Child fares and age bands in every city, with what the same children pay on public transport.
| City | Adult, 24 h | Child, 24 h | Child ages | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | €27.50 | €14.75 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Athens | – | – | 4-12 | Depends |
| Barcelona | €29.70 | €16.20 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Berlin | €24.30 | €12.15 | 6-15 | Depends |
| Brussels | €24.75 | €17.25 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Budapest | €39 | €35.10 | 6-18 | Depends |
| Dublin | €31.50 | €17.10 | 5-15 | Depends |
| Edinburgh | £22 | £12 | 4-15 | Worth it |
| Florence | €23.20 | €12 | 5-15 | Depends |
| Lisbon | €22 | €11 | 4-10 | Depends |
| London | £32 | £19 | 4-15 | Worth it |
| Madrid | €29.70 | €16.20 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Milan | €22.50 | €9 | 5-15 | Depends |
| Munich | €24.30 | €15.30 | 4-14 | Worth it |
| New York | US$62 | US$52 | 3-12 | Depends |
| Paris | €39 | €22 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Porto | €28 | €14 | 4-12 | Depends |
| Rome | €28.05 | €13.60 | 5-15 | Skip it |
| Seville | €28 | €14 | 5-12 | Skip it |
| Vienna | €37 | €22 | 5-15 | Depends |
Adult prices in local currency, read on the date shown on each city page.
The bus is the easier ride with small children, and public transport is far cheaper. A child ticket for ages 4 to 12 is €14.75 for 24 hours, so two adults and two children pay €84.50.
Children up to 3 ride free, with a limit of two per paying adult. On GVB the same family pays €30, because a child day ticket for ages 4 to 11 is €5.
Pushchairs are allowed on the bus only when folded. The 65 minute loop is short enough to ride in one go with a 6 year old.
The bus is cheap for children: €6 for two days for ages 4 to 12, and free for children under 4. The operator's ticket pages do not all state the same age limit, so check at booking if your child is 4.
Two adults and two children pay €52 for two days, or €48 with the family ticket, which covers up to 3 children. On OASA, children under 6 travel free and older children without a personalised card pay the adult €1.20.
One loop of 1 hour 30 minutes is long for small children. Plan to get off at the Acropolis Museum and again at the Panathenaic Stadium.
Children from 4 to 12 pay €16.20 for 24 hours and €20.70 for 48 hours online, and under 4s ride free. On public transport under 4s are also free, but a visiting child of 4 or more pays the adult fare, so the gap between bus and metro is smaller for families than for adults.
Pushchairs must be folded where possible and kept on the lower deck. The top deck is the draw for most children.
Plan on one route a day: two hours is long for a small child, and the Red Route's beach stops (Port Olímpic, Bogatell) make an easy break.
Children up to 5 ride the sightseeing bus free, two per paying adult, and children aged 6 to 15 pay half: €12.15 for 24 hours. A family ticket for 2 adults and 3 children is also sold.
Public transport is hard to beat for families in Berlin, because one adult's €11.20 BVG 24-hour ticket takes up to three children aged 6 to 14 for nothing. Two adults and two children pay €72.90 on the Classic Tour for 24 hours and €22.40 on BVG.
The Zoo stop (stop 18) is the one children will ask for. Pushchairs must be foldable and are carried only if there is space.
Buy the family ticket if you are two adults and two children. A child ticket for ages 4 to 12 is €17.25 for 24 hours and the family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is €66.75.
Bought one by one, the same four tickets cost €84. Under 4s ride free on an adult's lap.
The audio guide has a separate children's commentary in English, French and Dutch. On STIB-MIVB children under 6 travel free, and those aged 6 to 11 need a free pass on a MOBIB card, issued against an identity document.
Under 6s ride free on Big Bus and on BKK. From 6 to 18 the bus child ticket is €35.10 for 24h, and the family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is €134, which saves €14.20 against buying four tickets.
On public transport the same family pays four 24-hour travelcards, 11,000 Ft or about €29.80. Pushchairs have to be folded and stored on the lower deck, and anyone under 15 must be with an adult.
The top deck holds a child's attention for the Buda half of the loop, where the views are. The Pest half through Keleti and Blaha Lujza tér is traffic.
The sightseeing bus is unusually cheap for families at the moment. Big Bus gives one free child ticket with each adult Discover, Essential or Explore ticket, as a limited offer.
Without the offer a child aged 5 to 15 pays €17.10, and under 5s ride free. On public transport a child Leap card for ages 5 to 18 is capped at €1.95 a day.
Two adults and two children therefore pay €63 on the sightseeing bus with the offer and €15.90 on Leap cards. The full loop takes 1 hour 50 minutes, so plan to get off at Dublin Zoo or the Guinness Storehouse halfway round.
Children aged 4 to 15 pay £12 on every Big Bus Edinburgh ticket and under 4s are free. The family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is £50 for 24 hours, £18 less than buying four tickets separately.
On Lothian the child single is £1.20 and a day ticket £3 for ages 5 to 15, and a family day ticket for 2 adults and up to 3 children is £13. The bus is still an easy sell with children: 70 minutes is short enough to stay on for the whole loop, and stop 13 is at the door of Dynamic Earth with the Holyrood Park paths behind it.
The bus is cheap for families by sightseeing-bus standards. A child ticket for ages 5 to 15 is €12 for 24 hours online and under 5s ride free.
Two adults and two children pay €70.40 for 24 hours. On AT buses and trams one child under 11 travels free with each paying adult, so the same family pays €4 a ride if both children are under 11.
The 60 minute loop is short enough for small children to sit through once. The 25 minute gap between buses is the hard part, so check the live bus positions in the operator's phone app before leaving a museum.
Under 4s travel free on a parent's lap. Children pay €11 for 24h and youth aged 11 to 16 pay €16.50, and the family ticket starts at €55.
On public transport only children up to 3 are free, so a 6 year old costs €7.25 on the 24-hour ticket against €11 on the bus, a smaller gap than for adults. The open top deck and the 2 hour boat on the All-in-One Pass go down well with children.
The 40 minute waits do not, so check the departure times before leaving a stop.
A child ticket covers ages 4 to 15 and under 4s ride free. The One Day child ticket is £19, so two adults and two children pay £102 for the day.
On TfL, under 11s travel free with a paying adult and 11 to 15 year olds pay half adult fares once a Young Visitor discount is added to an Oyster card at a Tube station. That makes the price gap wider for families than for couples.
In the bus's favour, children get a seat, a view and headphones, and nobody has to carry a pushchair down an escalator. Plan on one loop with two stops.
Small children run out of patience well before 2 hours 30 minutes.
Children aged 4 to 12 pay €18 for 24 hours at the list price, about €16.20 online, and under 4s ride free. The family pack for two adults and two children is €90 for 24 hours before the online discount.
There are two audio channels made for children, one in Spanish and one in English. Pushchairs go in the marked area on the lower deck and cannot be taken upstairs.
Route 1 at 85 minutes is the longest loop. Breaking it at the Teleférico stop for the cable car, or at Puerta de Alcalá for the Retiro boating lake, works better with small children than riding it in one go.
This is one of the cheaper sightseeing buses for children. A child aged 5 to 15 pays €9 online for 24, 48 or 72 hours, and under 5s ride free.
Two adults and two children pay €63 for 24 hours. On ATM, children under 14 travel free, so the same family pays €15.20 for a day of metro and trams.
The operator says a commentary channel for younger passengers is available. The Blue line's 55 minute loop is the easiest with small children, and the 80 minute Green line is the one football fans ask for.
For families, public transport is far cheaper here. A child ticket on the sightseeing bus is €15.30 for ages 4 to 14, the same on the Express and the 24 hour Grand, and under 4s ride free.
The Express family ticket is €49.50 online. On MVV, children under 6 are free, and since 1 January 2026 children aged 6 to 14 travel free with an adult who holds a single-day ticket.
Two adults and two children can cover the day on one €19.70 group day ticket. In the bus's favour, the operator's German pages mention a separate children's audio channel, and the 1 hour loop is short enough for most children.
A child ticket covers ages 3 to 12 and costs $52 for 24 hours. Children of 2 and under ride free, and strollers must be folded and left on the lower deck.
Two adults and two children pay $228 for the Discover ticket. On the subway the same family pays $72 for six rides each, or less if the children are under 44 inches tall, because they then ride free.
The top deck is the part children enjoy, and 90 minutes round the Downtown Loop is about as long as most will sit. Anyone under 15 has to travel with someone older.
Children aged 4 to 12 pay €22 for 24 hours and under 4s ride free with an adult. The top deck holds most children's attention for a full loop, and nobody has to carry a pushchair down metro stairs.
The cost adds up quickly. Two adults and two children pay €122 for the plain 24-hour ticket, while the same family on public transport pays at most €49.20 with four Navigo day passes, and less if the children use reduced-fare single tickets.
Child tickets cover ages 4 to 12 and cost €14 for 24 hours or €15 for 48 hours. City Sightseeing's adult fare starts at age 13.
Two adults and two children pay €84 for the 24 hour ticket. The Andante fare table has no child price for the Andante 24, so four people on public transport pay €21.40 plus four €0.60 cards.
The Blue Line is the better choice with small children because the loop takes 1 hour and crosses the bridge. Leave the 2 hour Red Line for a day when the beach at Castelo do Queijo is the goal.
Children aged 5 to 15 pay €13.60 for 24 hours online and under-5s ride free. The family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is €69.70.
On ATAC the same family with children under 10 pays €17 for two adult day passes. The top deck does hold a child's attention for the 90-minute loop, and it gives small legs a rest between the Circo Massimo and the river.
Bring the children's own headphones, since the ones handed out are single-use earbuds.
Child tickets cover ages 5 to 12 and cost €14 for 24 hours or €17 for 48 hours. City Sightseeing lists ages 0 to 4 as infants, a separate category from the paid child ticket.
Two adults and two children pay €84 for the 24 hour ticket. The commentary has a separate children's channel alongside 15 languages.
Isla Mágica is stop 9, and Civitatis lists a 33% discount there for ticket holders. The 2026 fare summaries we found show no child price for the TUSSAM tourist card.
Children aged 5 to 15 pay €22 for 24 hours online and under-5s are free. A family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is €96.
On Wiener Linien, children under 6 are always free and those under 15 are free on Sundays, public holidays and Vienna school holidays, so on those days the same family pays €19.40 in total. The bus does solve one real problem with children: the blue line links Schönbrunn Zoo, the Technisches Museum and the Belvedere gardens without any changes.
The same five checks in every city, sorted from the highest score to the lowest.
The 24-hour adult ticket in each city next to one day of unlimited public transport, sorted from the smallest gap to the largest.
What each ticket length costs in every city, and how much you pay for the second day.
What each company says about wheelchair access, and how the bus works for people who cannot walk far.
In most cities a regular bus or tram line passes the same sights for the price of a single ride. These are the lines, and what they cost.
An open top deck is the reason to take this bus, and the weather decides whether you can use it.