Bigbustours reviews

Best in Budapest

Excelent tour with Big bus in Budapest. Excelent service, high to recoment.

See London the easy way

We booked a 48 hour ticket and it was the ideal way for us to travel around the tourist hotspots. The weather was superb during first week of June 13 so ideal sat up top. Commentary was excellent but at times the bus seemed to be moving fast so difficult to take pictures. Would like to have had the opportunity to book 3-4 days due to so much to see.

Friendly staff, but inadequate notice of route changes, and fewer stops than Original.

We were unable to get the full benefit from our 5 passes because of route changes due to protests in London. With only 24 hours on the pass, we were unable to see any of the Oxford Street section. I understand that this is out of the control of the Big Bus Company, but the staff were not clear on what the "detour" would entail. The bus reversed course entirely, and was taking us back in the opposite direction. I believe that is more than a detour, but the guide really glossed over it. We were trying to get somewhere at the time, and would have gotten off had we understood the situation. An hour later, in a totally different part of town, we were informed that if we wanted to get where we were going (St. Pauls) we would need to get off an walk around the corner and across the river to get there. During the time we were in London, we also noticed many more stops on the Original line, and will probably recommend that company over Big Bus Tours to friends planning a visit.

Wonderful overview of all the major attractions

I wanted my grandson of 18 from the USA to get an overview of all the major attractions and this was a terrific way to do it. We saw everything we wanted to see in one glorious afternoon. Now he can go back and visit the things that piqued his interest. Thanks, it was a great experience for us all - me who had lived in London, my husband who had visited a couple of times and my grandson seeing everything for the first time. Well worth the price.

Fun way to see London

The Big Bus Tour was a great and easy way to see a lot of London. We booked ahead of time which saved us a few pounds, so I recommend booking online at least the day before. It is still cheaper to get an all-day tube pass which takes you to all the same spots but you don’t have the opportunity to see the beautiful city. London is very busy all day, so the speed at which you get to each drop off spot sometimes was a little frustrating. Also the bus stops running around 5, so by the time you wait in traffic and then jump on and off 2-3 times the day is over. If you want to see all the neighborhoods, monuments, and buildings this great. If you are interested in getting to destinations quickly...the tube is a better option.

REGULAR

Nos dirigimos a la parada mas próxima a nuestro destino pero los empleados de su compañía nos tomaron un poco el pelo ya que nos mandaban de un sitio para otro con lo cual perdimos media hora entre idas y venidas.

OK Day

Generally a good experience for ourselves and friends from the US.
The boat ride was good, too.
However, there were not enough buses on the day we travelled and a lot of waiting at stops - both waiting for a bus to come and on board the bus.
Thus, at the end of the day, the bus was very crowded with people standing on the lower deck and could see nothing at all.

Really good tour!

Especially loved the Thames cruise, the commentary was hilarious!
As for the bus route, it was good but felt the stops were quite far apart and on some stops, not very well highlighted. I know it is because of forces of economy, but the one route of the blue line was quite time consuming.

Overall, was happy with the tour!

"A classic experience of a joyfull ride across the city."

Big bus tours gives you a first hand feel of what and how London is.
An enjoyable ride across the city with an amazing weather (open-top sightseeing) is a true value for money.
I personally prefer a bus tour without a guide, because it gets quite boring after sometime, also; the non-stop, speedy, one-sided commentary is tiresome.
But, the guided bus tour is good; if one has the curosity of knowing the history behind London.
Overall, a good hospitable experience with a courteous, co-operative, friendly, and helpful staff.

rubbish

On Saturday 15th I wait for a bus in marble Arch to Madame Tussaid's zone for 45 minutes. Than I called a taxi.
Nobody of Big Bus helped me Nobody said us how to return home.
A big man din't answer to my question.
The next time I don't buy Bigbus tickets.
federico

Très satisfaisant

Passage hop & off très régulier.
Bonne visite de Londres, le tour sur la Tamise peut-être un peu limité.

First class set-up!

I had an amazing first trip to London which was largely due to the ease of sight seeing through the BigBus tour! I especially appreciated having BigBus employees at the stops who were friendly and available to answer questions and point me in the right direction. I went on one walking tour that included Buckingham Palace, and the tour guide Phil was amazing-both witty and enabled us to see many events in a short time! Definitely have your ticket printed before you come and it will make the start of your tour easy.

Big Bus Tours of London is worthwhile at any price.

Big Bus Tours in London is not only a fantastic tourist experience, but also a great way to get around the city (you can get on/off at any stop all day long). Every guide and driver I met was friendly, and the audio tours are well-timed and informative. My only suggestion would be to lower the volume of the music without lowering the volume of the recorded guide.

Great tour of London

I would recommend the Big Bus Tours of London to anyone visiting for the first time. I loved the ability to hop on and off whenever we wanted as well as the option of taking the river cruises with the 48 hour package. It was well worth the money as I learned a lot about the historic landmarks all over the city.

The wheels on the Big Bus Tour Binges family outing!

What a day! We had a great time on the bus and learnt quite a lot about London You get to see places you don't even think about. Staff are friendly and polite. Would recommend to any one travelling to London. There was a time when we got confused but that was our fault Red and Blue tour?.
Over all though a really great time on bus and boat.
Try them you will not be dissappointed.

Great experience!!

Gives you a bird's eye-view of all the important places in London, with friendly tourist guides.

PICK ANOTHER COMPANY!!

We just returned from our visit to Europe. Among our trip we had taken a total of 3 hop on hop off tours, one in each city. The Big Bus Company was horrible! We waited for over an hour for a bus, the men standing at each stop told you what you wanted to hear, not the truth. That is when they were not rude! We were often told traffic was the excuse, but no other company had that issue. We passed a total of 7 buses not in service yesterday. Most of the bus drivers were nasty or just flat out ignored you, and we were told to get on a specific route to see what we wanted to see. Instead we sat on the bus for 2.5 hours of skipped stops and made up routes. To top it off, our bus driver decided to take a 15 minute break, only to proceed to the next stop and tell us the tour is over we need to switch buses!!!!!! We were so annoyed we got off the bus, walked well over a mile to the office to demand a refund. This part was surprisingly easy! They were nice and helpful. Besides them, and a man named Carlos, standing on a bus stop, everyone else was rude. Take a different company. If you don't you will stand there watching those buses come by one after another while you wait in the rain for your bus!

Okay but subject to regular traffic disruption and detours straying from the organised route

We decided to purchase the two day ticket over the weekend 1st and 2nd June.
We picked up the bus near the grosvenor hotel and the first part of our route was done using the recorded taped tour which was fine. As the day progressed we changed buses near St Pauls and the tour developed into a shambles. Large portions of the tour were missed out because of various detours related to road works and public demonstrations. At one stage we moved onto a bus which should have been live commentary - there was no tour guide only the driver. Eventualy a guide got on called "Jim" who reminded us frequently to leave positive reviiews on Tripadvisor !. Jim had apparently been caught short at a comfort break, missed the bus, hence the lack of commentary. Given the amount of water Jim seemed to be drinking and the appearance of being "hung over" I have my own suspicions.Eventually we gave up on the bus and walked round the remaining part of the tour on day 1.
Day 2 was slightly better, and the schedule seemed to be more on track, but again there were detours. Unexpectedly, the best part of both days was the short river cruise. The commentary was well delivered informative and with a humorous touch.
The buses were clean and modern. I doubt if we would consider again using on a future visit.

WoW!! Wonderful experience

If you are going to London I would advise you take this tour before deciding on what sights to see. And don't forget the river cruise as well. The bus speaker and river cruise speaker were brilliant, so full of information and "didn't know that" facts, and funny with it. Learnt lots of interesting trivia!! Only thing I would advise against is the tours that have the pre-recorded talk. We had that from the River ride to Victoria Station and only heard a couple of facts that were just blunt and to the point, and the second driver didn't want to say hello or smile, bit of a damper that part.

Fun!

This tour was super informative and lively! It explores every spot in London you want to see & allows the convenience of getting on and off at your desire. I loved the Harry Potter walking your where you discovered little scenes from the movies. Well worth the money spent!

Excellent, fantastic fun day out!

We are Londoners and decided to have a 'be a tourist for a day' outing... The tour guides were brilliant! Really knowledgable and great fun, even keeping us entertained when stuck in traffic. Only down side is that we'd planned our day with other visits to attractions we knew we could have received discount off the entry fee using vouchers included as part of the price of the Big Bus ticket. However, none of these were available at all on the day, at any stop even though we 'hopped on and off' different buses at different times of the day. We deliberately started the tour at one of the stops that distributes the vouchers to kick start our day and were disappointed that we weren't given any over the course of the day. The ticket price isn't seem as good value without them.

Big Bus Tours met all our expectations while touring London.

I would recommend Big Bus Tours to anyone and everyone. They are so user friendly!
Their prices are most reasonable. My granddaughter and I enjoyed the all day, on and off ride and especially the river cruise part. We found the employees very friendly and helpful throughout the day. The tour guides on the buses and boats were humorous and knowledgeable.
We had a truly great day while on the Big Bus Tour in London.

Worst experience I have had in Londonn for a long time

I booked 2 tickets for the Big Bus Tour on line and started my tour outside Madame Tussauds with my 9 year old grandson. The man in uniform by the bus directing people asked to see my online tickets and said 'Get On!'. We did so and took the bus which sat in a traffic jam for 15 minutes. I noticed that everyone had earphones so I went downstairs and asked the driver where the audio phones were. 'There' he said abruptly and pointed to a box sitting on a seat. I returned to my seat with the earphones which were OK although we had to constantly put them back in the ears! We had a solid traffic jam to Westminster where we decided to get off and try the City Cruises trip included in the ticket down the Thames. Having been told to get off for City Cruises I asked the driver where we picked up the boat. 'Over there!' he said which could have been anywhere from the London Eye to Royal Festival Hall. I asked him for more detail and I was told to cross the bridge and find Westminster Bridge Pier. I did this, got down to the boat where I showed my online ticket, only to be told that it should have been changed for a 'yellow' ticket when I got on the bus. I was sent back to a Big Tour Bus which I eventually found on the embankment. A very rude and discourteous man in charge by the stop told me again I should have been given a yellow ticket but then took 10 minutes before he actually managed to get me one - no apology - just seemed to enjoy making me wait. I then had to walk back to the boat and a very long queue. Eventually we got on and had a commentary from the city cruise staff which was critical of about everything we passed (this is supposed to be promoting London to foreigners!!). He even said that 'if you want to spend £150 on a shot of rum, go to the London Eye. He then asked us to give him money preferably £5 when we got off. We got off at Tower Pier and never went back on again. It cost me nearly £40 for my grandson and me (I am 68yrs) and it was the worst experience I have ever had in London where I live. I was totally ashamed of being a Londoner and giving foreign visitors such an awful experience. I was a volunteer during the Olympic Games and we certainly had a different attitude towards helping people.

I would like this note to be forward to your Chief Executive and Managing Director please and would be grateful for a reply.

Melissa Roswell found this review useful

rien à redire

une après midi pour faire visiter Londres à des maies c'est court.
Le bigbustours nous a permis de tout voir, de nous arrêter sur les principaux points qui nous intéressaient. Le plus avec la croisière sur la tamise qui boucle un tour simple et rapide de la ville. Les commentaires sont en Français sur le blue tour donc parfait.

Unfortunately, a waste of time and money that I wouldn't recommend

Bought the 48hour ticket online because there was a 30% discount offered and I liked the sound of the walking tours that were offered. Upon arrival, however, it was difficult to find out how and where to get the online ticket converted to a proper one as there were no instructions on the online ticket and the markings on the busstops are very subtle. Main reason for choosing a HopOn HopOff bus (as I've done successfully in other cities) rather than just taking the normal public buses was the promise of commentary, but this was the most disappointing aspect of all. The first live commentary was so soft, we could barely hear it and the second so loud we ended up getting off the bus to escape it. After that, we tried the buses with the recorded commentary, but that merely of consisted of long stretches of "Land of Hope and Glory" interspersed with a few comments on selected sites while being stuck in traffic for most of the time and wondering what all the other interesting buildings were. Downloading one of the numerous free guided walking tours from the internet and reading it ourselves or even paying to join one of the professionally-organized ones would have been a lot less frustrating, particularly since the weather was nice. Ironically, we missed all but one of the free walking tours offered with the ticket because we were continually stuck in traffic! The river boat cruise was a lot of fun and definitely worth it and the main saving grace of the ticket. However, this can be booked separately with City Cruises directly. We also appreciated the tip of pre-ordering the tickets for the London Eye from the person who converted our online ticket to a real one and then collecting them on the day we visited it, as this saved us waiting in a long line to get tickets, while still giving us the flexibility to choose when to go. In general, the BigBus staff are helpful and friendly, but using buses is simply not the best way to see London. Walking, using the river boats or the Underground (or a combination of all three) and then buying yourself a guidebook is a much better option, particularly when the weather is nice.

Remember to check your ticket!

I've bought 2 day pass online,but the staff at the stop gave me a 1 day receipt. It took time for me to go to the information center to resolve the issue. luckily, i booked it online so that have a proof that i bought 2 days ticket. they gave me back the correct one after checking

It took us too long time

Hi, my friend,
Thank you for providing bigbus service to us. We love the choice of 8 languages' commentary at the blue tour. We hope that it can be extended to the other two tours.
The route of the Bigbus is good and it covers most of famous sights in London. But we hope that it can be two-way bus. And then we can arrange our two-day trip more flexible.
The problems during our two-day's trip were:
1. The waiting time is too long at some stations.
2. It was very strange that we turned two cycles around (maybe?) the stop number 42 and 43 during our second day's trip. So it wasted our time again.

As a tourist, we only have limited time in London. So we hope that the Bigbus trip can be more efficient. Finally, we hope that the running time in summer can be extended to at least to 20:00 every day.

Thanks again & Best regards,

Parfait pour visiter un maximum sans ne rien manquer

Nous sommes arrivés à un arrêt pour démarer notre visite, un agent de bigbustour nous a directement renseignés. Nous sommes montés à bord, pris notre casque, la carte de la ville qui comprends tous les monuments et les arrets et en avant, les commentaires sont très complets, et les arrêts sont annoncés à l'avance avec l'explication des possibilités de lieux à visiter à proximité. La fréquence des bus est très régulière, nous avions pris le circuit bleu pour avoir les commentaires en français. C'est une belle façon de découvrir une ville, je le recommande. Tous les agents que nous avons croisés nous ont renseignés avec le sourire. Bref nous avons été très satisfaits

Bigbustour : un peu plus d'honnêteté serait la bienvenue

Les commentaires en francais se coupent à tout moment pour annoncer la prochaine station et faire de la pub pour les commerces autour ! Lorsque la journée du chauffeur est terminée, il nous "abandonne" à l'arrêt où il se trouve. Et comme tout à Londres, rapport qualité/prix beaucoup trop élevé.

Great way to see London

When we arrived at the entry stop the company representative was there and recognizable. He had trouble scanning our receipt and quickly called the office and straightened it out. We started on the Blue line which is a prerecorded and very easy to follow. We changed for the red line and got a knowledgeable speaker who had a great sense of humor. Most of our tour was with her until we exited for the boat ride. Again great speaker, plenty of seating, short wait good stop. We hopped back on the bus and rode to lunch then hopped back on to stop at the V&A from which we walked home. We got a good price on- line but it would have been worth the fee charged at the hotel. We're returning to London in October and will probably do it again.

Worst Experience Ever

We were so excited to take the Big Bus Tour in London and ppicked a beautiful day to do so. Since there are many companies offering this service we didn't do any research to find the Best. Our tour started well until we decided to get off the bus. It was nearly impossible to get back on the bus and to get a seat. We rode through major attractions standing on the ground floor of the bus not being able to see anything. It was a horrible scramble at the bus stops to beat others onto a bus. When I asked about being oversold they told me on a nice day they can't guarantee a seat!
This is a very expensive event for a family and was chaotic and a disappointment. The customer service from Big Bus was HORRIBLE. Surprising given they have so much competition.

Take the bus with live 'tour'

We had a two day pass and took many different buses, but the best was when we took the tour with an actual guide! He was great and made the ride so much more fun!

A great way to get your bearings, see the major sites and learn a few interesting points along the way.

I will definitely use this again!... I only had one night in London, so did a tour in the afternoon, to mainly research, then did another the next day, getting on and off, before I had to leave the UK...enjoyed it and loved the commentary.

GREAT SERVICE & EXPERIENCE

Had a great day hopping on & off the bus, the last guide was very informative as well as entertaining, I would recommend anyone that wants to see & visit London's attraction's take a trip on Bigbustours.

get the bus on time

the busses do not come on said stop . They kept telling us from one stop to other in the beginnng . When Asked were very rude . buses do not come in 10 to 15mins gap . They take longer .

Great day, great service and very informative.

Firstly all of the staff were very helpful and knowledgeable about not just the sights but out of the way places along the route too. I would recommend Big Bus Tours to anyone wanting to see round London with ease. My only regret was that I was only there for one day and unable to take up the offer of the 2 day ticket!

Perfect way to get to know London!

We booked online in advance to get a decent discount and easily found the Big Bus rep near King's Cross station. All staff members we met were friendly and helpful. We took the Green Link to get on to the Red tour and then enjoyed the free river cruise, about 30 minutes from the Tower to Westminster. It was a great way to see all the sights - and we could have enjoyed free walking tours too, if only we had the time! It's really good value to bump up your ticket to 48 hours and we'd recommend it if you can. We then got on the Blue tour to make our way to the museums. The only minor problem we had was that there were no free vouchers for the Hard Rock Cafe available for us at the two stops we tried to get them. But the reps did their best to help. This wouldn't stop me recommending the Big Bus Tour to anyone who wants a friendly introduction to the city - or just a fun way to get around all the sights.

Great way of seeing the sights of London with full commentary

Thoroughly recommend going with big bus tours. Headphones for the commentary, free poncho should you be upstairs and get caught in a shower (what rain in London? Unheard of!!). Great for children, my two enjoyed it and we got to go up the river from Westminster Pier to Greenwich on the Millenium boat again with full commentary. Great fun !

I'm now a fan of Big Bus Tours!

It is the best option to feel a city and get a good overview along with tidbits of information. Better than tube as a mode of transport and less tiring than walking. I was looking to sign up for big bus tour in Paris as well, until I read on Rick Steves' guidebook that L'Open is better in Paris.

Now, the "not-so-good"....
We re-joined the bus at stop 22 intending to continue the journey but hopped on 13 instead. I guessed the signs were not as clear plus it was drizzling that day. We ended up re-touring stops 13-21...at 6pm rush hour which made my dad and I all weary that day.

On the overall, I think Big Bus tour is a fantastic idea of getting a good feel of a city. I have already recommended it to friends.

all staffs are very helpful

i enjoyed the tour