Jan 8, 2025
It is a great experience, especially for everything you learn about historic places and make a lot of time - The city is very beautiful, visiting it like this is very convenient because you learn about its history, specific tourist attractions and interact with other tourists from other countries.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dec 30, 2024
Good Sightseeing, but bus schedule was very inaccurate - We have used hop-on-hop-off busses in multiple cities around the world. Unfortunately, this one was a bit frustrating. We were on a cruise, with a stop in Cartagena. We purchased our City Sightseeing tickets in advance on Viator. When we arrived in Cartagena, we had the digital tickets on our phones, and we printed our tickets too, in advance, just in case we needed them. The stops were not a reasonable walking distance to the pier, so we made plans to book an Uber to the nearest City Sightseeing stop. When we disembarked the cruise ship, there were multiple City Sightseeing busses at the pier. However, when we presented our tickets to City Sightseeing personnel, we were told that the busses at the pier were only available to guests who purchased their tickets through the cruise lines. So, we exited the pier, booked an Uber, and proceeded to the nearest City Sightseeing stop. When we arrived we saw one of the busses that we had just seen at the pier, loaded with people from the cruise ship. We boarded the bus, they scanned our QR code ticket, and gave us our pass for the day. Several guests on the bus were removed at that stop for "invalid" tickets (some of which the guests claimed were purchased on-board the cruise ship). Either way, after about 30 minutes of waiting, we started on the City Sightseeing Tour. It was a hot day, with "feels like" temps of 103F. Bring lots of water, good shoes, and a secure backpack. While they advertise the busses were running every ~30 minutes, we waited nearly an hour for the next bus after we stopped at the Galleria/Mall stop. City Sightseeing is a great way to see the sights quickly during a cruise stop, but with the bus times not even close to accurate, it made it difficult to fit in the stops we wanted to see. We prioritized the Walled City, Galleria/Mall (for much needed A/C on a hot day, and beach access), and then proceeded to the final stop. From there, we walked to one more Walled City attraction, then caught a Taxi back to the pier. This would have been a better tour and a better cruise stop if we had a completely FULL day at Cartagena, and the busses were running on-time.
Review provided by Viator
Dec 29, 2024
Cartagena on and off City Bus Tour - This tour is exactly as advertised. You get on a bus with headphones with very limited descriptions of each area. The bus picks up at each stop every 45 minutes. It is a good way to see the cheap-$75 for the 4 of us. No frills. in hindsight, would have preferred to pay for a private city tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 15, 2025
Don't take this tour! - It was very unclear how to meet the tour bus from the cruise port. The only directions in the ticket said to meet at a location that was several miles away from the cruise port terminal. There was no one to meet us at the ship, and we had to get a cab that cost us $15 US to take us to that location. Once we got on the bus, we were handed a set of earphones and there was a recording that repeated at every stop how the on-off bus worked, followed by some basic information about the area we were passing by. It was a very uninspiring recording. When we finished one cycle of the 12 bus stops, we had had enough. Then we had to figure out how to get back to the ship. Luckily, I found the same operator I had spoken to at the pier side who gave us recommendations on how much to pay for a cab, so that we would not overpay, and he personally arranged a small bus/van to get us back to the port. I'm not sure how we would have gotten back otherwise. I would definitely not recommend this tour.
Review provided by Viator
Feb 5, 2025
Don’t go on this bus, please! Terrible experience and customer service! - We booked this because we were supposed to get a walking tour of the walled city area. Our guide, Rivero, only took us to 5 of the 14 noted on the handout map, and instead took us to a place to buy emeralds and another kiosk to sell us Colombian coffee. We wasted 45 minutes doing this, and then were marched back to the bus stop only to wait another 20 minutes there. We got off at the Fort, but when a bus finally came 45 minutes late, no one got off. We had to contact the company for them to send a bus to come get us (8 passengers), which finally arrived 1.5 hours later. On this bus, the audio guide was broken - the whole point of the bus ride is that you’re supposed to get info on what you are seeing. The customer service rep shrugged her shoulders and apologised but offered no resolution. On the last stop, an employee got on and reset the audio system. Communication and support was dismal. 0 stars.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 3, 2025
Wasn’t able to take tour - We went to the tour at the cruise terminal but they would not let us get on there. We tried to find a way to get to one of the other stops but was bombarded with taxi drivers and they were like vultures. Even touching my husband trying to get him to choose them. There were about 50 of them all in a small section of port. It was scary and we decided to go back on the ship and just eat the money spent on this tour. Would not recommend
Review provided by Viator
Feb 3, 2025
Worst hop on bus ever - Disorganised and long wait times. Commentary not informative when you could hear it which wasn't often as it crackled constantly. Starting point difficult to find.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 11, 2025
Never showed don't use if cruise shops in port - Holiday season traffic packed all bus used reserved only for cruise passengers other bus had flat tire waited over hour twice. Took 3 taxis quicker at $10 trip to Fort old town.etc waste of money no customer service help or response. Scam
Review provided by Viator
Jan 7, 2025
Be informed of your tour options - The hop on hop off in any country is always a great way to get to know the city and history; unfortunately, not in this case.
We bought a ticket for two days in the bus; the first day, we had to get off the bus because of a flat tire. No one’s fault but we were not given any options as to where to go or do. The next bus stop was not marked because the castle is a historic monument but we were not informed of this; we walked for over 30 minutes looking for it until we found another family also waiting for the bus.
We were finally on the way but were asked to get off the bus in the convention center; with no explanation except that we had to give up the bus to a tour group and they another bus on the way.
On the second day, our bus had no a/c and was 45 minutes late picking up in the Castle. There were like 12 of us waiting. The rep never came to give us an explanation and kept saying the bus would be in “5 minutes”.
Cartagena is beautiful but this company needs to be more accountable and empower its employees to ensure a smooth and safe customer experience and more history about the city.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 1, 2025
Never Get Hop On Hop Off in Cartagena, Colombia! - We were cruising on the Norwegian Bliss from LA to Miami (Ocean to Ocean passing Panama Canal). Our last three excursions we’ve purchased from Viator were good and we had no problem until we got to Cartagena, Colombia. When we got off the ship, we couldn’t get on the Hop on Hop off Bus because it was full amd they said that the next one is coming. We waited for almost two hours hoping that the other bus is coming not knowing that it broke down on the road. We only had a few hours left to visit the city as the ship was only docked from 11:00am-5:00pm and we had to go back to the ship by 4:00-4:30pm so we had to get a taxi to do as much sightseeing as possible. For that, we requested Viator for refund and unfortunately, after a few days they emailed me saying that they are sorry that they couldn’t refund our money because the tour operator rejected it. This left a very bad taste in our mouth because we’d bought our tickets from Viator long ago, not just off the street in town. We still require our money back because it was not our intention to cancel at all and we were ready to use those tickets for city sightseeing. It was absolutely the operator’s problem and unfortunately, no one listened to us. You can still investigate what exactly happened in Cartagena on December 18, 2024 and refund our money so we can stay loyal customer to Viator. Here is our Booking Reference BR-1199299825 if Viator is really willing to retain their customers. Once again, we never had an intention to cancel this particular excursion and the problem was from the tour operator (Hop on Hop off in Cartagena, Colombia) but Viator on their email-response said that they cannot refund because we had to cancel 24 hours prior to the tour. This is just not right!
Review provided by Viator
