The Tourist's "Fast Pass"
- Madison "Sonni" Hendrickson
- Jul 4, 2018
- 2 min read
PRICE: €€ VALUE: €
Venice is really on top of offering travel packages to tourists that are seemingly a great deal. It's like the Disneyland of European countries. The "Official Tourist City Pass of Venice" was advertised at every bus station below all the fares.
With a red background and a big yellow circle advertising you could save 30%, it really seems like a great deal.
I paid €21.90 for the junior San Marco package. This package advertised that you would skip the lines, and have free entry into Doge's Palace, 4 museums, and 3 churches seemingly of your choice. It seemed like a no-brainer to buy this package.
It wasn't until after I had bought my ticket that I realized there was fine print. You could visit Doge's Palace and 3 other museums but only in St. Mark's Square. You could only visit 3 churches from within the "Chorus Circuit," and those churches weren't listed anywhere intuitive. I was able to finally find the list on my physical ticket. This package did give you discounts on other museums, shows, shops, bars and restaurants but those specific places were again not listed anywhere.
Was it worth it?
No.
I visited Doge's Palace, the Correr's Museum, and the National Archeology museum with this ticket. After some research on comparing prices of tickets to Doge's museum I could have paid less than I did.
A standard ticket to Doge's Museum was €20, but because I am a student I would have paid €13. The ticket included entrance into Doge's Palace, the Correr Museum, the National Archaeology Museum, and the "Monumental Rooms" of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. This ticket would have gotten me into all the places I visited already, and the two churches I did visit – St. Mark's Basilica and the Abbey of St. George – had free entry.
If you wanted to visit more churches in the Chorus Circuit this package might be a better deal, but after seeing Doge's Palace, the two museums, and St. Marks Basilica I was exhausted. For me, it would have been a much better deal to buy a ticket to Doge's Palace.