How to Get Discounts or Cheap Vatican Tickets

Vatican City is home to great artistic gems that are worth visiting. And yes, some are more expensive than others. If you want to visit the Sistine Chapel, you will inevitably have to pay to get a ticket, but I'll tell you how you can lower the budget of your visit to the Vatican.

The best option

Rome Vatican and Sistine Chapel Skip-the-Line Tickets

Your skip-the-line tickets to discover the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel at your own pace

The most convenient option to avoid the long queues at the ticket office of one of the most visited monuments in the world.

From RM156 at Hellotickets

If you want to visit the Vatican at your own pace in the most economical and comfortable way possible, this ticket to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel without queues is your best option.

• Recommended if... you want to avoid the long queues at the ticket office and buy your tickets in advance without a guided tour and at your own pace through the Vatican Museums. With the option of including an audio guide.

The most complete option

Guide tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica

The perfect guided tour to discover the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.

Together with an expert guide and skipping the entrance queues, this is the most complete way to get to know all that three of the main monuments of the Eternal City have to offer.

Duration: 3 hours

From RM317 at Hellotickets

If what you want is not to miss any detail and go deeper into history, this guided tour of the Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel is your best option. It lasts approximately 3 hours and together with an expert guide you will get to know all the details of the monumental complex.

• Recommended if... you are one of those who don't want to miss any detail of what you visit when you travel.

The Vatican offers two options for visitors. On the one hand, skip-the-line tickets for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, which allow you to enjoy the Vatican in a more agile way, avoiding long waits. On the other hand, the guided tour, which provides a more enriching experience, as you will be accompanied by a guide who will give you all the information about the place. Depending on your preferences and the time you have available, each option has its own charm. Which one do you choose?

If you want to spend as little as possible on your visit to the Vatican, I recommend you to buy a single ticket (without audioguide or guided tour) on official websites such as Hellotickets. Below, I indicate the available options so that you can evaluate which ones fit your budget:

• Tickets for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel without queues, from 156.
• Skip-the-line tickets for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, from RM201.
• Omnia Card 24h: Vatican, Catacombs and Rome Sightseeing Bus, from RM330.
• Last minute tickets for Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, from RM190.
• Early bird tickets for Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with breakfast, from RM400.
• Offer: Tickets to the Colosseum and Roman Forum + Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, from RM488.
• Guided tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, from 317.

Note that these tickets, purchased online, give you access to the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the Rooms of St Raphael without having to wait in the long queues at the ticket offices.

From around 45 € for general admission and 41 € with discount (for children from 7 to 17 years old), you will be able to visit the infinite rooms of the monument and its entire collection of paintings and sculptures. And if you prefer not to miss a single detail of the works of art hidden in every corner of the Vatican, you can purchase an audio guide with your reservation.

To save money on your trip to Rome, there are other options that may also be of interest to you. If you are planning to visit other essential monuments such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, as well as the Vatican, there are money-saving packs with which you can buy combined tickets at a lower price. You can choose between these two options:

Tickets without guided tour

If you are one of those who prefer to spread your visit to the city's main attractions over several days, I recommend you book your combined ticket to the Colosseum and the Vatican I'll tell you in detail:

• What's included: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica (you'll also have audio guide and explanatory video).
• How long I have to use it: 3 days.
• Price: about 76 €.

Combined guided tour

But there are travellers who want to go further and opt for the guided tour to get a more contextualised view and better understand its history. If this is your case, don't worry because there is also a way to save with the Vatican and Colosseum guided tour package. Please note:

• What's included: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.
• How long it lasts: Half day tour.
• Price: about €88.

The Vatican Museums, with the Sistine Chapel inside, are fee-paying and you will need to buy your Vatican ticket to visit them. There are always exceptions and it is true that some groups can visit the museums for free.

Please note that even though access is free for these groups, they still need to buy their ticket to the Vatican for free and will have to queue at the ticket office to do so. These are the groups that can enter the Vatican free of charge:

• Babies and children up to 5 years old.
• Disabled people with a recognised degree of disability of over 74% (in this case, if they need to be accompanied, their companion can also enter free of charge).
• Pilgrims, priests or members of a religious congregation whose group has been officially accredited to enter the Vatican.

No. You will not find coupons or free tickets to the Vatican anywhere. There are, however, certain groups of people or groups of people who are entitled to a reduced rate. These are:

• Children and young people between 7 and 17 years old
• Students aged 19-25 who have official documentation from their university or college showing that they are still studying in the current year.

How does it work?

If you select the "reduced rate" option when booking your ticket online, you will need to bring documents proving your entitlement to this rate (identity card for minors, official student ID, etc.).

If you have booked with a travel agency, make sure they have the necessary documentation from your side so that there are no surprises on the day you enter the Museums. If you have any doubts or are not sure whether the documentation you can provide will guarantee you access at a reduced rate, you can always queue directly at the ticket office and ask at the counter.

If you are travelling with a religious congregation that has been accredited in advance, you may be entitled to a special guided tour or special conditions when purchasing tickets, but you will need to check with your travel organiser.

If you want to save as much as possible on your visit, there is the option of getting into the Vatican for free: the Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of every month, from first thing in the morning until 12:30 pm. Honestly, this is a visit that I do not recommend you to make on a Sunday at all.

The crowds inside the Museums, the long queues to get in and the risk of not being able to get in despite having queued for miles can tarnish what is supposed to be one of the most interesting visits of your trip to Rome.

If you feel like visiting the Vatican, but don't want to spend money on it, you can always settle for a stroll through St. Peter's Square and visit St. Peter's Basilica, which I recommend 100%.

Once inside, you'll be able to admire, among other wonders, the spectacular statue of Michelangelo's Pieta, a true work of art, as well as the spectacular nave, the Baldachin and Bernini's Dome. Not bad for free, right?

Of course, you will have to wait in a long queue and go through a security check, but it's well worth it, I assure you.

An option that requires a slightly higher budget, but which is the best value for money, is to book a guided tour of the Vatican which, in addition to allowing you queue-free access to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, includes the company of an official guide who will accompany you during the tour.

With a guided tour, in addition to better understand the works and the context of everything you are going to see, you ensure the visit to the key points of the Vatican. This option costs about €48 on Hellotickets and is very convenient considering all that it includes. What you'll appreciate most is the fact that you can skip the queues.

Vatican City itself is free to enter. You can walk across St. Peter's Square, walk through the colonnade and even enter St. Peter's Basilica without having to pay for it or buy a ticket. To make it clearer, here is a summary of what you can see for free in the Vatican and what you can't see for free:

No ticket is required and it is free of charge:

• St. Peter's Square.
• St. Peter's Basilica.
• Access to St. Peter's Square during the Papal Audience and the Angelus on Wednesdays and Sundays.
• Go to mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Admission fee required:

• Vatican Museums.
• Vatican Gardens.
• Sistine Chapel.
• Climbing St. Peter's Dome.
• The Vatican Catacombs: the crypts and the Necropolis, in the basement of the Basilica with the tomb of St. Peter.