Big Bus Tours San Francisco — Attraction in San Francisco

Booked a full day vintage wine tour with another operator on 10/17/25 for 10/20/25. Our operator told us on 10/19 they didn't have enough passengers, so offered us a tour that was "just as good" with this operator.

We got there in the morning (bright and early) and needed a restroom. Nothing available. Had to sneak to find one. Unfortunately, "just as good" was not the case. I probably should have guessed that by the fact that I got some money back, but I wanted to keep an open mind.

Our trip out to Sonoma was somewhat interesting. Our driver did not have much interesting to tell us as we drove, and obviously got frustrated with some louder participants in our group.

Our first winery, Madonna, was lovely. After we left, however, the experience went downhill.

Our itinerary called for lunch in Sonoma with a variety of restaurants to choose from and shops to visit. Our driver, however, told us there was too much traffic and dropped us off with no explanation other than "I will pick you up in an hour and a half" at the Oakville Grocery.

Oakville Grocery was crowded beyond their capacity to actually serve people, had a limited menu, and while there was wine and wine tasting machines available, it was confusing and we had NO explanation of how to interact. When we bought a $50 card for tasting, the card only had a $25 value. We went back and got another card, but having 2 instead of one made our options limited. Additionally, of course, a full glass of wine was at least $25. When we tried to go back to get it fixed again, there was never a time that the line was not at least 6-7 parties deep and it was not even worth the effort. For a pizza, about 1 1/2 glasses of wine and a small, premade cheese tray, we ended up spending $123 for mediocre food. We then waited around this small complex for another 30 minutes.

We then went to Sutter Home winery. We chose to enjoy the grounds instead of continuing to sample the wine, and looked forward to our third winery.

Our third winery was Napa Cellars, also owned by the Trinchero family. In fact, there was no wine actually made at this stop - it is essentially just another sales room. Our "guide" for this winery told us that all of the wine is actually processed at the same large processing plant that exists across the street from the Sutter Home location we visited earlier. I remember seeing this large, pyramid-like building and wondering what it was. Apparently it's just where all the grapes get dumped for all of the Trinchero family's Napa / Sonoma wine and processed. Other wineries mentioned in the description were open. Ru Vango, while owned by Mondavi, another large maker, would at least have been a different winery with a different history. Cline and Jacuzzi, while both owned by the same family (different from Trinchero), were both also open, and have a larger and more interesting selection of varietals. And Jacuzzi also has the Olive Press on premises, which would have made for a much more interesting time.

However, apparently Big Bus decided that on this Monday, the cheapest and easiest visits were the most profitable.

Finally, our ride home was unpleasant, with a lot of erratic driving and a restroom stop at a small gas station with one women's room, one men's room and a porta-potty.

This was our 24th anniversary and we were hoping for a nice day. While it wasn't a disaster, it was lazy and thoughtless. If you're looking for an interesting tour that brings you to wineries that aren't Sutter Home,...

UPDATE: I changed my original rating of a 5 to a “generous 2”.

We bought the tix for hop on/hop off on Wednesday with intention of going Friday. I got the tickets and put them in my wallet.

We got to the terminal and I saw the tickets said “Wednesday”…hmmm.

Showed it to the guy at the terminal, asked if this was okay and he said “no problem”…okay!! We ride the whole route (2hours) without getting off. Got off at the original stop and went for a sight see. We “hopped off”

We now decide to “hop on”.

Got back on, showed the same ticket and no problem! Went to China town. “Hopped off”, had a wonderful lunch and “hopped back on”. Showed same ticket to now the 4th person. No problem.

Got to where they took the establishing shot of Full House TV show, “hopped off” and got some great photos.

Now we have a problem.

Tried to “hop on” on the bus and the driver says “you ticket no good”. I said that’s strange, I’ve been off and on all day and every other person said it was fine. He says “no good”.

I said radio dispatch and ask. I was able to tell them my story but they couldn’t figure it out. Finally after 5-10 minutes of explaining the situation I said forget it. We left and were going to simply catch the next bus. But my daughter was crying and we were really delaying the timing of the route. We got a bad taste of the whole thing.

We took an Uber and really enjoyed the rest of the day.

I don’t know who screwed up: was it the person who wrote “Wednesday” on a ticket for “Friday”? Was it me for not looking at the ticket and trusting the employee to do his job? Was it the 4 drivers and ticket takers who let it go without a problem? They all looked at the ticket too. Was it the last driver who didn’t understand what all the other employees allowed just minutes earlier?

I give it a 5 for the tour, but a 0 for the screw up; hence the 2 for the review.

Save your money, take an Uber to the place you...

Did not make my San Francisco experience any better.

1 star: because there’s not a Lower option

My wife and I boarded at 2pm at pier 39 (stop 16) wanting to see the painted ladies (stop 8) the Golden Gate Bridge (stop 11) and Lombard street (stop 14). We did not make it to stop 8 until 3:45pm. This is because when we stopped at stop 1 we waited for no reason for 40 minutes. Our driver disappeared.

Below are photos of 4 workers of this shambles of a company. One of them is working, speaking to potential customers, the other 3 are standing around and not one thought to mention to us that we would be stopped for 40 minutes? The other photos are of the app they advise you to download, which shows you where the buses are. It’s great in theory. Unless you realise you can’t get off because the next bus behind you is more than 15-20mins away (not as advertised)

You can see from the screenshot of the app, we are on the bus at stop 4. There is no bus behind us (took us 30 mins to get to stop 4) and there’s also no bus infront of us (it was at stop 8)

The next screenshot shows the bus we are on and the bus ahead of us. There isn’t one bus for about 40 mins between us. It’s a hop-on hop-off service but that wait between buses kills your day.

At 5:35pm we made it to Lombard street (well, where the drop off point is, it was still a 7minute walk up a steep hill) It was pitch black and we couldn’t see anything like we had wanted to. So we had to get up early before our flight the next day to visit. And pay extra for a taxi.

Extremely disappointed, it is advertised you can complete the circuit in 2.5hrs. Yet it was 3hrs and 35mins we had been on this bus and we couldn’t see 3 things.

If you’re gonna use these guys, make sure you’re not pushed for time. If you are, DONT use this shambles of a company. Get a taxi or Waymo to take you around. It would be cheaper &...