BigBusTours Miami reviews

It was a very rainy tour!

We had a 24 hour ticket which we planned to use over two days. The first part of our tour was the beach tour. The guide was fun and had lots of information. It started to rain, but we were given rain ponchos and it didn't dampen our spirits. We didn't have time to get off anywhere, but still had a very nice tour. The next day we started on the city tour. The first disappointment was that we did not have a live guide, but got headphones that worked very well. We had planned to get off at a couple stops. We got off at Coconut Grove and walked around for about 1/2 hour. Then it started to rain and we had to wait about 45 minutes for the next bus. When it arrived, all of the seats were taken, but we could still get on. So we did; and stood for the rest of the tour, which was about another hour. That would have been okay, but it was very hot and there were no headsets available for the "standers". That whole tour was pretty much a fizzle. More like riding a city bus just to get back to the starting point. Next we took the boat tour. It was still raining, but we rode on the lower level and enjoyed seeing all of the huge houses of the stars. That guide was very good. This would be a very nice tour package, IF it isn't raining.

So bad

Change the music please!!!

Good value, nice route, not so great guides.

I took the Miami 48h Tour with The Big Bus Your company. They had a good price and many stops for hopping on and off. The route covered a big part of the city. The buses were simple, no air conditioning inside, no protection from the sun on the top seats. The live tours were not very good, some guides just didn´t want to talk much and would stay quiet for most of the ride. They do offer buses with recorded tour in many languages, and I would reccomend these to anyone, as it´s much more complete. A couple of times the buses were full and I had to wait for a whole half hour for the next one. Overall, a good hop on hop off, but not much comfort.

Worst experience ever.....

No words to describe the bad experience my family and I had. We were asked for the receipt before boarding the bus. However, explained to the bus conductor that I have ticket bookings that were given to us by the hotel staff but not the receipts. The bus conductor then rather aggressively told us we can't get on to the bus and wouldn't even listen to me thereafter. Then, we went to the BigBus tours booth and the person behind the booth printed out our receipts so that we could board the bus. THEN, the bus conductor actually came all the way from the Big Bus Tours bus to the booth to tell the guy not to give us the receipt and that he would not let us on the bus – it was almost like he had a personal vendetta against me and my family. Subsequently, the person in the Big Bus Tours booth did not give us the receipt. He started to tell us how the payment would come out of his pocket. He then went on to ask my wife if she worked. My wife responded by saying that she was a pediatrician. Then, he said, “oh, you must be rich…. So, are you willing to pay for my children” That being said, a rather heated argument ensued with my wife which to say the least was of low quality and doesn’t reflect well on the company. I might add that there were other tourists there watching in shock at the behavior Big Bus Tours staff. It was the worst experience we have ever had at any vacation we have gone to.

It was good but could have been much better

I was looking forward to this tour. The quality of buses came out in the open when it was raining. Even when we were sitting on the 1st level, there were droplets of water all over from the ceiling. So the quality of buses could have been much better.

Couple of tour guides were very good, but some were very disinterested. On the whole, I'd give a rating of 5 out of 10.

Excellent value

My wife and I did the 48hr tour and boat trip (we highly recommend them) and it was great. With a bus passing by every 20 minutes, you can really tour virtually all the town. a must for all Miami visitors.

Very intresting informative and insightful , we enjoyed the tour immensely.

Had a wonderful time it was a great adventure we started early got the first bus around 9:30 @ Lincoln Rd Mall and did the tour of the beach and city with audio after which we did the city this time with a tour guide and the interaction with the tour guide was more intersting and we had fun, then we were able to stop off at diferrent points of interest and visited the sights, be prepared to do some walking and wear comfortable shoes. Our day was well spent the weather was a bit windy, and we were back on Lincoln road about 5:30 pm.
Will do it again when I have out of town visitors. A great tour.

Amazing experience!!! I live in Miami already 2 years, but I never had a chance to see all of it. So now I love it even more !!!!

Amazing experience!!! I live in Miami already 2 years, but I never had a chance to see all of it. So now I love it even more !!!!

Disappointed with tour guide

Disappointed that the tour guide wasn't more informative. He simply kept repeating things, "Okay everybody get ready. The view of the Biltmore Hotel is coming up in two minutes.... Okay everyone in 1 minute you will see the view of the Biltmore Hotel.... Okay everyone, there it is!" And then he didn't go into any of the history or colorful past of the hotel.
In addition, I have not been able to get refunded for an unused ticket. When we discovered that we had accidentally bought one extra ticket, we brought it to the attention of the ticket agent. He said "no problem" we could notify the company online and they would reimburse for the ticket. I still haven't heard back from Customer Service. Had I known that I would have such difficulty, I would have tried ot re-sell the ticket to others who were on our same tour -- given that we had to wait for about a 1/2 hour before the bus took up and filled up. I was very disappointed with the whole experience. The reps/agents weren't confident about the schedule and times for bus pick ups.
THANK YOU FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING AND REIMBURSING ME FOR AN UNUSED TICKET. MUCH APPRECIATED.

Very easy to use and very friendly and informative guides

We really enjoyed the tour as it allowed us to do everything in our own time rather than sticking to a specific schedule. It also meant we could do as little or as much as we wanted in the areas we could visit with the hop on hop off service. We would have preferred a live guide on all tour buses rather than having to wait for another as some were headsets only. We felt the guides we met were mostly fun and informative that we met. Overall we were very happy with the tour and the company as a whole.

Great overview of Miami and where you'll want to visit.

Tour guide was fabulous, and it's great fun to sit atop the open bus and let the sun and breeze soak into you while listening to a lot of history and past experiences of the rich and famous and the not-so-rich and famous. The three-hour tour includes a 20-minute stop when you reach Southbeach so you can get off and stretch your legs or get a snack. The tour hits the high and low spots of Miami's famous Ocean Drive, the hotel and restaurant district, etc., and several points of interest where you might want to make a return visit. It's definitely worth the price, but your hotel should offer a discount for three or more persons from one family, or offer a family rate.

A very enjoyable ride!

We went on the boat/bus combo ride and they were both enjoyable and informative. It would be helpful if there were better directions on the locations of the locations of where you picked up your tickets for both the boat trip and the bus trip. A map on the web site would be very beneficial as well as suggested parking with associated costs.

We enjoyed the tour, the guides were excellent and knowledgeable and everything occurred right on time.

My sentence above provides my overall opinion. One thing I want to point out. When we began our tour in front of the Biltmore Hotel, our tickets were taken. We did not receive a receipt in return and I hadn't brought my printout receipts from home because I didn't think I needed them other than to reconcile my credit card bill. When we changed buses at Bayside, we were asked for our receipts and explained that we didn't have any. Fortunately, we at least had the earjacks given to us when we boarded at the Biltmore. We had no other way to prove that we had paid for the tour, and were questioned a little too much for comfort until someone finally decided we were telling the truth. That was not pleasant. I live here and my friend was visiting from Ohio and I was embarrassed by the inference that we were not being truthful.

Great Fun In Miami on the BigBus Tour

It was really great. We drove down from Fort Lauderdale and found ample parking. We figured we'd make a day of it in Miami so we purchased the City and Beach BigBus Tours and decided to do them back-to-back. Since they run really frequently, we got there with no rush and made the 11:00AM City Tour. We sat on top (of course) because it wasn't that hot/sunny and the guide stands up there as well, so if you miss whatever she/he is saying, you're not paying attention. After an 1 1/2 hours we got off and got on the Beach Bus. We've been coming down to Florida for about 30 years and never took these tours. I don't know what we were waiting for. They were equally informative and fun and the seats were really comfortable. The guides were fabulous....full of fun and personality. At first we thought the price was somewhat high, however, when you take into consideration the salaries, gas prices, maintenance of the vehicles, processing charges, etc.....it really was a good value, and we had sites explained to us, which we never had done before.
Oh, we also took the cruise the following day. This is also worthwhile, very relaxing and just a nice 1 1/2 hours out on a boat.

A fun experience!!

We loved the Miami Beach tour!!! The guide on the bus was very funny and told us a lot of interesting information. We really enjoyed getting off and look around South Beach. The only negative thing was that the BigBusTour personell located at South Beach didn't know where we could rent bikes and was not very interested in helping us find it out either... When we first got on the bus we were told that the staff would tell us where to go. A bit disappointing.

Great way to tour

Excellent tour. Audio only buses are informational, but not entertaining.
Would do this again in another city, should the opportunity arise

Beautiful Miami Beach view while on wheels

I took my son who turned 5 years old on that day 03/03 and he had a blast, he fell asleep towards the end but he really enjoyed his time on the bus. Besides him, My husband, mom, daughter and nephew were on board. I'm actually a Miami native and honestly there is so much history I wasn't aware of. Definitely a must do even for local folks. Thank you.

Top! Top! Top!

We bought the big bus tours-tickets online.. and on the ground in miami, everything was frictionless and troublefree. At first we took the City Loop Bus... and we had a really great tour guide... :) The Beach Loop Bus offered the possibility to use headphones.... !! I can recommend this company! It was a great time in Miami! And we have seen a lot !! :)

Great tour!

We very much enjoyed our tour. We liked the flexibility of it being in two parts. If you have the time to take the 48 hours, it would be wonderful to get off and on to explore. Our only complaint is that there is not enough parking nearby.

Do not do it if you are touring from the cruise terminal

We had booked the Miami big bus tour as a way to see the city when returning from our cruise and before departing for home. I will never pick BigBusTours again.
When we arrived off of our cruise ship a truck was there to collect our luggage to hold in transport to the airport. A bus was just departing when we got there, the driver discouraged us to get on, stating he was full and the next bus would be around in 10 minutes. So we took his word, then waited one hour for next the bus to show, we recieved no explaination from the tour operator why the delay and we requested our money back we were denied.
When the next bus showed, we then we travelled 20 minutes to be transferred to the main terminal (with no narrative tour) . Then we waited at the main terminal for 20 minutes before they decided to turn the bus we were on into the "beach" tour bus. we were then handed headphones to listen to a prerecorded tour (it was music half the time). Finally reached our destination in South Beach. We could only hop off once, because we have wasted so much time waiting, we were afraid we would miss our airport transfer.
Do not waste your time our money on this tour. I am sure there are better ones out there

Alessandro Greco Colonna found this review useful

Para una visión rápida de Miami

La falta de narración en español en algunos autobuses limita su aprovechamiento para las personas sin un completo dominio del ingles, se puede esperar el autobús con narración en español pero al bajar y retornar ya el siguiente es solo en ingles.

well organised, informative and good fun

great way to see the city - split into two very different halves - flexible approach over a 24 hour time period - great value

the best way to discover a city,

trust me, you will not be disapointed

Great!

A beatiful trip in Miami. An excellent service.

Very informative and fun!

I actually had Atmando in one bus and he was fantastic. Very enthusiastic and got many people involved in conversations about history and what not. Then I had Iliana in another bus and she was fantastic as well. Very funny And made the ride really fun. Both did an excellent job in telling us the history of Miami. Learned a lot of cool facts that I will never forget!

We enjoyed the tour and felt it was a great value

I would recommend you take the Red Bus and boat tour to get a feel for the city of Miami. The hop on and off feature allows you to take time seeing what interests you as an individual. I recommend the 48 hour pass so you can really benefit from the on off access. The buses run often and the guide gives you a nice commentary about different places you will see. If you plan to stay longer than a couple of days I recommend you do the Red Bus first thing and then you can travel the rails and local transit after you get a feel for city.

Great customer services

Sorry, I can't tell you my experience about the tour because the tour was cancelled by marathon in Miami and My husband called customer service and he explain the situation and refund the cost of tickets. Thanks for your service and I am glad for your service in another travel I hope take the tour an enjoy it.

very funny and enjoyable

A very recommended way to know Miami City!!
You're taking pictures, enjoying the view while listening to the stories the guide has to tell you about the sights.
Just would recommend to extend working hours. The last bus departs by 4:30 from central station which is very early for tourists. (like me LOL).

Nice Tour - But Watch Out For Big Bus Parking Lot ay Miami Bayside - My Car Broken Into!

Yes, the tour was nice - a fun day. But all ruined including the rest of our vacation when we returned to the Big Bus Tour's Paid Parking lot at the Miami Bayside location and found that our rental car had the window smashed out and our personal property stolen.

Great way to explore the area!

Great way to explore different areas of the city. Very nice and courteous personnel.
The only downside the busses are running only till 6pm, but in reality the last bus to get back anywhere leaves at 4:30 from Central station, which is very early and inconvenient. Suggestion will be to extend the working hours till 8pm.

Great day--fun way to see Miami!

If you want to see Miami without the hassel, this is a great way to do it. The boat ride was excellent as well. I would recommend adding this. We were easily able to do both bus trips and the boat in one day and Bayside is an enjoyable place to end the day.

Fab time in Miami

We did the 2 day bus tour which included the boat tour also, both bus tours were very good but the boat tour was excellent. It was a great way to see the sights of Miami and a great way to get around. Would highly recommend it.

very old buses, one very very rude crew member, nevertheless a good experience.

If you visit Miami, take the big bus tour which has great schedule, and some good places to visit. They only visit downtown Miami and South Beach Miami, but it would be nice if it could visit North Beach Miami. Just be warned that the buses are very old and dirty, and their engine smells like gas a lot. Most of the crew members are very nice and helpful, but there is an exception with one of them. Places they visit are interesting, and the buses are mostly on schedule. For ten more dollars, you can get 48 hours of trip, instead of 24 hours, which is a good deal.

Overall, a good experience!

Good beach tour. A little bit boring at the end.

Good beach tour. A little bit boring at the end.

ARMANDO IS THE BEST!! 01/18/13

the first half of the bus tour was ok..since it was audio (leaving bayside)
BUT i got on the 2nd bus near Lincoln/Collins and ARMANDO was the best! He interacted w/ everyone, he was funny and it was a GREAT EXPERIENCE! :) -Cindy Medrano Houston, TX

great combo tour

Make sure you do the combo boat and bus tour in Miami. Nice relaxing inexpensive tour at your own pace

We enjoyed a taste of Miami thanks to Big Bus Tours!

This review is from Louise Wilber using my husband's email account.
We rode on the Big Bus on the red line, then the blue line two days in a row. We enjoyed each tour with friends. We especially enjoyed our first tour with Bo as our tour guide. It was early in the morning so there were only a few of us on the bus but he really made the tour enjoyable and steered us in the right direction for attractions in Miami.

Excelente guía.

Muy interesante el viaje, una linda forma de aprender más sobre Miami.
Aprovecho para agradecer al guía Armando que a pesar de tocarnos el bus en inglés tubo la gentileza de explicarnos luego a nosotros en español lo que iba diciendo, realmente para destacar.
Gracias.

Good price and a fun and informative day

This was a great way to see Miami! The weather was perfect and we got a real good view of the city. The guides were funny and informative! A couple of recommendations I would make: 1. Have the last pick up at a later time. I think it was 4:30pm and that is just too early. Should be more like 8:30pm or even 9:30. 2. Take off the shaded tape on the windows on the lower part of the bus. If you were lucky enough to get a seat on top you could see all. On the more crowded buses, we had to sit inside the bus on the lower level (which would've been fine), BUT we couldn't see well at all through the windows. I understand you may have that to keep the bus cool, but you just cannot see through the tint at all!

Bus Great, but don't get the boat tour

I truly enjoyed the bus tour and the hop-on-hop-off convenience. The only reason I give then two stars was for the boat tour, I am extremely dissatisfied. First of all, it took us forever to walk around the entire shopping center to find where the actual boat tour was. Nobody told us what company it ran through, or where to find it. Second of all, we waited in an extremely long line for almost an hour to get on the boat, only to find out that we had to go to the ticket desk and trade our tickets in for vouchers, which where not available and sold out. So, we waited an hour for NOTHING! We would have had to wait another hour for the next boat to arrive. They would not give us a refund, I was extremely dissatisfied with the boats.