Travel Advice - Sightseeing passes, are they right for you?

If you intend to travel in Europe and plan to visit public museums, art galleries and heritage sites, check to see if you can get a national, city or regional discount pass that covers the major attractions in the area that you intend to visit

There are several advantages to the "tourist pass":

• You avoid standing in line to buy tickets.
  • Do not underestimate the amount of time that you might spend standing in line, as it can be considerable for major attractions such as the Louvre or the Tower of London.
• Buying the sightseeing pass in advance, means that you do not need have to have currency on hand to buy tickets when visiting attractions.
• Some attractions have special entrances for pass holders.

Buying a “tourist” pass usually make sense only if you are going to visit several of the attractions included with the pass.

• It is our opinion that these passes can save you lots of money, but only if you are going to visit several of the attractions whose admission fees are covered by the card.
• Search for the prices of the attractions you will visit on the Internet to determine whether the discount pass is a good value for you.

Some “tourist” passes are available for purchase only if you acquire them before you depart. Other passes are offered for sale in the U.S. at a significant discount but are, also, available at the tourist information offices after arrival for a non-discounted price.

You can find details on these programs using the Internet.

• Use a good search engine and search for “place name + tourism” (e.g. London + tourism).
• In the list of Websites that is returned, search for the official tourist site of the country or city (the one that has an official sounding name like "British Tourist Authority").
• If you cannot find a reference to museum or heritage passes on the sites' home page, click on the “site map” to find the information.

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