Hop on hop off Florence: tickets, prices, hours and lines A/B

Hop on hop off Florence tickets start at €29 (24 hours) on the official price list, from €19.55 on GetYourGuide and from €29 on Tiqets. Before you pay, know one thing listings tend to skip: the buses do not enter the ZTL, the restricted traffic zone. The pedestrian core — the Duomo, Uffizi, Accademia, Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio — is seen on foot; what the ticket really buys you is Piazzale Michelangelo, Fiesole (Line B) and the onboard audio guide.

Hop on hop off Florence: lines, stops and the ZTL

Florence is not Rome: the historic centre is compact, and ZTL sectors A, B and O keep tourist buses out during the day (Mon–Fri 7:30–20:00, Sat 7:30–16:00). Stops are on the ring road around the centre: Largo Alinari / Santa Maria Novella station, the Fortezza, the riverside lungarni, Piazza della Libertà and Piazzale Michelangelo.

The operator lists 44 stops in total, and a 24-, 48- or 72-hour ticket covers both lines. Reviews on Tripadvisor are mediocre (3.5/5 from 569 reviews), with long waits and ring-road traffic as recurring complaints.

Prices and hours: official vs booking platforms

Children aged 0–4 travel free. Tiqets starts from €29 and GetYourGuide from €19.55, though platform prices vary by date. Validity starts when you first board, not when you buy.

According to the official timetable (a single year-round schedule, with no separate summer table), Line A leaves Largo Alinari from about 9:00, with the last departure around 17:45–18:27 and a bus roughly every 25 minutes; Line B runs from about 11:00 to 16:00, roughly every 60 minutes. Winter frequencies can be lower, with weekday limits on Line B: if Fiesole is your goal, check the app or the station office the day before.

Included: audio guide in 8 languages, tracking app and Wi-Fi. Not included: museums, the Dome and city bus tickets.

We are an independent guide. If you book through our Tiqets or GetYourGuide links we may earn a commission; the price you pay does not change.

When it pays (and when it does not)

Worth it if:

• you want to hop on and off several times between the station, the riverside and Piazzale Michelangelo in one day;
• you combine the hills and Fiesole on a 48- or 72-hour ticket;
• the onboard commentary matters more to you than the lowest price.

Not worth it if:

• you are staying within the Duomo–Uffizi–Ponte Vecchio area (all walkable in 15–20 minutes);
• you only need Piazzale Michelangelo: city buses 12 and 13 cost €2 for 90 minutes;
• you have a fixed museum slot and cannot wait 25–60 minutes at the stop.

Two city bus rides cost €4; the tourist bus starts at around €20. The difference only pays off if you make several hops or want the audio guide plus the hills.

Alternatives: golf cart, e-bike, walking

A golf cart goes where the bus cannot and costs more, but it solves getting around inside the pedestrian zone. An e-bike makes light work of the climb to Piazzale Michelangelo: great in fine weather, useless in the rain. Walking tours and city audioguides are covered on city tours; for the view alone, see Piazzale Michelangelo.

Arriving by train, you can leave bags at luggage storage at Santa Maria Novella and ride without a suitcase — Florence museums are strict about backpacks and luggage anyway.

How to use the ticket in practice

1. Buy online (Tiqets, GetYourGuide or the official site), on board or at the office.
2. Activate it the first time you board by showing the voucher on your phone.
3. Track the bus in the app rather than relying on the advertised frequency.
4. Get off at Piazzale Michelangelo, loop again or switch to Line B for Fiesole.
5. Remember that no museum skip-the-line is included.

On Tiqets, cancellation is usually free up to 24 hours before. Once activated, the clock keeps running — there is no pause.

Frequencies, delays and realistic expectations

Ring-road traffic is the service’s weak point. The operator itself warns that delays can happen, and reviewers regularly report waits of 40–45 minutes rather than the advertised 25. If you have an Uffizi slot at 11:00, do not plan to arrive by bus: walk or take a taxi or tram.

In low season Line B can be very infrequent on weekdays, so if you are buying 48 or 72 hours mainly for Fiesole, check that day’s timetable. The budget alternative for Fiesole is the regular Autolinee Toscane bus (check routes and times on at-bus.it), priced by distance rather than at the flat tourist rate.

Comparisons with passes and combos

Some commercial city passes include the hop-on bus or offer it as an extra. The Turbopass Florence City Pass lists a 24-hour hop-on ticket as a paid option among its 22 attractions; it does not replace booking the Uffizi and Accademia. The €85 Firenze Card (72 hours) excludes city and airport transport, so you pay for the tourist bus separately.

For views plus museums, a typical total is: Uffizi (€29 in advance) + Accademia (€24) + city bus to Piazzale Michelangelo (€2) = €55, against €29–39 for the hop-on bus alone with no museums. The bus does not save you anything on entries: it is simply a comfortable way to get around.

Luggage, accessibility and families

Suitcases do not fit comfortably on open-top decks; store them at the station first (KiPoint from €6, or private networks at €5–7 a day). Pushchairs depend on the model and how full the bus is — in high season the upper decks fill up fast. Children 0–4 travel free and 5–15s pay a reduced fare. There is no luggage space on board, just seats and audio headsets (bring your own earphones if you prefer).

For visitors with reduced mobility, a double-decker is not the same as an accessible door-to-door service. In the pedestrian centre, walk or use a taxi or golf cart, and check reserved seating and ramps with the operator before buying.

Checklist before buying a hop on hop off ticket

1. Is your hotel outside the centre, and will you really hop on and off several times?
2. Are Piazzale Michelangelo or Fiesole on your plan, not just the Duomo and Uffizi?
3. Have you compared the €2 fare on buses 12 and 13 with the 24-hour price?
4. Have you checked the cancellation terms (24 hours) and when validity starts?
5. Do you already have timed museum tickets? If so, do not depend on the bus to get there.

If you answer “no” to four of the five, walk: Florence is built for it. If you want the hills without pedalling, perhaps with Fiesole on the same ticket, the hop-on hop-off bus makes sense.

Sample half-day route

Leave the station around 9:30, take Line A along the river and get off at Piazzale Michelangelo (45–60 minutes for the view and photos), then continue towards the Oltrarno or back to the station. Have lunch at the Mercato Centrale or in the Oltrarno, and spend the afternoon on foot around Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi (with entry already booked). If you still have energy and Line B is running, do Fiesole that evening or the next day. This way you only use the bus where it helps — for the climb — and keep your museum visits away from ring-road traffic.

If you are staying in the Oltrarno, reverse it: go up to the hill first, then walk down past San Miniato and the Rose Garden, using the bus only for the return if your legs give out. Either way, do not use the hop-on bus as a museum shuttle: the stops are not near the entrances and the timing will not match a named Uffizi slot.

Offices and contacts

The ticket offices are at Via Cavour 39r (roughly 10:00–17:00) and at Santa Maria Novella station (roughly 7:30–15:00). Support: infofirenze@city-sightseeing.it, +39 055 290451. The service, run under the City Sightseeing brand, is now part of the Busitalia / FS Italiane group.

For city pass comparisons: Turbopass offers the hop-on bus as an add-on, and the Firenze Card does not include buses. More on the Florence Pass page and in our operator reviews.

In short: hop on hop off Florence, tickets and hours

The hop on hop off bus in Florence makes sense for the hills and Fiesole, not as a tour of the centre. Check prices and times in the comparison below, choose 24 hours for a Line A loop, and 48 or 72 hours only if you will really use Line B. For the museums in the centre, walk and book your entries separately.