Is it worth prebooking tickets to the Vatican?

In my opinion - yes, yes, and yes!

I debated doing this.  Just by chance, we happened to be in Rome during the last Sunday of the month which is a free day for the Vatican.  I love to save money and initially thought "what a great idea".  Upon reading into it more, I decided the crowds and waiting just might not be worth the small savings.  If you're really, really going on a tight budget and are young and/or have good stamina, the free day might be worth it.

I am middle aged (kind of pains me to say that) and my travel companion was my mother, so fighting the crowds during the one free day a month didn't feel like a wise idea.  So free day was out, and now I had to make a decision - to stand in line and pay for tickets on a regular admission day and leave our schedule in Rome more open, or pre-book tickets.  I went into planning our trip thinking I didn't want to pre-book too many activities because, after all, it is vacation and I don't want to be under a set schedule.  Also, there is an additional fee for pre-booking tickets through the website and that goes against my other travel philosophy of saving money where I can.

In the end, after reading many articles about lines I went ahead and pre-booked our tickets.  I also decided to book the guided tour since I knew our stamina would run out as it is such a large place and I wanted to be sure to hit the highlights.

The tickets were purchased directly through the Vatican website.  There are multiple guided tours with other companies that I will discuss in a moment.  I chose this option because it was the least expensive and felt official.  The website has many options, but it is pretty straightforward to book your choice.

For a guided tour, including earphone charge, reservation fee, guide and full ticket price was 74 euros for two people.  This is about the price of one guided tour with other companies. 

A small sample of the crowds, most places were so crowded I didn't even get out my camera and just enjoyed the moment.

Our tickets were for a Thursday at 9:30 am.  I thought that was early enough, but I thought wrong.  It was extremely crowded.  Was I happy I pre-booked tickets?  I cannot tell you how trilled I was.  The lines at Disneyland on the most crowded summer day for the most popular attraction do not rival the line going around the Vatican with people waiting to purchase their tickets.   We were escorted to the right side of the rope since we had tickets and walked past everyone.  (That pre-booking fee of 4 euros per person seems very worth it at that moment).  We had a short delay going in with the masses (no pun intended) through security, but nothing as long as airport security and since we had a guided tour, we went to the left, up a short staircase and presented our tickets and waited with about a hundred people (more then one group) while hoards of people filtered through the downstairs area. 

Now, was the guided tour worth it?  I think so because I wanted to catch the highlights.  It would be great to think I had a whole day there to wander, in the middle of January when the crowds were slimmer and really see things, but we wanted the better weather (and could not have gotten any better weather) so we went at the end of April to beginning of May, so you're going to have to deal with the crowds. 

I'm sure each Vatican guide could be rated individually with some better than others.  Ours did not hold her microphone the proper way so there was issues with her voice cutting out sometimes.  Additionally, she had a bit of an accent, though spoke perfect English.  I had no problems with this, but my mother had trouble understanding her sometimes.  Our only other critique of our guide was she was short, and did not carry a flag like many of the other guides we saw.  She held up her water bottle for us to find her.  Really?  The crowds there were the most intense I had ever seen.  A few people got from our group got lost and it is easy to see why. 

Additional tour companies offer the same guide for about 71 US dollars per person, so about twice the price.  In hindsight, I'd say it was a decent way to get the tour without the additional fees, but if I were to do it again I would try another (perhaps my favorite - City Wonders) tour as I found the tour guides to be more informative, entertaining, and with accents that my mom doesn't have to decipher. 

Either way, pre-booking is a necessity in my opinion.  I don't want to spend my vacation standing in a line for hours.  I wish I had taken a photo of the lines, but unless I had a drone you cannot get a sense of the length of them.  There was also a very long wait to get in St. Peter's Basilica, which we bypassed since we were on a guided tour, saving even more time. 

Don't let these photos fool you, while outside areas may seem rather spacious, inside you will be packed in very tightly.

If the Vatican is on your must see list while in Rome (and if it isn't, you should rethink that list of yours) I would recommend pre-booking your tickets.  There are many options of tours, some are even semi-private or done in off hours to avoid the crowds, but of course these come at a higher cost.