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.
Quick Breakdown: Which Bus is Best for You?
🔴 Big Bus Tours Choose this if you hate waiting and want the best experience overall. They have the most frequent buses (about every 13 minutes), a great bus-tracking mobile app, plus free digital walking tours.
🩷 Gray Line (the pink buses) This is for budget travelers or those who need a very short trip. They are the only ones with cheap 4-hour tickets. Keep in mind, they don’t have a bus-tracking app.
💚 Green Line Tours The most flexible ticket types and most languages on the audio guide. They offer “Daily” ticket, which is perfect (and often cheaper) for a full day of sightseeing, compared to 24-hour one.
🟥 City Sightseeing (the classic red buses) A well-known global brand with a great bus-tracking app. Their route is very similar to Big Bus, but you should expect longer wait time (about every 20-25 minutes).
💛 Vatican & Rome (the yellow buses) Pick this for its unique route. It’s the only bus that goes to major churches like the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Be aware: the buses run less often, so you will wait longer (about every 45 minutes) at stops.
What Is A Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
kataklinger/DepositphotosA 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 & Prices
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.
Compare Rome Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tours
| Tickets | Big Bus Tours | Green Line Tours | Gray Line I Love Rome | City Sightseeing Roma | Vatican & Rome |
| 4 Hours | ✓ | ||||
| Daily Ticket (9 Hours) | ✓ | ||||
| 24 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 48 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 72 Hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| One Loop | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Child Ticket | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Choose Your Experience
Operating Hours
- Daily: 9:00 – 19:00
- Wait time: Every 13 minutes
- Full loop duration: About 1 hour 40 minutes
Route
8 stops:
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Trevi Fountain / Spanish Steps
- Piazza Barberini
Operating Hours
- Daily: 9:00 – 18:30
- Wait time: Every 15 to 20 minutes
- Full loop duration: About 1 hour 30 minutes
Route
8 stops:
- Termini Railway Station
- Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Villa Borghese
- Piazza Barberini
Operating Hours
- Daily: 8:30 – 18:50
- Wait time: Every 15–20 minutes
- Full loop duration: About 1 hour and 40 minutes
Route
8 stops:
- 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
Operating Hours
- Daily: 9:00 – 18:00
- Wait time: Every 20 minutes
- Full loop duration: About 1 hour 30 minutes
Route
8 stops:
- Termini Railway Station
- Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
- Colosseum
- Circus Maximus
- Piazza Venezia
- Vatican City
- Piazza di Spagna
- Piazza Barberini
Operating Hours
- Daily: 10:00 – 16:00
- Wait time: Every 45 minutes
- Full loop duration: About 1 hour 30 minutes
Route
14 stops, with a focus on religious and Vatican heritage:
- 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
How It Works
Book Ticket Online
Buy your ticket online and keep it on your smartphone
Check Confirmation Email
Receive bus route map, stops list, and app download link for live tracking & schedules
Use It
Present your ticket to staff at any stop
Onboard Perks
Connect to free WiFi and listen to the multi-language audio guide
Hop On & Off
Get off at any stop, explore, and catch the next bus
Know Before You Book
✅ Flexible booking available: Some tickets include free cancellation and rescheduling up to 24 hours before your visit. For others, you can add this flexibility for a small fee by selecting the ‘Refundable’ option at checkout.
✅ Children aged under 5 can ride for free.
❌ Admission tickets to attractions, monuments and museums are not included. You need to book them separately.
❌ Very large suitcases are generally not allowed. Check with the Help Center if you plan to carry them.
Things to See
Book tickets to the attractions within your route.
Ancient Rome
The Vatican
Basilicas & Churches
Piazzas & Fountains
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.
Is A Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour Worth it?
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.
More Ways to Getting Around Rome
See allGuides on using public transport to explore the city.