Big Bus Tours New York — Attraction in New York

Big Bus tours are a great, convenient and fast way to see NYC if you are short of time and want to see as many attractions as possible. We were visiting NYC in April 2023 from Bengaluru, India. We took the Downtown tour as it has many attractions of interest to us. We enjoyed our ride and will definitely recommend it to others in the future.

Some pointers for first-time users of Big Bus tours in NYC. The Downtown tours starts from 9 am - 5 pm, so start early if you want to make the most of the hop-in and hop-off experience. The Big Bus App gives live bus tracking and is very useful in letting you know the waiting time before the bus arrives at the stop for your next hop-in. Some stops may have a queue of people waiting to board, so patience is a must. This is expected as some attractions attract more people than others. Try to go to the upper deck for a better viewing and photo op experience. Incase you are part of a group, it may not be possible for all in the group to find seating at the upper deck, at the same time. Wait for the next bus (usually comes every 15 minutes) or occupy the seats in the upper deck in turns, as and when it becomes vacant. Most attractions are a short walking distance from each stop. Always keep your mobiles with you to locate each attraction from your stop and back again.

Some suggestions to Big Bus. These are my personal views.

It would be great if the pre-recorded audio has a more professional feel with more interesting facts and a quality narrative. Perhaps highlighting 5 or more very unique facts about each attraction as bulleted / numbered text should interest and wow the audience. This could be the key differentiator from the rest of your tour bus competitors. Facts need to be refined / updated at regular intervals. A small-sized free pamphlet (picked up from the bus) with photos of some key attractions with bulleted / numbered pointers for these attractions would be great. A visual representation of the bus with photos of key attractions placed to the left and right of the bus visual should be most sought after by riders as they can accurately know what attraction to expect in advance ie. which attraction is next in line to be viewed when seated in the bus. To me, visuals go a long way in creating a more impactful ride. The current one-fold pamphlet (see visual) could be improvised to a two-fold pamphlet with photos of key attractions with 5 key pointers for each attraction. Riders need to associate and know what they are viewing. Photos incorporated in the pamphlet should preferably be the exact representation when viewed by the user as he/she sees it from the bus. The pre-recorded audio needs to be better in-sync with the stops and has to clearly instruct users when to turn to their right or left to view the key attractions. The recording has to be clearly audible with an acceptable pace using simple language/words known to all viewers across the globe. Coordinated sync of audio, photo and key pointers at each stop will make an even greater riding...

My husband and I were in NYC for a short time over the weekend. We only had 3 hours before our flight and decided to take advantage of the reduced ticket price offered for a shorter tour. We purchased online then set out to stop 8. We kept checking the app which said bus was arriving or 5 mins out. A bus never showed. We waited over 30 minutes before walking to stop 9 with our luggage/backpacks to catch the next one. We waited about 20 minutes and again, no bus in sight. We hauled our belongings to stop 10 where we met one of your staff members. He scanned my app (one hour after originally setting out to hop on) and provided us with a ticket. We inquired about stops 8-9 and he said the bus wasn’t stopping there today. There was no mention of this on the app, no alerts or updates. This was infuriating because now we had wasted an hour of our limited time. We waited at stop 10 for nearly 40 minutes for the bus to arrive. When the bus finally arrived, only 6 people out of the 30+ waiting could get on. My husband and I begged to get on, we couldn’t wait any longer. We were hot, tired from carrying our items, and frustrated at the service. Once on the bus, our driver was friendly but with every red light, put the bus into park and proceeded to walk around the bus to share stories about the city. While interesting, this probably wasn’t safe to be stopped in the middle of the street while the traffic lights turned green. We made it only a few stops to Times Square and she kicked everyone off because she was done for the day. She informed us that a new bus would be coming soon and we could get back on. Needless to say, we were about out of time. This is extremely disappointing and I will not recommend this tour to anyone. We wasted our money and will be filing a...

The experience our family had was amazing! Me, my wife and my 5 year old son went on Big Bus for 2 days in New York and we loved it. As it was our first time in NY, we decided to use Big Bus to know the most iconic places in the city, without having to walk and wait too long to get subways or spend a fortune on taxi/Uber. The stops are on estrategic points and close to the attractions, so no need to walk long distances. Also, there are heaps of buses, which make you don't have to wait too long at the stops for the next bus. The information provided in 6 different languages make the route more interesting and fun. A huge thank you for 3 outstanding Big Bus members we met: Saul Linares (stop 8 - Wall Street), Libni (bus driver) and the other bus driver (in the picture) which I don't know the name. They were very kind, fun, patient and made our experience be much better. They are the main reason I am writing this review as they need to be acknowledged by the amazing work they do. On the other hand, the only negative feedback I have is about the guy that keeps on stop 7 (Brooklyn Bridge). Unfortunately I don't know his name. He was disrespectful, rude, and had no patience whatsoever with customers and especially with drivers. On the two days we hopped off at this stop, we saw extremely unpleasant situations from him. Also heard complaints from other people. Apart from that, I highly recommend Big Bus when visiting New York. If you go, make sure you say hi to Libni, Saul Linares and the...