Big Bus Tours Philadelphia Reviews 411

We booked this tour along with others in New York and Washington.
The day started well and our first guide, Mike, who liked his history, art and food, was very good. In fact during the day we ended up on his bus another 2 times. However, the same could not be said of the other guides. The guy who took us around the Zoo Loop had a serious Sinus problem and was continually "snorting". I hate to think what the people from Austria who were on the bus with us, must have thought. It was extremely off putting.
We then hopped onto another bus to take us downtown and to Penns Landing. Well this tour guide, a young lad wearing a hoodie, and the driver, must have been on some sort of mission to see how fast they could get around the city. They seemed to have no intention of stopping and we struggled to get them to stop for us. Those two guides really spoilt our day. They could do with taking a leaf out of Mike's book

The tour itself was fine. However, due to a Labor Day festival in town and associated road closures, about 25% of the tour was not available. We were originally told that they would have a shuttle to take us to the Eastern State Penitentiary/Art Museum area. When we came back to get the shuttle we were told that they were not offering it after all. So we had to walk to the area we wanted to see (about 2 miles each way). While the road closure situation was not their fault, they could have done better with the situation. They basically said, “Sorry” and offered no solutions, discounts or refund for their inability to take us to the area we wanted to see. I would recommend that people buy their tickets on site and not from the website so they know fully what they are getting.

On the positive, the tour was informative and covered a lot of ground. The double decker is a cool way to see the city. On the negative, the buses were not on a regular schedule. We waited over 30 minutes at one of the stops. Another one had more frequent buses (about 20 minutes) but there were so many people that we couldn’t get on... thus we waited for yet another bus to come. We had multiple guides which were great, but Ruth was rude. She refused to answer questions stating she had to follow her tour, and treated people like they were all misbehaved children.

Wonderful way to see the city for a first visit! Tour guides were informative and very helpful. Drivers were excellent at maneuvering through the construction and traffic. One issue: We downloaded the app to use but the app had places like Abu Dhabi and Istanbul but no Philadelphia.

All the buses we used were right on time. The app doesn't work for Phili to track the buses

Great way to see the city when handicapped in walking ability!

Our tour guide was like, a retired worker from Drexel University. He and his driver were awesome! Mike was friendly, interactive And knowledgeable. We learned a lot about Philadelphia and enjoyed our experience.

Well organize tour, no delays, interesting see sites.
We had a very entertaining, and knowledgeable tour girl.

The tour guide was amazing and extremely knowledgeable. The bus driver was great. The tour was wonderful. I would highly recommend this tour.

Very efficient and informative - would highly recommend!

I took Big Bus in Philadelphia. The app in the Google Play store did not have Philadelphia as one of the cities I could select, making the app worthless. I made the reservations on the website, which was very hard to navigate (booking confirmation kept timing out). I had to hunt for the operating times (only 10 am to 5 pm, seems really short to me) and there was no indication that although the bus starts at 10 am, if you are boarding at a later stop it could take (as it did) 45 minutes for the first bus to get to you. The website did not have information about the bus tracking website (phillytour.com), which would have allowed us to get coffee had we known it would be so long a wait. Also, the website booking had no information about senior rates, and I had to book two seniors at the full adult rate. I only found out about the tracking website (which had confusing symbols and didn't seem to know where the buses were) and the senior rates when we got on board and got the paper booklet. Also, the bus for the Zoo Loop was enclosed, had very loud engine noise, and very hot inside. On the plus side, the guides were friendly and engaging, and the route went past the important sites.

Bus tour was good. However guy spoke too quick at times

The bus, tour guides and stops were great. But, the bus did not come at the 45 minute intervals. We timed it so that we would be at the bus stop 10 minutes before pick up time, we waited 90 minutes for the next bus. This happened 4 times in 2 days. One day we had to walk back to our hotel because after 2 hours, the bus did not come. Granted it was only 8 blocks, but I'm 71 years old and it was quite a hike. Would I book with the Big Bus again, yes, but I would have a back up plan just in case, like a taxi.

Saw so much on our 2 day tour. Mariam, our awesome driver, and Zane our super knowledgeable tour guide, were great! I’d recommend this company for sure! We hopped on and off at several stops and enjoyed them all! Also appreciated the local food recommendations and short cuts to walk to our destinations!

The tour guide was very good, helped make the tour very interesting

The plastic top is fun for cold day but difficult to take clear picture. The guide was excellent and funny.

Done these now in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington and now Philadelphia. The guides are great and they give you a chance to get your bearings and work out what you want to go and see.
Always good.

Terrible customer service! I purchased 3 tickets online for a Sunday tour with international guests. Four others in our groups were planning on purchasing the tickets there. We arrived and walked from bus to bus- all had padlocks on the doors with no explanation. All the advertisements on the busses and online say the busses run daily. I called customer service. The voice message said they were assisting other callers and would get back to me by 10 AM the following day. That did not happen; no return phone calls from the several messages I left. Another woman and her daughter that purchased the tickets online were visiting from out of state, and flying home that night. They had already checked out of their hotel, and were also left in the lurch. This is a disgrace for a tour bus company representing the city of Philadelphia, as well as unacceptable customer service. Absolutely terrible!