I have wasted so much money on single or multi-day passes. On the pro side, they save you from having to have coins or exact change to get on the bus. You don't have to fish out your wallet and risk getting pick pocketed. On the con side, for many cities they don't make financial sense for most trips. Unless you're bopping constantly from one destination to another trying every restaurant or shopping extensively, they may not make sense if you are visiting a few destinations that will eat up your day.
Here is my running list of the cities in which I've made substantial "donations" to their transit program because I paid way too much $ for day passes when it would've made more sense to pay for individual rides:
- Osaka
The problem was that I had researched and planned on a Kansai area pass, but April 2024 they changed both the price and the rules. No longer would the Kansai area pass cover buses. Instead it would only cover non-JR local trains, with some other exclusions. Secondly, the price increased a lot. Thirdly, the website had said to go to Osaka Station tourist office to buy the pass, but the tourist office staff told me that was no longer the case and to go to Umeda Station commuter office. In my panic of what to do, I stupidly stood in an insanely long line at the Umeda Station commuter office which was crowded with local denizens. Even the staff in the line were confused as to whether this station sold the new Kansai area pass. Once I saw the price of the new pass, I quickly and stupidly pivoted to buying the Osaka day pass. I only used the metro at most 4 times in a day and once I used it only one time in the whole day. It's not a 24 hour pass. It's by calendar day. Thus buying a ticket in the afternoon and activating it late in the day is a total money sink.
- Tokyo
Depending on which station you are at, different tickets are sold. I had researched the multi-day pass covering both metro companies (Toei and Tokyo metro) and had wanted to get that pass for convenience. However, I learned that where I was at, Daimon Station, they did not sell this pass in paper form. The pass could only be loaded into the Pasmo visitor card which I did not have. Pasmo cards expire in 1 month unlike Suica, Toica, Icoca, and other IC cards that last for 10 years.
Secondly, the paper day pass I purchased that Daimon Station was only good for that calendar day regardless if you activate it or not although there is a process to obtain a partial refund for unused passes. Thus do not buy multiple passes in advance if this is the type you are purchasing!!!
Thirdly, I ended up mostly using the local JR trains and the Yamanote line which were closer to my Hamamatsucho hotel. Neither of these companies are covered by the Tokyo/Toei metro pass. Thus even if I had gotten that multi-day pass that I originally researched, it still would've been a waste of money.
- Brugge (Bruges)
Brugge is totally walkable. The buses don't run very often compared to how fast you can just walk from point A to point B. The bus also doesn't go into all the narrow alleys and paths where some shops and destinations are tucked. The main use of the bus was for getting to and from the train station with my heavy luggage. For that limited use, I could've just paid a la carte.
- Ostend
Ostend is pretty walkable, too. The distance is farther than in Brugge, but I totally was able to walk from the train station to the tourist office near the casino and airport and all the way back to the Mu.Zee near the train station. I felt obligated to hop on a bus just for a few blocks back to the train station so that I could make myself feel better that I used the day pass that I had already paid for for some purpose.
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