What a Life Tours — Local services in Rome

We booked the 7:20am Early Access Vatican City tour (3.5hrs) with What a Life Tours to avoid the crowds and it did not disappoint. Yes, it’s really early but its to get in before the general public access opens up to everyone. They provide a light breakfast at the office so if you get there even a few minutes early you could grab a coffee and a croissant. They also have bottles of water for you to bring.

For the tour, they provide you a pamphlet with pictures of Michelangelo’s artwork in St. Peter’s Basilica as well as an audio device for you to wear throughout the tour to hear the guide. This device is pretty spotty though because all the tour companies use the same device so I’d recommend walking close to your guide and listen in real time when you can.

Our tour guide was Matteo. He, along with an assistant, guided us through the major parts of the Vatican City. He began explaining the history and each art work on the pamphlet while we were waiting in line for the doors to open. This was helpful so we already had context before actually entering the basilica (no talking allowed inside). Once the doors opened, we didn’t wait much (just went through security, scanned our tickets and we were in!).

We started with the Greek Museum, then the Roman Museum, into the hall of drape paintings, hall of maps, saw some of Raphael’s art work and then got about 15 minutes inside the Sistine Chapel (no talking, no pictures/videos). It was really crowded inside and you had to be like a hawk to get a seat along the walls. Afterwards, we took a quick break before entering (at last) St Peter’s Basilica! It was as grand as they say :) Matteo provided a lot of insightful history that we enjoyed hearing about throughout the tour. Only wished we could hear him more clearly at all times throughout the tour (not his fault, but the audio device).

3.5 hours was a great amount of time to see the main attractions. I didn’t feel too rushed, just had to get around all the other tourists who were also there — it got super crowded FAST. After the tour group disbanded, we walked around to explore on our own and then went...

We signed up for the Vatican Early Access Before the Crowds Tour and were not very happy with it. The tour guide was fine and shared a lot of interesting details while leading us to Vatican and Sistine Chapel.

My lower rating is mainly for the organization of the tour itself. We felt it was too much rushed tour, maybe it would've been a much better one had we have 1 more hour.

We had a total of 20 minutes to spend inside St. Peter's Basilica which I think is nowhere near enough. Sure we were told of a few pieces of art work in there before going inside but 20 minutes in there was like go to each art, take photo, take a look and then leave. My wife and I both felt the time we had to spend doesn't justify the magnificent artwork and history of that place.

After that we went straight to Vatican Museum which means you don't get to go to the Dome even if you want to. And secondly, if you want to come back to St. Peter's Basilica after visiting Vatican Museum you would have to go thru the line again. Believe it, it is going to be a HUGE LONG line.

We also had to spend a lot of time waiting outside of the Vatican Museum for the group entrance ticket thus felt this was very disorganized.

Overall I think it maybe better for you to just go to St. Peter's early in the morning to avoid the crowd and spend as much time as you want in there, go up the Dome to see the skyline of Vatican and Roma. Then go to Vatican Museum yourself or get audio guide. Try to avoid the early morning because that's when all tour groups go there and make it such a...

Review for Vatican Early Access Before The Crowds 7:45am Tour- Nice croissant and coffee included before the tour. Well organized and easy to communicate after booking online. We took small group (12 people) Guide was English and not Italian. We had a child booking, but the guide was reluctant to give headset and ear phones to my child saying there might not be enough for the group. Only when we enquired again with the organizer and also pointed out that name and age of child were included with the booking, that he was able to give the equipment. We knew that the tour will not be child friendly, but unfortunately it was worse than expected. Guide tried to ignore my child, while showing pictures from the guide book to all tourists, he didn’t even include my child, assuming he won’t be interested I guess. Even when my child was asking, he never lowered the height of his exhibits to include him. We were assuming early access meant 8am entry to Vatican museum, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. One whole hour went by, just getting the whole group together, going over instructions, guide going to get tickets etc, tour effectively started at 9am and that’s when crowds were pouring. Overall the cost of the tour was cheaper than the private option, they did cover all the museums and also did Basilica tour in the allocated time, but would not recommend for families with smaller children. We would have been better off with doing it ourself, had we been able to get entry tickets...