Brighton bus pass: day tickets, prices and the app explained

Tap your card on the reader as you step aboard, find a seat upstairs, and you have just bought the right to ride every Brighton & Hove bus until the day resets. No paper, no exact change, no working out zones. The city runs one of the simpler bus-fare systems in the country, and once you know the two or three tickets that matter, you stop overpaying. Here is how a Brighton bus pass actually works, what each option costs, and the one ticket that quietly does more than a day pass.

What is a Brighton bus pass and which one do you need?

The standard Brighton bus pass is the Brighton & Hove day citySAVER, an all-day ticket for unlimited rides across the city network. Most visitors want that or a single. It costs around £6 on the app or by contactless tap, £6.80 in cash, with a single fare about £3. Buy it once and hop on and off all day.

Brighton & Hove Buses runs almost every service you will use in town, so a single operator ticket covers the lot. There is no separate zone map to memorise for the core city. If you are going to take more than two rides in a day, the day ticket already beats paying per single, and it removes the small friction of tapping and thinking each time you board. You can read the full fare list on the operator's own tickets page, which is the source I check before quoting any figure here, because these numbers nudge upward each year.

The choice really comes down to how much you plan to move. One short hop and you are done for the day: buy a single. Two or more journeys, or a day of hopping between the pier, the Lanes and Hove: the day pass pays for itself and then some.

How much is a Brighton & Hove day bus pass?

A Brighton & Hove day citySAVER is around £6 when bought on the app or by contactless tap, and £6.80 in cash on board. A single journey is about £3. Contactless also has a daily cap, so repeated taps never charge you more than the day-ticket price even if you never buy the pass outright.

The cash premium is deliberate: the operator wants you on the app or tapping, so paper cash is the most expensive way to ride. Treat the figures below as a current guide rather than a fixed price list, since fares are reviewed annually.

The contactless cap is the detail most visitors miss. If you just tap your bank card on and off every bus without buying anything, the system totals your taps and stops charging once you hit the day-pass price. You get the day-pass deal without deciding in advance whether you will ride enough to justify it. That is the lazy-but-safe option for a first day in the city.

How do you buy and use a Brighton bus pass?

Three ways: tap a contactless card or phone on the reader as you board and let the daily cap protect you, buy a day citySAVER in the Brighton & Hove Buses app before or during your trip, or pay the driver in cash for the more expensive paper ticket. The app and contactless are cheapest and need no change.

The Brighton & Hove Buses app is worth the two-minute download if you are here for more than an afternoon. You buy the day pass inside it, activate it when you first board, and show the moving screen to the driver or reader. App tickets also let you buy ahead, so you are not fumbling at the door. Contactless is the true no-effort route: tap on, tap where required, and trust the cap. Cash still works and always will, but you pay the premium and you need coins.

How does the sightseeing tour ticket compare to a day pass?

A City Sightseeing Brighton ticket is also a full day pass on every Brighton & Hove city bus, so it does everything a day citySAVER does. On top of that it adds the open-top hop-on hop-off sightseeing loop with recorded commentary, and partner discounts of 30% off SEA LIFE Brighton and 15% off the Royal Pavilion. For a first-time visitor it is often the better-value ticket.

This is the part most people do not realise. The open-top ticket is not a rival to the local day pass; it contains one. Your City Sightseeing ticket gives unlimited travel on the ordinary Brighton & Hove buses for its duration, exactly like a day citySAVER, and layers the tourist loop on top, as the operator's own City Sightseeing page sets out. If you were going to buy a day pass to get around anyway, and you also want the guided ride between the pier, the i360, the Pavilion and the Marina, you can pay once instead of twice.

So the honest guidance splits two ways. If you only need to move between a couple of local points, the plain day citySAVER is cheaper and correct. If you are here to see the city and want the commentary, the open-top ride and the attraction discounts, the City Sightseeing bus is usually the smarter buy, because it folds the day pass into itself. You can check the live tour ticket price on Viator and weigh it against the roughly £6 day pass yourself.

What about child and family fares?

Brighton & Hove Buses offers reduced child fares and family day tickets that undercut buying separate adult passes, but the exact figures change and are set by the operator. Check the live child, family and student prices on the app or the operator's tickets page before you travel, rather than assuming a fixed number.

Families tend to do best on a family day ticket, which is priced below four adult singles and often below a couple of adult day passes, depending on your group. Because these tiers are reviewed and I would rather send you to the real number than guess, the safe move is to open the app or the tickets page and read the current child and family rates there. Under a certain age, younger children usually travel free with a paying adult, but confirm the cut-off on the day.

If your group is doing the sights rather than errands, remember the tour ticket route again. The open-top hop-on hop-off covers kids on its own family pricing and rolls the city travel in, which can simplify a day out with children into a single purchase. Compare both before you commit, and see the full breakdown on the tickets and prices guide.

Common questions about the Brighton bus pass