Newyorksightseeing Reviews 

130
TrustScore 2 out of 5

1.8

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This is a scam. Ordered tickets for Philadelphia Zoo. Zoo told me they are not in partnership with each other. After attempting to receive a refund and emailing multiple times, a "George" emailed me b... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Sat on the bus without moving for over 30 minutes with a tour guide that had such a heavy middle eastern accent, none of us could understand him. Protestors were marching (president-elect Trump); howe... See more

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Buyed online, immediately charged from credit card. No confirmation email, took almost 4 hours to get the tickets in the main office... Bad staff, not helpful, even bus guides. No enthusiasm, except... See more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I am commuting since 2002 to 2012 but first time can view NYC real great way to know the city -not only out of city people I suggest each and every person want to travel by gray line. specially with... See more

Company details

  1. Travel & Vacation

Written by the company

Enjoy deluxe double decker, hop-on, hop-off bus tours that include Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn and Night loops. We also offer fully escorted foreign language motorcoach city tours in German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian with top multi-lingual tour guides. Our one-day excursions to Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Woodbury Common premium shopping outlet mall, are favorites too. Gray Line New York Sightseeing sells all major attractions tickets and we have trained FIT (For Independent Travelers) group, and charter sales staff ready to assist you. Gray Line New York Sightseeing, is independently managed and operated. We are ENTERTAINMENT!


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1.8

Poor

TrustScore 2 out of 5

130 reviews

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1.8

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(130)

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Just awesome..NYC as the City of Diamonds in twilight

Amazing and speechless views. The city sparkles in the evening and all the legendary buildings or monuments give u a treat of a lifetime. A very informative speaker also in the cruise boat. Take the evening tours and take a good DSLR camera for the night pics.. Thank you New York sight Seeing team for the memories.

November 1, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

The comments were not good

We had all the tours included and the comments are not good for people who dont speak english. We wanted to listen to the comments in French and there was nothing for the Harlem and Bronx tour to explain. For the others it was ok but it could be better .

November 1, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

manhattan 8 hr excursion

What we booked was not what we got. When I booked the reservation it stated that it included lunch at a restaurant in little Italy. The day of our reservation we still hadn't been told we were not getting lunch. Another passenger said she tried to confirm lunch at the checkin and was told our deal no longer included lunch. The sign in the office stated otherwise. When we questioned our lunch they said they quit including it but we were never informed. We book one thing but they just said oh well. We felt like we should have gotten a credit back at least for our lunch. You can't sell one package and then change it a month later and not honor the original deal

October 30, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

New York, New York - First Visit

We bought a 72 hour ticket as we were in NY for 5 nights and thought the sightseeing bus would be the best way of seeing as much as we could. We picked our ticket up at Port Authority Terminal Office and were told we could board the bus across the road - only this was for Uptown and we wanted Downtown. When we eventually found the bus stop we waited about 20 minutes for a bus along with many other people and so when the bus came, we couldn't get on it and had to wait for another one which was another 25 minutes wait. Once on the bus, the guide was fine and we used the bus to look at sights. We got off at Chinatown as we wanted to visit Chinatown, Little Italy and Katz deli but were worried we would have problems getting on again. However it was ok but unfortunately we couldn't get off again as it would have been too late to explore anywhere before the last bus. The 2nd day we had booked a Statue of Liberty cruise and so if we had used the bus we would not have made it to Battery for the departure. However after the cruise we visited the Twin Towers Memorial and a couple of shops. As we were Downtown, we thought we would use the bus to take us somewhere else but unfortunately it started raining so we just used it to get back to our hotel. The third day it was absolutely throwing it down all day so we could only use it to do the Brooklyn night tour. All the other routes we could have used and the hoho ferry were impossible to use in 3 days. I understand a 3 day limit on the buses but I think the extras should have a couple of extra days added. To be honest, if I ever visited NY again I wouldn't use the sightseeing buses as with traffic and queues we didn't really get the chance to see that many sights - we found going on foot and using the subway much better.

October 30, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A Bad experience.

It was my second time using this company, last time I've been in NY I chose this company and since then they didn't improve it's services. The guides were very rude when I asked questions. When was raining, the first floor had advertising signs on the window, which made impossible to see anything. I've paid for sightseeing and not to see movies and football games advertising. The only thing I liked was the lady driver who drove us to downtown. She was very nice and polite. Next time, I will try another company, which seems a better idea.

October 28, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Distracted bus driver. Will never take again.

Overall, I am extremely unsatisfied with this service and would not recommend it to anyone. There were VERY serious safety concerns (amongst other things), as the bus driver was completely distracted and not paying attention to the road. We booked a round trip “flex” trip from NYC Port Authority to Woodbury Commons Shopping Mall. We booked the flex because there were multiple departure and return times to choose from. You simply show up and hop on the bus- or so I thought. This was my experience:

First, upon paying online, the confirmation email says I had to go to the Times Sq Visitor Center to redeem it and get an actual print out of our ticket. You can’t just show up at the bus with the email. I went 7 blocks uptown to the Times Sq Visitor Center (just as the confirmation email instructed) prior to our 830am departure. Then I trekked back downtown in the cold to the Port Authority pick up location. When i got to Port Authority, I discovered there was a Visitor Center there. So I went to Times Sq for nothing. The confirmation email didn’t say anything about a Port Auth Visitor Center. I went to the bus gate 30 min early but there was a jam packed line of people waiting for the same bus. I was the last one to get on and everyone behind me had to wait 1 hour for the next bus. I had to sit away from my companion. I wish I had been warned that there was only one bus and we should arrive 1-1.5hrs early to stand in line.

Here’s the worst part. I sat near the front of the bus with full view of the driver. As we drove out of Port Authority and into New Jersey, the bus driver started counting and reading tickets he collected while driving us on the highway! His hands were at the top of the steering wheel, and he was thumbing through each ticket, reading them, and sorting them. The bus even started straddling the lane lines on the highway! He did this for about 10 minutes. Then he opened an envelope and started bending it and fiddling around with it and putting some of the tickets inside. The heel of his R palm was on the steering wheel, and the L hand was holding the envelope and he was inserting tickets with his R fingers. The bus swerved and everyone sitting near the front was looking at each other and saying they were nervous. One lady finally asked him, “Sir, would you like me to help you count those so you can concentrate on driving this bus?” At that point, he became aware that everyone was watching him and he put the tickets and the envelope away. I wish I took a picture of it. Talk about distracted driving!

We were thankful to make it there without getting in an accident. At Woodbury Commons, the 2:02pm flex pickup time, the line was about 60 people. We got in line at 1:35pm. We were freezing cold. The bus arrived very late around 2:30pm. There was no one there to tell us what the status was, or where the next bus was. There was one bus driver parked far away and someone asked him where the bus was and he said he didn’t know, and it wasn’t him. He then ignored us, and turned and continued to talk to his friend. We inquired with the Mall Information Center, who didn’t know anything. A few people standing in line called the Grayline/Shortline 800 number listed on the ticket but the office was closed on Saturdays. Someone managed to get through to a receptionist who put her on hold and told her she would check. The receptionist never got back on the phone. We were all FREEZING and were standing in line waiting for a bus that was 30 min late and no one was there to tell us what the status was.

6 of us standing in line became were so frustrated, we all jumped in a cab and split the $150 fare back to Port Authority. I will never take this bus service again. What a waste of money.

October 26, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Horrible online signup /ticket process

Horrible process to get signed up. Bought tickets online while at hotel. Not explained that if you signed up online that you STILL have to go to Times Square location to print out ticket. Defeated purpose of booking online. Slow, too few people working at physical sight. Added 2 hours if u considered time to get there and time in line.

October 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

freestyle pick 7

I purchased this ticket as it said now included airport transfer from your hotel. I had to use one of the passes for this it was not an extra. I found the staff at the desks very unhelpful but praise to the tour guides on that busses and boats, very knowledgeable and helpful.

October 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Insightful-

Michael was a wealth of information and made the tour even more memorable.

October 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Unreliable And disrespectful of people's time

We ewaited almost 4 hours in the cold outside woodburry for your bus that is supposed to
Come almost every hour. Making us but the flex ticket formextra money butvthen controling and wasting our time like that with ZERO explanation or apology from your staff. You made that day awful for me and had to switch my entire plans for my LAST day in NY. Crap basically

October 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Needs a scrub down of the operations

Entertaining out of town guests so I figured the sightseeing tour would be a great option instead of me driving them around (I'm a local resident). Called to ask questions about the service and the CSR was less than enthusiastic and acted as if she could not be bothered with her job nor a customer that she should have been servicing. Just walking to the office to exchange for a voucher, the men outside and inside were incredible pushy, would not leave you alone, even though they were told that we already had tickets. The workers asked a lot of person questions (who are you here with? Are you single? Where are you staying?) this is crossing the line! I understand that the staff is paid on commission and I also understand that the sales agents want to up charge you, but this is ridiculous and it needs to stop and change. The tour guides were just as bad! The first guy we had editorialized continousily - that social security is a sham, and inserting his personal opinion to almost everything! The second guide, a lady, doing the 6:40p Saturday evening night tour, "sang" in our ear (through the headphones) several times and was one person on the mic and nasty off of the mic. Both guides continuously did "cross talk" through the mic. They should know that unless they are talking about the sites, they need to switch the mic to off! The cross talk with passengers about where they are from what have they seen so far, and simply "shooting the breeze" was annoying and unprofessional at best. And the singing - just ridiculous! Also, both tour guides spoke a lot about subway lines, transfer points etc. 1. No tourist will remember a thing about the info on the subway lines! Even NYer's have to look at the map to see where they are going! 2. This is a tour of NYC and its history. If it was a tour of the subway system then reviewing the trains lines would be appropriate, but that is why MTA employees booth reps! While this next comment is not anyone's fault, we spent the majority of the sightsee trip sitting in traffic and not actually seeing sights. That was very frustrating and to hear a lot of unnecessary conversation in our ears added to the frustruation. On the positive side, the 48hr pkg offered a lot for the money and the Via service was a huge plus. Since the bus wasn't moving, we got off, called Via on two occassions and got to our next destination. While the 48pkg offer a lot for the money, it was a big lost for me. We only did two routes (downtown - and half of that) and the night tour - didn't know that that tour went downtown, we thought it would go up town. In all, we only used one day and about 3.5hrs of a 48hr package. Incredibly disappointed!

In my opinion, the entire operation needs to be scrubbed down and rebuilt. Tour guides needs to be retrained, (I've traveled the world and throughout the states and I always take hop-on-hop off when I travel and the tour guides and great and I have never experience what I experienced this weekend in my own home town), CSR need to be re-trained, Counter sales and outside sales need to be retrained, and bus routes needs to be reconfigured realizing that the weekends are prone to grid lock.

October 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Very bad choice of the hop-on hop-off bus company...

Buyed online, immediately charged from credit card. No confirmation email, took almost 4 hours to get the tickets in the main office...
Bad staff, not helpful, even bus guides. No enthusiasm, except one "little Jewish women", how she called herself. Donť remember her name, she was exceptional. Unfotunately was the only one. Very bad attitude of staff in the harbor office. No warning in advance, that the schedule may changed because of weather - rain (just 30 min after left the main office with the "right schedule" and advice...the weather didnt changed during this 30 min). No communication with the main office, they didnt care, no excuse.

October 24, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Perfect way to see NY

This is such a great way to centre yourself in such a wonderful city so I recommend you take the tour when you first arrive. it means that you work out where everything is and the 48 hours means you can go back and visit for longer the places that really appeal.
Tour guides vary in quality but are generally really personable and interesting.
At times the audio didn't work and so i needed to change seats. And it would be great not to have to go to the central office to pick up tickets.
But the tour itself was great!

October 23, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Mostly a good experience

We purchased the 2-day All Around Town tour and did 3 of the 5 loops plus the night tour. Tour guides were mostly good, some better than others. Although one continuously hit on me and made me a bit uncomfortable. I was hoping the night tour would stop and let us off to take photos at major spots but they did not. But the hop on and off daytime loops stopped at all the major attractions, at convenient locations.

October 23, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

IT was amazing- Very short period not seen in 10 yrs experience in 5 visit

I am commuting since 2002 to 2012 but first time can view NYC real great way to know the city -not only out of city people I suggest each and every person want to travel by gray line. specially with 5 or 7 attraction ticket- take maximum 3 days trip in bus you know so many things I can say specially local stay in bus from start to end each hour enjoy differently.
Most basic suggestion seat on top only left side.

October 23, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

breath taking

Announcing the stops would have helped. If the tour guide's microphone was louder it would have enhanced the experience because the ear buds were inaudible. It was a blast- would do it again!!

October 22, 2016
Unprompted review

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