Big Bus Company

I am from Newcastle and i visited London with my daughter for the first time at the begining of November, we made our way to The London eye and happened to be asked if we wanted to buy a ticket to see the sites of London. It was the best thing we ever did we would never have seen as much as we did under our own steam. The two gentlemen staff who helped us where really nice , even the staff we encountered on the journey where really helpful and friendly. It made our visit to London great, thank you.

The guide was absolutely disgraceful. Rude, insulting and ignorant. Paid £25 stayed on for 15 minutes and left. Boarded at Green Park on a Friday afternoon

We took the Big Bus Tour Hop on and off tour in London to get oriented to the city and to learn more about the monuments while at it. Our main goal was to ensure we had a live guided tour (not a recorded one) and to take the 9 am bus so that we could make it to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard. When we purchased the 25 GBP tickets from the vendor, he assured us that most of their buses were guided - hence our greater surprise when we found the first bus we got on was recorded only and to get a guided tour, we had to jump off and wait at least 15 minutes for one with a guide. When we did get one, he was great - Phill Harris - was one of the few redeeming qualities of the tour. He was engaging and provided off-the-cuff information about the attractions which we all appreciated. Since we were delayed in getting a guide, we had to jump off of the tour and take the tube back to Victoria to try to catch the changing of the guard. Not that big of a deal. Later in the day, after taking some side trips here and there, we decided to jump back on the bus and finish the tour. This time, ironically, we wanted a blue tour (unguided) as it covers a greater area including much of Hyde Park. When we bought the tickets, we were told that buses run every 20 minutes so we were very surprised to find ourselves waiting 45 minutes and watching, literally, 10 Original Bus tours pass us before any kind of Big Bus tour went by. When it did, it was packed to the brim and there was no seating because they just seriously do not operate enough buses. Instead of wrangling a seat and being frustrated, we decided instead to jump on the included river cruise with City Cruises and found it to be a nice diversion. We considered jumping back on the Bus but decided to avoid the frustration and took the tube instead. Perhaps the Original Bus tour is better - it sure seemed like they ran a better operation -- so maybe check that out instead.