Big Bus Tours Istanbul Reviews 390

I have used the same company in New York and in London, the same service each time, .friendly and helpful the ideal way to sight seaany major city.

Interesting routes, but winter time buses do not save from rain. Very short staying period on route bus stops.

Perfect opportunity to get a taste of Istanbul in just two hours.

The Big Bus covered a large area of Landmarks visited.

It was great experience. We enjoyed touring Istanbul with clear historical guidance
Thanks

An excellent way of discovering Istanbul

We had very good weather over both days and this really helped two excellent tours.

Between two stops we remained inside the bus more than an hour due to traffic

Good experience. You save a lot of time when you want to visit all the city. Recommendable.

Easy, convenient, helped to see a good part of this large city, was quick and useful especially since i was travelling for a short trip.

Do try it out....

Great experience

Great experience. Interesting facts at the various sites seen. Hop off stops were good choices

Simple, reliable, good script for the tour.

I was dissapointed that the tour buses run during day but not at night. The commentary is not bad. But there is not enough commentary. The audio portion runs a total of 5 minutes at each site. Could have been more content to make it a better experience.

We took the 24 hour package with the second day free. The positives: the Big Bus route covers the main sights of the city but allows you to access the sights on the other side of the Galata Bridge. Most of the main sights in Istanbul are within walking distance from the Sultanhamet Square area but key attractions like the Dohlmabahce Palace, Taksim Square and Miniaturk were on the other side of the Golden Horn so taking the Big Bus was convenient. The negatives: Due to the unforeseeable nature of traffic, the Big Bus does not arrive on schedule and with no time table posted on its stops, it's difficult to estimate what time you need to wait for the bus. This means long waits and in the cold weather, this can be difficult. The 30-minute interval (one hour for the Blue route) also makes it difficult to truly hop-on and hop-off as much as you want as you have to allot time to wait for the bus. But my biggest complaint is that there are only a few seats on the lower level and during winter, that's where most passengers need to be. We hopped on at 530PM on the Red Route bus at Dohlmabahce Palace going back to Sultanhamet, which meant we had to go through the entire route. This would not have been an issue but the heavy traffic on the Bosphorus Bridge meant that we were in extremely cold winds on the top level for 2 hours! It was torture. What made it extremely bad was that when the bus finally stopped, we saw that there was a roof for the top level! It would have helped make the ride more bearable. All in all, it was a good experience but the horrible experience of being stuck in traffic left a bad taste in our mouth.

It was OK kind of experience , nothing special and the next day free is actually not required.
No timing mentioned so actually you wait at the stop without proper information.

Great crew, good routes, traffic in the city is a disaster though

This was a great way for my Mum and I to see the city in the short time we were visiting. The only issue was when we were waiting for a bus for a blue route bus for a very long time in the cold, and two red routes in a row came past. The drivers weren't very helpful as they didn't seem to know when the next blue tour would come.

Was very impressed with the online booking system and being able to use my phone confirmation rather than print out an email as we didn't have access to this, and I prefer to be paper-free anyway.

Great way to see Istanbul and to move around interesting parts of the city. Liked it very much, and the second day extra was great also.
Very good tour and value for money. Staff are very friendly and helpfull.