Rome: Vatican Pass Plus Top Attractions And Transport

We were excited to book a hop on hop off bus pass and attractions. We planned to get an overview of Rome by riding the bus our first day. After finding the unmarked office to pick up the pass, we were directed to the closest stop for bus pick up. Long story short, we spent several hours waiting and returning to the office but no bus ever came. It ruined one day of travel. I contacted the company but they refused a refund and were unsympathetic to our problem. I want to warn others, there are many hop on hop off bus services in Rome. Omnia is overpriced and unreliable.

These tickets would be worth it if you are planning a long trip to Rome to visit many museums, but we figured out it would have been way cheaper to just book on your own if you are only there for a few days.

They were very friendly. We were with our son of twelve years old and they helped us very good with picking things to see. Chiara was amazing

Good value for money, but would strongly advice a lot of planning. Just be aware everything is within half hour walk on from the center.

I rarely write any reviews online but I feel the need to do so. My family of four wanted to go to the Colosseum and Vatican Museums. The best is if you can book the tickets online directly from the official websites. The problem is they must restrict how many tickets they release on their website so the tickets get sold out. To be exact, the Colosseum tickets, without the underground or attic, are readily available but it's almost impossible to get the underground or the attic tickets directly from the website. In my case, the Vatican Museum tickets were also sold out on the dates so I found that if I buy the Omnia Card, which comes with Roma Pass, I can get tickets to the Vatican Museum. Once I bought the Omnia Card, I now had more options to choose dates/times for the Vatican Museum. (1) Colosseum --> I arrived at Rome in the evening of 4/23. I had tickets to the Colosseum at 8:30am on 4/24. I waited in line and once it was time to scan the tickets, I was told that I had to physically show the Roma Pass along with the tickets. I explained that the place to pick up the Roma Pass closes at 4pm and opens at 9am so I had no chance to pick up the Roma Pass. I tried showing the e-mail that shows I bought the Roma Pass but to no avail. This also happened to two other couples behind me. So unfortunately, we all had to go to the St John in the Lateran Basilica to pick up the Roma Pass, and back to the Colosseum. When we got to the Colosseum, the agent said we missed our entrance time and had to rebook. Fortunately, another agent remembered us, must have felt bad and let us in (2) Vatican Museum --> Once we bought the Omnia Card and reserved the time for the Vatican Museum, I got an e-mail with four QR codes, one for each member of the family, and with the statement "Below are the reservation confirmations and entrance tickets." They sure sound like entrance tickets to me. However, when I picked up the Omnia Card, I was given a print out which said I should get the official voucher within 24 hours before the entrance time and the entrance tickets with QR codes are meaningless. My entrance time was 4pm. I called at 9am since I haven't received the "official" tickets and ORP said they are busy but I SHOULD get it before 4pm. I finally did up getting the "official tickets" around 11am. The ORP rep also told me that with Omnia Card, I can "skip the line" When asked exactly how this works, she told me to just go straight to the front of the line, show the pass, and they should let you in. This did not happen. I had to wait like everyone else.

Not worth it. Just find the official sites for the places you would like to go to and buy tickets there. Didn’t even use public transportation, the busses are super crowded. Most attractions are within 30 minute walk or take taxi if you can’t walk. HOHO bus doesn’t get you that close to attractions so that want really worth it either.

Buses ran very irregular ( definitely not every 20 minutes)— drivers could be rude. We were late to several attractions that required appointments. Our “museum card” got us into attractions that were already free to the public. Our card did not allow us to skip the line. I feel I paid for services that were not provided.

I should read the comments first not after. My mistake was that my friends didnt buy any passes, they just wanted to look amd if they had the chance they would visit attractions. I thought ı am smarter and bought this ticket for me and my son (14 years old) for 216 euro. At the end except the vatikan museum they visited a lot more places much more cheaper!!!! The worst thing is expecially at vatican, when ı showed my omnia card, the employees laughed about it. Like look how dummy this people are. I contacted a few times the online guidance, and it was always the same: we are soooo sorry etc etc. On their websites it says colosseum is 38 euro and vatican museum is 36 etc; the prices are nothing like that!!!! So dont get it, ı wrote them 2 times and described the situation but nothing. They just want your money and its tree time more expensive than roma pass. Ps: ı cpuld enter the vatican museum but paid for the audio guide. So no they just robbed me, dont let them rob you

There is so much to see and the Omnia pass gives you the best chance of seeing everything in a short time.

It was a nightmare to be able to use the pass, and in some museums was not even able to used it. Reason is cause, you get a voucher first the. You have to changed for the pass then they suppose to send you a bar code to finally be able to get in… well they never explain that at the beginning and they never sent the bar code either. The pass is sale as a vip entrance and it’s not true. You have to be in line like every body else. Took me 1:55 min to get into the Vatican. The other two attractions included in the pass, doesn’t make valid the voucher or bar code send it to me, I ended paying another ticket to be able to get in.

"Skip the lines" It's a big scam, do not waste your money. When we showed up at the booked places 15 minutes earlier as required, they asked us to wait far from the area and come back at the appointment time. When we're back they asked us to line up with the rest of the people, There is no exclusive line for Omnia Card holders. I'm a catholic, but I have to admit Vatican has the worst customer service I've ever seen.

I love taking these buses to get familiar with the city and sites. Unfortunately- there is too too much “silent time” on the audio tour between stops. You need more “little tidbit” facts in between sites to keep people intetested

Total waste of time, energy, money!!! Avoid this pass if u want to be stress-free in Rome. It's very difficult to find the ORP center in St. Peter's Basilica. The vatican museum vouchers doesn't work. The colosseum is really far & only 1 tent available for u claim ur ticket. Not tourist friendly.

You do not really care about leading us step by step in a country when it is unknown to us. First, you book with Viator and you expect following up with Viator because Viator does not tell you that you will hear from someone posted in Italy that the name was not given to you in the first place. You as a purchaser writes a lot of unnecessary emails because the next steps with the right info is not provided to you in the first place. You must remember the purchasers are coming from different countries with different ways of dealing on line.

A total waste on money. Especially buying 4 tickets. Without reservation the pass gets you no where. St. Peter’s was a 3 hour rate and not possible to skip the line. We did manage to get a reservation for Vatican museum and when we finally made it to The Sistine Chapel we were not able to stop as there were too many people in the chapel and were ushered out by Vatican staff, wishing I had read more reviews before purchasing the passes. The last time we were in Rome (2017) no reservations were required. I recommend another way of visiting the attractions (your guide)

The worse experience with the lady on the front page, expensive!!! Worthless Do not buy it!!!! You need to pay for the tickets to print out. They don’t care about tourists The worse!!! I asked for refunds and they denied it

We arrived in Rome and having our hotel near the Vatican we should have been able to collect our passes up until 4pm from the office at Piazza Pio XII. However..No!! It was closed, no explanation and the little booth opposite could not issue our cards so we lost a day because of poor customer service. We did get them the next day with no apology. All in all the pass is expensive and I would recommend plan your visits in advance before even considering buying this poor value experience. Expedia, who I purchased the tickets through, could not get a refund either so I would not recommend them either.

The Omnia pass is not worth the money nor the heart ache. My friend and I purchased the pass with the specific intention of fast tracking into the Vatican and the Colisium. Neither of the sites would honor the reservations. We also tried using the pass for the two included museums and was also turned away with the pass in hand. The Vatican experience is especially heartbreaking as the voucher to go in came in a half hour after the reserved time and it turns out they independently chose to change the time and did not inform us. We returned to the office to request a refund and the attendant referred us to the email. When emailed, the company did not honor the request for a refund. They have an App that appears to be designed to keep reservations and tickets straight with QR codes included, they are meaningless and caused more confusion on our part. For a better experience just get the Roma Pass and go to the Vatican site directly for vouchers, Omnia middle management service is disappointing and a major costly mistake.

Absolute disgrace of a company. AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS. First of all, deciding whether to sign up for this and part with your cash... understand that there is very little saving to be had anyway (unless you go to everything on the list like a mad person). But the main thing is that IT IS REALLY BADLY ORGANISED. No real help from anyone (phone, kiosk or email support - yes they do have it but they are rude and only helpful if things don't start to go wrong). The website to book Coliseum tickets would not work for us so we had to pay for all of that AGAIN separately (or, as they said, just go somewhere else in Rome instead 'there are many other attractions'!!). The app did not work for us (I am no technophobe so it was nothing I was doing wrong). Some of the things promised like the audio guides were not available. The bus guides and the maps were not anywhere near as helpful as they should have been. All very confusing and spoilt our holiday!!! No refunds, no sympathy. They are a terrible organisation in our experience. AVOID AVOID AVOID

My sister-in-law really enjoyed going through Rome on the Hop on Hop off, which made her visit easier as she has some mobility issues. It gave us a good overview of the City.

Don’t waste your money on this, it’s totally useless. They promise a time-slot skip the queue pass to St Peter’s Basilica. But actually you have to join the same line as everyone else, and anyway entrance is free

App and web hard to use otherwise very good. Need to explain the roles of dress code for the vatican when you collect your tickets. I had to go and buy trousers.

We purchased an expensive Omnia card but its useless, first they have a condition to collect their pass from the church office,there is no hoarding or direction mentioned near chruch from where we collect this pass. after they need slot booking for colosseum and another site .which is already booked from next 60days, the church of Vatican city are free of cost enter still they sell there pass with slot time to skip line but there is no any provision to skip there line or slot booking entry for church St Basilica,we book slot for colosseum thorugh Go city (including in Roma pass) also but they deny to enter on that slot booking and tell to purchase new ticket on cost and wait in line for 2-3 hours, when we reach Omnia office to know about slot booking they said we are from vatican city ,we dot have any idea about Rome terms and condtion,if they don't have any idea then why they sell Roma pass along with Omnia card, they people are just making fool to visitor anf charge big amount for this useless Omnia card

Waste of money, terrible communication, misleading information, uncapable staff. We bought 2 cards but couldnt use the hop on bus as she forgot to give us the physical card!!! They told us yo go back and ask them again😳You have the bar code and everything but they still want you to have a physical card. Unbelievable. You have to make your reservation to the Vatican museum with them and they will send you the confirmation via email. Went to the catacombs because the lady said we dont need reservation, of course we been turned away. Vatican pass and Rome pass is a rip off, you need a reservation ticket on top of your ticket you already paid for. Such a disappointment.

Bus lines were very long. The tour was canned without much useful information. Very overpriced. I tried to cancel my weekend when I discovered that the weekend was the first of the month and I was told that I could not even though via tour states one can easily change the dates. I booked this 6 months in advance and found out that the victor agent who helped me book on the phone out-sourced my reservation to “Go City” a local company which books immediately. It was such a waste of money. I would recommend just booking the Vatican/ Sistine Chapel,, Borghese and Colosseum on your own and buying a metro pass. Lastly what you are told on the phone or see on the website regarding tours are lies. The tours are portrayed as all inclusive. Not true. The walking tour in Milan points at interesting sites/ museums, etc that you can choose to pay for and see on your own. In Milan book the last supper without an walking tour. Book La Scalia without any walking tours. Via tour is a scam. I would not even refer them to my worst enemies!

Sadly when we went to book the Colosseum it was fully booked. This meant we had to queue for 2 hours then waited another 2 hours for our slot to get into the colosseum. As we were unable to book in advance we had to pay for the tickets to get in.

We purchased our very EXPENSIVE Omnia card/pass months ago and had registered for entry times and was unaware you had to physically pick up the omnia card. I did not receive any email stating we had to pick it up anywhere but i got confirmation emails of entry times with QR codes come to find out it serves basically no purpose. The only two collections points are hard to find and the customer service is horrible. Had to rebook times and the workers at the collection point are the slowest people on earth had 2 people in front of me wheb I arrived and still took 40 minutes!!! Not worth it. Complete waste. The fast pass is only for a few places really doesnt save much time and the buses do not run late.

We bought the roma and omnia passes, wanted to reserve a timeslot for the colosseum as well as the villa borgese. Both are sold out even we booked the tickets three weeks before our trip. No chance to get in even you paid a lot of money for the pass. A waste of money!!!!! Not worth the price. Don`t buy!!

My partner and I recently purchased X2 omina passes At Rome Termini as per information emailed onto us , we got to the bus stop and we approached staff to ask about getting on and showed him our paperwork , which we got a very unfriendly and rude response. We got on the bus and went to out first stop which was st peter's basilica , from there we had booked an audio from 1.30-3.30 we went to a information office and spoke to staff where they directed me the omnia office in the square. When we went into the office to get more information, re getting access and etc, we were greeted by unhelpful staff who were in no way helpful , we had produced our information again to the staff member to be told that we should have come to this particular office before getting on the bus earlier, we found this very odd and were perplexed because this information was not communicated to us. The whole advertisement of this product is that it makes it easier for people to get around Rome and takes the stress out of it, our experience was the complete opposite and caused stress more than anything else. We had the Vatican booked and for the following day ( Monday 7th August ) @ 1.30pm from where we were told we would receive our tickets that day for the entrance .  At around 12.15pm we still hadn't received the tickets so again we had to make my way to the information office , again met another staff member that was working in the omnia office and she couldn't not help us but would ring a colleague and to come back in 30 mins. We returned at 12.30-12.45 during this timewe received the email re the tickets @ 12:38pm , when we had looked at the email the tickets had the incorrect time saying 12.30 pm ! My booking which was booked 3 months in advance was for 1.30pm, we had paper confirmation of same.   Again when we were perplexed and approached omnia office staff showing the problem , we were told there wasn't anything they could do! This was at the 1pm and was 15-20 min walk to the Vatican , staff told us there wasn't any way to get our time slot changed to the time we had booked. The way the staff member dealt with this was out of all order ! Me and my partner at this stage were so upset with the way we had been treated, given the amount of money we had paid, it was shocking ! I could not get over the way we were treated !  When we got to the Vatican we had to plead with them to let us in due to this error . This was in no way our problem and nor shouldnt have caused this much hassle and distress . From start to finish dealing with the worst service I have ever seen in my days, IT IS A COMPLETE SCAM. It's not what's advertised!

The heat in the city made it almost impossible to take advantage of these passes. Couldn't use the ROMA Pass because of the inconvenience of collecting the pass from the Vatican Ticket offices, which is pretty far from wherever you would want to use Roma Pass at. Omnia Pass was useful for the Vatican Visit, which helped us Skip a huge line, but other than that not all sightseeing are covered under the Hop-On-Hop-off either. So, to put it all together, wouldn't recommend getting this pass.

Complete waste of money. Bought the ticket as believed we would be able to get a fast pass to the Colosseum but once we had the ticket and tried to book the slots were all sold out. Ended up having to buy a ticket to get in. The tickets in Rome are not that expensive!! Also you can only pick them up from one or two places so have to pay for your travel to get to the place. NOT WORTH THE MONEY!

It was easy to pick up my pass at the locaton near the Vatican. The city tour was interesting and the driver gave plenty of opportunities for pictures to people on both sides of the bus. The Roma Pass was useful for subways & buses but if you get it, make sure to know your stop or what it's near as it can get chaotic when the bus stops.

So I am being honest the first day we arrived we booked through get your guide. We had to travel ages to get the card, can’t pick up near centre so we went via bus to a strange town. The lady was lovely at the orp office, however disaster struck the next day and my husband got his wallet stolen on the metro, be aware, we are pretty well travelled, no idea how it happened, but it did. So bus people helped us, the omina card lady helped us, however the lady who works at the tourist board by the Collesuem (you know who you are) was a disgrace. She was unhelpful, rude and really slagged off the omina lady, who had helped us hugely. We even had our police report, she was so “ nothing I can do, tough basically’. Apart from her, the card works well and don’t be put off, but Roma card bosses, you need to review your policies, when people need help in Rome.

This card is in the words of a guide in Rome, a scam. It promises fast track and skip the queue for Vatican Museums and Colosseum, it does nothing of the sort. Both need booked, impossible. On collecting the cards in Rome, the lovely lady who served us manged to get us booked into the Vatican Museum for that afternoon, but meant we literally ran through it to get to the Sistene Chapel due to the short time. That was after we got the card as the place we went to first, no longer stock this card, although no one thought to mention it, even though they had my email for weeks before travelling. We ended up paying locally for Colosseum and ditched the card as it just wasn't worth the effort trying to figure out what it actually got you into. Emailed twice, once about not being able to get the card and secondly about the shambles it turned out to be. The first one was answered with nonsense that had no relation to the point raised and the second has been ignored. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

I would not recommend this card. It seemed great at face value but there were major problems. The card does cover entry into the colosseum, but you need to make a reservation. The reservation opens 1 month in advance and all reservations were totally booked out immediately (I assume by third party resellers). I literally logged on as soon as reservations were open for the day I needed to go and it was sold out. This meant I had to go spend more money through a third party to gain entry. Also, there are only 2 collection points to pick up the card (at the time I purchased there were more). It was way too inconvenient to walk to a collection point just to pick up the passes. So I ended up also purchasing separate Vatican tickets too. I purchased these passes for two and did not use them at all. Highly confusing, and inconvenient.

I got this card 4 days ago. And let me say, it was the worst travel experience of my life and I have been to every continent. It's robbery in daylight. Everything they say on their website and at the collecting station is a simple lie. I will go through it. 1. The travel card doesn't work. I read the reviews after buying the card. So, when I went to collect the card I specifically said make sure it works. When I tried it, it didn't. I went back and they said its not their business and I have to walk 20 min to another building (now you have a 3 day trip; you don't have a minute to waste). 2. St. Peter Basilica is free. But they sell it to you as if you have to pay. You have to wait 40 min in line. You can't have the normal audio guides. You have to go to another place. 3. The Basilica of saint Giovanni is free too. But, they sell it to you as an option. No audio is available. 4. They choose the vatican museum time slot for you. And they tell you they can't change it. I got a 3:30 pm ticket. When I protested, they said the museum closes at 7:00. Don't buy it, its a lie. The museum closes at 6. And they start clearing out at 5:30. You have to walk for 1:30 hour to at least to get to sistin Chapel. You have to walk through dozens of pretty useless rooms. By the time you get there, it's over. 5. The Borgese gallery is booked months ahead. If you haven't bought your ticket 6 months a head, visa borghese is out too. They say you can pay 2 euro to book. It doesn't work. It says you can email, well you can, but no one will reply. 6. Colosseum needs to be booked. They will tell you you can book it at midnight. Its a lie. I stayed up until 3 am. Nothing. It's a scam. I would have sued them if I could.

This company is the worst. The haven’t helped me at all. They are literal scammers. They told me I collected my card when I haven’t. Half of the time they don’t understand English. They don’t have correct information. Absolutely useless

So not worth it. You break even st best and there are still a lot of lines. Most touted attractions are free anyway. Total scam.

Spending money on a taxi to pick up metro passes is begging an upsale. Picking up the passes at two “convenient” locations says it all. Won’t be fooled again.

Terrible experience. Just a waste of money. Please, save your money for something that is worth it. Tickets bought from Omnia to enter Basilica San Pietro with a tour guide. There is NO tour guide and there is no warning or explanation regarding the fact that you cannot enter the church if you do not stay in line (despite buying tickets for a specific time). There were more than 1000 people waiting in line. Waiting time, around 2 hrs prior to entering.

What a waste of money. Once you have purchased the card, you will need to book a slot to visit the attraction. These slots are booked MONTHS in advance and the website to book is very buggy. You cannot even check if there is availability before you buy the card. If there are no slots available, you don't get entry into the attraction. Plus there are no refunds on the card. So now I've had to book separate tours with other providers so that I know I can visit the attractions I want to see. Very, very disappointing. AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!!!!

Too expensive for a very low service. For the majority of museums you have to pay anyway. For Sant Peter Basílica it is NOT a priority pass (written in small letters) For the Vatican Museums it is NOT included the audiGuide Paid 575 euros for 5 people, a huge mistake

This card is a waste of money. I purchased the card and then attempted to use the links on the website to access booking for the attractions. There was limited or no availability, but I had to buy the card before I found that out. So I now had an expensive card but couldn’t really use it. The promise of free public transport is misleading as its so inexpensive anyway and its not really a worth while feature of this card. The promise of being able to jump the queues is cynical; at St Peter’s I was told by a charming, smiling priest in the Omnia office that I had to understand the Vatican and Rome were in two separate states and that while I could go to the front of the queue in the Vatican state I couldn’t in the Italian state. He then told me that the long queue for security was Italian! There was no queue after security. Although they flatly refused to give me a refund - do not be mislead by the cancellation statement on their website - because once you try to book something you have “activated” your card, the staff were lovely and did book us into the Vatican museum. That said, it constituted an expensive visit. My advice would be to give yourself some time in advance of your trip, book the attractions individually and do not waste your money.

Overall 4/5 for Omnia Card but 5/5 for Valentina from the Omnia card main office who was especially very helpful. We called the office before 16:00 and Valentina said I could collect the card by 17:00. We reached the office just before 17:00 as asked and Valentina was kind enough to give us our 3-day card when the other office staff was not willing to help though we reached in time. Receiving this card meant that we could freely travel in Rome without buying extra travel cards.

The Omnia pass was a great experience to have and really helped you see a lot of the city through this one card. We were able to book all of the things we wanted to book - just wish we would have had more days! There’s a few downsides to this. It was hard to figure out the location to pick up the card. We finally found it after wondering around some. Some of the reservations we had to do before hand didn’t seem to work or we were not told we had to have reservations so we missed out on a few things that I was bummed about. The hop on-hop off bus was great! However, we were told one thing about when it starts. Showed up at that time and it wasn’t for another hour or so. We ended up walking due to this but once the bus was operating, it was fantastic!

Prebooked the Ominous Roma Pass before leaving. Thought it would be easier that way but the first Ticket Office turned out to be closed down and there were now only 2 so had to alter to St Peter’s at that Vatican City to collect the passes. The passes were good, but I think I would probably just by a city bus pass on arrival to Rome as we ended up walking everywhere and the majority of the sites are free to visit. The Museum at the Vatican and the Coloseum are extremely busy and so was difficult to see everything. The visit into the Vatican was worthwhile. The restaurants and cafes off the main streets are worth visiting especially the Aurora Restaurant in Ludivisi. Food excellent. Also went to see the Roma v Juventus match at the Stadio Olympico. Atmosphere electric especially if you are into football and was good as Roma won 1-0 so the local fans were in good form. Hope to visit Rome again one day.

We got our money’s worth, but had a few issues with being unable to get tech to work meaning long delays getting fantastic staff to sort things out for us. Could do with more signage and printed information/guides.

Such an epic waste of money. We ended up waiting in lines anyway. Very inflexible—you have to do everything in allotted time, which is inconvenient and impossible, especially since you have to make reservations. We ended up paying for Villa Borghese, despite paying for this stupid ticket, because reservations are only, apparently, required for Omnia/Roma pass holders. It was nice to have a public transport pass included, but it was pointless since public transort is already cheap, easily accessible, and line-free. And, here is the clincher—literally 90% of what you will want to see is free. The rest is a lot more inexpensive than this card, which is the biggest scam since the Catholic Church, and religion in general. Don’t give these people your money. Not a bargain.

The experience was very disappointing - the agency / agent (female) at the redemption office was rude and did not explain how the cards worked. I was not able to use the features. Lost a lot time looking for the attachment letter with QR Code. I’m requesting to please refund my money!