1) WHY SHOULD YOU
BOOK TICKETS ONLINE?

It has always been a good idea to buy tickets in advance. What’s not to like about booking a time slot and getting fast-track entry? At some places, you have to queue up twice – once for security and again for the ticket office. But online ticket holders can skip at least one of those lines.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world in so many ways, and now it makes more sense than ever to buy your tickets online. Some places like the Colosseum or Sagrada Família have actually stopped selling tickets on the door. And the queues for attractions that do have an open ticket office are so much longer than they used to be. That is thanks to capacity restrictions because of Covid-19 (only 80 people are being allowed into the Galleria Borghese at a time instead of the usual 300).

You’ll often find that tickets are more expensive when you buy them on the door (EUR 4 more in the case of Casa Batlló). It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes it’ll cost you more to book online (I’m thinking of the Sagrada Família). You’ll often find that other benefits are on offer in exchange for that higher price tag, though. Many people are happy to pay a bit extra if they can buy their tickets from a seller that speaks the same language as them, so they can book in confidence and have access to all the information they need. Speaking of language barriers, watch out for some of the official websites. Rome is notoriously bad for only having information available online in Italian. If a website is going to be translated, though, English is usually the top choice.

You may be lucky enough to find some excellent combination tickets online that you wouldn’t even know about if you didn’t do your research. More on that when we get to Tiqets Tourist Cards!

On the whole, it is worth booking tickets online to save time, money and stress. Plus, who wouldn’t want to feel like a celebrity as they sashay past all those unlucky people stuck in the queue? (The Wiener Riesenrad is a good place to try this!)

3) WHAT ARE
SAVINGS PASSES?

No matter which city you visit, you’re bound to be able to get your hands on at least one savings pass. Sometimes they’re worth buying and sometimes they’re really not. For each pass we look at, we’ve put together a summary with a breakdown example. And we’ve even tried out some of the passes ourselves.

The good news is that you can visit lots of attractions for free if you have a pass. But it all comes down to the timings. How many sights are you realistically going to be able to fit in within the allocated window of 24, 48 or more hours. You can usually assume that you’ll be getting better value for money with every additional place you visit.

The passes are:

Amsterdam:
I Amsterdam Card

Barcelona:
Articket
Barcelona Card

Paris:
Paris Museums Pass
Paris Pass Libr
Paris City Pass

Rome:
Roma Pass
Vatican Pass
Omnia Card

Vienna:
Vienna Pass
Vienna Flexi Pass

The Museos website is here to help you with information on buying passes, lists of participating museums, and our thoughts on the pros and cons.

5) WHAT OTHER
OPTIONs DO I HAVE?

a) Hop-on, hop-off buses

We can’t talk about ticket deals without mentioning hop-on, hop-off buses.

But that doesn’t mean we’d recommend them in every city. Barcelona, Paris and Vienna, sure. But Rome? Not so much! We still need to give them a go ourselves in Amsterdam, so we can’t confidently say either way just yet.

If you do decide to hop on and off a bus or two in Barcelona, Paris or Vienna, you’ll get a few extra benefits with your ticket like discounts on other attractions or a free guided tour of the city.

b) Combination tickets

Tiqets is the place to go if you’re looking for combination tickets. They have so many to choose from and the list keeps growing. Whether you’re looking for a ticket for multiple museums, family activities or a hop-on, hop-off bus combined with an attraction, there’s something for everyone! Check out the options on our summary pages.

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Paris
Rome
Vienna