Last updated: 14 September 2026
Who we are
VaticanTickets.co is run by a small team of travellers who have visited the Vatican more times than we can justify to our families. We started this site because our own first visit went badly – a two-hour queue in July heat, a ticket that didn’t include the Sistine Chapel the way we thought it did, and a dress-code rejection at St. Peter’s that cost us the afternoon and we didn’t want anyone else to repeat it.
We are not a tour company. We don’t sell tickets, and we’re not connected to the Vatican Museums or the Holy See. What we do is compare the tickets and tours that are actually available, tell you which one suits your situation, and give you the practical detail that official pages leave out.
Our experience
Between us, we have visited the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica [number] times since [year], across every season, including a February morning with almost nobody in the Raphael Rooms and an Easter week when the queue wrapped the length of Viale Vaticano.
Along the way we have:
- Booked and used skip-the-line tickets, early-access tours, small-group guided tours and the standard timed-entry ticket from the official site, so when we say one is worth the extra money and another isn’t, it’s because we paid for both.
- Timed the walk from the Museums entrance to the Sistine Chapel via the short route and the long route (they differ by over an hour if you stop at what’s worth stopping at).
- Tested whether the “secret” Sistine-to-St. Peter’s shortcut is open to solo visitors (it isn’t – only to guided groups, and only some days).
- Climbed the dome by stairs and by lift, and can tell you which to pick if you have knees.
- Been turned away for bare shoulders once, and now carry a scarf every single time.
- Visited the Vatican Gardens, the Necropolis under St. Peter’s (the Scavi tour), Castel Gandolfo and the Papal Audience – the things most first-time visitors don’t know exist.
We keep going back. Every page on this site is written by someone who has stood in that room, queued at that gate, or been confused by that sign.
How we make money
When you book a ticket or tour through a link on this site, our partners GetYourGuide and Tiqets pay us a small commission. You pay the same price as booking directly with them. This is how the site stays online and ad-free. It does not change what we recommend; we regularly point readers to free or official options when those are the better choice. Full details in our Affiliate Disclosure.
What we promise
- We’ve been there. Practical advice comes from our own visits, not from rewriting someone else’s article.
- We update. Hours, closures and prices change constantly at the Vatican. We check the official calendar monthly and every tour page at least quarterly. Each page shows when it was last reviewed.
- We tell you when to skip something. If a tour is overpriced, a “skip-the-line” ticket doesn’t skip anything, or you’d be better off going on a Wednesday after the Papal Audience, we say so.
- We correct our mistakes. If we’ve got something wrong, email us and we’ll fix it and note the correction.
How we research and check our content is set out in our Content Policy.
Meet the team
Sofia: Chief Editor. First visited the Vatican in 2015 and has been back eleven times since. Favourite spot: the Gallery of Maps at 8 a.m.
