Hello, I'm a first time traveler to Europe. My wife and I are visiting London, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome and have a question about site tickets. Should we book our entrance tickets through one of the many tour ticket sites such as Viator and Walks of Italy, or should we just book online at the particular site's webpage? For example, you can book online through Viator and many other sites, and get skip the line entrance tickets to the Tower of London and the Louvre among others, but you can also buy tickets to those locations online at the attractions individual website, which is often cheaper than a tour ticket from a tour company. Is there any difference, such as wait times in line, between the two ways to book tickets? Any recommendations from those with experience?
Posted by
Midwest
467 posts
Always better to go directly to the actual site for tickets. No reason to use a third party.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks S.A.. Was just curious because some of the direct sites don't specifically mention skip the que tickets and, with several cities on our itinerary, time will be of the essence. I appreciate the tip!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32746 posts
You never skip the line up for security. The bag check is as slow as the buy a ticket queue.
No reason to do that at the Tower of London, for example. Get your ticket on line and print it out and show at the entrance and then queue for the security check. Even I, as a Historic Royal Palaces member with a pass, have to queue for security.
Unless, of course, you and your wife want to go for half price. If you use the London 2 for 1 price deal you need to jump through some (fairly harmless) hoops and get your tickets from the window.
If you need help with that just ask.
Posted by
Almost Heaven
2945 posts
Nigel, good advice. We've always purchased advance tickets and then printed them out. Easy peace of mind. We once only kept the tickets on my phone until one fine day a phone glitch surfaced at a most inopportune time, but that's another sad story.