Big Bus Tours London Reviews 11,161

Poor frequency of bus, poor connectivity of the lines

We went on the Christmas Light tour last night in London. I don’t normally remember to leave reviews but I made a not to this time as I was so impressed with the company. There were issues with some protests in London and so the bus had to re route, so therefore there was a delay to getting on. The operator on the road called Omar had such a nightmare. He must have had 200 odd people who he had to walk (in a line) to a different destination spot, and most of these people were seething, not gating in the line and being agro, which understandable as it was cold and they’d been waiting ages. BUT, no one’s fault right, protests are unpredictable. Omar deserves a medal, seriously, he was so calm and together and fair, dropping people pushing in as well! I mean he must have gone home exhausted. I hope the company see my review and give him a Xmas bonus! The trip itself was so much fun, London traffic, hordes of people, freezing cold, but it wasn’t raining, Josie our guide who live talked was full of great info and jolly, we had Xmas music banging .. and the Xmas lights in London have to win ..whole explerience banging. Only thing that could have been better was to sell hot toddie or hot chocolate on board 😉🎄
We went on a few of these bus tours around the world and Big Bus is the best by far, particularly the headphones and audio but especially their app which is how an app should work right! All round excellent evening so thanks Big Bus !

What lovely staff you have working on your tour busses, they were so helpful, polite and lovely to talk to. They told us where to go and gave us so much information! Couldn’t recommend enough! Rushi and Phill what lovely gentlemen!

Big bus tours will let you:
- purchase a ticket online
- add the ticket to your phone’s wallet
- let you manage your ticket via their app

However, they will give you a receipt-like piece of paper at the beginning of the tour and not mention that this paper is in fact your ticket.

This means when you board another bus you are denied entry unless you can show your physical ticket despite all of the above digital information.

It is a very strange thing to be duped into believing that your ticket is digital and then caught in a “gotcha” moment, when you cannot show the physical ticket.

We feel robbed of 170 AUD on a tour in Sydney and we can only recommend you take the much cheaper public bus and avoid this company.

One thing I might add is that they were willing to compensate us with one ticket despite the fact that we were 2 people.

Every one on Big bus was very helpful especially Humraz

Avoid!!!
Very rude staff. Horrible !
Always waiting more than 30min in every station meanwhile bus from other companies are very frequent.

Evening tour itself was great, however the check in process was horrible. We arrived at the first stop at 630 to get in line. The employee confirmed we were in the right spot. Others started arriving after us and a line formed. Around 7 another employee arrived and directed us to wait in another location. He then started pulling other groups to the beginning of the line. We told him we had been first and had been waiting since 630. He said these people had checked in earlier in the day and he told them they could leave and come back and get in the front of the line. He was very rude and condescending. He said no one told us to stand in line, even though the first employee confirmed we were in the correct spot and the second employee wasn’t there until at least 30 minutes later. He ended up arguing with several groups of people who were also complaining about the seemingly arbitrary way he was deciding to load people on the bus. Very disappointing start to the tour, I’d suggest if the policy is that you can “check in” and save a spot in the line that should be clear and communicated, as well as have the employee there consistently so they know when all guests arrive. Since he wasn’t there at 630 when the line started forming it seems he had an incomplete view of the situation and handled it poorly.

Awful experience
The bus was so full there were 20+ people standing on the lower deck alone.
No commentary as you couldnt plug in the earplugs while standing and couldn't see a thing while in the middle isle of the bus.
Got off and tried the next bus and it was crowded as the first.
Expensive tickets and a big waste of money. I requested a refund and they refused.

The company will charge you this huge amount to see London and before its even evening they will say it won't go to the destination and will be stopping in between as the end of the tour. If you big bus can't handle the tours don't misguide your customers

DREADFUL! LONDON 19th August
We had prebooked . There was a bus waiting with no driver. The chap who was booking in had disappeared.
The next two bus were full to overflowing!
People were pushing to get up stairs where there was no room!
The route did not follow the printed route!
We got off after two stops. The commentary was rubbish just pure drivell !
Not at all happy !
Can I have refund?

Company has terrible support. I waited hours for a bus (In Sydney) and they told me it's a normal occurrence.

This is my second time to London last year when I was here I didn't get on any of the Buses until last Monday and I did the night tour my first one it was great. I decided to go on one time tonight 8/ 11/ 23 my last night in London fly home Sat after noon to the States. CHRIS did the Narrating Chris did an excellent Job. I Forgot the Drivers name . He did an excellent job too. I thoroughly enjoyed London again and I enjoyed the Big Bus Toyrs also. Thank You Susan From Utah USA

We booked a package via GetYourGuide in London; hop-on-hop-off-bus (Big Bus), boat trip across the Thames and a ride in the London Eye. Nice activities.

What is good to know is that you can catch the Big Bus at any of the stops along the blue, green or red line. No need to go to the central point (near London Eye) as GYG advised. Just download the Big Bus app and check the nearest stop. There are people from Big Bus at every stop that can validate your bus ticket. Also good to know: the bus ticket is valid for 24-hours, so if you start in the afternoon of one day, you can hop-on again the next day.

The explanation via de headphones was very nice, sometimes a bit late, so you missed a building, but I guess that can be caused due to traffic being fast or maybe slow sometimes.

There is a big difference as to the hospitality of the check-in people though. One hardly says a word and is not particularly friendly, whilst the other is really friendly and helpful.

The boat trip was fun, with a real funny tour guide.

Driver decided to nudge me (80kg) with their bus (12,000kg) whilst I was naked, on a bike, partaking in the World Naked Bike Ride - a planned, authorised and internationally recognised protest, causing disruption for approximately ten minutes.

It is exactly this behaviour that unfortunately we were protesting against. Avoid.

This tour is really not worth the cost. It has an incredibly irritating commentary that we stopped listening to because we just couldn't stand it. A better option is to simply get on a regular red London bus, sit upstairs at the front and go where it takes you.

We booked Explore Tickets for three of my friends that came for the first time to London and did not speak English. They are in their 60s, and one of them has a disability, so we thought that your service would allow them to enjoy the city and overcome any mobility/language barriers.
They were excited about the NIGHT TOUR, seeing the city lights while hearing the explanations in Spanish. However, at this time of the year, the tour runs too early to be called a night tour, and when they were on the bus, they noticed that there was a live guide but no Spanish translation/commentary.
Only when they asked on the bus, were they given the information that the three WALKING TOURS offered in their tickets would also not be available in Spanish either.
This meant that during the night bus, they could not understand anything that was being said and that they had to give up on going for the walking tours as they would not be able to understand the guide.
They found the situation repeated when they took the RIVER CRUISE. There was live commentary, but it was only in English.
The information provided at large on your website is such that people expect to have the Spanish service provided throughout, but this is not the case in reality. This is misleading marketing practice which is penalised by law in the UK.
The service provided in Spanish did not even cover what is offered on your most basic Discovery Ticket. Thus, we request a full refund for their tickets: three Explore tickets for a total of £175.

In Bologna we decided to catch the 17.20 little motorised train to visit the Basilica Di San Luca. The train was so fast by the time it got round to telling us places of interest in English we were long gone. There was not enough time to visit the Basilica and because it was the last train (but we didn't realise it was until we were on our way) we couldn't risk being stuck miles up a hill in the middle of nowhere. €24 - complete waste of money.

Pathetic service and total waste of money.
On top of it, the green link drivers specially are just as rude as it can be. One of the driver started abusing us and we need to tell him to respect passengers. What a shame when someone takes the bus for good experience and got this from big bus driver itself.
And the information of stops are not at all clear. Avoid and take public transport instead.

This was a nice experience I mean I was on a bus with no roof! Very fun but it was very pricy, and I thought it was a bit much. You can take excellent photos from the view! So quite happy.