Big Bus Vienna Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour by Open-Top Bus

Disaster!

What a waste of money. This is one of Europes most expensive BigBusTours and of the four I’ve experienced the worst value . The Red route tours the inner ring plus visiting the island across the Danube. The blue route takes in Schonbrunn and stop 5 was right outside our hotel. So day one, on the blue at 5, Schonbrunn stop 6 , ok so far, long run into stop 7 The Hauptbahnhof then stop 9 is a change stop onto the Red route, stop 3. Same place , just different number for each route. Glad we changed here as I was actually going to go to blue stop 2 , which is red 4. However we didn’t get to stop 2 or 3 as the road was closed for major parade. No one told us the route was changing, no info at all. Anyway onto Red route, stop start, stop start, heavy traffic. Again couldn’t see buildings as trees in full leaf. Across the Danube bridge at speed, up an down the side of the Danube between moored cruise ships and a railway line! Wonderful views, not ! I’m sure the only reason the bus comes here is stops 10 & 11 to encourage passengers from the the cruise ships, which is rather hopeful as many cruise ships have their own bus tours on their own coaches ! Backup the other direction and then round the very modern Danube turn and ugly modern edicts then into what is termed the old Danube. Not at all interesting for us.back over the bridge again at speed heading for stop 16 then the guide says the bus is diverting. No reason, no apology. We get dumped at red3/ blue 9! There is no where close to buy drinks/ snacks, no shelter and when we asked the four incompetent BigBusTours staff there, they treated it as a joke. When I asked when the next blue bus to get back to stop 5 , all I got was a shrug, a glance at his watch and a May be 25 mins . That’s was it . Hopeless. About half an hour later we get on the blue line back. The lack of information was dreadful. The next day after walking into Vienna centre we were approached by a BigBusTours tour seller , and I told him what I thought of his company, he did offer us a live guided evening tour. I declined . Later we did catch the blue again to get back to the hotel and one of the staff said that we should have been informed by the company that Vienna route would be affected by the road closures for the parade. Too little too late . My advice for all Big Bus tours is check, check, check , use it for one day only to see the city, then switch to local city tourist pass and do your own thing! The other thing about Vienna Big Bus is that the authorities do not allow the buses to be open top. They have a Perspex roof, are hot, with uncomfortable seats and more music than commentary through issued cheap earbuds. Way way too much money for what you get. RIP OFF. Big Bus you should be embarrassed, but you’ve taken my money so will not be bothered. Caveat Emptor

Too slow

We went on the first red line trip of the morning from the river cruise dock area. It took an hour to get to the 4th stop by the museums. The bus seemed to stop for long periods of time while people on the sidewalk purchased tickets and asked questions. Due to the narrow streets and traffic, it took a long time to go about 3 miles. We ended up taking the subway back to the boat because we didn't want to sit on a hot bus for a few more hours.

Great experience!

I enjoyed the overview of the city. The narrative was interesting, informative, and helpful. Best of all the staff were amazingly informative and helpful for directions etc.

A MUST DO When In Vienna

Super reliable, convenient, and free audio tour was great. Takes you to all the major sites, easy to navigate. MUST download the app! It shows you live updates of bus locations, bus stops, and routes. Absolutely MUST DO and would do again when in Vienna.

Okay thing to do

If you want to see the city and just drive around and look at buildings, this would be good to do. It was interesting, but a little boring as well.

Great

This tour is a must to see the city,easy to find everyone is helpful all the drivers are really good worth the money

Tour fine but beware.

Took the blue route to visit the Schonbrunn Palace. The agent on board sold tickets for the palace on the basis that we would avoid queuing. THIS IS FALSE - YOU STILL HAVE TO QUEUE UP AND CONVERT THE TICKET INTO AN OFFICIAL TICKET . WORSE STILL WE WENT DIRECTLY TO THE PALACE ENTRANCE AND HAD TO WALK BACK TO THE MAIN GATE. DO NOT BUY ANY TICKETS OFF THESE PEOPLE AND AM SURPRISED THE PALACE AUTHORISES THIS COMPANY TO SELL TICKETS ON THEIR BEHALF. It is not always clear where the bus stops are -eg:at the Opera the red bus and the blue bus do not start from the same point so although we arrived in good time, we ended up sprinting from the red bus stop to the blue bus stop - maybe we missed something in the pamphlet. Otherwise the tour was OK. Beware of traffic in certain areas which prolongs the journey times.

Gets you around

This bus is always good to get around, but don't expect much. It was extremely hot. Only 1 bus had ac inside the bus, but not on the top area. The problem was that the top was enclosed, so that made it worse. It's worth it to reach places that would require a lot of walking.

Beautiful Vienna

We recently rode a Hop On Hop Off bus in another European city. The Vienna experience was far superior - better electronics, better service from the staff, buses very true to advertised schedule.

Well worth it to see a good chunk of Vienna.

We did both routes and found that the buses take you to everywhere you would like to go. The bus drivers and staff on the street were very helpful and I watch them work as a team and happy to help everyone. One couple needed to go from the red route to the blue route and the street staff asked the bus to wait while they went over to that location. I got heaps of information from the recorded tour guide. Well worth doing if you want to see Vienna hot spots in a day or a few days.

Great Tour…

We thought it was going to be like the daytime bus BUT Chris the tour guide was so knowledgeable, informative & passionate about the history of Vienna, it was much more!! A real asset to the company & a joy to travel with Thankyou!!

Excellent Way To Get Around/

We only had two days so this was a great way to see the city. We stayed on the bus on day one and then went back to visit the places we wanted to explore on day two. The walking tour was very informative and included with the 48 hour pass. Would definitely recommend.

Great experience, great value!

This was a great way to get my bearings of the city. Also, cheaper than a taxi when I didn’t want to walk it. The Palace line takes a lot longer than the city tour so keep that in mind.

Hop-On Hop-Off

We love the Hop-On Hop-Off buses and as usual, were pleased with our tour. We were booked for the night tour and our train was delayed so we could not make that portion of our 48 hour bus tour. The next morning we went to the salespeople at the gathering site of #1 bus stop and we were given a new ticket for that night tour, which delighted us. In addition we booked the river cruise and had a wonderful time there. There was only one problem, we were not clear that we needed to take our H-O H-O voucher to the ticket people at the cruise site before boarding. All worked out but it was a bit stressful. We also thought it was a round trip cruise where we started but we were able to adapt to the new ending point.

Expensive and very low quality

Basically, you buy the live guide but then you don't have it. It is a 90m ride for 31€ where you don't even get into the city center (cos it is not possible). So I recommend you to select any other alternative but don't pick this bus. It is not worth at all.

Best way to enjoy a new city

This is a great way to see the city if it’s your 1st time visiting or when the weather isn’t the best. I suggest to try both routes and then you can pick your faves. the walking tour was 11am which it isn’t convenient, especially when raining. FYI The bus stops are not well identified so hard to find them. The signs are facing towards the street not the sidewalk. So you have to go off the sidewalk into the street to see them. Be aware of the traffic.

Chris is the Man

We took the evening tour of Vienna and our guide Chris was sensational. He was informative, warm and personabl. In addition he recommended Cafe Demel where we now sit enjoying coffee and pastries!

Jacquelene C

Friendly and helpful staff. Took me to my destination at ease.. Easy way to reach your destination with just one vehicle.

Red and blue runs both very informative

Very good service, the top decks get very full very quickly on sunny days. The audio commentary is good snd gives lots of varied points of interest not only historical but economic and social comments. Drivers all very friendly and helpful.

Big Bad

A total waste of Money. Vienna does not need a bus tour. Too small and the service nowhere as good as other companies in Vienna and elsewhere. Customer service is bare bones and may or may not help you. You can walk everywhere in Vienna and subways are everywhere. Expensive too! Finally, certainly do not buy more than one day and do not get any added packages - like the horrible river cruise. The worst service in Europe for the cruise, and close second for Big Bus.

Overcrowded

The best way to get around and see a foreign city. However, the buses were too crowded and people, after waiting, were still left behind because the bus was full. Simply add more buses and fixed!

Good way to get a sense of the city

We bought our tickets on line. No one took the ticket (bar code) until we had been on the bus for several stops which was surprising but not a big issue. We wound up on the blue line which was close to our hotel. They supply headphones and the commentary was available in many languages. Commentary was informative. I would recommend getting the app it is very helpful and will even direct you to the closest pick up point. There is even a picture to show you where to stand for the pickup. My wife had several questions prior to our trip and emailed them and they responded right away

Why pay for this?

Don't waste your time. Most of the sights featured are walk-about. The scenes out of the old city are boring and not educational, A waste of money and time. Once leaving the old town, the necessity of the trip lacks foundation. Upon landing back to the origin, I now what it is like getting out of jail.

Good service but bad traffic

I rode 5/1/24. I learned it was a holiday. Maybe the traffic and rode construction is less at other times, but I spent way too much time sitting on a bus in traffic. The staff was very friendly, but it seemed like a waste of my time. I’m assuming the stop at the river cruise boats was to pick up passengers from the cruises? I had no interest to look at the cruise boats. I have enjoyed other Hop-Ons in other cities and found this one Meh.

Big Bus of disappointment.

Not too sure about the value or experience really. In fact feel a bit ripped off. Better off just using Bolt or similar to get around if unable to navigate public transport or walk. Commentary is pretty basic, repetitive and poor value. Stuck in traffic for hours, roasting in greenhouse like top deck. Hard seats. Grumpy drivers. Nah. Not next time.

Excellent way to see the sites of Vienna with elderly family members.

Great views on the red route. We stayed on for the whole circuit. A good afternoon out. Our elderly parents loved this way of seeing the sites as they are unable to walk far.

Listening to the amazing...

Listening to the amazing stories about Vienna and learning about its rich culture. The bus took us through many historical.places.

Very good

These two young ladies Vanessa and Kamilla were very nice they helped me soo much they are doing a great job i think they should be working there more often

Hop-in hop-off made the visit lot more comfortable

We found it extremely easy to find the bus stops in Vienna close to our hotel. We were provided with the route map and important sites on and around the route so that we could decide and get off to see the places on our own phase and get back to the route to go to the next. With their time schedule we had ample time to spend at different tourist sites. Importantly we were kept well informed about the historical aspects of the monuments and important locations we were passing. The bus crew were very helpful and served well.

Very good day in Vienna

We had a great time going around the city. The staff were very friendly and answered any question we had about hew to get from one point to another. The narrative was very informative. Thank you!

Good tour

This is a great way to get around in Vienna. We were only able to do part of the loop, but enjoyed what we did. Very affordable and informative.

Ok experience.

The busses definitely didn’t come every 20-30 minutes. We were on the blue line and only had two buses running for awhile. They had a bus (PF19) parked at the opera for well over 3 hours. If you looked on the app it looked like there were more busses running than actually were. It was a good way to get an overview of the city, but time consuming. Our bus stop didn’t have a bus come until after 10am. To use the buses at night, you had to sign up for the 6:30pm night tour.

Terrible customer service.

I spoke to a total of two people from Big Bus and they were both extremely rude. Some tourists (including us) decided to stay on the bus at stop 1. The bus stopped, people got off and nobody made any sort of announcement. Then, 15 minutes later in the sun and heat, people started complaining with each other. One tourist looked over the window and asked a lady when the bus was leaving as we've been sitting there for 15 minutes without information. She replied, in a rude tone - Questions, questions, questions! We all looked at each other, shocked. The next day we were at stop one for the blue line. I tried to get the attention of the man standing at the stop, to ask about the walking tour. He said- what can I do for you? while looking at his phone. So I waited for him to stop looking at his phone so I could ask, he annoyingly put his phone down and said WHAT? Except for our tour guide in the walking tour, who was great, everyone else in the company seemed to hate tourists and their job. Not the experience we seemed at all.

Average bus tour. Problems with ticket

We purchased our 48 hour voucher through TripAdvisor for a given validity period, and added it to our Apple wallet. We decided to start the tour on the second day, but the voucher had disappeared from the wallet. My TripAdvisor account showed it as “completed” so I could not retrieve it at all. Your agent on the bus was ultimately able to reprint it from my receipt details, but it is confusion we could have done without. The actual tours were good. Typical of these pre-recorded types where now and again you sit at a stop for 10 minutes or so. Boat trip was mediocre at best. We ran out of time to do the walking tour

I would do this again in every city in Europe that offers this tour!

What a great way to get your bearings on where interesting sights are! We saw lots of great places to visit!

Vienna by night

Very comprehensive overview of Vienna in a short time. The guide was humorous and kept everyone engaged

Worthwhile

I've done a few of these over the years and would say this was one of the better ones. Buses were frequent and staff friendly.

App makes it worthwhile

Fairly expensive, but the Big Bus app gives you a fairly accurate idea of when to expect the next bus, so you can make sure to be at the stop in time.

SCAM

DO NOT USE THIS TOUR. Would not book this tour. I paid for and was charged for a cruise. The cruise was not open to take. They refused to refund the portion of the payment for the cruise. I am reporting actions to my credit cars as fraudulent as they advertised a service and charged but it was not available. The date it was closed was 3/10.

Buyer Beware

We booked the 48 Hour Hop on Hop Off tour with the optional River Cruise. On the second day, we went to the dock for the river cruise portion and found that all river cruises that day had been cancelled because of winds. We requested a refund from Viator for that portion of the tour and we denied any refund.

Waste of money, longer waits than advertised , they no showed for the cruise

Rip off. Not as advertised. Do not recommend. The buses had longer wait times than advertised (45+ minutes at times). We ended up getting a taxi two times due to the extended wait times. The app and website are poor and frustrating. We bough the 48 hrs pass through TripAdvisor and paid more for a 48 hrs (versus 24) because it included a river cruise and walking tour. We showed up at the cruise location and time posted both in the app and on the pamphlet on the bus - no one showed - so we couldn’t do the cruise that we paid for as part of the package. Instead of feeling ripped off for paying for two 24 hour tickets for poorly timed busses, we were even more disappointed that we were roped into paying more for 48 hrs with the cruise that we couldn’t even participate in because they no showed. I requested and received a refund for $23 USD of the $117 USD I paid but that does not feel like it made things right.

Long weekend

We had a wonderful long weekend and The Big Bustour was very important to our overall enjoyment of our visit. We booked the 48 hour ticket doing the red route one day and the blue the next and we found this was an excellent way to get the best out of our visit. Thoroughly recommendit

Disappointed

I usually enjoy a hop on hop off bus but was disappointed with this. The talk didn't always match up to the sight, so this was confusing and also had to wait 30 minutes for a bus, frustrating when the other company had 4 no buses in this time.

Walking Tour Stood Out

We thoroughly enjoyed the Walking Tour portion with Robert -a local Viennese who was very knowledgeable and friendly. We were a small group of 5 people so it was perfect. The hop on and off bus tour portion was less enjoyable mainly because the audio was not in sync with the landmarks we were passing so it became frustrating and had we known that we would have passed it up and just gone with the walking tour. Having said that we were happy to sit and rest for the 1.5 hour although the seats were not particularly comfortable.

One of my worst Big Bus tour experiences

The agent was not to be seen for an hour plus. I tried to contact through Viator aap and no response. Walked an hour to get to next Big Bus tour office. We got the last bus and only could do one route.

Great way to see the highlights

I love the hop-on hop-off buses because you get a tour as well as transportation. it's always the first thing we do when we go to a city for the first time. Gives a great overview then convenient transportation to where you want to get off and explore more. The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that we bought a deluxe ticket that included a nighttime tour of the city. It would have been great had the interior lights been turned off, but all we saw the whole time were our own reflections.

Great tour

Fantastic way to see Vienna. Saw everything and learnt loads. Rafiki was a great guy. Would recommend if someone wants to understand the city in short amount of time

All the Sights

Experience the convenience of two distinct routes, each lasting approximately 1.5 hours, offering a comprehensive exploration of Vienna's architectural landmarks. The accompanying audio narration enhances the journey by providing insightful histories of the buildings and sites. Noteworthy are the narratives detailing the influences of the ruling monarchs during the Habsburg reign and the era of the republic. One route ventures across the Danube, providing a unique perspective, while the other ensures a glimpse of the majestic Schönbrunn Palace. The flexible hop-on-hop-off feature allows ample opportunities to disembark at points of interest, granting you the freedom to explore on foot at your own pace.

Great tour.

Had a great time on the hop on hop off buses listening to the information about the city. Each tour was about 2 hours though so some of the longest I've done. I only wish I'd paid for the 48 hour pass.

Good way to get around Vienna and learn about its history

Bit pricey for 39€ for a “24-hr” ticket, which really is t valid 24 hrs as it expires the same day at 1700. My tour didn’t start until 0920, earliest bus available. This day ticket runs a blue line and a red line, which is common for the Hop on Hop Off in other cities. I took the blue line first, and in the afternoon the red line. Each line takes 1:50 hrs if you would do it’s complete round and not get off at all. You can download an interactive map so even though the bus schedule is every 20 min, you can see when you next bus is nearby live. That’s pretty neat. Overall a good way to get around and learn about the city.