Enjoy 360° views of the Eternal City from the comfort of a bus.
Spend up to three days hopping around Rome on one of the city’s double-decker sightseeing buses. Below is a complete guide to the five different tour bus companies that operate in Rome, so you can find out exactly which option is the best one for you.
What Is A Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
A Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour (ho-ho for short) is a great way to explore a new destination, especially a city as historical and jam-packed full of attractions such as Rome. Ho-Ho bus tours enable you to get on or off their buses as many times as you please and at any of the stops along their routes for the duration of your ticket – which can last up to 72 hours.
The buses follow a looped circuit with stops at many major tourist attractions. Most of them also provide free wifi on the buses, a complimentary app, multi-language assistants, and audio commentary providing information about the history of the sites and landmarks you’ll see.
Tickets
With five different tour companies to choose from – each offering various ticket options – it can be hard to know which one to pick. To make that choice more manageable, we’ve put together a detailed guide that explains and compares the different tickets so that you can spend more time sightseeing and less time planning.
| Big Bus Tours Rome | Green Line Tours | Gray Line I Love Rome | City Sightseeing Roma | Vatican & Rome | |
| Tickets | |||||
| Daily Ticket | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 24 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 48 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 72 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 5 Hours | ✓ | ||||
| One Run | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| 3 Pass | ✓ | ||||
| Child Ticket | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Family Ticket | ✓ | ✓ |
Big Bus Tours Rome
Big Bus Tours is the largest operator of open-top sightseeing tours and is one of the more popular bus tour operators in Rome. They offer three different ticket options with adult, child (5-15 years of age), and family (2 adults & 2 children) prices for each: the Classic (24 hours), Premium (48 hours), and Deluxe (72 hours). They also provide combo experiences – Classic tickets with entrance to either the Vatican Museums or the Colosseum.
To redeem your ticket, simply show your printed ticket or e-voucher to a staff member aboard the bus. Onboard you’ll be able to enjoy free wifi, and you’ll be provided with complimentary headphones to listen to the informative pre-recorded commentary about the sites of Rome in one of nine different languages.
To make your journey even smoother, don’t forget to download the free mobile app that comes with detailed maps, directions to your nearest Big Bus stop, and real-time tracking of the buses.
Each ticket also comes with four digitally-guided walking tours in a variety of languages that you can download onto your smartphone and enjoy at your own leisure.
The buses operate from 9:00 am to 6:40 pm and run every 13 minutes. The duration of the tour is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Route Info:
The bus has eight stops within reach of around 40 unmissable Roman landmarks and attractions. You can hop on or off at any of these stops for the duration of your ticket. The stops are:
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps
- Piazza Barberini
Green Line Tours
Enjoy panoramic views of Rome from the open-top double-decker Green Line bus. Though quite a similar experience to the Big Bus Tours, Green Line has more flexible ticket options, offering a Daily Ticket (allows you as many rides as you want during one day, morning to evening) and a 3 Pass Ticket (allows you to get on and off at three different stops of your choice over the course of one day) as well as the usual 24, 48, and 72 hours tickets.
They also offer a reduced price for youths (13-20 years of age), with children under 12 going free.
Once you’ve booked your ticket, you can present it aboard the bus in either printed or e-voucher format. Each bus is equipped with free wifi, single-use earphones to listen to the audio guides available in 13 different languages, and a multilingual assistant who can answer your questions.
Included in the ticket is a map of the city of Rome and a free app that you can use to monitor your route and learn more about selected points of interest.
Buses run between 9:00 am to 6:30 pm every 10-30 minutes. A complete loop takes approximately one hour and a half.
Route Info:
There are eight stops included in one loop. All of them are close to major sites and attractions.
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Villa Borghese
- Piazza Barberini
Gray Line I Love Rome
Gray Line buses are hard to miss because of their hot pink color. They offer the standard 24, 48, and 72-hour tickets, but they also have a selection of cheaper, single-day tickets. They have a choice between a Daily ticket (valid for one day of travel selected at the time of booking – discounted in the afternoon); a 5-hour ticket (valid for 5 hours from first use); and a One Run ticket (valid for one entire bus run, no hop-offs – discounted in the afternoon).
Children between 6 and 11 pay a reduced price.
You can enjoy free wifi onboard, a pre-recorded audio guide available in 13 different languages, and a detailed route map. Both printed tickets and e-vouchers are accepted. Walking tours are available from stops 4, 5, and 6. If you’re interested, ask a staff member on board to reserve you a spot.
Buses run between 8:30 am to 6:50 pm every 15-20 minutes. An entire run takes approximately one hour and a half.
Route Info:
Like its competitors, Gray Line also stops at eight major tourist hotspots.
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus & Mouth of Truth
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City & Castel Sant’Angelo
- Spanish Steps
- Piazza Barberini & Trevi Fountain
City Sightseeing Roma
City Sightseeing tours are famous worldwide. Their buses have the most ‘classic’ look: red double-decker, and in Rome, decorated with famous Roman sites. They offer Classic (24 hours), Premium (48 hours), and Deluxe (72 hours) tickets that can be used on both the City Sightseeing and Big Bus Tours buses when purchased on their website.
Children (between 5 and 15) pay a reduced price, and they also have a family ticket (2 adults, 2 kids) option available.
Your ticket gives you access to free wifi onboard the bus and an audioguide available in 8 different languages. Don’t forget to download the nifty app that comes with an interactive map featuring real-time updates about the location of the buses. It also contains a digitally-guided walking tour of the city center in 5 languages.
Buses run from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm every 10-30 minutes. An entire run takes approximately one hour and a half.
Route Info:
There are eight stops included in one loop. All of them are close to major sites and attractions.
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Piazza di Spagna
- Piazza Barberini
Vatican & Rome Open Bus Service
This bus tour operator offers the most unique route out of the five, its focus being on religious sites. It’s run by the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, a branch of the Vicariate of Rome. Their buses are bright yellow, a color representing the Vatican.
They offer five different ticket options: Daily tickets, 24h, 48h, 72h tickets, or a One Round ticket (non-stop panoramic tour, no hop-offs). Children between the ages of 6 to 17 enjoy a reduced price. An app where you can download your tickets is also available.
Each bus is staffed with multilingual assistants, has free wifi, and provides an audioguide available in eight languages. This bus is also unique because stops scheduled along the itinerary will be on request.
The buses operate from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and run every 45 minutes. The duration of the tour is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Route Info:
This tour contains 14 different stops, though some are quite close together.
- Vatican City – Castel Sant’Angelo
- San Giovanni dei Fiorentini
- Santa Agnese in Agone – Piazza Navona
- Torre Argentina
- Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
- Santi Apostoli
- Santa Maria degli Angeli
- Termini Station
- Santa Maria Maggiore
- San Giovanni in Laterano
- Colosseum – San Gregorio al Celio
- Circus Maximus – Santa Sabina all’Aventino
- Teatro Marcello – Santa Maria in Campitelli
- Largo Argentina – Santa Maria ad Martyres
Bus Routes
All the tour operators, with the exception of Vatican and Rome Open Bus Service, offer very similar bus routes. They follow similar circuits of the historic center and stop near or at most of the major tourist hotspots, including the Colosseum, Vatican City, Circus Maximus, and the Spanish Steps/Trevi Fountain.
The Vatican and Rome Open Bus Service also stops at many major sites, but its main focus is on churches and other religious sites. It’s also the only tour operator that goes to San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica, south of the city center. However, it doesn’t stop at either Piazza di Spagna or the Trevi Fountain.
Most of the buses operate from approximately 9 am to around 6:30-7:00 at night, and run every 10-30 minutes. The Vatican & Rome buses have a shorter schedule, running from 10 am to 4 pm every 45 minutes. Each route takes roughly one hour and a half to complete the entire circuit.
The main stops are at Termini station and the Vatican, which is where most of the operators have staff and their offices.
Tour Offerings
| Big Bus Tours Rome | Green Line Tours | Gray Line I Love Rome | City Sightseeing Roma | Vatican & Rome | |
| Tickets | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 |
| Routes | 1 (Red Route) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Stops | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 14 |
| Free WIFI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audio guide | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Languages | English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian | English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Dutch, Arabic, Hindi | English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Dutch, Arabic, Hindi | English, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian | English, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Polish |
| Mobile app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Wheelchair accessible | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Is A Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour Worth it in Rome?
Rome can be a daunting city to visit. With so much to see and do, many visitors to the Eternal City feel like they just didn’t have enough time to see as much as they wanted to. Hop-On Hop-Off bus tours are a great option for first-time visitors who don’t know where to begin or visitors who want to see a lot in a small amount of time.
Rome, however, is also a great city to walk around. For visitors who enjoy taking things slow and getting a feel for the city, tour buses are not the way to go. If you want to have a more authentic and local experience, far from the crowds of tourists, then ho-ho buses may not be the best choice for you.
Hop-on Hop-off buses are a great choice if you want to:
- See a lot of major attractions in a short amount of time.
- Not get lost in the maze that is Rome.
- Make the most of a limited amount of time.
- See the city without dealing with public transport in a foreign language.
- See the city but have mobility issues.
- Enjoy arriving at destinations hassle-free.
- Learn interesting facts and stories about the sites with an audio guide.
Hop-on Hop-off buses are not for you if you want to:
- Avoid crowds of tourists.
- Get to one specific destination quickly.
- See the city early in the morning or later in the evening.
- Immerse yourself in the Italian culture and see the city like a local.
- Walk around.
- See lesser-known attractions and sites.
- Get off the beaten track.