April 9, 2008
Combination passes / Museum Passes
Today I’d like to talk about these combo passes that you see in nearly every major city in Europe. I realize this topic has been covered many times over and the majority of people just don’t want to waste their time figuring out which pass is best. Still, I’d like to throw in my two cents worth.
I travel as often as I can as cheap as I can, because I was raised to be frugal, if not super frugal. This makes me sit down and actually go through each pass to see if I can save even a couple of bucks at any given point in my journey.
I am a constant planner and like to thoroughly go through several guide books and websites making sure that I know of every possible sight there is to see at my destination. I plan for weeks, if not months, knowing that when I get there one third of that plan is going out the window. The important thing to me is that I see everything I wanted to, because in the grand scheme of things I really don’t know if I’ll be back and my list of things to see elsewhere is constantly growing.
So, if you’re like me you can get your money’s worth out of nearly any of these combination passes, although it is increasingly difficult to do so with some of them. The major difference is who is selling the passes. Many cities (such as Rome archeology card, Paris museum pass, and Berlin SchauLUST pass) offer a pass sold at museums owned by the state that can save you a substantial sum if you are going to several museums. Alternatively, there are the types of passes offered by private companies or in combination with the local transit system which in most places are private companies. These transportation-inclusive passes or private passes usually offer very small discounts making it quite difficult to get your money’s worth. Examples of these are the city tour card in Berlin and Munich.
You can save money using all of the passes listed above, though it does take planning.
However, if you really can’t be bothered with going through each of the places you plan on visiting and figuring out if it’s worth it, I suggest sticking to the ones sold by the state owned museums and staying away from the ones that include transportation. As for transportation, I would stick with buying what the locals do, weekly tickets.
-Mike Richardson, The Professional Tourist
Posted by James Trotta at April 9, 2008 3:27 PM | TrackBack