Big Bus Tour – New York

My Father has Parkinson’s so we wanted to see NYC with him at a pace he could handle. We had one bad driver and tour guide. It was a lady tour guide and male bus driver that claimed they didn’t know we could not hear the tour up top but from their reactions when everyone complained, they knew full well. Just sorry we didn’t get their names because honestly, we got off and got on a new bus with Aaron and he was AMAZING! He was funny and very informative. This gave us a great way to see a lot of New York at a level we could all participate. If the tour company wants to know who the driver and tour guide were it was the bus from the boat tour stop to Chelsea on Fathers Day right around 2:00 pm

We bought tickets for this company after reading several reviews. The main reason we went with Big Bus was because you could turn in your voucher for tickets at the bus, rather than go to an office.
We quickly got tickets for a bus, and after striking up a conversation with Jonathan H, we got on his bus. Total win! He is funny and informative! He gave a lot of good info about the buildings and areas we passed, not made up garbage, but actual facts! It’s clear he has a passion for his job, and likes the company he works for. We wound up on a bus with him twice, and wish he was going to be on our uptown loop tomorrow.
The guides really can make a trip, one guy we had today actually said «Look to your left, you’ll see New York’s tall buildings». Hello? I can see they’re tall? The buses also came pretty frequently, and even though it’s a summer Saturday, we had no problem finding seats up top.
Bottom line — I’d definitely ride the Big Bus again!

Well worth the money and time. Paul L. was the best tour guide! We took the downtown loop twice and we enjoyed every moment; he not only pointed out neighborhoods and the important buildings but also gave us historical facts that were very interesting. The bus was so much better than I anticipated. My teenager and 10-​year-​old even enjoyed it.

I’d give zero but I’m guessing that’s not an option. Been waiting at stop 11 for 45 minutes. Only two Big Bus rides have passed. Both full. To top it off, the driver of the last bus (6:30 PM, I seriously hope Big Bus fires him, didn’t seem to like his job anyways) was extremely rude when we told him we’ve been waiting for a very long time and asked him how far behind is the next bus. He said & I quote «It’s not my company, file a complaint if you have any.» You don’t pay so much money to receive rude treatment. When my 70 year old uncle tried to tell him to be courteous, the driver asked my uncle if he’s trying to threaten him. Absolute bull shit customer service. I will never, ever recommend anyone to take big bus.

The tour guys are pretty awesome but the service is crappy. Me and my wife waited for an hour for a bus to show up (we are on vacation & time is critical) the lines to jump on a bus are super long and if there is no room on the bus guess what… Prepare to wait for another hour for the next bus! This they don’t tell you when selling you the tickets. I didn’t even get to use the boat tour pass. And the Central Park Bike ride isn’t free! I repeat the bike ride isn’t FREE!!!

I read several reviews on Unilocal and trip advisor before going for this tour bus. And sure I was not disappointed. I took 2 day pass with Liberty Tour package. Took suggestion from Unilocal and got my tickets from agent on the street. Was able to get a free ticket for a child (Hey it’s New York, you negotiate!). Tour guides were very knowledgable. Shout out to few names The Beard, Dennis the Menace, guy who made joke about learning belly dancing and one more guide who has great knowledge about NYC architecture (so sorry I forgot your names).
For my friends who have physical limitations like me, these people were just awesome. I use wheelchair for longer distance and accessing this bus was very smooth. Guides and drivers were helpful.
I took downtown and night tour and both were great. Will come back for uptown tour next time.

You know what this is a bitter sweet regarding this tour company
Firstly the good bits
Ear phones and ponchos available on all buses
They do run frequently
The app is very useful
So is the paper map you get
Some great information from the guides
Bad bits
Really long lines
Disorganised and slow at loading busses
Some of the ground team are a little aggressive
The tour guides are not all great so let’s hope you get a good guide
I done the Central Park tour (blue line) and the guide on tagged even though he was in a lot of discomfort with a sore leg … Not only gave up his seat for a passenger but also was the best most informative tour guide.

We were told the wait time is 20 to 30 minutes, we have been waiting at one stop for an hour and their response is it is coming. We are on a three day tour with absolutely no time to waste, most of the places open during daytime and this bus took more than 3 hours of our day just for three stops, it is a huge rip off, we saw 6 greylines pass by us in the same one hour. They simply cannot accommodate the number of people given their current resources. I would like to add that the driver and tour guides did an excellent job, the rest of it was a big big big disappointment

Excellent, friendly bus staff! Very helpful with is as were had 2 handicapped scooters that needed to board. The tours were fun, humorous and full of facts. The night time tour on Monday ⁵⁄₁₀ we had a tourguide i cant remember his name but i and the Indian lady i was sittingbwith found him to be inappropriate at times talking about his underwear especially around the Museum of Sex. He was informative i mean we may not know much about the city bilut we know he really prefers Chinese food. Aside from him, the 3 day usage of the big bus was a wonderful way to get around.

JP was great. Good info and good humor. Kudos to the bus driver as well for taking a different route so we could get some photo opportunity. They actually saved us as we were trying to get back downtown before our show and they called out to us at the right time which wasn’t a normal stop. Portland Oregon couple.

The driver and tour guide were great!
The company itself is a different story. Customer service is lower than poor. If you use the mobile receipt they can only scan it once. They do not tell you anything about losing your tickets and not being able to rescan or prove that you already purchased. EVEN if you have email and text record that you paid with amount of days you paid for plus you are within the dates you paid. Crazy!
If this company wants to get out of the dinosaur age and have a hop on hop off system they need the mobile code to be scannable whenever you hop on again.
The only other good part besides the driver and tour guide was that a guy let us sneak on to the bus after his coworker was a stickler about the paper ticket.
If I had paid over $ 100 for a 2 hour night tour in the rain I would have been beside myself. Luckily that nice guy felt sorry for our situation and we got to do the day loop too.

Having previously done Big Bus tours in London, I was expecting a very average experience. However, I found the New York tours to be a lot more personalized and interesting. Took the tour with a few different tour guides and they each gave the tour a personal touch by talking about their favorite NYC spots, etc. I highly recommend taking this tour on the first day you get to NYC so you can get an overview of the city before venturing out.

VERY good tour guide. They’re knowledgeable and great speakers/​storytellers. This is a great option for those who want to see the city, while getting a little background. It’s super relaxing, a lot of fun, and would recommend it to anyone visiting NYC or even recently moving here. It is an awesome introduction to the different neighborhoods — especially in the downtown area. This really does beat walking all day to see the sights.

We bought 3 tickets for the Classic 1 Day Uptown/​Down Town tour on ³⁄₂₆. We attempted to get on the up town loop at different stops but were NEVER able to get seat because the bus was full every time it stopped.
We first attempted to pick up the bus 1 block for the M&M store. We waited in line 1 hour. During this time, a Big Bus employee suggested that we talk over to the Columbus Circle stop. He mentioned that no one would be there yet & we would be able to hop on the bus. We got out of line & walked to Columbus circle. After waiting 45 minutes at Columbus Circle, a bus came. It was full & no one got off. We were told to wait for the next bus. When the next bus came, the exact same thing happened again.
I called the number on the ticket at this point in time & spoke to a sales person. She apologized & asked that I not leave Columbus Circle. The next bus would have room. We waited 30 more minute. When then next bus came, it only had space for 2 people. After I was told, she has spoken to dispatch & they WOULD have room on the next bus. We had 3 people in our party, in addition there were at least 20 other people now waiting at the Columbus Circle stop.
I understand this is your busy time however, maybe the process for filling the buses at the original location should be rethought. Maybe they should only be filled to 85 –90% capacity to leave room for those that might need to board at further road stops.
I spent over $ 150 for a service that I was unable to use. My guest were only in town for one day & they didn’t get to do the one thing they request… an on off bus tour.
I was very disappointed in your service. I will not be using your service again & will not recommend it to others.

As a repeat NYC tourist, I’ve never taken these hop on/​off bus tours before as the subway was always my mode of transportation. Due to the recent slashings, we decided to be safe. Pros: Guided tours of the city with some informative guides and some not so eloquent. Cons: Lines to get on at Times Square and ⁹⁄₁₁ Memorial could be so long, and the buses so packed that sometimes you’d have to wait for another one to board. Some guides were so desperate for tips that they could sound so desperate and annoying. This shouldn’t be your sole form of transportation around NYC because you’ll end up being late everywhere; can’t just hop on and off as advertised.

We had a great tour guide and lucky we didn’t buy our tickets online. It was cheaper for us if you buy it directly from them by the stop.
Us girls being lazy lol and just tired from the day before. Wanted to see New York where we didn’t have to really do anything. So happy we did this. What was awesome about it was your ticket lasted 24 hours so you could even do another tour the next day depending on the time you got your ticket.
They have different routes and since we got there pretty late 2pm. We couldn’t do another one since busses stop by 5pm. We wanted to do the red which is uptown I believe but we got toooo excited and didn’t pay attention and realized we were on the blue which was downtown? Lol which was still amazing. We were able to pass by battery park, Empire State Building, trade center, Madison square garden, soho, Hell’s Kitchen. There was soooo much more since the tour was about 3 hours long. But I would say definitely do this if you don’t want to walk around. They also have this hop on and off feature where you can get off at any of the stops and hop on another bus if you wanted to look around a certain area.
Online price for a Friday was I believe 56 online and in person next to the bus starting route was only $ 40.

The tour guides on the bus were good.
They are very entertaining and knowledgeable.
They explain the gird on how New York Streets are setup that proved very useful navigating the city.
I can’t give them a better score due to the wait for the buses (one comes only like every 20 to 30 minutes). While waiting for their bus you see 3 to 4 gray line buses go by.
I only rode the uptown route once and same for the downtown. After that I just bought a Metro card and learned to use the subways and buses which were a lot more convenient.

11^th stop has an unusually long wait in the evening but the staff member on duty today worked hard to get the buses there to get us to our destinations. .
However, i would NOT recommend the Brooklyn tour in the afternoon (aka rush hour or close to that time). the tour becomes horribly long which does not allow for any other tours to be accomplished.. Also, pretty sure that when our guide drank a «5 hour energy» drink.. that was NOT what the lil bottle actually had in it.. After he drank it, he wreaked of liquor on his breath every time he got close to talk.. Plus he spent the entire time yeah talking everyone walking and the way they looked.. not a fan of sitting through 2.5 his of this kind of negativity..
On the bright side, most of the workers have been pleasant and able to engage in enthusiastic and informative dialogue..

Best money I ever spent! Did three days on and off to walk around, night tour also. Love that they have earphones to hear the tour guide. They were all great, but Diana was my favorite by far. Also did the Hornblower cruise to see Statue of a Liberty.
So happy with this experience!

I am not into large tours of any kind. I generally hate crowds and usually have a disdain for most people.
With that said, I took my boys on a nighttime tour of NYC and was pleasantly surprised how seamless the Big Bus Tour company handled the large number of people. We were provided front row seats on top of their bus with free earphone to listen to TOMMY, our very New York’ish tourguide. Tommy sounded like a central casting extra from Good Fellas, which we loved. He was funny, informative and showed much of his Staten Island personality. I expected a robotic tour guide just pointing out standard landmarks. Tommy went into the history, the current issues facing the city and the future. He had my attention the entire time and deserved our tip.
Great job Tommy and Big Bus Tours.

Verspricht mehr als man halten kann, dennoch mit Kompromissen empfehlenswert.
Ein Promoter sprach mich an, auf dem Weg zu einer anderen Tour-​Gesellschaft.
Da ich nicht vorher im Internet günstig gebucht habe, bot er mir den gleichen Discount und mehr, für das Zwei-​Tages-​Paket, Uptown, Downtown, Night Tour und Hudson Rundfahrt bis zur Freiheitsstatue. Die Konditionen waren besser als bei anderen Touren, daher schlug ich ein, zahlte mit VISA und wertete auf den BIG BUS.
Die Tour sollte sofort los gehen, versprach er, es dauerte noch 20 min. Alle Plätze haben ein Audio-​System auch mit Deutsch, versprach er, es ging nicht eins.
Dafür gab es einen Live-​Kommentator, grundsätzlich cooler als eine Bandansage, aber stark abhängig vom Kommentator. Auf meiner Übersichtsrunde Downtown hatte ich Glück. Auf der Rücktour eher Pech. Die Nachttour war genial mit einer Lady, die mehr Geschichten über Häuser, Leute und Politik erzählte als irgendein anderer Guide auf den Touren.
Die Abfahrtszeiten passen an der Hauptstation Times Square jeweils zum Tagesbeginn, bzw. zur Nachttour. Danach sollte man immer fragen, steht aber auch mal lange Dumm rum, wenn man hop on hop off auch nutzt und kein Vetreter von BB an der Haltestelle ist. Aktuell hat sich wohl der Tourplan etwas geändert. Für die Inklusive Tour der Hornblower Tour auf jeden Fall die Abfahrten erfragen, sonst langes Warten am Pier.
Alles in allem ein einfaches System sich individuell und strukturiert in Kombination durch die Stadt zu schlängeln.
Die Busse sind leider schon arg abgenutzt und wie bereits gesagt, hängt der Spaß der Tour auch stark am Guide auf dem Bus.