Big Bus Tours London Reviews 11,157

I had a fantastic experience with Big Bus London! I went to the nearest Big Bus stop and the bus was there waiting, so it was very convenient for me to hop on. I so enjoyed the commentary. As I did not have time for the entire red bus loop, I hopped off and the attendant, was so kind to ensure that I got on the correct bus to return to my original red bus stop #19. Winston C was our bus driver who provided exceptional customer service and did a fantastic job navigating the London roads on a busy Friday rush-hour! Thank you for a great start to my trip to London!

Not helpful . Frustrating. Waste of money

Scam! Bought tickets from one of the big bus operators and convinced me that he was cheaper than online - then came up with things like my kids were too old (9, 12 and 14). Ended up paying £154 instead of £126 online. The fact that we realised we were scammed made the trip worse.

I've raised a complaint with Bug Bus Tours over a month ago, with still no resolution.
I bought my ticket from their office on Gloucester Road in London and then one of their reps spent 10 minutes moaning at me at the bus stop because I didn't buy the ticket from her and she missed out on her commission. I will never travel with them again. A bunch of dossers!

I spent more time waiting for buses than actually riding them. Other bus companies had 2 -3 buses pass for every Big bus that might arrive. Commentary was childish. Top floor was cold if it was windy.

Really rude driver. Started berating me for allowing my aged parents to board first instead of showing my London pass. His words, verbatim- “don’t act like you’re turning your phone to show me your pass when you don’t want to”. Really odd behaviour and Big Bus should do better with their training. This was on the Blue Route stop no.15 around 12.30pm 21 March. The attendant was quite nice though.

Paul S and Carlos were fantastic.
Paul was very kind and helpful and ensured i had a superb tour.
Thank you
AJ
Mayor of B&H

We planned the trip quite well; we had about 4 hours which should be ample of time for the blue route (should take 3h35m). It was raining a bit, making it close to impossible to see out (a bit of AC might have solved it). We relocated to the top floor. The information and the sights were great for about 30 minutes. Then the bus stopped. It didn't move at all for about an hour. Several times the bus driver said we would start again in 10-15 minutes. When the bus was finally ready to go we were told the bus wouldn't take the full tour, and that we had to change to a different bus to continue. We therefore got off at the designated spot and waited. We had been told the next bus would come in a couple of minutes; but after waiting for 30 min in the rain we gave up.

The communication skills of the bus driver were sub-par and it simply felt like we've been scammed by Big Bus. (It probably wasn't a scam, and I've had good experiences of them in the past; but partaking in this tour was the biggest regret during the entire trip).

Shocking driver decided to overtake another vehicle on wrong side of road through a set of traffic lights almost having a head on crash. Terrible response from customer service who just sent a generic ‘we’ll look into it, safety is our priority, we value blah blah blah’ and closed the case!

Miserable experience, started at Victoria, took 45 mins to do 5 stops, each requiring extended wait for passengers.
Slow, uninteresting, with the commentary absolute drivel.
Decided much better value to get a taxi to do a personalised mini-tour for half the price!

Fuad was really helpful and the tour was really smooth

Fuad was the most supreme part of the tour, such a great guy. We enjoyed the tour

Wonderful Christmas Lights bus tour which doubled up as a great sightseeing trip of the main London sights. Charlotte the tour guide and Rob the bus driver were excellent.

Never again taking the bus tour. Obviously the walking tours boost the review rating, which I wished I realised before buying the tickets for the bus! After being stuck in London traffic (which we appreciate, we're in London!!!) but we seemed to pass a couple of the places twice! But then to everyone's dismay, the drive turns off the engine, grabs his backpack and gets off!!!! We sat on the bus for almost 20 mins, waiting for a new driver. Guessing his shift was over!!! The routes are only one direction, so we were stuck on the bus. A lot of unhappy passengers. 3 1/2 hours to cover red and blue route.... Gilligan's boat trip was only meant to be 3hrs!!!! Sadly, there was no point getting off to visit the places we would have liked to because we were afraid we would be stranded due to the time ticking over and buses finishing.
The commentary would have been good if it was in sync with the travel. You would pass a landmark wondering what it was only to be told about about it minutes later or the commentary would be talking about a landmark and you would be spinning your head to find it, only to see a landmark that could have been what they were talking about. A very disappointing experience.

The owner seriously needs to make sure his staff are doing their job. Kabil who works on the Westminster bridge. London eye end. RUDE. ARROGANT. SHOVED A LEAFLET IN MY HAND. There was a protest which I k ow can't be helped, KABIL stood there and said nothing. Left a crowd of us waiting. He was stood with a fellow colleague chatting with other bus reps from different companies. We asked for help for him to blank us and it was rep from top view bus company who gave the the info that we had to go to Buckingham Palace to get the bus. We had limited time to enjoy our experience due to going home. Our trip was cut short due to this and when we got on it went in a circle. Over again. So upset and disappointed. We bought this trip for my daughters 13th birthday. We are so disappointed.

Overpriced & Underwhelming – Don’t Waste Your Money

We were really disappointed with Open Top Buses New York. We paid $60 per adult (2x) and $55 for our child (1) — a total of $185 USD — and honestly, it was a complete waste of money.

Unlike other cities, such as Philadelphia where the same company had actual guides giving interesting history and facts, in New York it was just a dull recorded voice. It offered almost no real knowledge or insight, which made the whole experience feel cheap and uninformative. For the price, I expected much more.

On top of that, the staff were very pushy. Everywhere you went, even as you were about to line up, employees kept asking if you wanted to buy tickets. It was constant and annoying.

The schedule was also misleading. They advertise buses every 20 minutes, but when one finally arrived, we were forced to sit there for another 20 minutes until it filled up before leaving Times Square. That’s not what we paid for.

Overall, this was overpriced, poorly managed, and not worth the hype. $185 USD could have been far better spent elsewhere. Next time, we’ll just take the train.

We went to book at Embankment, were directed to a man outside a curio booth.
He was wearing a Big Bus jacket, I asked for the red line tour (website showed tickets at £29 each), he said yeah, yeah, put your card in here, get on the bus there, very rush rush. We got onto a bus which took us to no sights, just part glimpses, with commentary telling us it's just a short walk, we got no map, so had no idea of what was next. We seemed to go through a lot of back streets (I do understand roadworks) but it was an awful trip. On the bus I checked our tickets, £98 had been charged, instead of the expected £58.
We got off where we started and I queried this with the same man. He then pointed out that he was wearing a City Tour hat (with a Big Bus jacket), told me the tickets I wanted was only available on a Wed. When I queried the huge cost of the tickets he had sold us, he pointed out that a river cruise was included. Not what we wanted, but we did it then. It was pleasant but short.
I feel as though I was robbed and it has put me off using the Big Bus services at other cities I visit. We last used them in New York and it was a dedicated Big Bus service. It seems London is much, much busier and so tourists can be taken advantage of, which doesn't make it a pleasant experience.

Simply awful
Slow frequency of buses and change of route and long waiting
Headphone sockets doesn’t work in few seats
Expensive for the service . Will not recommend to anyone

If I could give no stars I would! London big bus you are a disgrace! Don’t waste your money.. they don’t tell you what stop your at, don’t tell you anything about what your driving past, towards etc.. change routes, and miss stops. Then when you complain they tell you to download the app and follow the bus in it! Sorry I should not have to watch my phone when I’m trying to look around and take photos! The route is way too large and needs to be broken down into possibly 2/3 separate runs so it doesn’t take over 3 hours (on a good day, which didn’t happen with us) to get around! The people at stood need to be better educated on their surroundinb and inform customers of marathons, and extra busy roads and delays during the recorded message. (Well if they played one)

Took big bus in London. We were parked while staff chatted and did a driver change for over half and hour, finally got going to only have another 10 minute discussion between driver and staff at Marble arch stop. I contacted BB which got a half baked apology they offered free tickets but no compensation, I had booked 2 days, had poor experience so asked for 50% refund. Not a hope they are not interested in customer service only there own bottom line.