Tourists paying up to £130 for £19 tickets to Europe's top attractions, Which? finds
Research by Which? found third-party booking sites charging up to seven times the official price for tickets to the Last Supper, the Alhambra and the Colosseum.
Official tickets sell out, third-party prices surge
Tourists trying to book popular European attractions are being pushed towards third-party websites charging several times the official price, according to research by consumer group Which?.
Checking ticket availability for September, Which? found that official tickets for Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in Milan cost €15 (£13), but only two dates were available over the following three months on the official site. On booking platform GetYourGuide, tickets for the very next day were available, bundled with a guided walking tour of Milan, for £89, nearly seven times the official price.
A similar pattern emerged for the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, where the official ticket price is €22 (£19). Which? found the earliest official slot was five days away. GetYourGuide offered next-day entry for £68, while Viator, a platform owned by Tripadvisor, had tickets in two days for £130.
Colosseum tickets also hard to find
At the Colosseum in Rome, Which? identified nine different ticket types on the official website, making it difficult to establish which offered the best access. The “Full Experience, Underground & Arena” ticket was almost always sold out when checked, with a 20-day wait for the next available official slot. Viator was offering the same access the next day, but at an extra £287.
Which? also found that official ticket sites were not always easy to locate online. A Google search for “Louvre official tickets” surfaced an AI overview linking to GetYourGuide rather than the museum’s own site. A search for “Colosseum tickets” placed the official site fourth, behind listings from Viator and GetYourGuide.
What third-party sites actually offer
Which? said platforms such as GetYourGuide and Viator are booking platforms rather than official ticket sellers, listing tours and activities from third-party operators rather than direct entry tickets. On Viator, a £17 “Alhambra Complex Guided Tour” was found to describe itself as covering “the whole Alhambra”, but did not include an entry ticket, instead offering a 1 hour 45 minute walk around the gardens viewing the site from outside. One reviewer quoted by Which? said the tour “was anything but complete”.
City tourist passes, such as the Paris Museum Pass covering entry to the Louvre, were found in some cases to offer additional availability. Which? said passholders were offered two earlier slots for the Louvre than those available on general booking.
Which? noted that even with “skip-the-line” tickets, visitors can still face queues of up to 30 minutes for mandatory security checks.
What happens next
Which? said demand is likely to be higher during peak summer months and around the Easter and Christmas holidays, when availability for official tickets is expected to be more limited still. The Alhambra, it said, can sell out up to three months ahead in high season. Which? suggested travellers planning city breaks check when general ticket releases happen for the most sought-after sites and book well in advance of their trip.