Big Bus Dubai Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour

Nightmare

Don’t book this. We waited at Emirates Mall at 11:30 am for the bus. No signs, no help from their app. The bus did not arrive, it is said to arrive every 30 minutes but no exact times. I contacted Viator operator, who tried to reach them but she couldn’t because her call was disconnected. After 2 hours of waiting and bus not showing up, we took two taxi, walked in super hot weather, tried to make it to the next stop (no shade/ a stop in the middle of the street) and we finally took the bus at 3pm which was completely not worth it, as we couldn’t stop anywhere just going around the city for an hour. We paid 190 euro for 3 persons, included a cruise that we couldn’t take, which they refused to refund. I am very disappointed on their service and viator’s. Don’t book!

Terrible service

The route taken loops back on itself so you are seeing the same views multiple times. The worst part though is the time between buses and that there are I seats or shade at any of the stops. 40mins waiting in the Dubai heat is ridiculous especially when the buses do not appear to run on time. We got to our stop at 9.30, the bus was due at 9.36, it eventually arrived at 10.25!

Pricey but good option

Good opportunity to explore the city in 48 hours, staff is very nice.They will try to convince you to buy an upgrade for ‘cruise’ ride, night tour and extra stuff. Just don’t buy it. Too pricey and regular quality

Disappointing costly trip on second day!

We pre booked the essential two day bus ticket (with the optional extra of the boat plus unlimited pizza and soft drinks). The first day went well but not the second day (a Monday). After waiting for nearly an hour we were escorted several hundred metres to another main road where a bus picked us up. The reason for the delay was due to a public holiday ending resulting in heavy traffic - company should have predicted and planned ahead. Then when we changed to the other route we were told that we’d not have time to board the rebooked boat (pizza plus drinks) and return in time for the last bus route to our hotel area and in any case the night time cruise with five star hotel food taking in the palm jumeirah hotel. We therefore paid extra for this (less £30 compensation). Good not 5 star hotel quality and did not pass the Palm hotel! Extremely disappointed left thinking that big bus staff in Dubai only driven by their commission.

Excellent

Good communication and good everything The staff is fully supported. And a good gide line. And I suggest my family members contact the big bus .

Good way to get an overview of the city in a short time.

Did a 2 day lay over in Dubai on my way from the US to the Philippines and just wanted to get a sense of the city. This was a great way to do it! It was good having the app and knowing where the next bus was and when it would arrive. The audio on the bus was clear and interesting, if a little repetative. Was a great way to get an overview of the city. I would recommend timing it for early in the day to avoid traffic. I did the 2 days and there was time to

Do not book this through Viator

Still fighting for a refund that Viator cancelled I booked a Big Bus tour in Dubai through Viator with it being advertised as mobile ticket. When the time came to press on the link for the ticket it said I had to go and collect the tickets which meant a 40min drive away for a bus which stopped outside our hotel. I then went on a live chat to ask why I couldn't just go to the bus stop..they also agreed it was absurb to have to travel but it came back that I would have to travel but someone would be in touch to confirm via email In the meantime Viator cancelled the booking???!!! The big bus company came back the next day.saying I could go to the bus stop. This was too late as had other trips booked. Big Bus won't refund as saying its Viator..Viator won't refund either no reason given....be aware..I will not use this company again I am still waiting and still fighting to get a refund. Also on my app of Viator it says I have no past bookings!!!!!! I have what's app messages that show this mess up by both companies. I would just like a refund please

Hop on Hop Off

Was pretty good, just the buses were never on time…or starting off late. The routes are easy to find if you get off on that stop and remember where to return. Some buses ac didn’t work

The hop-on hop-off bus is convenient for tourists.

The driver,Ram is very kind of the people.He was very enthusiastic, drove safely, and introduced the attractions in detail.

Terrible do not use

Do not book this through Viator .I was under the premise the ticket was a mobile one...until after I paid and confirmed turns out you have to travel 30 mins to get the ticket as it doesn't come as a mobile....I tried to explain this as I had been miss sold. Viator then cancelled the trip and said they would put in a refund..1 day later I am getting emails saying I can get the ticket from the bus ..bit late as the date had passed. Terrible communication I am still waiting for the refund

Overall ok

Overall this was ok. No live guides is never a great option. Although on this one the audio was not too bad, a little repetitive at times. The extras were not great! The Dhow was ok, no unlimited pizza or drinks as mentioned, no commentary on the boat, so not great. The worst part was the sunset desert - really not worth doing!! 50 minutes there, same back and just less than that at the ‘venue’ no commentary at all, we got there and just told to be back by 6.20pm nothing about where to go or what to do! It’s basically a camping site (hotel) and they use that, I wouldn’t even say it’s a desert, you can see the concrete floor where the sand has blown away. Terrible! The red line and the blue line are good tours to be fair with plenty of stops. Overall ok, I would not pay the extra for ‘add on’ trips it’s not worth it!

Explore Dubai

Good experience! Great way to see Dubai with opportunities to engage and explore various areas along the bus route. Must do!

It was an amazing experience that everyone should try

The desert safari was amazing and it could not be possible if it wasn’t for our bus conductor Rao and our driver shanti for dropping and picking us up from the Dubai mall

Excellent bus tour!

This bus tour was a great way to see Dubai. Hubby and I were able to do old Dubai in one day and new Dubai the next morning. Buses were clean with plenty of open seats. It was also a nice way to hear about different parts of the city and learn some Dubai history. I would highly recommend this bus tour. Central meeting point at the Dubai Mall. It was affordable and informative.

A interesting Tour through the Dubai City

Very interesting tour, you can see a lot of Dubai city and the surrounding on Dubai Palm. The bus should drive longer in the evening ( till 8:00pm).

Great way to see the highlights of Dubai in two days

The Big Bus hop on hop off 48 hour ticket was a great way to see the highlights of Dubai in two days. This is a review for the Big Bus, with the brown logo, vehicles and staff member shirts, not to be confused with the City Sightseeing buses with the red logo, vehicles and shirts. The website information was very helpful, and it was easy to book our tickets and print QR codes in advance. The first morning, we stopped at the Big Bus kiosk on the ground level of the Dubai Mall around 8:30 am, and Alexandre did an excellent job of checking us in, scanning our QR codes, providing us with the receipts, tickets, earphones, etc. that we needed, and directing us to the bus stop on the lower ground level. We took the Red Route the first day, leaving the Mall on the first 9 AM bus, and got off at stop 4 for the included Arabian Dhow Cruise on Dubai Creek at 10 am. We especially enjoyed our Red Route stops at the Dubai Frame and the Museum of the Future. The second day, we took the Blue Route, starting at 9 AM. We especially enjoyed our Blue Route stops at the Mall of Emirates to see Ski Dubai, at Dubai Marina to see the Beach, and at Jumeirah Palm to tour the (included) Lost Chambers Aquarium and to see Atlantis the Palm hotel. All of the Big Bus employees were excellent-very nice, knowledgeable, professional and helpful, with good communication skills, so do not hesitate to ask them for information. The buses were all in good shape with one exception, an older bus with air-conditioning vents at the upstairs front seats that needed maintenance. Some of the buses had half-enclosed top decks and at least one had an open but covered top deck. The buses kept to their schedules well, arriving at the stops within five minutes before or after the scheduled time. We never had a problem getting a good seat, and did not have any traffic delays. We enjoyed and learned a lot from the English commentary, and found that it was timed well with the attractions. I would definitely recommend the Big Bus 48-hour tour for a first visit to Dubai.

Big bus dubai

I had good experience with this trip .. specially the lady advised me that name was “ Keshara “ .she was really helpful and very friendly ..thanks again for your services..

Great Way to See Dubai

A great way to see Dubai when you don't have much time. My family and I bought 2 day passes and we went on both routes and saw a lot of Dubai on the bus. The audio guide was fantastic. Sunday was a great day to go as there isn't usually too much traffic.

Good tour but too much time in traffic

The tour itself is a good way to see all the main sights of new and old Dubai but there’s just too much time spent in traffic to be enjoyable. There’s a large section of the blue route which is spent on the main motorway where there’s no stops and little of note to see so this is quite a frustrating period. We boarded the first bus of the day from the palm, used it to transfer to the old town route from the Burj Khalifa, got off at the old town for around 30 minutes and then tried to make our way back to the palm area, all in all this took the best part of 5 hours due to traffic. If you wanted to get on and off multiple times then I think you’d need to stick to only one route so a multi day ticket might be best but it is very expensive compared to similar tours in other cities.

Ups, downs and round the houses

Although only staying for a couple of days we purchased the 5 day ticket as it was not much more money that the 2-day and included the sunset desert trip (the free tickets to attractions etc still need to be booked via the Big Bus app and are printed off by a conductor at the main terminal, but you can still ride the bus by showing a proof of purchase until that time). The main terminal is at the Dubai Mall/Burj Khalifa, where the routes intersect. Firstly, this is a good way to get to know the city as there is a detailed audio commentary with headphones provided, but not all sockets on the buses seemed to work. We chose to do the red route one day and the blue the next. The red route came with an hour-long dhow trip around the Creek, which was worthwhile although there was no commentary. Drinks on board were reasonable. The blue route headed to the Palm and beaches; we stopped at the Atlantis (hotel) Lagoon and Aquarium (free tickets), this was OK and I've written a separate review of this. We headed back to the Mall to get the Sunset tour bus which left around 3.45pm. The choice of bus was a bit strange as many had an partially enclosed front section, but this on was all open top which made the wind buffeting on the motorway almost painful (an hours ride each way) and space downstairs was limited. On arrival at the 'fort' (really a glamping resort, Terra Solis) the driver gave us limited instruction other than to come back to the bus once the sen had set. We cheerfully walked through the resort in to the desert to take some photos. at that point we were chased by a security guard who told us we should not be there, so we followed another path back towards the bus, only to be chased again by the same guard. Clearly bus passengers can only go to certain areas, not communicated. That said. the sunset was wonderful. On arrival back at the Mall (7.00pm), we went in search of a taxi as the buses don't run that late (!), not even a last lap to take the tour guests back to where they started their bus journey that day. In the Mall we were shocked to find a queue for the taxis of around 350 meters which took 50 minutes to negotiate, putting a real dampener on the day! Overall, this is value for money but the traffic congestion in Dubai makes it difficult to hop on/off more than twice or 3 times in a day as the traffic crawls and lots of time is wasted in jams. In hindsight, it is a good way to get acclimatised in short period, but taxis may be of a similar price and more direct for most of the sights.

Wonderful Tour with Wonderful Bus Driver

I was recently in Dubai and took the Big B bus tour for the first time after several visits to the city. It was a wonderful tour which showed me things which I had never seen from my hotel or cabs. Someone finally explained all the marvelous architecture,sights and history that exist in Dubai. Surprisingly many of them are not mentioned in the tour books. I also had the opportunity to meet a wonderful bus driver named Shanti. She did an excellent job and was one of the friendliest bus drivers I've met on a city tour anywhere. I understand that she is the first female double-decker bus driver in the middle East. Congratulations to Shanti. And congratulations to Big B for hiring this talented driver and for setting the precedent by hiring women for this role.

Must do

This is a great overview of Dubai and a must do early on in your trip. We visited the new Dubai and the old Dubai. We bought an additional dinner cruise directly through Big Bus - however, I would don't do this cruise. The dinner was very ordinary and overpriced.

Excellent

I liked people working for the company, attentive and helpful at all times, especially KesharaAnd Alexander in Dubai and Montsy and Shalee in Abu Dhabi ! Thank you so much!

Captain Ram is the best! Great experience!

We had a wonderful experience with hop on hop off. When you aren’t familiar with a destination, it’s nice to have someone who looks out for you and all of the staff from the first person we met outside the bus to our drivers were absolutely wonderful. The highlight for us was ram, the best bus captain ever. Highly recommend as this is an amazing way to go and see all of the sites in the city in a short amount of time

Dubai hop on, hop off.

Bought a three day tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. at the port. Recommend you don't bother getting the Dubai day. The staff were absolutely fantastic, helpful and friendly., but the wifi did not work and some of the tour audio were just loud buzzing. Traffic is horrible! I got on from the port around 10.30am, took 40 mins to get into town. Went to the mosque getting the first bus back. Had hoped to do the included boat ride but there was no way to get to the creek at the right time. They seemed to wait about 30+ minutes before leaving. I didn't get off the bus, 40 mins back to the port due to traffic. The tour of Dubai itself was really interesting, but felt limited by the waiting around. Found the metro to be clean and efficient.

Poor Service

Poor service!! For every one Big Bus there were 2 or 3 City sightseeing buses. Wasted no end of time waiting at the pick up point and when the bus eventually arrived we boarded an overcrowded bus with standing room only! We missed the ‘free’ Creek boat trip because the bus that would have got us to the drop off point on time was cancelled and the next one was an hour away. Ended up using an Uber to get to The Frame which was our next sightseeing option! We normally use the City Sightseeing bus operator whenever we are abroad, but opted for the Big Bus operator because our hotel was promoting them and the package on offer appeared to be of good value. Never again!!

Not worth the money

Hoho Big Bus was terrible. No signage at all. Didn’t know where to get on. Photos on their app showing where to stand was outdated. Basically wasted a two day pass. When we were at the Frame attraction, we kept getting mixed info on where to catch the bus. When we finally found it, it was in the most unlikely area. That was only because we saw the bus coming and started to run for it.

Big Bus Company is Great, but Be Careful.

Great tour, but be sure you get back on the Big Bus. The other company’s bus is the same color and they even have a Blue route. We asked when we got on if it was the blue route and the driver said “yes.” But it went the opposite direction and we realized it was the other company’s bus. We lost an hour catching up with the Big Red Bus.

Value for money

This is always good value for money and it gives you an excellent overview of the city. We thorougly enjoyed this way of exploring the city

Desert Sunset - Dubai Big Bus Hop-on and Hop-off

Our Big Bus hop-on hop-off tour, which included the desert sunset was just amazing. The views, including the camel, horse rides and henna tattoo was more that what we bargained for. Our Driver Ram was also very professional and accommodating and very courteous and friendly. Thank you Ram.

Satisfactory Experience

The big bus concept is considered a great way of seeing the sights in a coordinated way. However, the inclusions as optional tours as part of the 48-hour pass were deemed confusing; it took several conversations with different on-the-ground Big Bus staff to finally ascertain what was available. One staff tried to upsell an optional item without attempting to understand what optional activities we were looking to do and at a high cost. Thankfully we had a very positive experience with a staff member at the Alantis Waterpark Big Bus stop who was very helpful and was able to provide clear cost effective options. The lack of WI FI on the bus was disappointing and the recorded commentary at times seemed to be out of sync with where the bus was. Overall, thought the London BB experience was far better.

Excellent tour

Excellent informative tour. Ram was very helpful when we encountered a problem at the end of the tour. He is an asset to the Big Bus Tour Company.

The best way to sightsee

The best part of using Big Bus hop on hop off is getting around to the main attractions without having to rent a car and drive there. Big bus gave me all the information I needed to learn about Dubai and explore this beautiful city of Dubai.

Great experience with Big Bus and Mr. Ram on red line.

Big Bus was great , we loved the experience, Mr. Ram from red line truly helped us in our rout and was great experience with him, thanks to Mr. Ram.

Great for an introduction to the city

We did the red and blue tour on our first day in dubai, it was an excellent way of seeing the city and understanding where various places of interest were located

Great Tour!

Great Hop on-Hop Off tours. I highly recommend the "Night Tour" also. A great way to see downtown Dubai at night.

Awesome

excellent way to see places in Dubai. It covers the old part ( Red line) and modern (blue)..Having Dubai Mall start and end is very good choice and convenient…watch dancing fountain ang Burj Khalifa come alive!!!

Big bus driver Minhaj very kind

It was a pleasure dealing with Big Bus Dubai from the moment Jenny helped us select our two-day pass. The bus offered an easy way to see all of the important sights, while riding comfortably in the open air (upper deck). We particularly want to acknowledge the kind, helpful staff, including driver Minhaj who was very kind and waited for me when he saw me dashing for the bus stop. All in all, the bus was terrific.

Excellent experience mainly because of the Driver that helped us a lot. Mr. RAM. Amazing human being!

Turn the 2 routes in 3 or 4. The blue route takes too long due to huge traffic. This would lead to less spent time.

Great visit to Dubai.

This tour hits all the sites. Very easy to arrange. Plenty of pickup locations. Highly recommend. Good for all ages. Very comfortable.

Big bus Rock

Amazing views and friendly staff , very well planed Bus Routes . Drivers are super helpful and friendly like family

Great way to see the sights

We always do the HOHO buses in any city we go to. Great way to see the sights. You can choose to sit either inside (air conditioning) or out.

A great way to see Dubai (old and new)

Thank you for the experience especially to see the OLD and the NEW of Dubai. Need at least a couple of days. We ran out of time but soo please we did it. Kia kaha Dubai. Hope to be back some time soon!!!

Too much waiting time at...

Too much waiting time at the stops, nearly 2 hrs at one stop. Considering the heat in Dubai ended up gett8ng a taxi back to hotel

Tons to see on Red&Blue lines, Fazil who works @ Dubai Mall is WONDERFUL

A lot to see & do, more so on the Red Line than the Blue line (in my opinion), but fyi most all of the time the buses are running behind from 30 minutes and in my case an 1.5hrs - since my missed my free hotel shuttle Fazil gave me a ride, he was & is a wonderful human being.

Big Bus is the way to go

Big Bus hop on hop off is a great way to see Dubai. The city is very large and taking taxis to each of the locations visited would have cost way more than we were willing to spend. Big Bus took us to all the highlights and provided excellent commentary describing each location in detail. We definitely recommend Big Bus Tours if you are planning a trip to Dubai or if you only have a short time to visit. I would give this more stars if I could solely for the efforts of Fazil and Minhaj, who went out of their way to help us during our tour. Due to the crowds, we missed the final bus which departed the Dubai Mall at 5pm and would have taken us to our hotel on the palm. The nice young lady (I don't have her name, unfortunately) heard our situation, and called out to Fazil and Minhaj who were just wrapping up their driving shifts for the day. After a brief discussion, she told us they would drive us to catch up with the bus we just missed - and they did just that! They communicated with the bus driver to wait for us at a predetermined stop and made sure we got on the bus. They did not have to do this, but it just shows the kindness and generosity of the Dubai people and the Big Bus employees. We will always remember this as a highlight of our trip to Dubai!

Great value for money

This was my first time using Big Bus as I usually book their competitor (City Sightseeing), however, I am absolutely blow away by Big Bus and will absolutely use their services again. They offer a 5 day hop-on hop-off ticket which their competitor does not. This was a great way to see Dubai without rushing around and trying to cram every thing in to 3 days. The ticket also included added extras such as Madame Tussauds, Atlantis Aquarium, Dhow cruise and a sunset desert adventure. The Dhow cruise is a lovely relaxing hour around old Dubai. The sunset desert adventure is BRILLIANT. Something I wouldn't have done if it wasn't included in my ticket and I am very happy I went, it was a great experience. The night tour isn't included in any ticket which is a shame so I had to book it separately and it's a great way to see Dubai lit up at night. Traffic is becoming a nightmare in Dubai so bare this in mind but it obviously isn't anything to do with Big Bus Tours. However, it would be nice if there were chilled bottles of water available on the buses, especially when stuck in traffic.

Too much Traffic.

We did this tour on a Saturday. Big mistake! There was sooo much traffic, the only time we got off the bus was to do the boat cruise. The cruise was nice but could've been only a half hour instead of a full hour. There was no commentary of what we were seeing or any of the highlights along the way. That being said, we waited at least a half hour at the start of the bus tour ( until the bus filled). Then another long wait when switching from red to blue line. Too much waiting around left no time to really get off to see anything up close. Didn't finish blue line until dark, then just went back to our hotel. A little disappointing.

Great sightseeing

Big bus driven by Minhaj was great to look around Dubai. All the main sights and aircon downstairs if needed. Great tour.

Wonderful day seeing dubais sights

Coming off the ship, you can catch a bus that takes you directly to the first stop, my only negative would be the same should have been available on the return. We spent 2 hours on the loop to try and get back to the ship, almost missing the all aboard call and the end of the day , a little stressful.