Big Bus Tours New York Reviews 4,568

Would NOT advice! You get a folder that says the bus goes every 30 minutes, later we got told, no it is every 1 hour and when you try to get on it, it is full, so you have to wait another hour. Which happend multiple times. So in the end we had to use the subway. When you complain they say. Well I didn't give you that folder (although she gave the same folders to other people and later had to admit that the folder is incorrectly, and in the app it says it correctly. And the bus still drives. Not her problem that we can't get on it. We have to complain to the city go, because we bought it through them. So we paid a lot of money for nothing and the customerservice was terrible and very rude.

TL;DR: Big Bus Tours’ app and live chat gave us the wrong tour time, their reps admitted it was a glitch, then blamed us for trusting their own app and refused a refund.

⭐️ 1 STAR — App misinformation acknowledged internally, responsibility shifted to customer

This review is not about a single mistake — it’s about how Big Bus Tours handles errors when they occur.

We booked the Holiday Lights Tour in NYC and relied on Big Bus Tours’ official mobile app and live chat for accurate information. Both explicitly confirmed, in writing, that the tour departed at 7:00 PM from M&M’s World in Times Square.

We arrived exactly where and when instructed.
There was no tour. We were told on site that it had already ended hours earlier.

Earlier that same day, the app had also shown stops as open when they were actually closed, leaving multiple groups of tourists waiting with no notice. This matters because it establishes a broader issue with inaccurate information being presented through official channels.

When we contacted customer service, the situation escalated rather than resolved:
• Representatives acknowledged that the app and chatbot provided incorrect information, referring to it as a “glitch”
• Despite this acknowledgment, they repeatedly told us it was our responsibility to verify the app’s accuracy by checking other sources on their website
• We were asked multiple times to resubmit documentation that came directly from their own chatbot
• That documentation was then dismissed as “not valid” and refused inclusion in the support ticket
• A refund was denied because we did not anticipate their error and capture screenshots in advance
• Replacement tickets for another city were offered instead of refunding a service that was never used

In other words:
Big Bus Tours admitted their app gave incorrect information, then shifted responsibility to the customer for trusting it.

We never used the tour, were leaving the city the following morning, and rescheduling was impossible. Yet the company retained payment despite clear non-performance.

This experience raises serious concerns about internal consistency, customer protection, and accountability. If a company’s official app and live support cannot be relied upon — and customers are blamed when that information is wrong — that is a systemic problem, not an isolated incident.

I would strongly caution travelers against relying on Big Bus Tours’ app or support channels for time-sensitive plans.

Do not buy tickets at Statin ferry terminal
.We purchased tickets at statin ferry terminal we were told by K (name on ticket) next ferry 25 minutes , Total lies . After my grandson and myself purchased our tickets at total of 62.99 dollers each . After we had paid directed to a long bus quere . Waiting 50 minutes for a bus to take to a Pier . Your agent totally miss represented the company with lies . Is this how you run your company telling lies and over charging customers . People in Q had paid as little as 34 dollers . We were told 39 dollers only later when we looked at ticket charged 62-99 . Making money for themselves committing fraud by K no wonder they work in twos . . Ferry finally left port at 17-46 . Over 2 hours since buying our tickets . If k had been honest about times and ferry was a distance away we would not bother .lies told to get a sale . They do not tell the truth until you have paid . Most disgraceful sales representative I have ever experienced in my life . I travel to New York yearly and have never had an issue like this . To rip off customers what kind of staff are you employing . Worse experience I have had coming 20 years to a great city

Make sure you know what you are getting before you buy. The tour is a pre-recorded audio tour that often doesn't match with what you are seeing. It takes about an hour to go 6-7 stops, so if you are planning to do the entire tour, make sure you give yourself at least 2 hours.

We bought the two-day Downtown and Uptown tours for about $300 for 4 of us. Over two days we barely completed the downtown tour where we nearly fell asleep. We skipped the Uptown tour because we couldn't subject ourselves to anymore disappointment and boredom.

We have done Big Bus Tours here (in 2019) and last week in Philadelphia. Both had engaging, in-person tour guides who shared great info and anecdotes. That was what we were expecting from this one. Unfortunately, we ended up very disappointed minus $300 with almost nothing to show for it.

Positive: application that shows location of busses.
Negative: in summer on upper level you burn in sun and lower level you cook in heat and don't see anything due to windows that do not open and are wire enforced.
You must get paper ticket for everything you buy in app or online and that can issue only a ticket agent that you need to find. We searched on 3 stops until we found one, 2 hours lost . It's hard to plan visit to statue of libery as you need to reserve 15 minute time window that you must do in app first and then find available agent and be on time for visit. There was no agent on loction close to Ferry starting point.

I've used this company in other cities around the world so I know they're good but this one did not live upto expectations. The buses were so infrequent (minimum I had to wait was 20 minutes) that when they came , they were full and so I had to stand downstairs, which meant I could not enjoy the city's delights

Big Bus Tour New York - Experience June 2025
Claims 24-hour refund policy. I was celebrating a milestone birthday and was notified bus would be on diversion from the route (not their fault). I needed tour service for 2 days. I requested to cancel on several occasions via email to no success.
I was given a response that it was being taken care of. 5 emails went back and forth.

No refund was received, and I received a final email stating that my case was resolved. What a messy confusion.
No apology received, and no refund. When things go wrong you know what companies are made of, not when things go right.

The ticket seller we met was lovely, not pushy or trying a hard sell ( cannot recall his name sadly) we purchased 2-day pass and were looking forward to seeing the sights and learning about NYC. The first bus that we got on, the commentary was intermittent from the various headphone ports, so we got off and went for a coffee whilst waiting on the next bus, it was better , with headphone ports working, but sadly was very crowded and the top deck was littered with detritus and garbage, which meant people were not sitting into the first two rows of seats. On our second day, we joined the bus and the only seats available to us were downstairs (no way of knowing until on the bus and it’s moving as driver wasn’t interested in advising us). We came back downstairs and sat in two seats, but with no AC and the raise temperature over 36c we had to get off as we were quickly feeling overwhelmed with the heat due to the weather and lack of any airflow from the two open windows as we were sat in traffic for a large portion of the time. We got off and re-joined, only to have to again get off due to the heat and lack of moving air downstairs, and ended up walking to our next intended stop. I appreciate it’s not easy to keep the downstairs cool, due to the buses being open topped, but surely there should be something that could be done to even add fans.

Sergio made the experience awesome! :)

I bought 2 tickets for the Liberty Island tour. I was told that it was a boat tour and that we would sail around Liberty Island to take pictures. The guy who sold the tickets said that he would only accept cash payments. He took me to the ATM machine and I paid cash. On an hidsight, I wonder why? He really rushed me saying that the tour was about to leave. I naively trusted him. However, we were taken to a bus rather than a boat. I asked to the driver if we were going to board a boat later on and he said that we were not...So we left the bus and requested a refund as we were clearly misold the tour. The guy: Jhonny agent 139, said that he could not issue the refund but I had to send an email with proof of purchase to the head office as per terms and conditions. That's what I did. Since the tickets had not been scanned, I could rest assured to receive a refund. Well, after 3 months and several emails I am still waiting. I have clearly been conned by these people. I have raise it to DCWP.
Update: few days ago I got an email from Big City Tourism and they said that they offer me a credit to use within one year. I can do any of their tours for free...I found this email extremely offensive and it confirms that I have been conned. I live on the other side of the world and I have no intention to go to NY to join a tour I asked a refund for!!! It is a joke...honestly...It is also in full conflict with their terms and conditions and refund policy. They are clearly ignoring their own policies and refuse to pay a refund for a tour that I have not used. This is called FRAUD. Stay away from these scammers. You can actually walk on Liberty Island by buying an official tour for 25 dollars....Big City Tour charge $40 dollars per person to see the statue from a bus....They are scammers. Stay away from the purple coated people....

December 21st. We left the Edge running to catch the last bus 6.18pm at Ave12 & 30 st. VEEERY windy, thermal sensation of 42F, the bus showed 6.30pm and didn't stop!!!! (It wasnt crowded). Very mean driver. Do not recommend at all, except for the only detail, that Is no other hopon/off besides.... Awful attitude, can't trust. Finally must walk up to Empire States and missed other attraction cause it was too late. Dont relay on them.

I had 5 hours free in NYC and having been a London bus tour guide I thought a bus tour would be the perfect way to get an overview of the city. I only had two stops I wanted to make. It took ages to find the agent to buy a ticket and get on board. There was no agent at stop 10, WTC, as described on the leaflet. The commentary wasn't particularly enlightening but it was enough.
I got off at Times Sq and walked to Central Park. Again the map didn't tally up with the stop and I had to 'hail' a bus. There were no BB ground staff to help.
I then got off at Rockefeller Centre and followed the instructions on the leaflet to the pick up point "opposite the Grace Centre". Three buses drove past me. Again, no BB ground staff to be seen. Three Top View staff were very helpful and guided me to a stop not described on the leaflet. I waited a while and no bus came. I was running out of time so had to get a subway back to my hotel. I spent a total 30 mins of the buses and hours trying to find one! It was stressful and confusing as the leaflet is useless and there's so few ground agents to help. Huge rip off. Sort it out BB NYC!

Big Bus Tour's literature is inaccurate (stop 2 )...
Driver of ADL9 (approx 3pm) is either : a leftover Kamazazi pilot, a communist terrorist, on crack, stupid , or plain rude ( I'm going with the last 3)....wast of money for the uptown "tour".

I had the most horrible experiance. There was a worker who stopped me and my friend from going on the bus and made us wait behind people who were buying there tickets in person although my friend and I already had our tickets which we bought online.
When I explained out situation to his he still insisted that we wait all the way back although his coworkers were okay with checking us in since we were ready with our tickets. I asked for his manger the manger didn’t believe us and told me “what is wrong with you”, so I told my friend “let’s f@&king leave” the worker then without any hesitation says to me “f@$k you” loudly in front of his coworkers, manager and all the other tourist.
My friend already paid the ticket so she said let’s wait for the next bus and before we got on is I said to the worker “you should have some manners” to whic he replied “shut up”, his other coworkers were so chucked of what he said they looked like they can’t believe it. I took I picture of his I wish I can posted it here.
Take an Uber or a taxi or any other your bus but this one. The workers are very very rude.

It was the worst experience ever.
We always use different hop-on hop- off buses when we traveling to another big cities. It's great possibility to get a first impression of the place and to make plans of what we want to see and where we want to spend more time.
Not that time. 80% of the "tour"we had to listen to music, stypid pre-recorded jokes, even ads for BoA and Yellow Taxi. No explanation of what we seeing, no stops announcement.
Just very expensive public transportation. For that price we might get a taxi and a driver would tell us more information than we got.
Very disappointing.

Purchased a 2 day ticket at 12.30pm only to find that 2 days only went to end of business the following day! When I queried this I was rudely told I should have gone on the bus that morning and that 2 days means today and tomorrow. Talked to others who at bought the same at 2.30pm.
Spent a wasted 45 mins waiting for a red line bus on the side of an 8 lane highway in the middle of a construction site. The people who had been waiting for a while when we got there weren't too happy either.
Need a better commentary, inane crap with very little real information.
It would help if they described the stops by number as well to line up with the stop numbers on the map and ap.
Wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy.

In a city with so much history and interest you might think, or hope, the commentary on the tour might be informative and accurate. Let me stop you right there! The commentary, I'd suggest, presumes the listeners to be 7yr old children. The inane and juvenile commentary delivered by two failed entertainers follows you around this iconic city. Whilst the tour does take in many of the attractions the promised informative commentary irritates and massively detracts from what should be an imersive and enjoyable experience. The Big Bus Tour company needs to understand their target audience, which currently they clearly do not, and provide fact based information delivered in a structured, intelligent format rather than the current puerile approach. Yes, Big Bus Tours, it can be done and if you choose to do so your pitiful reviews of the appalling experience you currently deliver might just improve!

Don't bother. Staff, as soon as they know you have already bought a ticket won't help. Had a 2 day ticket and the wait in line and queue was long. Took around 30 min to 40 min EVERYTIME. waste of money

I HAD BOUGHT A TICKET IN NEW YORK. I ADVISE NOT TO GO WITH THIS COMPANY. I BOUGHT A TICKET FOR THE BLUE LINE ASWELL AS THE RED,THE BLUE LINE HAD ALREADY FINISHED ITS ROUTE FOR THE DAY & THE PERSON THAT SOLD ME THIS WOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS. I DID ASK COULD I DO THE TWO LINES ONE AFTER THE OTHER, AS I COULD NOT DO THE NEXT DAY. HE SAID YES OF COURSE.
ALL THEY WANT IS TO TAKE MONEY & I HAVE BEEN REFUSED A REFUND. EVEN ON THE RED LINE YOU SEE SOME OF THE THINGS THEY SAY DOWN A SIDE STREET. DONT BLINK EITHR AS YOU WILL MISS SOME OF THE SITES. ONE OF THE WORST COMPANIES I HAVE TRAVELLED WITH ON THE HOP ON HOP OF BUS.

Bought ticket online using the app, only to be refused access to bus by driver and told to walk to Times Square to get a paper ticket ! Have send in refund query 3/4 times with no response back.
Terrible service - do not use