Hop on/hop off bus in Rome??
 

I've heard several threads about using a bus to hop on and hop off for 24hrs. We do that in NY (even though I'm from there)..it's the best kept secret of NY!
Where can we book this for Rome? I'd love my husband and I to do it the 2nd day we're in Rome to get a view of where everything is. And does anyone know the price??

Thanks in advance,

Samantha

Hi Sammygrll, we did that one time, I think we got the information from the hotel we were staying at. Hopefully someone else can give you better information. Personally I thought it was a waste of time but that is just my thinking. Do enjoy vibrant and exciting Rome and try to walk as much as possible. IMHO that is the best way to enjoy Rome.

Thanks for the opinion..but I was thinking of doing that so we know where everything is, and then if we see something..hop off it.
We will be doing a lot of walking as well. I am trying to finalize the list of things I have and hopefully post it on here so someone can critique it if possible.

Sammygirl, Seems like it is the 110 or the 101 bus that leaves from the Termini Train Station. It circles around the various sights with stops where you can do your hopping. It has earbuds that you can listen to a narration. I'm pretty sure you can catch it at the major sights also.

About this bus: very useful as transportation from one site to another, but really pretty useless as far as tourist information is concerned. As long as you don't have the expectation that this is going to be an "informed tour." Use it for what it really is--cheap transportation from one tour site to another. Read up before you go, and do the self-guided tours in your guide books. This double-decker tour is a convenient way to get around the city, get a feel for the layout of things, but not really for anything else. It is simply a cheap and practical way to get around town. The educational part you have to do yourself, or hire a tour guide when you get there.

Yes, there are 3 wonderful hop on /hop off buses in Rome. The red one, which makes the traditional sightseeing stops, the yellow "Cristiana" bus-my favorite, because you not only get narrative on the important churches it stops at, but it also gives you information on the nearby sites, so you get two for one-I made two round trips on this bus, it was such a gorgeous day, and you could see some amazing sites sitting up top, things you would not see in a car or even, on a regular bus-the double decker in Rome is the way to go. The other bus is the "Archeobus" that goes to the various catacombs and Appian Way-fascinating and an excellent deal. Here is the Rome tourism site which tells all about the 3 hop on hop off buses, their fares and conditions:

http://www.romaturismo.it/v2/romatia...rtematici.html

I am a very big fan of these buses for Rome, for just 13 Euro for a 24 hour period, it's one of the best tourism deals in the city.

We took the 110 Open Top for a day. If you have enough time you can first make the complete tour (2 hours), then during the second tour you can get off and off where ever you want. You get free earphones with a bit of information on the sites while you pass in various languages.
It was well worth the money!

There are 11 points where you can take the 110 Open Top. Either the tourist office of your hotel can provide you with a free map on which the stops are marked.

I'm sorry for yet another posting but I forgot to mention the price ...
We paid 13 euro pp this March. We bought our tickets on the bus.
The 110 are the red colored buses. There are also yellow and blue ones, I don't know that they cost.

I would second the recommendation for the archeobus which takes you to a few locations in the central city then heads down the Appian Way and to the aqueducts. I would not know how to replicate the route without a car, especially getting to the aqueducts.

The archeobus was convenient and had a reasonable amount of background information on what you were seeing going by. You would certainly want to supplement with a guide book for the major stops. (The sound didn't work for some of the seats, though.)

The archeobus also gives you a discount on the major catacomb tour tickets.
One thing we did which I would not do again is buy a ticket to go into the tomb of Celia Metella. It was expensive for not much to see inside. It did include entrance to the Baths of Caracalla which we had already seen the day before. If you wanted to do both it is probably worthwhile to get the ticket at the tomb. I thought the baths were interesting and impressive but wouldn't do this over other sights if you only have a few days in Rome.

We did not take the 110 open tram but used regular public buses and walking to get around. I think the 110 would give a good overview of the major sights as others have suggested.
If you do want to use the bus system be sure to get a good map as routes are rather confusing. Public bus tickets are good for multiple rides within a 75 minute time frame so with planning you can use them for a few on/off stops, too. For example we used them to see the pyramid of Caius Cestius and the Porta San Paolo in the city walls on a roundabout route from Trastevere to the entrance to the Palatine on Via San Gregorio.

I believe the price for either open tram is 13 euros per person. We paid 8 euros in early April. There are also options for something the tourist office calls "integrated tickets" that are good for more than one day or combine payment for the trams with museum tickets and something called the RomaPass (I am reading here from my map of the routes--we didn't use these. Maybe the web site would explain)

bookmarking

bookmarking

Cheap? A 3-day ticket for public transport costs less. Use the normal buses. There are far more routes that take you everywhere.

Oh no no no. You'll be transferring, trying to figure out which bus to take, to get to a couple of the sites, then going and trying to find another bus, and which route is it taking and long. No, I don't think so. Bus 64 has pickpocketing problems, (like many other bus lines in Rome) NONE of the public buses are set up so efficiently to take you to all the marvelous sites, over and over again if you want, in a 24 hour period, an open double-decker where you get a fabulous bird's eye view of ancient fountains, doors, sites that are not marked, which you would NEVER see in a regular bus because it would be too crowded or not going that route, or only one level. There's nothing quite like the 3 hop/on/off buses of Rome-no other hop on/off buses I can think of anywhere in Europe offer such value and SO MANY sites that these buses do-numerosity counts here. Check out the link I provided above to the Rome tourism site to see ALL the places these buses go to-with narrative if you want, and without.

The public bus system of Rome simply cannot compare in this context.