Bigbustours/rome Reviews 510

Long intervals between the busses. Lots of changes in the route due to many people in popular places can't be avoided but they should give better information during the tour. ok trip service ok. probably same difficulties on other busses.

A pretty good tour, covering all the main interest points.

What I like is the free walking tour. Its very informative & enjoyable also the interval between walking tour is not so long.
But the walking tour route needs to be re-arrange (tour 3 & 4) so we can access it by walk.
The rest is okay, same with other HoHo tour company.

Short wait every time. Many buses available.
Our purchase was made online.
It was very easy to register our 3 day ticket with first hop on

The good thing about having a hop on hop off bus is that it takes you to tourist spots so you don't need to worry about getting to each tourist spots by public transport. Also it has commentary so you get to know the history of the city and the landmarks.

When we got there on our 1st day of tour, there was an international bike race and we were informed that the government will be closing a lot of roads and that the buses cannot go thru those areas once they starting closing the roads and they were kind enough to offer to extend our 3 day hop on hop off bus tour for another day but since we were only booked for 3 nights, we were not able to make use of the extension anyway. After our tour of the Coloseo, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, the bike race had started and all mode of transport were not allowed in the streets around the area including the metro station was closed so we were paralyzed. I checked the Big Bus app for advisory as they mentioned that they would have advisory on how to get out of the closed areas. However, I found none. Even after dinner when public transport was supposed to resume at 8pm, it did not and we waited for cab until 9pm which costs a fortune because of the demand at that time. We had no choice but to take it.

One of the reasons I booked with Big Bus is because they have free walking tours and the route to the San Sebastián Catacomb which the other bus companies didn't have. However, because of the waiting times at the bus stops, we are not able to catch the free walking tours we wanted to join. So it defeated the purpose why I chose it in the first place.

For the route to the catacomb, the buses run just every hour so if you miss the previous bus by just a split second then you will have to wait for 1hr for it to come around to pick you up. That was our experience. We took the bus 1st thing in the morning from Termini station and went straight to the catacomb. We got there before it opened so we had to wait and when it opened we had to wait for the English tour guide to arrive which was about 20mins after. Thus, when we finished our guided tour, I checked the Big Bus app, the bus just left a few mins ago and we had to wait for the next hour's bus to arrive to pick us up and when it arrived, it waited for about 10-15mins more just in case there are some other people wanting to ride the bus as well. And after the Catacomb we were supposed to join the 12nn Vatican walking tour. However, since it was already late and we still have to transfer to the red line bus at some point to get to the bus stop for the Vatican bus stop, we were not able to join the tour. By the time we got to the bus stop for the Vatican, it was almost 12:30pm.

There was another instance that we arrived at bus stop #7 around 7:25pm but had to wait for not just 10-20mins as it says in the website but almost 50mins. While waiting, I checked the real time bus locations and saw that there are only 3 buses running that time and 2 buses were very close to each other (about 100-200m apart) near stop #8 while the 3rd one was at stop #3 then we were waiting at stop #7 which is the farthest stop. I even took a screen shot of the locations of the buses. It was frustrating to be waiting for the buses which were said to come in 10-20mins intervals. The bus finally arrived around 8:15pm but since it's the last bus for the day, it waited for about 5-10mins on each stop it passed. Thus, our plan of taking the 8:30pm night tour did not push through as planned and we had to wait for the 9:30pm night tour bus instead and ended 10:30pm and got to our place 11pm.

The stop for the Vatican is about 1.5km to St Peter's Basilica, thus, not recommended for elderly people.

my husband and I used Big Bus in Rome, it was a big disappointment. We had just seen a red line bus pass but we knew (according to the brochure) that the next bus should arrive in 10-20 minutes, so we waited. Then another bus approached (purple line bus) but he didn’t even bother to stop and it said that all colors stopped at the Stop 2 where we were (there was also no Big Bus representative at the stop), so that was irritating but we waited. We waited nearly forty minutes for the next red line bus. Once we boarded we were extremely disappointed to find the commentary was not working, so we got off at Stop 3 - Colosseum - to get on another bus for the commentary. We board the bus and we were on our way, THEN the bus ran into a taxi! So because of the accident we had to get off of that bus and wait and board another bus! I am disappointed I chose Big Bus because of these incidents and also because every other tour bus company had literally between 3 to 5 busses come to the stop before 1 Big Bus would show up, also the other companies have a retractable roof cover in case of rain AND the other companies have live commentary instead of a recording. I will not be recommending Big Bus and I don’t plan on using Big Bus again in

Nice trip. Frequency of the bus were good

Big Bus was a great way to see some of Rome's most famous attractions. I was visiting with my mother, who is in her 70s and cannot do too much walking. Big Bus is a good alternative for seniors or others with mobility issues. The staff was very friendly and the free ponchos were helpful since it rained both days that we used the bus. I was able to take photos from the top level of the bus.
My only issue is there was significant static in the earbuds so it was difficult to hear the tour narration. I tried plugging into several ports but they all had the same result.

Excellent concept, friendly staff, very hospitality, no complaints 😊

Excellent vehicles, punctual timing and very friendly staff.

This was the most enjoyable
Way to see and get atriums Rome - this was our most used form of transportation during our 10 days in Rome! We were able to see the entire city and all it’s tourist On our own schedule in snibbits at each bus stop area!

Everything’s we wanted to see or do was within walking distance of a big bus stop!

The evening tour was one of my favs! All the beauty of Rome shined bright and took on a whole new perspective after sundown!

We had 1 day in Rome. We took the train from Florence and met the Big Bus outside the train station, no problems. We took the bus to the Colosseum where we departed and toured there. We got on the bus again and went to the Vatican. There was very little wait for a bus every time we went to board. After a St. Peter's visit, we caught a bus to the Trevi fountain, had dinner and then caught another bus to the train station for our trip back to Florence. All day in Rome and we didn't wait more than 5-10 minutes for a bus. We listened to all the commentary as we rode, it was educational and humorous. We had a great time in Rome and the Big Bus made it easy to get around and learn something about the city. We plan to take Big Bus rides when we next visit New York and Paris. Some reviews have said it would just be easier to walk everywhere, but we did a lot of walking anyway and the Big Bus was a nice respite, a chance to relax and ride to all the major sites. A highlight of our trip to Italy.

It was great for what we wanted it for. The kids loved it. It was very informative. My only issue was that we got on one of the later buses on the blue route, it took us right off route, something that wasn't even on the map, which delayed the time getting back into the station and the journey ended there and we wanted the next stop. We were on the bus a lot longer than we wanted to be and ended up missing our dinner reservation.

To little busses... waited for hours... change of routes...to crowded.. .. to little stops... never again big bus

The tour itself was good. But we had to wait over 1hour for the bus at one time whitch was not what we expected and delayed us for the rest of the day. I think that if you’re in a hurry it’s faster to walk to most parts of Rome than taking the bus.

The Busses were okay, but at the Time we was in Roma, there were to less Busses around. Sometimes we was waiting on the busstop and 3 Busses of each compeditor came before on of big bus shows up. The „New“ Green route was very nice, but we had wait for 30 minutes at the Art Museum before we could go on.

My friend and myself waited for at least 45 minutes in 28° heat and no bus appeared! In the end we got onto another bus and paid for our tickets even though we had already paid Bigbus tours. However when I got home I contacted Bigbus and they promptly refunded my money.

Unless you can't do a lot of walking, this is really not a good way to see Rome. We spent a lot of money for tickets and found out we could walk from one end of the "must see" sites to the other every day we were there and it is a much better way to see everything. It took much longer to wait for the bus and get a ride from one end to the other.

That being said, this bus had the most room, provided ear buds and had "ok" information while you rode around.

We waited for over an hour at two different locations for the bus to come. It never did. Had to take a taxi to get back to our hotel. The one bus that we did ride on had no sound working on the upper deck. I’d give it zero stars if possible.