The short answer is that sometimes city passes work and sometimes they don’t!
To decide if they work for you, you need to calculate if the cost of the pass is more or less than the amount you would spend on attractions and anything else covered by the pass. Be realistic in calculating what you will manage to fit into one day. Other things to take into account include whether you have to pick up the pass physically at your destination, and how much time that will take. Also whether the pass will be available to buy on the spot or if you should purchase your city pass online. Consider that public transport is usually cheap and so passes that include transport also need to be carefully calculated to see if you’ll be using public transport enough to justify the cost of the city pass.
1. 24 Hours or Midnight to Midnight
Some City Passes (including Dublin and London) count one day from midnight to midnight. So if you arrive in town in the evening and want to use the included transportation from the airport that will count as your first day. Decide whether you want a City Pass according to when you plan to first activate it.
2. Do City Passes Work for Transport?
If the City Pass does not include free use of public transport it is often not worth it. Consider how much public transport actually costs. Free public transport might sound great but if public transport is dirt cheap then it is not relevant. Another tricky point to do with City Passes and free public transport is the zoning issue. City transportation is usually divided into zones. You might be thrilled to have your City Pass with its free public transport only to find that the site you dreamed of visiting is in a zone that is not covered by the Pass. If you are in a very walk-able city free transport is also not relevant. However, airport transport is always an expensive part of travel so if that is included it might be worth it.
3. How Much Can You See
Really, be honest, how many bloody museums are you going to visit? Actually, sit down and work it out to see if the Pass is more expensive than the entrance fees. Some tricky City Pass sites include lists of attractions as “included” when they are actually free anyway!!
4. Pick-Up
It has happened to me more than once that I have purchased a City Pass online and then had to rearrange my whole day to be at the pick-up point when it is open. Take a look at a map. Where is the pick-up point? How will you get there? And when is it open? When deciding “do city passes work” you have to consider what it will take to actually pick the card up! But then again these days you might be able to simply order online and use a digital version of the pass.
