May 28, 2024
Big Fun! - This was a great little tour. The audio part of the tour through provided earplugs) was quite informative about San Francisco not to mention a bit campy and definitely
humor-filled. Our driver was friendly and funny! I recommend this tour. If you don’t have to take a photo of every interest, I’d recommend inside rather than the top. It did get a bit chilly and windy, but if you are weather resistant go straight to the top of the bus. DO NOT FORGET TO TIP YOUR DRIVER! They deserve it. I say that because I took more than one tour booked through Viator and I will book with them again.
C Meyerhoff
Review provided by Viator
Jan 1, 2024
Great Views on the Bay - It was raining and the Big Bus crew gave us poncho’s. Thank you ! The bus was clean. The boat ride gave us a beautiful view of the Holden Gate Bridge!
Review provided by Viator
Apr 9, 2019
Awesome trip - Great informative trip round San Fran. Jason (“different neighbourhood, different lamp”!!) was simply fantastic. Full of energy and anecdotes it was a real pleasure and a fascinating trip. Well done and give that guy a medal ( and a raise!!) he’s a diamond!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 19, 2018
Great value tours - The 3 day pass is great value and we enjoyed the humour of the tour guides on some of the buses. Perfect weather of course helps a lot on an open top bus. The routes were all interesting and we absolutely loved driving over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. Don't miss it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 6, 2019
Great way to get around and for orientation - We generally use a hop-on/hop-off bus when visiting a big city. They are great for getting an idea of what is around and where it is. Good value for money, frequent buses and useful commentary.
The buses have a mixture of live guides (in English) and the recorded commentary in several languages. The guides are "generally helpful", like most things in life - some more than others.
We added the Alcatraz package, which was brilliant.
The buses themselves are of varying quality, as are the important sound systems. Some of these need scraping - again this is true in all the big cities.
I'm certain that we will continue to use these very useful services.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 12, 2018
Sounds like a good idea - When we booked the trip it sounded like a good idea. First we had to catch a bus to the office (20 minutes) to exchange our voucher for tickets.
When the buses arrived they were often full.
A lot of the commentary was in very poor English so you could not understand what was being said.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 10, 2019
Do not book with THe Hop On Hop Off company - We were told we could redeem our tickets at any bus stop. We went to one of the major stops and got the run around. Apparently Big Bus has bought out this company. We walked for 45 minutes to their office only to find that the address has changed. Big Bus did honor our tickets but it was such a hassle. Book through Big Bus, not Hop On Hop Off. .
Review provided by Viator
Jul 23, 2019
FALSE ADVERTISING - Paid for 3 day tickets for 4 tours and only got 2 day tickets for 3 tours. - Do not use City Sightseeing San Fran whose partner is Skyline Sightseeing and operate with the Big Bus Tours. Our family of 6 purchased 3 day Hop-On Hop-Off tickets with the Alcatraz Package via City Sight Seeing San Fran whose partner at the time was City Tours San Francisco. We went to San Fran at the start of June 2019.
On our voucher it detailed that we were to redeem it at City Sightseeing 1331 Columbus Avenue, however when we went there to collect our tickets it was not the City Sightseeing office. We asked around, and found out that they had moved months ago to Taylor St. It was very bad that we were not informed of the office move.
We went to the new office to collect our tickets, this office was branded Skyline Sightseeing - we received here more vouchers, ones for Alcatraz that we were doing that day, and the others branded Skyline Sightseeing.
We had a great afternoon at Alcatraz however the day was soon ruined when we had to collect tickets, we kept looking round for Skyline buses, however could not see anything with the exception of Big Bus. We spoke to a few people and we worked out that Big Bus Tours was the bus company for Skyline and City Sightseeing. We went to Jefferson St/Mason St, the office of the Big Bus Tours and also stop 1 - a conductor was on the pavement, we gave him our vouchers and he printed us a roll of paper which had the 6 tickets contained within it. We quickly jumped on the bus and when I was going through the ticket, I noticed that it only had 2 day bus passes on it. I quickly ran down the stairs of the bus and said to the conductor, he told me they don't offer that ticket anymore and its only a 2 day pass. I went into the office and said to the manager, they informed me that they no longer offer it - instead they do a two day pass with Madame Taussauds tickets, we said we don't to go there as we have seen it in London. He snatched my tickets, and started going through the roll ripping parts out - this was the Taussauds tickets. I jumped on the bus as my family shouted that it was going and I told them I would be in touch.
I drafted an email while on the bus, therefore missing all the sites - on closer inspection I noticed that the original ticket detailed 4 tours, 'Official City Tour, Park and Zoo Tour, Sausalito Tour and the Night Tour however on the maps there was no Park and Zoo Tour. They had dropped one of the tours that we really wanted to see, where they did not notify us. I checked on the terms and conditions of the Worldwide City Sightseeing website where it detailed that if the tours were to change they should publish it - this did not happen, as I searched their social media.
I reached out to the company on chat and via email, I even tried ringing them however once you are on hold for 45 minutes and it cuts you to voicemail you are never hearing back from them.
In the end we didn't even get to do the Night Tour, as we had planned to do that on the third night as we had plans for the first and second nights.
It is now 7 weeks since I sent my initial email - I have not heard a response where I have sent numerous emails asking for a response. I have also forwarded it to the Worldwide City Sightseeing customer services dept who are based in Europe. They say they have to wait for the local manager to respond to them, they also detailed they are having issues with this office and should not be operating under the brand of City Sightseeing.
I finally received a chat response back from the San Fran office, they say their staff are trained to tell people that you don't get a 3 day pass, and also that they don't offer 4 tours only 3 tours and that they can't offer a refund. This did not happen, and in any case we should be compensated for the one day that we did not receive and also for there being 1 less day.
Very poor customer service, they do not answer the phone or reply to voicemails - they have not once replied to my many emails.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mar 24, 2019
City Sightseeing dont exist anymore - I had booked a tre day hop on hop off i SF with Viator. It should start 08.03.19 When we looked for City Sightseengs busses at Union Sqare did we now that they dont excist any more. So be careful if you book this travel.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 19, 2018
Has anyone seen the bus? - We waited on three separate occasions for 45min, 40 min and 1hr for a bus to arrive at our stops during the city and park tour. The long delays caused us to rush back to our hotel to catch airport shuttle, something that should not have happened if the buses ran on time. A disappointing end to our stay in a lovely city. Won’t recommend this mob back to our travel agent.
Review provided by Tripadvisor