Big Bus Tours London — Attraction in London

TLDR, go with the other services in town, ticket inclusions are much more clear, stop side staff are happy to help you, it's less busy in the buses, drivers are cheerful, and a 48hr pass is cheaper then a 24 hour pass for this option.

We always wanted to try one in London and questioned on of the agents at the stops about the tour and he said we could do unlimited tours for a full day pass for up to 24 hours. He directed us to the website and even chose the tour for us on the website since online had a sale. We bought tickets and proceed to get on the bus and the driver isnt checking tickets for anyone getting on infront of us but we held it up to the driver anyway as he stared out the front window, once we passed the driver I put my ticket back in my pocket and he yells back "hey you, ticket", I said sorry and we showed him our ticket again and he wasn't rude but came back with a snarky comment saying "how am I supposed to check your ticket if it's in your pocket", then we get in the bus and there is nowhere to stand, so a poor mom goes upstairs with her kids and the driver starts moving immediately, then the driver screams "no standing in the top deck" and one of the boys starts to cry. Absolutely nowhere to sit until the main stops which are about 45 minutes apart since not many people get off, there is an audio tour that many will sit through for many hours. When we finally got to sit down there is an audio tour you can plug into with provided headphones, but it's a bunch of random stories about buildings that you can't identify because the audio tours don't identify what or where you should be looking at. The back of the seats had an app we decided to check out, at which point we found out that the tickets the agent sold us were only good for the same day instead of the 24hrs we requested, so we spent 30 pounds for 3 hours of usage since we got our tickets around 2 and the busses end at 5. We hopped off to see one spot and spoke to another bus stop agent, and he directed us to the online service center to upgrade our ticket from single day to 24hrs, and the online service center directed us back to the agent, who finally upgraded our ticket, but it was almost double the price for only 24hrs since he charged us another 30 pounds Overall bad experience.

Decided to cut ties since our experience was so stressful, and we are so glad we went with another hop on hop off option in town, even thought we had...

Perfect way to simplify seeing the main sights in London! We booked online easily the 24 hour tour. So here is how it went and what we did that made it great:

Download the app, once they activate the pass from your email you see the buses in real time, there are a lot of them. Makes timing hop ons much easier.

There is a free map as well we got on bus that saved the phone batteries when we just wanted the overview.

Go to any stop and look for one of their employees. If none are there just show the email to the bus driver. They activate the pass and give you a receipt that acts as your on-board pass. Keep that handy!

On the bus are free headsets to listen to tour audio. We didn't do that but it's in several languages and plugs in at the seat. One bus just played the audio over the speaker which was fine as well.

Bus will move before everyone is seated so hold the handrails at all times!

We did the red line that hit all the major points like Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace.

We got off the bus at 16, walked through the park and took iconic photos of Tower Bridge. Then we got great fish & chips from a local restaurant. It's a short walk across bridge and worth it for more views and photos. Once across follow road around to 17. On other side of Bridge you will see all you need for a window tour of Tower of London. Watch the app and time the next bus to hop on!

We got off the bus at 23, walked through St James Park getting the Buckingham Palace pics then across to 1 and back on bus.

We got off the bus on 6 to walk down the high end shopping district, and stopped in Hamleys Toy Store, 5 levels of cool and bathroom, pizza and ice cream on top floor. Got back on at 8.

We got back off the bus at 9, hit the Leo, Monet, Van Gogh masterpieces in the National Gallery then back on bus.

You will get exquisite views of Big Ben from the bus at several angles a few times so stay on bus where the red line comes near.

We never waited more than 10 min, and usually just jumped right on because we used the live tracking app to time our stops.

Don't be grumpy, smile, thank the drivers, enjoy the day. Great supplement to saving walking time. It was well worth the...

We had a 2 day explorer pass. The river cruise was great and we appreciated the captain’s live commentary along the route. This is the 5th major city we have taken a Big Bus Tour and the use of the prerecorded audio track is a true disservice to your business. Many times it was glitchy, would just stop randomly and start over, or just play classical music (how many times do we need to hear pomp and circumstance!) for hours on end. Some of the buses played more of the tour facts than others. The facts were very surface level and honestly felt very much like an ai generated podcast. Pre-covid, our favorite part of the tours were the amazingly unique tour guides that interacted the guests, answered questions, gave recommendations, and made the experience truly spectacular. I loved that you learned about the character of a city and this audio tour just doesn’t cut it. For the cost of your tour and the volume of people you service, you should improve this. The drivers were all excellent! We were on the tour during a series of large diversions due to a protest and our bus driver was amazing at trying to find an alternate route, and get us back on track. At one point, he even got out to help direct traffic to help another bus who was stuck! Your staff is excellent, so trust them to lead a interactive tour! Otherwise, there is really no benefit to your service over a city bus. EDITED REVIEW: We took the evening tour tonight and I had to update my review. Such a better experience! The audio track had a ton of new material and it was constantly narrating the entire way. I would still prefer a life version but it felt much more engaging than it was during the day. Traffic is much better at this time of night and without starting and stopping it makes for a really enjoyable way to see the city. I highly recommend doing the night tour! The day pass is a great way to get around the city but use the night tour for the guided tour! Plus, the London sky at night is beautiful! I’m happy to hear that you are considering bringing back the live tour guides because I think this can only make your business better and put you ahead of the other...