Rome bus tour: the hop-on hop-off ticket and what replaces it

The listing is short. An open-top bus with views of the Vatican, the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia; a choice between a half-day ticket and a 24-, 48- or 72-hour hop-on hop-off ticket; an optional audio guide. The price on the card is $22 and the duration is given as three hours to three days, which is why the cost-per-hour column in the table below is left blank for it.

The numbers are the thing to read. With 13,162 reviews it is the most reviewed of the 22 city sightseeing tours on this site, and the cheapest of them. Its rating of 4.1 is the lowest of those 22; the next lowest, the guided bike tour, is 4.4. A Rome bus tour is bought for the price and the validity, not for the rating.

What the ticket is not: it does not take you inside anything. Entry to the Colosseum or the Vatican Museums is a separate purchase, compared on the Colosseum page and the Vatican page.

The second bus is a hop-on hop-off tour of the Castelli Romani, the hill towns south of the city, at $173. The listing names Grottaferrata, Marino and Castel Gandolfo among the stops, with live commentary on board, and you set your own pace between towns. It runs ten and a half hours.

It is rated 4.9, but on 33 reviews, so read that as a small sample next to the 13,162 behind the city bus. If a day outside the city is the plan, the other coaches and trains, to Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Tivoli and Tuscany, are compared on the day trips page.

If the 4.1 is the problem, three listings on this site cover the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the squares with a guide, at prices close to the bus. The gelato golf cart, $44, is two to two and a half hours with a tasting stop, rated 4.8 on 2,857 reviews. The highlights golf cart, $66, adds Piazza Navona and Piazza del Popolo, two to three hours, 4.8 on 1,224. All eight carts are on the golf cart page.

The Fiat 500 tour at $46 is a vintage or convertible Fiat 500 ride past the landmarks with a professional photoshoot, 100 minutes to two and a half hours, 4.9 on 2,098 reviews, with pickup listed. It sits with the Vespa rides on the Vespa and cars page.

None of the three lets you get on and off all day. That is the one thing the bus does that they do not.

At $22 for up to three days of use, the hop-on hop-off ticket is the cheapest way on this site to be driven past the Vatican, the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, and 13,162 people have reviewed it. Against that stands the 4.1. The gelato golf cart is rated 4.8 on 2,857 reviews at $44; the Fiat 500 is 4.9 on 2,098 at $46. Both cost about twice as much and both come with a guide.

The bus earns its place when the validity is the point: a pass you ride for two or three days, getting off where you like, with an audio guide if you add it. For one afternoon of sightseeing with someone talking to you, the carts are rated higher by the people who took them.

If you would rather be on foot, the walks start at $33 and the bike rides at $35, both with a guide.