Big Bus New York: Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour by Open-top Bus
3.6
4,169 Ratings

Experience the best of New York City with the Big Bus open-top hop-on hop-off tour. Explore downtown attractions, visit Times Square and Wall Street, and catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Then, discover uptown highlights like the Apollo Theater, The Metropolitan Museum, and Central Park. Choose from 1 or 2-day options and explore at your own pace.

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights

Downtown - Red Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: 9:00AM-5:00PM (from Stop #1 - M&M’S World)

Every 10 to 15 minutes, total route takes 90 minutes

Download the free Big Bus app for city information and live bus tracking.

1. M&M’S New York
Stop 1 - 7th Ave & W 48th St

2. W 42nd St and Broadway
Stop 2 - Times Square East

3. 5th Avenue & West 32nd Street
Stop 3 - Empire State Building / KoreaTown ( (in front of CVS Pharmacy)

4. 5th Ave & W 23rd St
Stop 4 - Flatiron District (in front of Eisenbergs Sandwich Shop)

5. West Broadway & Spring Street
Stop 5 - SoHo (in front of the Nike Store)

6. 100 Lafayette St
Stop 6 - Chinatown / Little Italy (near corner with Walker Street)

7. Park Row & Beekman St
Stop 7 - Brooklyn Bridge (across from 33 Park Row)

8. SAMC360
Stop 8 - Wall Street / Charging Bull (Southwest corner near Rector St)

9. State St/Bridge St
Stop 9 - Statue of Liberty / Battery Park (in front of the 1 Train Subway Entrance)

10. Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
Stop 10 - 12th Ave & 40th St (opposite Pier 81)

Points of Interest

  • Empire State Building

  • Rockefeller Center

  • Times Square

  • Flatiron Building

  • Battery Park

  • Charging Bull (Wall Street Bull)

  • SoHo

  • Greenwich Village

  • Little Italy

  • Union Square Green Market

  • Herald Square

  • The High Line

  • Madame Tussauds New York

  • Bryant Park

  • Union Square

  • Brooklyn Bridge

  • The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum

  • One World Observatory

  • Trinity Church

Uptown - Blue Route (Route)

Operating Schedule: 10 AM - 5 PM (Stop #11 Times Square North)

Every 30 Minutes, tour duration takes 90 Minutes

Customers are advised to visit the Big Bus website or to download the Big Bus app to see the most up to date bus stop locations and timings. For live bus tracking on the day of travel - please download the Big Bus App in advance of arrival.

1. W 42nd St and Broadway
Stop 2 - Times Square East (*in front of the Knickerbocker Hotel)

  1. Stop 11 - Times Square North (in front of Majectic Deli)

  2. Stop 12 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (outside the museum near 83rd St)

  3. Stop 13 - Central Park Zoo (opposite 845 5th Ave)

  4. Stop 14 - Columbus Circle (Southwest corner of Central Park, next to Maine Monument)

Points of Interest

  • Carnegie Hall

  • Columbus Circle

  • Central Park Zoo

  • Frick Collection

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  • Grand Central Terminal

  • Bryant Park

  • Times Square

  • Central Park

  • Madame Tussauds New York

  • Empire State Building

  • Broadway

  • Fifth Avenue

What's Included
  • Bike Rental Offer: rent 1 hour, get 2 hours free (included with Downtown/Uptown Loop tickets only)
  • Free Butterbeer Ice Cream at Harry Potter Store (included with Downtown/Uptown Loop tickets only)
  • Self-guided Vox Walking Tours with 4 tour options (included with 2-day ticket only)
  • Free slice of NYC-style pizza (included with Downtown/Uptown Loop tickets only)
  • Live bus tracking through Big Bus app
  • Two Routes - Downtown & Uptown Loops
  • Unlimited hop-on hop-off access during ticket validity
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information

Hop on and hop off around New York City with an open-top Big Bus tour, and visit NYC attractions at your own pace.

Ride all though Downton New York where you will see amazing restaurants, the buzzing Times Square, Wall Street, and Battery Park where you can catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Then follow up with on the Uptown tour and see the famous Apollo Theater, The Metropolitan Museum, and Central Park. These routes have been designed to give you the best New York has to offer in a short amount of time whether it is for 1 day or 2 days.

Plus, explore more of New York with our self-guided walking tours, powered by Vox. Choose from 4 tour options to uncover more of “The City that Never Sleeps.”

  • 1 day tickets will be valid for same day use. Tickets with multiple days must be used consecutively.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.6
(4169 Ratings)
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1 star
Lawlovetraveler
Jun 24, 2024
Not a fan. Walk & use the subway and save yourself a ton of money - I would not suggest this ticket. We did the downtown loop because we felt that everything we wanted to see in the uptown loop was in walking distance. Turns out most of the stuff in the downtown loop was walkable and anything that wasn't, it wouldve been more efficient to just take a subway there instead. We took the bus between two stops just because we had the ticket but still had to walk a bunch to get to our ultimate destination. The bus was packed, people were standing, there wasn't any AC so everyone was dripping. They have some tint covers over the windows which probably helped with the temp but made it feel more cramped than it was. The cord for the audio portion plugged in at the ceiling so there was this cord just dangling in front of my face. One ear bud didn't even work. I was listening to crappy music more than actual guide information. The information that they did share wasn't that exciting. Maybe we weren't in a great part of the tour. The driver (and various drivers that were hopping on/off) weren't overly friendly either. There were a few spots (Whitehall Station in particular) wasn't even on the route but the bus drove within a few blocks of it without stopping. Then another two other stops were like 1-2 blocks away from each other. Bright side: I needed to communicate with customer service for a change in our ticket prior to our visit and they were helpful and friendly.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mjl59
May 26, 2024
Avoid this if it is busy in manhattan in any way - I would give 1 star but my convinced me to cut them slack for holiday weekend. The nice thing of taking this or any of the open top buses is you really get to see the building not the glass fronts at street level. Now for my experience. I bought the basic ticket for the red loop. Lower manhattan. I got off at stop 3 to site see. When I got back on. No seats up top so was on bottom of bus. There was no air conditioning. Got off stop 5 as planned, but would have gotten off anyway because the bottom part of bus was oppressive. Getting back on after lunch on bus. Showed up at stop around 2:15. When bus came around 2:45, it was full. This bud had no AC on the bottom and top was full. Waited for next bus. Got on that just after 3:00 up top. Was able to experience gridlocked traffic for about 1:40 minutes to get back to the first stop and off the bus. Another ding on the your. There is no live guide giving you the story of what you are seeing. It is a recorded Schlick with some music between …..like when you are stuck in traffic. It could be good if it is not a busy manhattan day. Otherwise avoid it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Loonietunes123
May 19, 2024
Just a bus, not a tour - Disappointed with this. The commentary is very basic and didn't mention many of the landmarks which is what I wanted the tour for, mainly it was repetitive music. You can't see much if you are downstairs as the windows are covered so no opportunity for pictures. You will need to be upstairs but this isn't always possible as it does get busy especially in the second half of the day. I woukd say it's just a bus, not a tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
148deekshaj
Jun 21, 2024
They are goons on the road. Will tell all lies while selling the tickets. Avoid. - Goons on the road. They tell all lies while selling the ticket. Hanging against tourist. No customer service. To be avoided at all costs.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Glasgowtraveller_8
May 23, 2024
Quite a let down sadly. - We recently did the Uptown Big Bis uptown tour and it was really disappointing. It's hop.on hop off but buses aren't too frequent and when one does turn up there will be no seats upstairs to see anything. Also the uptown tour was very short and didn't go very far Uptown. Got as far as one of the museums on the east side of Central Park and then down to Colombia Circle then back to where we started. Way too short. Never took in Harlem for example. We didn't think this was much of a tour at all.ssdly and if we hadn't got off for a walk at Central Park it would have been done in a flash. I'd do something else instead or certainty avoid the uptown tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Geeta
May 21, 2024
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! - Do not waste your time and money on this poorly managed “tour” company. We waited more than 30 minutes at each stop and at the Statue of Liberty stop close to an hour. The stops were not even close to any of the attractions. We had to beg the driver to let us on after waiting for close to one hour ( he had to leave behind several frustrated people). We started at stop number 4 on the red tour, hopped off only twice- 9/11 memorial and Statue of Liberty and barely made it back to the last stop at 6pm. We were unable to do the blue tour as planned. The ground staff was mostly absent throughout the tour. Audio narration very basic. Have done a hop on hop off tour in more than 10 countries around the world. New York city tour is the most disappointing. Feeling sorry for recommending and dragging 3 other friends to waste their time money and energy today ( May 21, 2024). The mobile app reflected inaccurate wait time and kept fluctuating between 14to 17 minutes wait, then 6-8 minutes, then 8-10 minutes and then back to 13-14 minutes etc.etc DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lular
May 17, 2024
Not worth the money. Narrative is awful. - Took a 2 day pass. The audio on this tour is truly awful. They don’t point out most of the major landmarks, historic buildings and buildings of interest. Unless you’ve been to new York before and know what they are then this tour is pointless. The narrative is silly and focused on movie trivia- mainly where ghostbusters was filmed. Drivers were not friendly and people loading the bus miserable. The tour audio also did not point out all the stops when the bus pulled in. Don’t bother wasting your money here.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
S6009tesallyg
May 15, 2024
Disappointing - We spent many hours on the big bus yesterday. There was little to no commentary we found out more information by googling as we went and fellow travellers with their maps open. Have done this in many city’s of the world to get a feel for the lay of the land. Sorry NYC you are not up to scratch.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ileiden
May 5, 2024
A very bad experience! - This was a total waiste of money! We took the downtown tour on tuesday. The bus was stuck in traffic and it all took ages. Then the bus broke down, which of course can happen, but we were left on the sidewalk and had to wait for another bus which was full. The next one the same, but we were allowed to stand downstairs and with the windows sealed of we could not see much. The audiotour was silly, very loud and lacked any sensible information. The next day we tried the uptown tour. We had to wait over 30 minutes for the bus to arrive and when we got on the bus we were stuck in traffic again. We could not understand what the driver was doing, sometimes pulling in and waiting for no good reason. The route was not interesting at all, so we decided to leave the bus, but before that we heard a discussion between driver and passengers about again a mechanical problem. Seems the good money paid does not go towards maintenance! Be advised, don’t book this trip!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jwbird46342
May 4, 2024
Don't waste your time, sanity or patience! - Horrible! From the ticket agent's lack of customer service, being very aggressive as a salesman to a potential customer (tried several times to grab his credit card out of his hand), bad driving and overall lack of caring, it was a hot mess. I've done these bus tours in three other cities and had great experiences. I'm not sure what's going on in NY.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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1 Adult
September 2024
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