In this guide
💡 The Short Version: For a visit on your own, buy the official ticket: €25 at tickets.museivaticani.va, which the Museums say is their only official online shop. It covers the Museums and the Sistine Chapel on its date only and cannot be refunded. The Museums are closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of the month, which is free and crowded. Cover shoulders and knees, no hats, and no photos in the Sistine Chapel. Or book a tour: a guided tour with entry, such as the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Basilica tourad (from £54.85), adds a guide and is the fallback when the official date has sold out. Entry-only tickets resold on GetYourGuide cost more than the official €25.
The tickets, compared
Official prices from museivaticani.va; tour and resale prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price. Both checked 30 September 2026, converted at the ECB rate of 29 September 2026 (€1 = £0.857).
The spiral staircase in the Vatican Museums, seen from below. Photo: Wilfredor, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
| Ticket | Adult price | Where | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official ticket, booked | €25 (about £21) | tickets.museivaticani.va | Anyone happy to go round alone. €20 plus a €5 booking that lets you skip the ticket queue. |
| Official ticket at the door | €20 | Museum ticket office | Only if you will queue: the €5 booking is what skips the ticket queue |
| Entry-only resale | From £27.86 to £42.00 | GetYourGuide | Nobody who can still book the official ticket: it is the same entry for more |
| Guided tour with entry | From £51.43 | GetYourGuidead | A guide and a group ticket in one booking, and the fallback when official slots have gone |
| Free entry | €0 | Queue on the day | Everyone on the last Sunday of the month, 9:00 to 14:00; under-7s at any time |
- Reduced tickets: €10 (plus €5 online) for children aged 7 to 18, and for students up to 25 with proof of enrolment for the current year. A reduced ticket bought without entitlement is cancelled, and you pay the full price again.
- Buy only from the official shop. The Museums warn about sites with look-alike addresses that charge significantly more.
- No refunds. The ticket is valid only on the day issued.
Tours that include entry
Each of these includes entry to the Museums. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 30 September 2026. Tours run on a Sunday only when the Museums are open: the last Sunday of the month.
The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museums. Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Museums, Sistine Chapel and Basilica
From £54.85 · 4.7 stars from 18,499 reviews · 2 to 4 hours
Rome: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & Basilica Tourad takes a guided route through the Museums to the Sistine Chapel. An upgrade adds St Peter’s Basilica and a self-guided visit to the dome.
Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Photo: Gary Todd, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Skip-the-line, with St Peter’s
From £51.43 · 4.6 stars from 11,443 reviews · 3 hours
Vatican, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Skip-the-Line Tourad is the lowest-priced guided tour here, and takes in St Peter’s Basilica as well as the Museums and the Sistine Chapel.
A 2-hour fast-track tour
From £52.28 · 4.3 stars from 85,027 reviews · 2 hours
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica Tourad is a 2-hour guided tour with fast-track access covering the Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. It has the most reviews of the guided tours here, and a lower rating than the two above.
A 3-hour tour
From £67.71 · 4.6 stars from 10,812 reviews · 3 hours
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica Tourad is a 3-hour guided tour of the collections, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.
The official ticket against resold tickets
GetYourGuide also resells plain entry tickets, sometimes with a map or an audio guide. Against the official €25 (about £21):
| Resold ticket | From | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Museums & Sistine Chapel Entrance Ticketad | £27.86 | 4.5 stars from 157,632 |
| Priority Entry Ticketad | £30.00 | 4.4 stars from 5,118 |
| Fast-Track Ticketad | £38.57 | 4.2 stars from 13,188 |
| Skip-the-Line Entry Ticketad | £42.00 | 4.4 stars from 18,211 |
The official €25 ticket already includes skipping the ticket queue. Buy one of these only when the official site has nothing left for your date.
What to see
The Museums grew from the classical sculpture collected by Pope Julius II (1503 to 1513), which is the nucleus of the Pio Clementino Museum. From there the galleries and papal apartments lead to the Sistine Chapel. The Museums’ map marks the way.
The route
Numbers are those on the Museums’ map.
- The Pio Clementino Museum (4): classical sculpture, the collection Julius II began.
- The second floor (5 to 7): the Etruscan Museum, then the Gallery of the Candelabra and the Gallery of the Tapestries.
- The Gallery of Maps (8): 120 m long and 6 m wide, built in 1578 to 1580 and painted in under two years with forty maps of Italy and the Church’s territories.
- Raphael’s Rooms (10): four rooms in the apartment Julius II chose as his residence, painted by Raphael and his school between 1508 and 1524: the Hall of Constantine, the Room of Heliodorus, the Room of the Segnatura and the Room of the Fire in the Borgo. The Museums say the Room of the Segnatura holds Raphael’s most famous frescoes.
- The Borgia Apartment (11), which also houses the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art.
- The Sistine Chapel (12): the walls, painted in 1481 and 1482 by Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli with their workshops, with the Stories of Moses and of Christ; Michelangelo’s ceiling, finished by 31 October 1512; and his Last Judgement on the altar wall, painted between 1536 and 1541. Silence, and no photographs.
The order, and how long
Follow the map’s arrows: from the Pio Clementino Museum up to the second floor, along the long gallery to Raphael’s Rooms, then down to the Sistine Chapel. The guided tours above take 2 to 4 hours, which is the time to allow on your own. The map also marks a short itinerary straight to the chapel.
What to skip
Leave for a second visit the sections off that route: the Egyptian Museum (1), the Chiaramonti Museum (2) and the Braccio Nuovo (3) on the first floor; the Pinacoteca (19), the Vatican’s picture gallery, in its own building opened in 1932; and, in the basement, the Ethnological Museum and the Carriage Pavilion.
St Peter’s Basilica
St Peter’s is a separate visit. The Museums ask anyone who will continue to the Basilica not to leave bags in the Museums’ cloakroom. The St Peter’s dome guide has the dome tickets, the hours and the dress rules.
When it sells out
If the official calendar shows nothing for your date:
- Check the guided tours. Operators hold group tickets on their own calendar, separate from the Museums’ own.
- Try another day in the week. The Museums open Monday to Saturday; only Sunday is closed.
- The last Sunday of the month is free: you queue, and final entry is 12:30.
Opening days and closures
- Monday to Saturday: 8:00 to 20:00, final entry 18:00. The galleries start clearing 30 minutes before closing.
- Last Sunday of the month: 9:00 to 14:00, final entry 12:30, free. The rest of 2026: 25 October, 29 November, 27 December. In 2027: 31 January, 28 February, 25 April, 30 May, 27 June, 25 July, 29 August, 26 September, 31 October and 28 November. There is no free Sunday in March or December 2027.
- Closed in the rest of 2026: 8, 25 and 26 December. On 24 and 31 December the Museums close at 15:00. Rome at Christmas sets these against the Colosseum’s and the Borghese’s holiday closures.
- Closed in 2027: 1 and 6 January, 11 February, 19 March, 28 March (Easter Sunday), 29 March (Easter Monday), 1 May, 29 June, 14 and 16 August, 1 November, and 8, 25 and 26 December.
Dates from the Museums’ 2026–2027 calendar.
Getting there and what to carry
- Getting there: metro line A to Ottaviano or Cipro. Bus 49 stops in the square in front of the Museums; buses 32, 81 and 982 stop at Piazza del Risorgimento, and 492 and 990 in Via Leone IV and Via degli Scipioni. There is a taxi rank in the square (museivaticani.va, 30 September 2026). The Museums’ address is Viale Vaticano, 00165 Rome.
- The cloakroom is free. Leave food and drink of any type, bags larger than 40 x 35 x 15 cm, rucksacks (except small ones), umbrellas, sticks and tripods there. It cannot hold cash, valuables, phones, cameras, coats or jackets. Collect what you leave before the Museums close (cloakroom regulations).
- Photographs are allowed for personal use everywhere except the Sistine Chapel, without flash. Tripods, drones and selfie sticks are not.
- Seats are along the route in the Courtyard of the Cuirasses, the Courtyard of the Pinacoteca, the Square Garden and the Courtyard of the Pinecone.
- Animals are not allowed, except guide dogs for blind or partially sighted visitors.
On the day
- Dress: no sleeveless or low-cut tops, no shorts above the knee, no miniskirts, no hats. The rule covers the Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Gardens.
- The Sistine Chapel: no photographs at all, and silence.
- Bags: large bags and rucksacks go to the free cloakroom. If you will go on into St Peter’s, do not check a bag: you cannot come back for it, and the Basilica has no cloakroom of its own.
- No food or drink in the galleries.
- St Peter’s Basilica is open every day, 7:00 to 20:00, last entry by 19:15. The dome is booked separately at booking.basilicasanpietro.va, by lift or stairs: the lift stops at the terrace, and 320 steps remain. Dome tickets cannot be refunded or changed. The St Peter’s dome guide has the prices and the steps. A guided tour of the Basilica with the dome climb and papal tombsad is from £23.61 (4.6 stars from 3,988 reviews).
The dome and Bernini’s baldachin in St Peter’s Basilica. Photo: Patrick Landy, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
For the other sights that need a booking, and which day each closes, see what to book before you go in Rome. The other ticket that sells out is the Colosseum’s. To walk to an 8:00 slot, see hotels near the Vatican.
Common questions
How much is a Vatican Museums ticket?
€25 online from tickets.museivaticani.va: €20 for the ticket plus €5 for the 'Skip the Line' booking. It is €20 at the door without a booking. Children aged 7 to 18 pay €10 (plus €5 online), and under-7s go free. The ticket covers the Museums and the Sistine Chapel on its date only and cannot be refunded.
Are the Vatican Museums open on Sundays?
Only on the last Sunday of the month, from 9:00 to 14:00 (last entry 12:30), when entry is free. The remaining free Sundays in 2026 are 25 October, 29 November and 27 December. On every other Sunday the Museums are closed.
What if Vatican Museums tickets are sold out?
Book a guided tour that includes entry: tour operators hold group tickets, sold on their own calendar. Guided tours of the Museums and Sistine Chapel on GetYourGuide started at £51.43 on 30 September 2026.
What is the dress code for the Vatican Museums?
No sleeveless or low-cut tops, no shorts above the knee, no miniskirts and no hats. The same rule applies in the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Gardens.
