Big Bus Tours

After researching both major tour buses for NYC (big bus tours and gray line), I decided on Big Bus because their fleet is 100% wheelchair/scooter accessible. We visited from Nov 7-11. The app was very handy. The staff at Madame Toussauds were great and gave helpful information. The bus reps at the stops very very helpful making sure we were all on the correct bus and were very accommodating to us. We had a large 16 person party and one scooter. The guides were funny and entertaining. Some were better than others but we enjoyed all of them. Each offered different information along the tour and all made sure we were comfortable and had earbuds. I was so worried after reading mixed reviews, but we were completely satisfied with this company and would recommend it! The bus stops were easy to find. We had NO problems at all hopping on and off and we did that a lot. We did the downtown tour two days and the uptown tour one day. We skipped the night tour and the cruise because it was so cold when we visited. Buses ran so frequently we never waited more than a few minutes at each stop/pick up. I would absolutely recommend this company!!

Our Washington DC night tour was a great experience. We are a family of 5 and our teenage kids really enjoyed the tour. It helps that they take interest in our history and keep up with current events. The only reason I could not give BigBusTours 5 stars is because some of the audio was not working and 2 of their bus tour guides were not very good. One gentleman didn’t seem to be prepared and was not as informed about the sites we were going by. Another guide, a lady, was difficult to understand. Overall, we didn’t really get to visit every site but big bus tours serves its purpose. They are hop on/off type of tour so it is impossible to go through all the sites just using this resource because of their daily schedule. I would have like it if they had 3 day passes. That would have been better.

I was only in San Francisco for 2 days and was looking forward to a great bus tour with a guide telling me all about the city. I paid $49 each for my daughter and myself because we were expecting an actual tour. The first bus we got on was so packed, we had to stand and couldn’t see a thing out the windows. We got out at the first stop just to get off. We skipped the next bus because it was just as full, and got on a nearly empty one that came up behind it. There was no tour guide, and the driver did not tell us that we needed ear buds to hear the recorded tour. Thank goodness that after we went over the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped, a guide got off another bus and gave us a choice to join him. FINALLY we got what we paid for and he was fabulous! Unfortunately, we had to get off after a few stops so we could get a different bus to the stop we needed to get to. Luckily we had a tour guide on that bus, too, but we missed so much of the tour beforehand. A crowded bus with no guide to explain the city was not what we paid for.

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My husband and I have done a few big bus tours in other cities. Chicago’s tours were great and even more fantastic was the covered top so we were not cold(and with the midday sun we were actually hot). However we got off to have lunch and while we were waiting we watched the app to see when the next bus would come. All the busses showed they were far away and we had plenty of time. So we waited and looked at the app, figuring when the bus was as the stop in front of us we would go to the stop. Suddenly the bus was coming! Since the busses run every 30/45 minutes it would be a looooong wait for the next one so my husband had to run to catch the bus. I can not physically run right now, so he asked them to wait for me, oh boy! He was told they run on a schedule and that they are tracked and they couldn’t wait very long for me. The next time we waited for the bus we watched the app, and lo and behold the bus was tracking that it was in the river! And again never showed up until we heard the tour guide BEHIND us. So the moral of the story, great tour, crappy app.

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I booked a day pass for myself and my husband while in France, last week, that included a river cruise. Because the bus driver did not print out my ticket for the boat we were unable to board, even though I had proof that we had paid for it. What’s more when I contacted the company they informed me that I was ineligible for a refund (I asked for a refund for my boat tickets alone, not for the bus) because I should have known to ask the driver to print them out even though that is their job. I assumed that the eTicket I had been using all day long was would have sufficed, boy was I wrong! What’s more the app included no directions as to how to find the boat we ended up having to ask for instructions from random strangers because the bus driver was completely unhelpful. With so many options for hop-on and off buses I highly recommend you go with anyone else other than this company. Worst customer service.