FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1) Choose your tour

2) Check date and availability

3) Pay with Credit Card – 100% SAFE!

All the transaction are shifted to a safe external bank services provider (as PayPal).

Once in Rome’s “LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE” protects you two ways:

• First, if you find lower price for the same tour before taking your tour, send us the details and we’ll refund the price difference. No gimmicks, no exceptions.
• Second, we also protect you against arriving at a destination and finding the same tour or activity offered at a lower price from our operator. If you do happen to find a lower price direct from our operator, simply send us the details and we’ll refund the price difference.

Remember to make a copy, print out or screen shot of the lower rate, in case the Once in Rome customer service representative has questions. Other things you should know about our low-price guarantee, and how to claim your refund: To submit a refund request, send an email to info@onceinrome.com with your name, Once in Rome Booking Number or Itinerary Reference Number and your home address, plus proof (receipt, price list, flyer, web address or web screen shot, etc.) of the lower price, within 72 hours you will receive refund.

No. When you book online your browser will generate a confirmation voucher, which you should print, sign and bring to the meeting point of your tour. Our server will also send you a copy of your confirmation voucher by email. This print-out is all you require to take our tour.

You absolutely do not have to wait in the general public line. We have a special entrance agreement with the Vatican Museums which allows us to enter the Museums through the pre-booked No Wait Access entrance. We then guide you through the security checkpoint before entering the Museums.

With a private tour you have a private tour guide just for your group, who can cater more personally and directly to the interests of your party. You are free to move at your own pace and there is much more flexibility with the itinerary and timing of a private tour. Group tours include no more than 20 people per guide.

We offer tours in Spanish, German, French and Portuguese. To see these tours, just click on the relevant flag on the top right-hand corner of this page. Tours in other languages can also be provided on request as private tours, just contact us and ask.

Yes.

Absolutely! Infants under the age of 6 years (4 years for the Papal Audience) join our group and private Vatican tours for free. Children under the age of 18 years receive a discount on all tours as noted on individual tour pages.

We communicate an exact meeting point for each tour at the time of booking. As you might expect, meeting points can often change to accommodate local access or other logistic considerations. However the meeting point for all our tours in Barcelona are centrally located and easy to access by public or private transport — you should be able to reach the meeting point, from the port, in about 1 hour.

The best type of visit depends on the visitor. To visit the Vatican’s incredible artwork, it’s not necessary to take a tour; you will be just as impressed if you go by yourself. Take advantage of the efficient reservation system on the Vatican Museums’ website—especially during high season, when the lines can be very long. Make a reservation for simple entrance tickets ahead of time to enter directly.

Tours are the best option if you’re interested in learning about the history and artwork inside; you have to [allot] three to four hours to tour the highlights of the Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.

Group tours can be more convenient and can usually be booked at the last moment—they follow a fixed program and time schedule. On an individual tour, the professional tour guide can give you more attention and can take you to important sections of the Museums that are usually not included in the standard itineraries (like the Pinacoteca Vaticana art gallery). For this type of tour, it’s possible to choose different times of the day. Another advantage of the tour arrangements—both group and individual—is the guides are authorized to take visitors directly from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica, while individual visitors cannot. An exclusive private visit is for sure a unique experience. The guests for whom I’ve arranged this type of visit experienced great emotion inside the Sistine Chapel, just being surrounded by all the world-famous paintings and the very unusual silence and emptiness. Of course, it’s necessary to plan this type of visit ahead of time, as very few are authorized by the Vatican Museums—sometimes months ahead is not even enough time.

Throughout most of the Museums and in St. Peter’s Basilica, you are allowed to take photos. However, photography is strictly prohibited inside the Sistine Chapel.

The Vatican has a very strict, but very simple dress code: no shoulders, stomachs, or knees may be showing. Footwear of any kind, jeans, and capris are ok. It is also not possible to wear hats within the Basilica.

You absolutely do not have to wait in the general public line. We have a special entrance agreement with the Vatican Museums which allows us to enter the Museums through the pre-booked No Wait Access entrance. We then guide you through the security checkpoint before entering the Museums.

The Vatican Museums allow guests to carry bags once they are smaller than 40cm length x 35cm width x 15cm depth. Anything bigger than this, plus any umbrellas or camera tripods, must be checked into storage at the beginning of the tour. The tour ends on the other side of the Vatican Museums, a significant walk away from the bag collection point. Guests who are forced to check bags must therefore leave the tour early to collect them or complete a 15 – 20 minute walk back to the entrance after their tour. Those doing the afternoon tour may not be able to retrieve their belongings until the following day. As a result, we recommend that visitors travel light and leave any unnecessary belongings at home.

The price is all-inclusive: limited group of 20 people maximum, Skip the Line entrance, entrance ticket, guide and tour. Our tours are very classic and comprehensive. They last for three hours and cover many wings of the Museums including, but not limited to, ancient GreekRoman sculpture, the Hall of Maps, the Gallery of the Candelabra and the Hall of Tapestries. For many the two highlights of our tours are the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms. From the Sistine Chapel, groups exit the Museums and end the tour at St. Peter’s Basilica in St. Peter’s Square.

The tours meet at a location very close and convenient to the entrance of the Vatican Museums. Full details of the exact location are included on the confirmation voucher you will receive when you book your tour.

Our Vatican Group Tours only depart at 9.00 AM, 10.00 AM and 2.30 PM strictly. If you would like a tour at any other time during Vatican Museum opening hours, our staff may be able to arrange it for you as a Private tour, subject to availability. Please note that for tours requested outside of our regular service hours an additional fee will be applied.

While the itineraries for both tours are the same, our afternoon Vatican tours do not include a guided tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. In the afternoon tour guides are not allowed to provide commentary within the Basilica. Instead, your guide will lead you to the Basilica, skipping the general access lines, and provide a full description and commentary from the entrance. They will then leave you to enjoy St. Peter’s Basilica in your own time. Another thing to consider when booking an afternoon Vatican tour, is that St. Peter’s Basilica closes shortly after the tour ends. If you are planning to climb the dome of St. Peter’s, visit the Papal Tombs, or spend more time inside the Basilica after your tour you will not be able to do these things. City Wonders suggests the morning tour if you are interested in staying at St. Peter’s after your tour.

Absolutely. Our tours end at the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica which is a very convenient location to leave for lunch, to visit the Vatican bookstore, visit the Vatican post office, re-enter St. Peter’s Basilica (without having to wait in line again), continue to the grottos below St. Peter’s, or climb to the dome. Your tour guide will be happy to point you in the right direction.