How to visit the Louvre, Colosseum, and Vatican without queues and save money.

If you've decided to take advantage of our great flight deals and fly to Europe for the November holidays or Christmas break, you've probably already planned your cultural itinerary. If not, we'll tell you where you absolutely must go and how not to spend half your vacation waiting in lines.Everyone knows what the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Vatican, Colosseum are... But only a few travelers know how to get there without the exhausting wait in line. Most tourists, seeing the crowds at the entrance, simply turn around and leave – who wants to spend precious vacation time queuing? The problem is that almost all famous attractions present the same picture. And it's not the Mona Lisa, unfortunately. Although you will see this famous painting if you follow our advice on how not to abandon your plans due to kilometer-long queues.To avoid crowding at the ticket office and then at the entrance, you simply need to purchase tickets on Kupi.com on the museums' websites.

PARIS

  

Eiffel Tower

Here you can save not only time but also money.

If your physical condition allows, you can climb the structure on foot – the ascent costs 7 euros, which is 10 euros cheaper than taking the elevator; discounts are available for youth and children. There are practically no queues at this ticket office, and if you do encounter such a problem, it will be resolved in a maximum of 10 minutes.You can climb to the second floor of the tower, which is located at a height of 150 meters, on foot. The advantages of such an ascent are obvious – you will get to the tower without queuing, save money, and see Paris without crowds of tourists (those who take the elevator usually do not get off at the intermediate stop).By the way, you can descend for free by elevator; you won't have to walk down as well.In summer, the stairs are open until 0:45, in winter until 18:30.To avoid queuing for the Eiffel Tower, you can buy a ticket on Kupi.com in advance online on the attraction's official website. However, you need to do this about a month in advance and be absolutely sure of your visit time. But then you won't encounter any queues. True, tickets on the official website also sell out quickly.LouvreIt is simply essential to buy a ticket on Kupi.com in advance. For those with online bookings, there is a separate queue that moves many times faster than the regular one. You can purchase a ticket on Kupi.com on the official website.From October to March, on the first Sunday of the month, admission to the Louvre is free! During school holidays and New Year's celebrations, this means huge queues and crowds of visitors in popular halls. If you prefer peace and quiet, come early, but we advise against visiting altogether on these days. By the way, from April to September, on the first Sunday of the month, admission became paid. 

ROME

St. Peter's Basilica.You can bypass the queue and get an audio guide with the OMNIA Vatican & Rome Card or by purchasing an online ticket with a tour. On Wednesdays, the Pope holds an audience at St. Peter's Basilica, so tourists should go elsewhere on this day, and those who wish to attend the audience must register in advance. Inside the basilica, there is another small queue for tickets to the dome and observation deck. You cannot enter the basilica in revealing clothing (shorts, short skirts, bare shoulders), so make sure you are dressed appropriately to avoid queuing unnecessarily.Vatican Museums.The unique art collection gathered by the Catholic Church and the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's frescoes attract thousands of visitors to the Vatican walls daily. 4-hour queues are not uncommon here. You can enter the Vatican Museums without queuing with a tour guide or by purchasing tickets online.Tickets are sold on the official Vatican website. The cost of an adult ticket is €16 + €4 (booking fee), totaling €20 per person, audio guide + €7. When booking, you need to select the day and time of visit, and enter the personal data of all participants. After credit card payment, a voucher with a QR code is sent to the specified email. Along with the ticket, information on how to get to the Vatican Museums with a map is sent (10 minutes walk from Ottaviano or Cipro metro stations).On-site, you need to go to the right side of the entrance queue and present your tickets along with identification. Tickets are scanned from a printout or electronic devices; at the ticket offices, a regular ticket is issued, and nothing more needs to be paid. You can also enter the Vatican Museums without queuing by purchasing the OMNIA Vatican & Rome Card. The Vatican Museums are open for free on the last Sunday of the month until 14:00 (entry until 12:30), but you cannot book in advance, so queues are unavoidable on this day.One hour before your scheduled time, enter to the right of the main queue and main entrance, present your printed voucher (you can also show your QR code on a tablet or phone, the main thing is that the code is clearly readable) and identification. After scanning the code, you will be given a standard ticket to the Vatican Museums. Enter without queuing.Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum.These archaeological attractions are located outdoors in the very center of Rome, once the center of world civilization. A combined ticket for all three sites is sold for €12.00 and is valid for 2 days. While most tourists stand in a long queue for Colosseum tickets, there might be no queue at all at the Palatine Hill.You can enter the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum without queuing in the following ways: buy tickets on Kupi.com online, purchase a Roma Pass or OMNIA Vatican & Rome Card.Roma Pass €36.00. Valid for 3 days from the first use. Includes: free skip-the-line entry to the first 2 museums or architectural monuments, discounts on other listed attractions, free public transport within Zone A.Roma Pass 48 hours €28.00. Valid for 48 hours from the first use. Includes: free skip-the-line entry to 1 first museum or architectural monument of your choice, discounts on other listed attractions, free public transport.At the Colosseum, there is a special turnstile for skip-the-line entry with a Roma Pass.OMNIA Vatican & Rome Card €95. Valid for 3 days. The extended version of the Rome tourist card includes:

• free entry to the Vatican Museums, audio guide for St. Peter's Basilica
• entry to 2 out of 6 most popular attractions of your choice (Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, Capitoline Museums, Borghese Gallery, National Museum, Castel Sant'Angelo)
• fast-track entry to St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Museums, Colosseum
• hop-on-hop-off tourist bus tours for 3 days
• public transport travel
• Rome guidebook
• discounts on visits to over 30 attractions and museums in Rome

You can read more about the cards hereNational museums and archaeological sites in Rome are open for free visits during Cultural Heritage Week (mid-April), in mid-May during "Museum Night," and on the first Sunday of each month.

Intermediaries and Apps

 Attraction Tickets Direct offers a solution to one of tourists' biggest problems: on the British company's website, you can buy tickets on Kupi.com that allow you to see the main museums of Rome and some attractions in Paris and New York without queuing. With an Attraction Tickets Direct ticket, you can get skip-the-line entry to the Eiffel Tower in Paris ($52) and the Empire State Building observation deck in New York ($32 for adults and $25 for children).Other attractions and tickets for them can be found on the company's website - the choice is huge.Don't let the prices surprise you - with these tickets, you are 100% guaranteed to bypass the queue. A kind of VIP rate.The special offer The Best of Rome includes skip-the-line entry tickets to the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill, as well as a 48-hour ticket for a double-decker sightseeing bus and a public transport ticket valid for 48 hours. The cost of this package is $85 for adults and $53 for children.