Doubledecker Tours

We got the two-​day pass and her t was perfect for us with 4 kids to hop on and off! Loved our tour guide ralph! He made our trip!

I hope this is the company we used… I tried to find another doubledecker tour bus company on Unilocal and don’t see any, so this must have been the one we went on. The bus we were on was not old. We sat on the top in front and had a great time. Bring a hat. It was so much fun! Would do it again. recommended, even if you live here.

Big Bus has much room for improvement.
The Good:
1) They got us out to Arlington National Cemetery and the National Cathedral safely.
2) The narration was fun, when live. Made me laugh.
The Bad:
1) The signage was awful (brown!), making it difficult to find the pick up spots.
2) The tickets themselves were receipts, making them easy to loose.
3) When the narration wasn’t live, the music was irritating.
4) The employees seemed distracted (by their i-​phones) and unhappy.
5) There was no way to tell when the bus might come.
As passengers before stated, it was a mixed bag. $ 57 for 48 hours would be a good price if Big Bus could step up the service & signage and get coordinated. I would strongly recommend that management consider the use of technology. A bus tracker would be awesome. The yellow phones the employees had for bus to bus communication weren’t cutting it (according to them).

Even though we have been in the DC area for 3 years, we decided to do a «cheesy bus tour». We actually enjoyed it a lot. We viewed more landmarks in an hour than our previous three years in the area. We started at union station. We also wished that we could have gotton off at certin stops (they don’t allow for this during the night tours).
So here are the negatives: no air conditioning, hard seats and a driver in a bad mood. I guess you get what you pay for. If you are looking for a chance to see a lot in a little time, and don’t need the most comfortable ride — this might be for you. My wife and I are used to city buses (some wiht out AC) So even though there was room to improve regarding the actual bus, and the cranky drive, it was still worth it to us.

This is not a tour, it is let’s see how many people we can cram on a bus so we can make more money. Plus the buses that had someone explaining the sites gave wrong information and many times it just seamed that they were making stuff up. Take our advise and stay away from this one.

It’s really a mixed bag. The day tour was good, times and routes were good and accommodating. For the night tour, We lucked out and showed up early at 6:30pm. And told when we bought tix it would board at 6:45. When we arrived we jumped in the line already boarding and got the last 4 seats. They did a great job showing us around, and to extend the tour to make sure we got to see things at night, and a few extra stops.

Sorry but no. dirty buses, lousy sound system, three people got whipped on top by tree branches, no attendant and $ 40 a person for the yellow tour which was mired in traffic.
No where near the quality of other on off tours we’ve taken.

We got the 2 day pass. We traveled on three of the four tours offered. Convenient pick up location near our hotel in Dupont Circle. The buses hit the tourism hot spots. Only one bus during our two days of hopping on and off had a live person narrating which was great because the pre-​recorded stuff skipped a lot of the sites and monuments/​statues. The live person could give extra detail. The pre-​recorded stuff is either played over the speakers or into headphones they hand out. It was very difficult to hear on the headphones even with the volume turned up.
Some buses had an attendant that helps people pay for their tickets but many times they are younger employees that listen to their music on the tour and don’t help out much. Some buses only had the driver and they have to stop the tour while the driver deals with credit cards and printing tickets etc. We got passed by 2 other buses while our driver checked in a group of 10.
The final thing that made us mad is that half the time they do not check tickets. At one stop we picked up a group of 50 (no kidding, I heard their chaperones say they had 50 kids) onto the bus without checking tickets. Many people enter the bus through the back exit doors.
It was worth it though to get to see all the sites.

Once again, Unilocal’s ratings were dead on. I’m normally skeptical of businesses that live off of tourists, but public transportation in DC is not very good considering how spread out all the points of interest are. So we had little choice but to choose one of the two hop on alternatives. The best thing that can be said was that the buses were clean and the ride uneventful.
Most of our time was spent waiting for buses that were very late or waiting while the bus was waiting for more passengers to show up. The recorded «tour guide» was a joke, and was screaming some lines for comedic effect.

So I actually bought my ticket for the double decker tour from my hotel (Washington Hilton). However, I’m reviewing my tour here because it doesn’t make sense to put it with my hotel review even if this isn’t the «location».
A few years ago I took the nighttime tour of the monuments and memorials and I freaking loved it. It was cold as hell but it was so cool to see the monuments lit up and not so crowded with people.
I wanted to do that AND this but plans got changed, pushed back, and it was literally the morning I had to leave and I was determined to do my double decker tour of DC.
I appreciate the guy at my hotel who helped me route my trip! He told me which lines to go on and what time I needed to be at Union Station to get back to my hotel in time to leave for the airport. Sadly because of my time limit, I only got to do two lines instead of four. It cost me $ 35 that would be for 24 hours. I wanted to give my ticket away to someone when I was done so they could enjoy the remainder of it but forgot until I got to the airport.
I only did the red and yellow lines and that alone took four hours! I literally made it back just in time. I enjoyed my first bus because I was all alone on the top deck. No one else wanted to brave the cold which was fine because that meant no big ass heads blocking my Instagram view haha. But damn, it was COOOOLD! I’m glad I opted for a hoodie that morning because I needed to block the wind from my head and cover my nose and mouth.
All my bus drivers were nice. And my first one even helped me out even more to make sure I got where I needed to be on time. THANX!
This is a great experience since I walked my ass off in DC. I needed a break.
I would not recommend doing this trip on the day you’re going to leave. I paid full price but couldn’t do two routes (luckily I had previously seen those things in 2008) and you need at least six hours to complete this tour. That is no BS.
I may come back to DC in the summer and if so, I’m doing this again. I think it’d be awesome to ride the top deck in the summer days with my Ray-​Bans on and flip flop chillin… I need to buy some Ray-​Bans though

Car travel in DC is never a good idea. So unless you want to try and get a cab to everything, you must find another way around town to do the touristy stuff. We chose this tour service because the yellow line was close to our hotel and it went all over the city.
I figure for the $ 45 we spent on a 24 hour pass we spent about as much as we would have for cabs to all the locations we wanted to go. So the cost wasn’t too bad. It would have been nice if you could use their 48 hour ticket on non consecutive days. But they don’t offer that and they don’t run 24 hours a day. So we basically got 6 hours use of our 24 hour ticket since we had plans on day 2 of our visit.
You can buy your tickets from the driver at any stop. So just try and find one and get on. Don’t lose your little paper reciept they give you! If you do you gotta pay all over again. Even though I’m not sure how they check to make sure everyone has it because people just rush the doors to get on as soon as they open.
Pros:
They go about everywhere around DC (not to the Supreme Court or Library of Congress) and stop at nearly every monument or museum you could want to see. That’s all we really wanted. We didn’t need a tour guide. If we did, we would have hired a private or better tour service. So if transportation is all you need, it’s perfect.
Cons:
Where the heck are the signs that tell you where the stupid bus stops? We just looked for the big group of people at a corner who looked upset they were still standing around and figured that was where we should be,
The more popular lines (red) busses at some of the more popular stops (Lincoln Memorial/​White House) were often full and we had to wait for a couple buses to come and go before we could get on one.
There wasn’t always any narration about what we were passing when we were in route to another stop. And any description beyong «there’s the Department of the Interior» was non existant.
The bus drivers are people too, we get that. But a couple of them were just non verbal and rude. The first gal who we bought our tickets from got frustrated with a lady who spoke little English and treated her very poorly. I should have stepped in but she rushed us through and told us we needed to sit down because she was getting behind schedule.
With so many cons, why 3 stars? Again, all we wanted was transportation from one place to another. Next time I think we’ll splurge like we do when we go birding and hire a private guide.

My wife and I booked the two day tour package. I booked the tour bus as a means for getting around DC and seeing the major sites. I wasn’t interested in a guided tour. The Hop On Hop Off bus was perfect for our needs. I cannot comment on the Blue of Yellow lines, as we stayed mainly on the Red line. We also passed on the river cruise as there were too many other sites on our list. We just didn’t have enough time.
One pleasant surprise was that they have free shuttles that stop at the main hotels north of the tour routes, so you don’t have to walk down to the nearest bus route stop or make your way all the way to Union Station. The shuttle buses don’t have air conditioning, but all of the buses on the Red line did have air.
I assume most of the buses have the pre-​recorded tour guide, which was fine as far as I was concerned, but we did hit a couple of buses on the Red line that did have a live tour guide and they were entertaining. There were many Red line buses and we never had to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for the next one to come around. All of the employees were very polite and helpful. I asked many questions and they were informative and the information was correct.
A word of warning, it can get very hot up on the top and the seats can be very hot when you first sit down. Although the top front seats look inviting, there is no breeze as you’re sitting behind a large windshield. I would recommend sitting further back to get a nice breeze. You also you get the best pictures from the top of the bus.
We never had a problem getting a seat on any of the buses, but sometimes you had to sit up top as the lower section was filled. We traveled during a heat wave, it was 90 – 100 every day so those lower level air conditioned seats filled up fast.
The only problem that we encountered was on the 2^nd day. We were waiting for the shuttle back to the hotel and the employee at the stop informed us that a shuttle broke down and was delayed. We decided to take the ½ mile walk back to the hotel rather than wait around.
P. S. — The hotel shuttles do not run as frequently as the tour buses. They only run on the hour so you have to time your departures accordingly. All and all, we were satisfied with the bus tour and would recommend it as a great way to get around DC and see all of the major sites.

We travel a lot and frequently start a new city with a hop on, hop off type bus tour to get the lay of the land. This is without a doubt the worst of these types of tours I have ever taken. The people that run it, all the way from the ticket sellers through the drivers could care less about their customers. The tour has minimal recorded information rather than a live narration. We happened to be visiting DC on a very hot and humid day. Waiting over an hour for the bus that is supposed to run every 20 minutes was not fun. The agent at the stop insisted that the buses run every 20 minutes. Even after we were there waiting for 45 minutes, we overheard her tell others that the bus would be there in 20 – 25 minutes. With buses running so infrequently you were assured of having an overflowing bus with some passengers standing.
Skip this outfit. There are many other options.

I had some friends in from out of town who had purchased passes for this line.
We took the the Yellow Line tour which was great.
Your ticket is valid for 24 hours!
If you pay attention, you will find a sign at each place the bus stops.
During the week it’s much easier as there is not a lot of traffic.
You get a great view of the National Cathedral and Embassy Row.
When you go through the Georgetown neighborhood, watch your head if you are on the top deck… lots of tree branches!

This bus tour allows you to cover the most ground in DC possible. I agree with a previous reviewer that the 2-​day unlimited deal is the best option. There are three different tours offered: red, yellow and blue. The unlimited tour also includes a free boat cruise starting April 15. We went before this date, so I can’t comment on how the boat tour was.
On the first day we took the entire red loop which centered around all of DC’s monuments and the Mall. It was a beautiful day and the top of the bus was perfect for viewing all the sites. The tour is given by an audio recording. This is an area that they could definitely improve. I’m not sure who was responsible for playing the recordings, but oftentimes they were played after you passed the landmark or somewhat randomly. I think people would be more satisfied if the tour was given live. Regardless, we took the entire red loop tour, which took about 2 hours and stopped for lunch in Chinatown.
On the second day, we took the yellow loop which went around Georgetown and the National Cathedral. Taking the bus was a great way to explore the area because there is no metro access out there and driving around there can be a huge headache. We stopped off an hung out in Georgetown for a few hours before hopping on again and finishing the tour.
There are tons of these buses in DC. We never had to wait long for one and they allowed us to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. If you want a live tour, then I think the Duck Tour might be a better option, but I haven’t tried it yet.

We tried this service Oct 4 & 5, 2010, and sadly have to agree with the other reviews in that the busses are few and far between. Once we realized how very long it could take to get another bus, we just stayed on for the whole tour (which was OK, but the CD skipped repeatedly in some parts). If I had it to do over again, I can’t say I’d chose to pay $ 75 for what we experienced… but if we’d chosen to do the night tour (my kids were too tired), it would have been worth the $$$.
The drivers were nice enough, and we did see things that we would not have seen if we’d just taxi’d it around (like the Einstein monument).

Poor. Really Poor. This is a company that defines the term tourist trap; get your money, provide the minimum, don’t worry they are leaving town tomorrow.
The tour is a recorded tape that is controlled by really poor quality GPS, which means it will interrupt it’s self to tell you a story from a different part of the tour, at least 3 or 4 times in an hour. The big selling point is that you can have 3 tours and a night tour. The 2^nd and 3^rd tour routes contain almost nothing (other than Arlington) that you would bother to see. We waited an hour in line for the he night tour which basically repeats the commentary from earlier in the day — so you just hear the same voice over but it’s dark. The bus didn’t stop long enough to get any pics at any point.
Finally, in an effort to keep costs low, the driver is the only member of staff so he collects fares at every stop, delaying the tour by 5 mins at every stop.

Horrible time on this bus
We decided on hop on hop off because of the double decker bus, but missed out on a live guide. Its an automated tour which really didnt have anything interesting to say.
The biggest problem was it was such a waste of a day. Everytime we got off and tried to get back on it would take 30 minutes to and hour. It was ridiculous at the end of the day we ended up just walking from georgetown to our hotel room and made if faster than the bus
Would recommend staying away from this company they do not have busses every 15 minutes

This was a very disappointing investment of vacation money and time. The buses were run down, and I have a memory of their garbage bag flying/​attacking my friend while were driving on the highway. While the buses have 3 routes, the buses were not well marked. We waited for one bus for 30 minutes. The fumes of the the idle bus was sickening. The employees tried to be helpful, but I got the sense that they were burned out with the company as well. I was disappointed by the recorded guide that was never in sync with the sites.
I can see the benefits of this type of touring. I would recommend the other company (trolley who has a live guide) if you need a motorized tour, but I would highly recommend the bike tour as an alternative.

I call this travel service the quantity not quality tour mobile! They have a lot of buses, they stop at all the tourist spots (almost), and they never sell out (because they will just keep packing them in).
Overall I liked the concept. I paid for 48 hours so had service starting at 3pm on a Thursday through 3pm on Saturday.
Thursday was wonderful and had no problems.
Friday the bus broke down and we eventually chose to disembark after a delay of 1 hour.
Saturday the driver was new and took a wrong turn after waiting in traffic around the tidal basin and she just kept on taking wrong turns and eventually she was in tears… again elected to disembark around the White House visitor center.
Again as I say quantity, not quality service.