Is the Gothenburg Pass worth buying?

The Gothenburg Pass is touted as one of the best ways for tourists to save cash when visiting Sweden’s second-biggest city.

According to the official website, it could get you half-price admission to some of the city’s most popular sights.

But is it really worth buying? Or would you be better off saving your cash, and paying for attractions and transport separately?

How it works
What’s included?
Which pass to choose
Is it worth buying?

TL;DR: Yes, we think the Gothenburg pass is worth buying, especially if you’re visiting during the summer and are staying for at least two days. In winter, it’s not such a good deal. Get the pass here.

How it works

The idea is that you buy the Gothenburg Pass (or Gothenburg City Pass, as it’s sometimes called) to cover part or all of your stay in the city.

You pay for the pass upfront and you’ll then get free access to loads of attractions around the city.

You’ll also get a one-day pass for the city’s hop-on, hop-off tour buses, which is useful if you want to get a feel for a few different neighbourhoods.

Perhaps best of all, you also get some free boat and kayak tours thrown in with the pass too. Gothenburg is really at its most beautiful when viewed from the water, so we think that joining at least one of these tours is a must when you visit.

Just download the pass to your phone and then show it at any of the included tours or attractions to get free admission.

What’s included in 2024?

These attractions are all free with the Gothenburg pass in 2024:

The pass lets you visit each attraction once, and you can also join each tour once.

If you opt for one of the cheaper passes with a shorter duration, you’ll definitely struggle to fit everything in, so it pays to plan ahead.

Apart from the tours and attractions listed above, you’ll get a few other benefits when you buy the Gothenburg Pass. But honestly, these are a bit lame and probably won’t make much difference to how much you save.

For example, you can get 10% off purchases in the shop at Gothenburg’s Botanical Gardens (handy if you’re already going to buy something there, but otherwise not exactly worth writing home about).

Okay, so what’s excluded?

Well, you no longer get access to Gothenburg’s extensive public transport network with this pass, which is a bit of a shame as the trams and boats really open up the area and make it easy to explore.

That said, transport tickets are very affordable and if you download the Västtrafik app you can still easily jump on trams and ferries during your stay.

More importantly, there are a couple of big attractions which are not included with the pass. For example, we think the Liseberg theme park is an absolute must for first-time visitors, but it’s not included with the pass.

Another example is the new World of Volvo attraction, which is worth a visit if only for the awesome architecture.

Which pass should you choose?

There are four different types of Gothenburg Pass, lasting one day, two days, three days and five days respectively.

The time is actually measured in hours, rather than days (so for example, if you buy a two-day Gothenburg Pass, you’ll get a full 48 hours to use it).

The time starts running out when the pass is first used – either when visiting a gallery or museum, or when joining one of the tours.

You don’t usually need to worry about booking ahead, but just be aware that some of the attractions aren’t open all year long. For example, most of the boat tours only operate during the summer (roughly late June to the end of August).

^{Prices in Swedish kronor (SEK) are correct at the time of publication}

Every Gothenburg Pass is valid for a full 12 months from the time of purchase, so it’s worth buying now even if you’re planning to visit later in the year.

Where to buy the Gothenburg Pass

You can buy the Gothenburg Pass online and then download it to start saving – just bear in mind that you’ll need to have enough battery to last you a whole day in Gothenburg!

Is the card worth buying?

If you’re in Gothenburg for a couple of days and want to some of the big attractions, you could save a lot by buying the Gothenburg Pass.

The Universeum science centre, for example, costs 295 SEK per adult during summer.

Even if you just went there, had a walk around the City Museum or the newly reopened aquarium, and then used the hop-on, hop-off bus a couple of times, you would end up saving money.

And that’s before you consider visiting a couple of the smaller attractions, visiting the Gothenburg Archipelago, or taking the famous Paddan boat tour, which takes you out into the harbour and under some extremely low bridges (you’ll need to duck down to get beneath some of them!).

But, if you’re visiting for just one day, we don’t think the Gothenburg Pass is worth it.

You’ll get the best value out of the pass if you’re in town for at least two days in the summer, when the boat tours are all operating.

The bottom line

Unless you’re sticking to completely free attractions, buying the Gothenburg Pass could save you a lot of cash. If you’re in doubt, try to work out what you want to see and then estimate how much you’ll end up spending on admission fees and public transport.

We’ve been updating this guide every year since 2018 and the pass has changed a LOT in that time – we’ll keep updating the info here so you can work out whether to buy the pass or not.

See also:
Is the Stockholm Pass worth buying?
Is the Copenhagen Card worth buying?