pushed through the chapel by guards while being told not to stop, leaving no option to actually view the art. The gardens are lovely and the guide was knowledgeable (although she left us at the entrance to the chapel). But the cost of this tour is only worth it if you want to walk around the gardens for 2 hours. You can get the same experience in the museum and chapel with a $20 ticket.

I have visited gardens, museum, and chapel before but this was worst of the three previous visits. Tour stated 10:30-3:30 and as you can see by description includes gardens, museum, and chapel. Unfortunately also included basilica which meant very short time at museum. 45min bud tour of gardens - no stops or picture taking except from bus windows. 45 min in museum. Ridiculous - barely hit map room and one sculpture room. 15min in chapel. Then were told going to basilica which we had already toured in the morning. Returning to museum was not option and no guide anyway…be careful what you book vs what you get. Viator has been very good, but this was really poor and disappointing.

My wife and I booked Vatican gardens and museums guided tour. However day before we were notified by text that they do not haver available tour guide. So we just got audio guided Vatican gardens tour and ticket to Vatican Museums to explore without a guide. They did a partial refund of $20.32 for two of us which is a joke

The tour of the gardens was disappointing. Because there are so many people, it took 30 mins to even get to the bus. The garden tour itself was only 40 mins. The sides of the bus have plastic (I guess for when it rains) that was only folded up half way so visibility from the aisle seat was limited and you could really only see things at all if they were on your side of the bus. And you couldn't switch to the other side of the bus, partly because the bus was almost full, and partly because your head set was plugged in to the side of the bus. The gardens are not that great as gardens and are really only worth seeing if you are Catholic and appreciate all the shrines and statues. The recorded commentary was a lot of information but rather monotone and boring. Tours of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel are so crowded that you really can't see much. If you went by yourself you wouldn't know what you are looking at so you need a tour guide. Our tour guide did give us some great information, but there's hardly time to point a camera at each thing before you have to move along - no time to look and enjoy. This would be true of any tour - it's just a chaotic experience.

It is absolutely worthing it. We had a small van, half open and an audio guide in the ear. Perfect. The nice guide VERONICA (English and German) was very informed and energetic, she explained the Musea and the S. Chapel very clearly:) we liked her she was really enjoying showing us those amazing beauties. In the meeting point is a bit confusing due of many groups starting there but eventually you will find your way … also, get the mask that’s BIRD BEAK shaped otherwise you won’t get pass the entrance in the Vatican

On our reservation we were instructed to go to a departure point at 0930. We were there at the allotted time and then told that the departure point was changed and needed to walk 1 km to the new departure point. We reserved tickets for Vatican Garden, Vatican Museums, and Sistine chapel and once we arrived at the instructed departure point which was the tour office, we were given only a tickets for the Vatican gardens. The tour office explained that we were to meet back at the office after our garden tour was finished, so we had to walk another 1 km to meet our tour guide for the Vatican museums and Sistine chapel. This was poorly executed. The tour office needed to provide updated us on the new meeting point and been there to meet us with tickets. It wasn't a walking tour. Once we boarded the bus we stayed on the bus during the entire 1 hour tour. We were not permitted to get off to take pictures. So if you were on the opposite side to view a particular part you missed it.

Visit of the Vatican’ s garden by bus without guide wasn’t our wish The visit of the Museum in french with the Belgian guide was very interessant and .... funny ! Thank you

Cristina De Santis was the best guide, we loved the Vatican museums, she made our tour much better than we expected!!!

The view was very beautiful thanks above all to the skill and passion of the guide Paola Locci who made us appreciate both the gardens and the museums and the Sistine Chapel, much more than last time. A little tiring to find your way around the refreshment area

Beautiful experience, very kind staff, they showed us around the Vatican museums and then accompanied us to the bus for the tour of the Vatican gardens lasted 45 minutes finally we could visit the Vatican museums and the Sistine chapel. Everything organized perfectly with great availability from the girls. I absolutely recommend this agency

I had never been there, I can only say that they are a show, the organization was great, never late and they provided us with all the necessary assistance.

Great experience! We were accompanied inside the Vatican museums by the team that was kind and welcoming. The tour of the Vatican gardens by minibus with audio guide absolutely to do!

A super complete and super interesting tour, thank you very much to Cristina De Santis, the guide, very nice!!

Visited the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican gardens with the guide Michela. The staff at the office were courteous and scheduled the entire visit

The tour was very nice and informative and organized very well, with a guide (Mrs. DE SANTIS) who explained very well everything we saw. We highly recommend it Felice and Silvia