Big Bus Tours New York Reviews 4,568

TrustScore 2 out of 5

1.9

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Would NOT advice! You get a folder that says the bus goes every 30 minutes, later we got told, no it is every 1 hour and when you try to get on it, it is full, so you have to wait another hour. Which... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Positive: application that shows location of busses. Negative: in summer on upper level you burn in sun and lower level you cook in heat and don't see anything due to windows that do not open and... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Buses overcrowded. Ok if you want to sit inside downstairs and see nothing. Often queuing for long periods whilst buses come and go. Audio system inadequate and failed. Bus terminated on its route... See more

Company replied

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

2 days; 2 Adults & 2 Teens: 360USD. The experience did not live up to expectations, an outdated not service oriented experience! Sellers standing at route-stops generally 'sales-aggressive'. Drive... See more

Company details

Information provided by various external sources

Discover one of the most iconic cities in the world with our incredible Big Bus Tour of New York City. See all of the famous New York attractions, from the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty, in the comfort of one of our open-top buses. Don't miss the highlights of our hop-on, hop-off Day Tour. We have 3 great routes spanning the best neighborhoods, including Downtown, Uptown and Brooklyn. Our spectacular Night Tour lets you experience the city that never sleeps, showcasing the beautiful illuminations of Times Square, 5th Avenue and the Manhattan skyline. We have a variety of great tickets and packages to choose from, so you can make the most of your trip to the Big Apple. Our Big Adventure Pass gives you the choice of 2 or 3-day bus passes, with free admission to your choice of top New York attractions included, such as Madame Tussauds and the Statue of Liberty.


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1.9

Poor

TrustScore 2 out of 5

5K reviews

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Rated 4 out of 5 stars

We had experiences where a bus was…not available.

We had experiences where a bus was scheduled for a stop and a representative was also there but no bus showed up in an hour. The two people waiting with us said the same thing happened yesterday and they finally took a cab. That day they again had to take a cab. The representative did not have a phone was confused too.
On a second occasion we were trying to get on the blue route and three different busses told us the bus behind or the next bus was blue route. Finally as blue bus came after 30 minutes.

May 25, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

No knowledge tour

Nick our rep was only interested in marvel films refs and taking to Mickey out of your customers not impressed I would thought your reps were better informed

May 22, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Gary White,

All of our guides are schooled in presenting a commentary that is educational, as well as enjoyable, and while our guides do add their own spin on things to make their tours their own, it is not to be excessive. We take complaint seriously and such as please email us at infony@bigbustours.com and provide date and time of tour, description of the guide, any information that can be helpful so, we may investigate this incident further and ensure you this doesn't happen again.

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Big Bus consistently very good way to see the City sights.

I can highly recommend Big Bus Washington. Did the 2 day deluxe pass and added the night tour. Everything runs very smoothly. Live commentary’s are informative. We also did the Walking Tour from the White House Gardens which was very good and useful as far as gaining some history. Took the option of the Observation Deck as aposed to the water cruise. Really enjoyed that too and great views from the 32nd floor.
Have just arrived NYC and have also purchased a 2 day deluxe pass so hoping for the same professional experience here.

May 22, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Completely mediocre all round

Really subpar service all round. From their complete lack of communication at the main service point (we had drivers not even turn up for a bus we we're waiting on) to waiting at pick up points for over 45 minutes before a bus shows up. Every 20 minutes is a complete far fatched scenario. The only saving grace we had was one good tour guide in the 2 days we used this service, the rest were generally disinterested, shabbily dressed or just rude in general. Try one of the numerous other services that offer better deals on sites such as Groupon. It cannot be worse, so you have nothing to lose.

May 21, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Brian,

Thank you for sharing your Big Bus experience with us. We apologize for the delays you've encountered while we do our utmost to prevent such inconveniences. We know your time is crucial and we increase the amount of buses to our fleet in preparation of increased volume of passengers. We understand customer service is an important aspect in our business and anything less than professional will not be tolerated. As for the delays, we appreciate your patience at this time, due to ongoing construction in the 5th Ave area we're experiencing delays and route changes. This information is alerted to our passengers via our app and web. Nonetheless, the guide was to inform you of this prior to the tour, for that, we apologize. We hope this incident doesn't deter you from touring with us again.

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

What started out good ended bad.

I would recommend you train your customer reps. They kept sending us from one block to another to board a downtown bus. Also be prepared for festivals and parades. The bus we were on had to stop before it reached its destination and none of the reps knew which bus was going where. We were headed back to midtown after getting on near One World Trade Center and got stuck at 57th Street with no way to get back. We bailed the bus and rode the subway back to our hotel. I’m afraid I won’t be riding the big bus tour anymore. I have it 3 stars because the ride itself was enjoyable and the tour guides were friendly.

May 20, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Will be better off walking.

Unable to get on or off due to the queing to get back on. Impossible. Totally inane commentary not particularly interested in window cleaners and are we really interest in a man walking a dog. If you are mobile walk much quicker and you will see more.

May 5, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Frank,

Our hop-on, hop-off service allows guests to get on and off the bus, should they want a more hands-on experience, but also gives guests the ability to stay on board if they just want an overall tour of the city. Unfortunately, we can not force anyone to hop-off, which causes limited seating and an increase in wait time. Our guides also go through an extensive training to present a commentary that is both informative as well as entertaining. It is disappointing to hear, the guides in your tour didn't adhere to that. We assure revaluations will take place. We hope to redeem ourselves and welcoming you back in the future.

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Best way to see New York

Best way to see the city to familiarise with it. The information from the tour guides is very informative and some are very entertaining.
The tours help you plan the rest of your stay or if time is short you will see the main attractions.

May 4, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

First and last time I’ll use this Big Rip-off Bus

First and last time I’ll use this bus. It was a total rip-off. I paid almost $200 USD for 4 of us to go from Battery Park to Times Square to get the “night bus” at mid-Town, where the operator told us we could tour the mid-town and up-town areas. It was almost 7 pm when we arrived at Times Square. When the evening bus arrived the operator said the evening bus only goes from Times Square to the Bronx......basically where we just came from. And, the bus stops operation at 9pm. So it cost us $200 for nothing. Total sham.

May 1, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon LEWIS HYDE,

Please know, that we do not scam, lie or coerce our guests into making a purchase. We would never jeopardize our good reputation in doing so. We apologize for any confusion, the Night Tour, we offer, is a 90-min panoramic tour with one pick up and drop off location. It operates from 7th Ave to using 5th Ave to Brooklyn via the Manhattan bridge and then back using 6th Ave. The final tour of the night leaves it's first stop at 9 pm and we do not travel to the Bronx.

All this information is provided on our website, app and brochures. We strive to offer exceptional service so it's always disappointing to hear when someone doesn't have the best Big Bus experience possible. None the less, we do hope to see you again in NYC or any of our other Big Bus cities!

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Bad Tour Experience

Pre-purchased passes online for 04/23/2019 1 day tour ,once arriving for the tours,frequently (4 -5 x ) could not board the bus because it was full, had to walk on foot from site to site. once finding a bus to board, there was
no A/C and a lot of fumes on a 70+ degree day on multiple buses of the hop on hop off tour, this tour had been highly recommended for its convenience,I honestly hesitate to make a positive recommendation based on this
experience, this was April , I hope they fix their A/C on the buses
before summer the buses were full to capacity and it was very uncomfortable, very disappointing. We were really looking forward to enjoying this tour.

April 28, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Cynthia,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We try our best to prevent long waits for our guests. Although, we try to accommodate to all kinds of passengers with our hop- on and hop-off service while still allowing passengers to stay on board to enjoy a fun and historical commentary from a live guide and we also add to our fleet in times of high volume of guests to prevent these inconveniences.

Unfortunately, we can not force any passenger to hop-off, which causes limited seating and an increase in wait time. In regards to the A/C, we serves our buses daily to avoid these type of issues, please email us at infony@bigbustours.com bus numbers, route or time of tour to remove this buses from rotation and ensure the issue is corrected immediately.

Kind Regards,
BBNTY

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Good overview of city.

Very hard to hear. Earphones are not very good quality and some ear connections broken.
I wasnt able to understand what tour guide was saying. Deborah and Charles Corcoran were clear and entertaining and I enjoyed them the most.

April 27, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Not enough buses for the price we paid

Not enough buses for the price we paid! Long waiting times for each bus and we rarely managed to sit up top. One of the busses even had a strange darkened pattern on the windows making it hard to see anything and certainly not take photos😒

April 24, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Sarah Raich,

Although, our tours experience a large volume of customers, we monitor the demand and plan a greater number of buses during busier times to avoid long waits for our passengers and we carry out exhaustive tests to estimate the time of our routes and the large number of passengers . Most of the time, our tours adhere to the estimated time, there are times when traffic can be unpredictable and, unfortunately, we can not force any passenger to go down, which causes a limited number of seats and an increase in wait.

In regards to your vision in the bottom level, we're sorry to hear your vision was limited because of the ads on the windows. They are made keeping guests sight in mind, however if yours was in any way impacted, we apologize. We understand your time is important and we hope this incident doesn't deter you from touring with in the future.

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

The ticket package I received was not…

The ticket package I received was not the one I thought I was buying online. The Circle Line cruise included in the package was only available ONCE per day. Tickets to attractions could only be picked up at one location near me and this was not a stop on any of the tours. Our tour guide was not great--did not seem to know a lot, not a great presenter, very distracted. During the first part of the tour we stopped every few minutes to pick up new passengers and the presentation paused for 5 minutes. The red line tour was supposed to last 2 hours, we were stuck in traffic and passenger pick-ups for three hours. We almost hopped off because we were bored. In our three-day deluxe package, we only used one tour. It was a waste of money.

April 22, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Christine M,

We're sorry for the lack of information, the Liberty Cruise departs daily from Pier 83 but you can also take board the cruise from Pier 16 on South St and John St. This pier has multiple departures throughout the day. You only have to go to the welcome center if you purchased your tickets from a third-party vendor or if you have attractions included. In regards to your guide, we have licensed guides who all go through extensive training to provide our guest with an enthusiastic commentary that is both informative and enjoyable, filled with rich and interesting facts about NYC.

We do understand your time is important, and unfortunately, we cannot control the NYC traffic, which can be unpredictable. Our hop-on, hop-off service allows guests to get on and off the bus, should they want a more hands-on experience, but also gives guests the ability to stay on board if they just want an overall tour of the city. We do our very best to try to accommodate all types of guests, so we are sorry to hear you didn't have the best Big Bus experience possible. We hope we can do better next time!

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

less than mediocre experience

Had a 2 day ticket and the first day was awful - audio didn’t match up to the sights, stops didn’t have signed to show where you were getting picked up, App wasn’t showing the real time buses and they were running really really slow. The boat cruise is really just a water taxi and not what I had thought e.g. with someone telling you what you were looking at. On the bus info it didn’ttell you where it was going or what you could have done when you got there as there are different stops, another part of their poor standard. The second day not actually expecting much but had paid the ticket so went on it there was an actual person on the bus giving the narrative which was so much better. Not on any other bus we got on so overall I would recommend going with another tour company that had live narrative and much more organised than this tour company.

April 20, 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from Big Bus Tours New York

Good Afternoon Therese Craig,

Our company values our guests’ experience. Please email us at infony@bigbustours.com and provide bus number, date and time of tour and guide, rest assured your feedback has been sent to the appropriate department heads so that they may further investigate and address it accordingly. As for the Liberty Cruise is apart of Cruise Line Sightseeing, we apologize if the description didn't match the experience.

Kind Regards,
BBTNY

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent way to learn about the city

Excellent way to learn about the city, Kids loved sitting up top
Only issue is when we were hopping back on , conductor asked to see our “ printed ticket” which we never has one as everything was digital on our mobile app. Supposedly that was supposed to have benn given to us when we started our trip. He stil let us on after ssveral discussions.Otherwise great mode

April 18, 2019
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Inaccurate app and map stops

I previously purchased the classic ticket online & down loaded your app. On April 12, 2019 we arrived in midtown Manhattan & wanted to immediately get on a Hop on Hop off big bus tour. We saw several big buses but finding the stops was a little difficult. None of the buses were stopping at the map or app stop that we had chosen to use. We finally decided to walk to the start of the route and Start the tour. While on the tour we found out from the guide that the routes are changing and the app and map stops are not accurate.

April 14, 2019
Unprompted review

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