We are planning to take Rick's advice and sign up for a tour of the Vatican to avoid the long lines to get in. Once in the museum, is it OK to wander off on your own (in other words, is it OK to leave the tour)?
Thanks, Scott
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23342 posts
I sure you could accidentially get lost but I think it is a very rude idea. A very serious tour guide would waste time and hold up the group as he searched for you. But make sure you have paid the tour guide before get lost. Last year the Angle tour guide did not collect until the end of the tour. One couple got lost at the last tour stop. How convenient. They ripped off the young American art student for $50.
Posted by
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
206 posts
If you take the tour offered by the Vatican, you will pay before the tour starts, but you will have the headphones to deal with. The guide talks into a microphone and everyone on the tour has a receiver and headphones. I don't know where you would turn it in if you just wandered off. We thought the tour was pretty good, and actually doesn't take too much time. It is scheduled for two hours but the guides leaves the group at the entrance to the Sistine chapel (although the guide gave an interesting discussion of the chapel at the start of the tour), so the time with the guide is something less than two hours.
Posted by
Bel Air, MD, USA
261 posts
Both Presto and Viator offer "skip the line" tours. You are basically paying a fee to skip the line. There's no tour guide. Since the lines are very long, these seem worth it.
Posted by
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
705 posts
I wouldn't recommend it. I think you would miss a lot by not going with someone who really knows their way around and knows their stuff. Also it is so crowded you really can't go against the flow and just wander where you want to as the sheer volume of people force you to go with them. I did back track no more than 10 - 12 yards at one time as I lost my group, and was abused in German and another language I didn't recognise. Some were quite nasty and it was not an experience I would like to repeat.
Posted by
XXX
1170 posts
I really hate the sound of those tours to be honest and the fact that you must move like a herd of cows through the museum. Is it always like this?
Posted by
Fresno
189 posts
Let's face it. We all hate being herded like a bunch of cows through the stile, but if you are in another country to learn about it, why not take a simple tour especially if it gets you through the line faster?