Are the skip - the - line passes for the big sights worth purchasing in advanced?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23642 posts
You can skip the line for buying tickets. You cannot skip the line for security. So it just is not a walk up and walk in ticket.
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
Skip the line tickets can save you hours at both the Vatican museums and the colosseum. You will still go through the security check point, which at the colosseum could take a while, but you'll skip the regular ticket lines.
Donna
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11798 posts
If you want easy access to the Colosseum, you will need to take a guided tour as the tours get through security in half the time the "skip-the-line" line does. The security line there has been terrible this spring.
At the Vatican, a pre-purchased timed-entry ticket will save you buckets of time.
The Galleria Borghese operates only on reserved time slots.
Any other sites you have in mind?
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
Laurel, that's not necessarily true. Just last week the line for prepurchased tickets was only 10 minutes long to go through security. The week before that is was the same. Yes, there are times when it can be longer but on average it's not very long. People don't need to book a tour just to get inside more quickly. If they don't have a tour planned and they arrive to a long line they can visit the forum/palatine hill and wait for the line to go down. I've seen this numerous times where the lines was very long and then just an hour later there was no line at all. It's just hit or miss.
Donna
Posted by
San Francisco, CA
47 posts
We used Rick Steves' tip for Coliseum and Roman forum- we went to the much shorter line to buy tickets to Roman Forum, (they are valid for Coliseum too, even next day) so we spent one day at Roman Forum, then we went to Coliseum without any problem and lines ( July 2011 and 2015)
For Vatican we are always buying tickets online from Vatican site - biglietteriamusei.vatican.va -online tickets office from US, and just go straight to the entrance, and exchange your online printed reservation to a real tickets. Pantheon is free, and usually -there is no lines at all.
Also I will recommend www.viator.com- we booked tickets to gallery Ufizzi in Florence and to Academia, and many other trips in Venice, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona... it was very helpful.
hope it will works for you.
Have a great trip!
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16616 posts
Just to be clear, there's a difference between tickets and passes.
Passes usually cover multiple attractions plus some public transit. These do not need to be purchased in advance, and you need to do the math to see if they'll be cost effective for you or not.
Tickets are usually for single attractions and should be purchased in advance for the Vatican Museum, the Borghese (advance reservations are mandatory for that one regardless of ticket or pass) and possibly the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine (one ticket covers all). Or take your chances with buying those at the Palatine when you get there.
http://www.coopculture.it/en/the-colosseum.cfm
http://www.galleriaborghese.it/eng/museums.html
And as Donna noted, either option allow skipping ticket lines but not security check queues.
The OP hasn't asked about Florence but personally I'd recommend using the official ticketing site - b-ticket - for the Uffizi and Accademia.