Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Guided Tour

Juliana was an incredible tour guide. Extremely knowledgeable and interesting and kept us entertained.

Maybe it was just my guide, but standing outside looking at a sign with photos of the Cistine chapel while a guide talks for 45 minutes was the start of the tour. I get it that guides can’t talk inside the chapel, but it went on way too long. Has did every other part of her tour. The tour company upsold me on having a third section to the tour which I ended up not being able to do because we were so far behind schedule. I wasn’t the only one. Over half our tour left the group before we were even half way through St Peter’s.

Our guide knew what he was talking about. The first part of the visit was very well explained, but later due to the amount of visitors and visit's flow, the tour was quite fast. After too much listening without a pause your attention is gone!! In some areas it was impossible to appreciate the museum (people, noise, guide walking fast). We did not pay extra to skip the line to visit the Basilica. It was great option because after the guided visit concluded we made a pause at the cafeteria, and visited other collections in the museum that were amazing. The other part of the group missed that opportunity because they went to the Basilica. Maybe better to start the Basilica, and then the museums to maximize the experience or tell people in advance that by paying the Basilica, they won't be able to stay extra time at the Vatican's museums

Wonderful guide. Very knowledgeable and answered questions clearly. Everywhere was very crowded and she made sure that everyone was able to stay together which was no easy feat.

You can't be ready for the items you will see in this museum. Unbelievable sights at every turn. The Vatican is larger than you can imagine. All-in-all, this is a trip you should not miss.

This tour should be axed . Horrible experience, no one took ownership of what a complete scam this is and tour guide washed her hands of all blame.

The place where we awaited our tour guide was dark and dank, with unfriendly people behind the counter who treated the guests like cattle. It felt like the DMV. There was no bathroom in the waiting room and we were told to visit one of the neighboring shops if we needed one. When our guide finally arrived, she was nice and informed enough but the whole tour felt rushed and we didn’t get to see much of the Vatican museum. Lots of waiting around to see the Sistine Chapel which was great, but the waiting time could have been better used seeing other parts of the museum, like the famous staircase perhaps? I came away frustrated from it and felt that a self-guided audio tour at my own pace would have been better.

There are people everywhere-it was very touristy. We expected a holy quiet atmosphere and that was not what we experienced.

At the tour operator check-in site the bathrooms was unavailable- it was “broken”. Staff directed clients in need to go down the street to the nearest coffee shop. One shop was not open and the other shop required a purchase to use the facilities. Not a great start. The tour guide was great however and we saw a lot on the tour.

What a pleasure it is to take this tour with Julietta. . She has a complete understanding of the art and history. Makes learning and art fun!

It’s fairly crowded which is expected . The guide was informative . Thought the headphones initially were not clear . A bit expensive

The guide was excellent. The collection is impressive. However, the Vatican Museum was uncomfortably crowded. Really, really, really uncomfortably crowded. It was too hot. We could only shuffle along. If anyone stopped, it held up the crowd behind the stopped person. It was like being in Time Square when the shows let out. And that was with a huge line of people waiting outside in the regular line for hours. The Vatican needs to let in fewer people to improve the experience.

Service at Check and Go with Maria was first class! She helped us upgrade to see the Basilica with our guide and that saved us a lot of time. Maria also recommended a really authentic restaurant nearby where we celebrated our 20th anniversary before joining our group. Our guide Juliana was patient and knowledgeable. We enjoyed this tour tremendously! Highly recommend.

We enjoyed our tour of the Vatican with Juliana. She had a wealth of information and also was very experienced in navigating through the museum. I will recommend this tour to my friends when they come to visit Rome

Julianna was very knowledgeable and easy to understand. We especially liked the fact that she showed us pictures ahead of entering the Sistine Chapel so we had a better idea of the meaning. Highly recommend this tour.

This tour was excellent. The guide was friendly and had a mountain of information to share. We really enjoyed it.

Gulianna was an awesome guide! She was very knowledgable about the museums and the sistine chapel. We thought the tour was a good length and that we got to see the main highlights of the museums. Would highly recommend to others.

The guide just gave his point of view, instead of telling the group what should be said . I don’t recommend this Portuguese guide . Rude and unpolite.

Well worth both the time and the ticket price. Not my religion but regardless it’s a must soo/do trip, the artefacts, statuary, general splendor and sheer scale is amazing. I would add we hade a great guide, Julia, or Julya, was knowledgeable, patient and humourous, really added to the occasion so thank you Julia of Check & Go

We really enjoyed this tour! Our guide Julianna was extremely knowledgeable and friendly, providing lots of information on all the art works in the museum as well as the Sistine Chapel. This really made our experience :)

A huge thank you to Lauuricio! On a 40°C day, my mother-in-law was struggling to walk, and he went above and beyond by personally fetching a wheelchair so we wouldn’t miss our tour. His kindness and compassion made all the difference, and we are incredibly grateful. Lauuricio is a real credit to your company!

The Vatican is extremely busy. Early would be best. We were 10:30 and it was very busy at that time.

Meeting location just feet away from entrance. Check in was easy. Guide was great. So knowledgeable. There is sooo much information! You can spend days in there. The heat was unbearable so dress lightly. Great value.

The headsets provided were not high quality and our tour leader was difficult to understand. I've been on other tours with excellent headsets and tour leaders, so suspect we didn't luck out this time. It's expensive, though. Recommend booking early to avoid later price hikes.

It was really, really crowded which is not the fault of the tour. However, at first we didn’t have headsets (didn’t get them until we got into the Vatican) and it was tough to hear our guide during the walk over and before we entered into the building. In the Vatican, because of the crowds, it was also hard to hear our guide.

My wife injured her knee in an accident the day before our scheduled tour and she wasn't sure she would be able to keep up with a group, but she decided to give it a try because the Vatican visit was one of the most anticipated highlights of our trip to Italy. To her credit, she powered through. But she never would have been able to do so without the caring and thoughfulness of our fantastic guide, Alex. It's appropriate that we were in such a holy place, because Alex was a saint that day in the way she looked after my wife, kept her pace slow so we could always keep touch with the group and found places for her to sit down when available. My wife was moved to tears when she thanked Alex at the end of the tour. Alex is also an incredibly knowledgable guide who did a great job of pointing out and explaining the beauty, history and significance of the artwork and architecture in the museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The thing about tours like this one is that you're going to see most of the same things no matter which operator you go with. What sets them apart is the quality of the guide who shows them to you. Thankfully our travel agent booked us with Checkandgo Tours and we had the best guide in Italy!

The guide Juliana was rude !!!! All about herself, I had to run to the restroom on an emergency. I wasn’t even gone 10 minutes, maybe 6 minutes max. I had tried to tell her many times that I had to go and ahead ignored me! The. She proceeded to tell everyone while I was in the restroom that the group would have to wait 50 minutes and she would get fined 100 euros- then said that she doesn’t even make that in a day!!! Once on the tour, she was very negative and opinionated throughout the tour, very biased on her own beliefs. It’s unfortunate , I was trip advisor a lot. But because of this and this Person you have lost a customer

Juliana was an amazing and very knowledgeable guide! The museum is very extensive so glad we had a guide!

Our guide Juliana has a wealth of information about the history of the places we visited. We are fortunate that we had her for a guide.

Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and helpful! We enjoyed the tour very much. She even helped us flag a cab when the tour was over.

The tour was well planned and Julianna, our tour guide, was exceptionally good. She had a masterful knowledge of the Vatican Museum art works and the Sistine Chapel; was patient in responding to questions; and very kind and accommodating regarding my husband’s sore back. The only drawback to the tour was the crowding, but of course that’s not the fault of the tour group.

The tour guide named Juliana was superb. I was astonished of her knowledge of history and things that she did to prepare for our tour that were amazing. She had pictures she had items that we should look at or pay attention to during the tour, which made it easy to understand the history of the artwork we were looking at.

Juliano our tour guide was informative, passionate and extremely professional. Our group of 17 were taken around at a reasonable pace giving enough time to look and photograph as needed. A very busy tour but Juliano expertly navigated us around with minimal fuss. Really enjoyed the tour and without the guide would have missed so much! Thank you, Dean and Rebecca

Many tours are longer- but for us 66?yos, this was enough! Well organized and appreciated the off the entrance meet up! Juliana was very knowledgeable, helpful and efficient- appreciated her a lot!

Amazing tour and a truly fantastic guide! Julianna was incredibly knowledgeable and humorous and obviously in love with her job.

It’s insanely busy, the tour guide was excellent but the system Eats into So much time that our experience was hampered . We met at the organised point as directed 20 mins in advance of the 2:30 slot then went to the entrance for our 3pm slot so already we are at almost an hour of waiting . This time meant we felt like we had already missed an opportunity to see stuff. The place is so busy that actually enjoying things properly and keeping track of the group and the guide meant we couldn’t deviate in any way. That being said I cannot fault our guide - knowledgeable, charming and capable I’d organise for a morning trip so that you can take advantage of the access for the day as there is so much to see , and therefore so much we missed. I’d have loved to spend time in the gardens and looking at the modern art.

Sorry to give a low rating. I do feel horrible about it however I want future guests with kids to avoid our same experience. If you want a higher level art history lesson for 3 hours then you will enjoy this tour. With teens it was torture for them. I was hoping for art history with engagement and highlights. For example in the tapestry room, the Jesus resurrection optical illusion was buried in a long rambling and AFTER we passed the tapestry. I hope this company considers making a branch aimed for families. The Vatican and Sistine chapel is still engaging for kids! Our guided didn’t even explain about the Vatican being its own country with my daughter asking “are we at the Vatican” and “what is the Vatican” until I had to take her aside and explain the simple facts. Also our tour guide seemed flustered with the day and how to navigate the crowds going back and forth many times. Also please note, don’t choose the 9am on Wednesday when the Pope gives audience. You can’t get into the square or basilica….while also missing the pope. Huge let down to be honest (I’ll take responsibility that I should I looked it up but saving you from the mistake)

Good guides; on your own and fast paced I enjoyed it and so did my whole group! Would book again easy to locate

Extremely unfriendly service and last minute changes. One group turned into two and waited very long in their office. Boss was aggressive and intimidating.

Skip the queue is 100% worth it!. Kira our guide was excellent , very informative and could answer any questions

The tour felt heavily focused on the Sistine Chapel. Since guides are not allowed to speak inside the chapel, much of the explanation took place in various sections of the museum beforehand, which made the rest of the visit feel more like moving from one briefing spot to the next. I asked whether it would be possible to continue into St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of the tour, especially since the group was already moving in that direction, but I was told this was not an option. I would have been willing to pay the extra. One logistical point that stood out was at the beginning of the tour, when we were advised to use the restroom before starting, but were directed to nearby cafés rather than having access to a restroom at the meeting point itself. This felt a bit inconvenient. That said, the guide herself was pleasant, knowledgeable, and clearly experienced with tourists and the history she was sharing. Overall, my feedback is more about the tour organization and administration than the guide, who did a good job with what she was given.

Awesome. Good bit of walking, up & down steps. It was worth it..... ........,....... ...............

Luck has Lot to do with it. Our guide was rude and spoke in a condescending manner. She was more interested in talking about herself. She also went at a break-neck speed without turning around to see where the tour participants were located. She was horrible! The tour was on November 17, 2025. It was miserable.

Biggest rip off for the cost. Not worth $225 for an hour and a half from start to finish .Headsets would not work, kept falling off my ear! Very crowded. Difficult to get to for directions of meet up. Truly disappointed!!! She was knowledgeable. Better to go on your own pace save the money!

Don't go during Jubilee year. St. Peter's was closed to tours and public for special events.. Not a good time to go Paild to see St. Peter's and couldn't get in. Hopefully I will get a refund for the 30eurs I paid to get in.

Vatican Museum was great to see from the outside, beautiful and even got to hear the Pope speak. Really nothing to see on the inside of Vatican Museum, which I would not do again. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful and worth it, even tho our guide was not great. She was hard to understand English, muffled in ear piece, and had an attitude from the beginning, sorry.

It was a blessing to be able to visit the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Museum and much more. We love our tour guide.

Initially disappointed that the Sistine chapel was closed due to English Royal’s visit, but then delays were long enough that it reopened and we had a historic visit.

Excellent tour of the museum. The Canadian tour guide (sorry can't recall his name) was excellent. He was really informative, very funny and engaged the two children in the group too. He skipped the less relevant bits and personalised the tour for the people on it. He also had an amazing jumper! Really the tour couldn't have been any better, and we got straight through the queue to get in. I think that the numbers of people in the museum are ridiculous. It spoils the experience for everyone. They should half the numbers of entries and double the price if required, so everyone has a better experience.