Rome bus/metro and Venice Vaporetto passes

[TSUmom]

Is it possible to buy any of these passes in advance online or do we need to wait until we arrive?  We are just thinking about saving precious time and the convenience of pre-purchasing.

[cruisemom42]

For Venice I believe the common wisdom is that there is no point buying in advance, as you have to exchange the emailed voucher for tickets/passes anyway, and there is no cost saving. Piazzale Roma has a large ticket office with both machines and actual people. It should not take long.

 

For Rome -- what are you planning to do?  If you buy the BIRG pass (train travel to/from Civitavecchia), it includes 24 hours metro and bus usage in Rome.  If you are in Rome pre- or post-cruise, think about how much you will actually use the buses and/or metro. It may be better to just purchase individual tickets as you go. There are ticket machines at every metro location and they are very easy to use. You can also purchase tickets at most kiosks that sell newspapers/magazines and at stores called Tabaccheria (they are like convenience stores, they sell far more than tobacco products).

 

EDITED TO ADD:  Some hotels will sell you individual tickets for buses/metro at the front desk or concierge desk, at a slight mark-up. I am not necessarily recommending this but it can be useful in a pinch. One time I had to be somewhere for a tour at a certain time and I could not find anywhere near my hotel that had tickets to sell, so I eventually gave in and went back to the hotel to purchase a couple of tickets so as not to be late...

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by cruisemom42

[TSUmom]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

For Venice I believe the common wisdom is that there is no point buying in advance, as you have to exchange the emailed voucher for tickets/passes anyway, and there is no cost saving. Piazzale Roma has a large ticket office with both machines and actual people. It should not take long.

 

For Rome -- what are you planning to do?  If you buy the BIRG pass (train travel to/from Civitavecchia), it includes 24 hours metro and bus usage in Rome.  If you are in Rome pre- or post-cruise, think about how much you will actually use the buses and/or metro. It may be better to just purchase individual tickets as you go. There are ticket machines at every metro location and they are very easy to use. You can also purchase tickets at most kiosks that sell newspapers/magazines and at stores called Tabaccheria (they are like convenience stores, they sell far more than tobacco products).

 

Thank you for the information....We are staying 3 days pre-cruise in Rome at the Crowne Plaza which is far from a convenient location.  There is a bus stop right outside the hotel that we can use to get us where we want to go including the metro station.  Since we are staying so far away we figured we would use the public transportation instead of taxis..we are a group of 7 and would need two taxis every time.  We would be using the passes each day.  Our first afternoon ( we arrive at 7:00 am) we plan to start at the Spanish steps and visit piazza's, fountains and the Pantheon area, day two we plan on Ancient Rome and day 3 the Vatican.  Which pass do you think would be best?  We will not be taking the train.  Thank You!

[cruisemom42]

33 minutes ago, TSUmom said:

Thank you for the information....We are staying 3 days pre-cruise in Rome at the Crowne Plaza which is far from a convenient location.  There is a bus stop right outside the hotel that we can use to get us where we want to go including the metro station.  Since we are staying so far away we figured we would use the public transportation instead of taxis..we are a group of 7 and would need two taxis every time.  We would be using the passes each day.  Our first afternoon ( we arrive at 7:00 am) we plan to start at the Spanish steps and visit piazza's, fountains and the Pantheon area, day two we plan on Ancient Rome and day 3 the Vatican.  Which pass do you think would be best?  We will not be taking the train.  Thank You!

 

The link provides some good basic info on tickets versus passes. Basically you just have to determine whether you'll be using the bus/metro enough times per day to justify the cost of a pass. I don't think you can purchase these in advance, but as with Venice, it should not take long to buy them. If you are going direct from the airport to your hotel, you might see if you can purchase your first bus tickets (into town presumably) from the hotel. Once in Rome, you can find somewhere to purchase passes. 

 

https://www.rometoolkit.com/transport/rome_travel_pass.htm

[TSUmom]

Just now, cruisemom42 said:

 

The link provides some good basic info on tickets versus passes. Basically you just have to determine whether you'll be using the bus/metro enough times per day to justify the cost of a pass. I don't think you can purchase these in advance, but as with Venice, it should not take long to buy them. If you are going direct from the airport to your hotel, you might see if you can purchase your first bus tickets (into town presumably) from the hotel. Once in Rome, you can find somewhere to purchase passes. 

 

https://www.rometoolkit.com/transport/rome_travel_pass.htm

Once again thank you and I will check out the link