New York City Tour: Open Top Bus and Empire State Building
3.4
72 Ratings

Experience the best of New York City with a Hop-on Hop-off Tour and access to the iconic Empire State Building. Explore famous sights, museums, and more!

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights

Explore Downtown (Red Route) (Route)

Operating Schedule: 9:30AM-4:30PM (from Stop 1 - M&M’S World)

Every 20 to 30 minutes, total route takes 90 minutes

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

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

2. W 42nd St and Broadway
Closed until further notice 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. Broadway/Spring St
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. Broadway & Wall St
Stop 8 - Wall Street / Charging Bull (Southwest corner near Rector St)

9. PX3P+85 New York
Stop 9 - Statue of Liberty / Battery Park

10. Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
Stop 10 - 42nd St & 12th Ave

Points of Interest

  • Times Square

  • Empire State Building

  • Flatiron Building

  • Greenwich Village

  • Battery Park

  • The High Line

  • SoHo

  • Little Italy

  • Charging Bull (Wall Street Bull)

  • New York City Hall

  • Bryant Park

  • Madame Tussauds New York

Explore Uptown (Blue Route) (Route)

Operating Schedule: 10:00AM-4:00 PM from Stop #11 - 7th Ave & W 50th St

Every 30 minutes, totally route takes approximately 75 - 90 minutes

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

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

  • Grand Central Terminal

  • Bryant Park

  • Central Park Zoo

  • Central Park

What's Included
  • Rent 1 hour, Get 2 hours free bike offer
  • Free Butterbeer Ice Cream at Harry Potter Store
  • Wi-Fi on board
  • Free slice of NYC-style pizza
  • Entry to the Empire State Building
  • Unlimited hop-on hop-off access during ticket validity
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information

Experience the wonder of New York City with an Open Top Bus Tour and behold the City from the renowned Empire State Building, a landmark that shapes Manhattan’s skyline. Look forward to a day of endless rides across the city, with the flexibility to board and disembark as many times as you wish and for as long as you desire. Discover all the celebrated attractions in Midtown, Downtown, and Uptown, such as Times Square, the Empire State Building, Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty. Enjoy some leisurely time roaming Central Park, or choose to disembark at globally-renowned museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Cancellation Policy

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

Customer Ratings
3.4
(72 Ratings)
5 stars
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1 star
Susannemy2150bv
Sep 9, 2024
Best bus driver - Great to hop on and hop off, we went the whole day through N.Y. City, amazing! Very nice service all around but the best bus driver is Miguel, he talled us he is from Equador - he explaines his tours (!) and that very detailed, wonderfull, he is very friendly and he loves his job, that's great, thank you! We’ll come again!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jj_w
Aug 28, 2024
Summer vybes with the best tour operators - My 11 yo was so mesmerized by the open bus experience. We enjoyed the sights & sounds of the mighty NY city with its breathtaking views. The highlight of our tour was at the Empire State Building. This was super amazing. We will do this again soon
Review provided by Viator
Candicern2011
Dec 18, 2023
Santana is the bomb! 💣 - Santana was the best driver that we had. We got on her bus multiple times and she went above and beyond to make sure we knew what was around us and the history of NYC! She also was funny and had a great personality. Your other drivers were not as friendly and did not speak! Santana was the bomb!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Michael_b
Oct 7, 2023
Many attendants around... - Many attendants around the city to answer questions. Easy access. Most audio boxes worked, but not all.
Review provided by Viator
Donna_b
Oct 26, 2023
Great tour…bit of a rough start! - We very much enjoyed the Big Bus hop on & hop off tour with entry to the Empire State Building after a bit of a rough start. The reps are easy to spot at their designated location to pick up your vouchers. I would recommend doing a 2 day pass if you really want to do both loops. I would have given Big Bus a 5* rating except they had the wrong time slot. We had purposely booked the 9:30am time slot to visit The Empire State Building so we wouldn’t be on a strict timeline to get back there. When we picked the tickets up our time slot was 12:45pm…Rep was no help, said maybe we were from a different time zone..not the case. We went anyway for 9:30am & because it was the first time slot and not yet crowded they let us go up.
Review provided by Viator
James_h
Apr 11, 2024
Don't bother with this Hop-on/Hop-off! - We have thoroughly appreciated previous Hop-on/Hop-off buses in other cities but I was very disappointed in the Manhattan experience. We were introducing NYC to family visiting from another country but we were unable to view most of the buildings and other sites mentioned. Even though our purchase also included Empire State Bldg entry, there was NO time available to take advantage of that. It took over an hour waiting for a bus that had space for us so we didn't even begin until after 10:30 am. You should consider only selling a 48-hour experience since the bus schedule starts late and ends early.
Review provided by Viator
E9045qwcolinm
Aug 16, 2024
Misleading Online Booking Form - From UK, and visiting family in Connecticut, we visited New York on Sunday 11th August. 4 adult tickets and 2 child tickets were purchased online for the Red & Blue bus tours, to include the Empire State Building ANYTIME entry. The bus tour was a disappointment. The onboard commentary was mostly unsynchronised with the landmarks, and consisted mainly of music. Many of the landmarks were not near the route, and the stops were not announced by the driver. Most importantly, on arriving at the Empire State Building at approximately 6pm we were refused access because the tours were full and we had not made a reservation. The BigBus booking form clearly says ANYTIME. There is no mention that a reservation is required for a tour time slot. Either BigBus are unaware of this requirement (unlikely), or they couldn't care less (likely). So what did we get for our $580? Not much: an uninformative bus ride tour with little relevance to what we were seeing, and refused entry to the attraction we'd booked. An absolute waste of money. BigBus might possibly give their usual fatuous reply. What they need to give is refunds, especially since the booking form is inaccurate and misleading.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Onair51042744549
Mar 28, 2024
Not the best - Recommend not booking in advance unless you are certain you can use the service. If something happens and you can't use it on your day/days, all you get is a raincheck...next time your on a town they offer service in. Subways are faster and cheaper by far...
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Angelica_a
Dec 18, 2023
Terrible - Well it didn’t happen! Very disappointed! I went to two locations to redeem my voucher for tickets and no one was there. I went to a pick up spot to hopefully get some help. The bus driver wasn’t any help and rude. I want my money back. This was a terrible experience.
Review provided by Viator
Peter_m
Oct 4, 2023
Raining very hard - bad... - Raining very hard - bad directions to starting point - too rainy & foggy to see anything - you should give us a full refund. Not sure if that day’s excursion even happened. Please call me at 361-648-7248.
Review provided by Viator
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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