Colorbüs Marseille — Attraction in Marseille

If you are like me trying to sift through recent reviews either before or after you had purchased tickets, and the comments give you cold feet than assurances, I’d say give it a try (for what’s worth, I’ve done over 200 reviews and am tough but fair in my reviews, and I feel this service was quite acceptable)!

The caveat is that everything is timing and the season, day and time of day all play a factor. I started the tour at around 10:30am and there was a short line but after a full loop back to stop #1 at around 12:30pm, all passengers got on the bus with spots left inside, and no one was left waiting outside.

Key points that may help you (as i couldn’t find any of these details beforehand):

There are indeed 2 lines at stop #1 - one with pre-purchased tickets (left side) and one to purchase tickets (right side). Both eventually converge at the front. There is not really any AC (occasionally a whiff of cool air could be felt) and could get quite warm. Once again, bring your own headset or just enjoy the view (overheard some guests yelling at driver that the staff didn’t mention that at stop #1 when people buy tickets there but it was very clear online). There are 14 stops. No limit how many loops you want to hop-on-hop-off, except until closing time. There is no stop option from the cruise port (shuttle drop off & pick up area). The closest stop is either before #13 (a left from the shuttle drop off area where the white tents with merchants are by the traffic light), or after at #14 (a right from the shuttle drop off area where the orange bear statue is), but you need to walk for 5-7 mins from or to either stop. It makes sense to have a stop outside the shuttle drop off area but looks like they piggyback their signage on existing city bus stops and there is currently no city bus stop outside where it seemed logical to have one! It remains unclear if you can actually scan your e-ticket at any stop. In one review comment, the company said you can either scan e-ticket or convert to paper ticket from stop #1. I did NOT see any machine on the bus with the driver so I’d say walk to the main stop and join the “fun” line to scan your ticket by a staff and they will give you a thermal receipt. Note: unlike some hop-on-hop-off buses like in Barcelona or Cartagena, there is no attendant inside; just a driver. The Colourbus sign is tiny attached to the regular city bus stop signs (in some cities like Barcelona and Cartagena, the signs stand on its own and stand tall). No nearby washroom outside shuttle bus drop off & pick up area, unless you go to the main stop #1 where they have a public washroom booth located at the far back near the stairs to the yellow apartment building. The ability to track the bus “feature” real time is only relevant if you are on the bus. May be just me but I interpreted that feature as tracking any hop-on-hop-off bus fleets they have to determine when a bus is coming to the stop you are waiting at (that would be value add!) Expect no frills service from driver. The roads are small and traffic is quite congested with aggressive drivers on the road, so the driver did amazing job getting everyone through safely without incident. Beyond that, it’s hit and miss. My mom has mobility issue and driver was fairly empathetic, which meant a lot.

Do better (for Colorbus): Consider lobbying the city of Marseille to put in a stop at cruise port where shuttle bus drops off and picks up cruise passengers. It makes logical sense! Be consistent with stop announcement - just say “This is Stop #” and/or add stop names on the app (no point tracking the bus real time if you can’t tell what stop it is). And have capacity to track bus fleets whereabouts so people know when the next bus is coming. Be consistent with service and crowd control (two staff holding up the line as they were waiting for a customer to “search” for their e-tickets that turned out to be no...

I have taken more than 20 open top tour buses in different cities all over the world, and Colorbus Marseille was by far the worst and most disappointing experience I have ever had on a tour bus. I purchased our tickets online for both routes (red and blue) only to find out when we arrived onsite that only one of the two routes was operating that day. When I went to the main booth and asked them to refund the extra amount I paid for the second route that wasn't operating that day I was told they could not provide the refund, and that I would have to contact the website team for a refund. That seemed odd, but we went about the tour. On the one route that was running this particular day, the audio was out and not working on 4 of their 5 buses, which we didn't find out about until we had already stood in a line for over 1 hour to get on the bus. So we paid for two routes with audio guide, and what we got was an hour long wait to ride one route with no audio. Later that day I contacted the web team to get the refund for the second route they did not provide that day, but sold anyway. Since my initial contact with the website team, I have spent a bunch of time emailing them over and over trying to get the refund. At first they responded, but kept giving me the run around asking for ridiculous information about my bank. They refused to answer my constant question about why they couldn't just refund the credit card I paid with like ever other vendor in the world does. After multiple emails giving me the run around, they just stopped responding altogether.

Do yourself a favor - avoid this disaster tour group. The service is terrible, and they outright scammed me by selling me tickets online for a tour they were not offering that day, and then have avoided refunding me the amount I paid for the second route they didn't offer. Scam company. Stay away. Tour Marseille some other way, you will...

If I could give less than one star I would. Arranged through a shore excursion and thought it would be a nice way to see Marseille. A bus tour, a stop at Notre Dame but it was far from pleasant!

From the moment we got on the bus it was a shambles, hurried on the bus ‘we are late and we will not be stopping!’ That’s not what we paid for, they were too late to help with the app and played the audio guide through the speakers.

I have been on many hop in hop off buses and the details in the audio guide were like they had been prepared by pre-school kids.

The driver was clearly in a rush, taking all corners wide and very very fast, no thought taken that he had passengers on board.

After one loop we were thrown off the bus and told we had to walk to the shuttle bus (they were meant to drop us there) yet again we were told quick we are late! Was told the wrong location for the shuttle bus which resulted in us waiting over 40 mins at the wrong stop.

I should also mention that we we drove past the stall in which they sell tickets there were over 100 people waiting, as we drove past one of the assistants ran to the bus to ask what I assume is to hurry up. It was very obvious at this point that they thought they could use the cruise excursions as a way to make extract money. If you take on cruise excursions you need to have capacity and not impact any customers including the ones from the cruise and at the stop!

Clearly providing great customer service is not a value, just in it for money.

Have provided feedback to cruise company to remove from...