Bigbustours/rome Reviews 510

I bought the Rome essential ticket with a start date of the 15th, to cover 15th and 16th. Torrential rain meant it wasn't used on the 15th. I was unable to activate it on the 16th, Big Bus lady at info said activate on the bus. Bus driver said he couldn't. Tried to get included ice cream but was told I needed a paper ticket, QR code not possible to scan. So a complete waste of money.
The map route is wrong, and the colosseum stop closed. Most of the limited stops still require a 15 to 30 minute walk to the point of interest. Absolutely not worth it.

Stay away from this service. Better to walk and take public transportation that easy to use with your Credit Card.
The best thing is the river tour but is much cheaper if you book it directly by walking by.

Total scam!!
Stay away from this hop on hop off in Rome!
They were super eager to take us on at 17.40 near the Sant’Angelo stop - “forgetting” to inform us that the tour would end at 18.00 just 4 stops later at Termini central station - 4 miles from our hotel.
Even though we were cheated for 2/3rds of the route, they were more than happy to take the full charge of €58 (two persons).
On top of this the audio system on the bus were intermittent at best and basically useless - we are never using the company again.. in any city!
Just to add to our bad experience we could watch hop on hop off busses from other companys (green and pink buses) continue their tours while we had to take the long walk home.
A total shame to at beautiful city with a lovely atmosphere.

Thoroughly enjoyed this service. We got great pictures going around, saved our feet, literally as they say hop on, hop off. Friendly staff. Would definitely use again.

90 minutes for 2 stops!!! We got off and walked.
Audioguide didn't work

Took longer to ride than it would have done to walk between most of the attractions. Wish we hadn’t bothered. Didn’t complete the circuit once never mind hopping on it again. Very poor value for money. Commentary consisted of tinny music, silence and occasional sentences pointing out what we were passing or indeed had passed and could no longer see. Other city tours have been far more informative than this.

Do not use this bus. We booked the Airport bus tickets online and we were told that we could not bring luggage onto the bus with us despite the fact that we are going to the airport so we are clearly going to have luggage. Our suitcases were the same size as our rucksacks which were apparently fine but we were told we could not use the bus. Extremely disappointing service DO NOT USE

On the last day of a spectacular 4 day trip to Italy we booked a day pass on the big bus tour hop on hop off bus with the airport shuttle bus INCLUDED. As we were also taking the shuttle bus to the airport which we booked through the big bus tour website we had luggage with us, when I say luggage I mean 3 cases smaller than a normal backpack. These cases are free carry on with easyJet so you know they were small. We got on the bus and were halfway to our seats when we were chased down by an attendant telling us luggage was not allowed. We explained that we had booked the airport transfer WITH the bus company so we would naturally have luggage and we showed the size of the cases and how they would easily fit on our laps. Bear in mind there was NO ONE on the top floor of the bus where we were headed. Still we were kicked off the bus and told to complain online if we weren’t happy so this is what we have done. Would not recommend this bus tour to anyone. Absolutely dreadful.

If I could give 0 I would absolute shambles, we purchased day tickets including airport shuttle only to be told by an extremely rude and unhelpful worker luggage is not allowed on the bus. We had hand luggage smaller than the average rucksack, who needs an airport shuttle and has no luggage with them absolute joke and total rip off

Bought 2 tickets for Big Bus HOHO in Rome on 14th December 2024 and spent more time walking than on the bus - what a waste of money, Route map was out of date with the current road works and another bus company gave us their map with the up to date info and then had to walk 30 minutes to get to the right pick up point. Came back later to Stop 7 to Hop On and was told we had to go to Stop 8 instead and only a 4 minute walk. 30 minutes later we still hadn't found it and every ticket stand told us another 5 minutes etc. Took us 45 minutes to find Stop 8. The whole experience was just a major disappointment and a dreadful waste of money. If I did this again, I'd use another company and not Big Bus.

I’m pretty disappointed with Big Bus Rome.

While the bus tour was pretty great when the bus did show up, I just found too many other problems.

Too many customers and not enough buses. Buses not showing up when they are supposed to.

Bus stops closed without notice (specially stop 6 - Vatican City) causing absolute chaos and forcing me to take a taxi back.

Also, no live commentary, even for the night tour.

I have done different hop on and off tours in different countries with other companies. Big bus tours are horrible, extremely slow, they had in August a total of 7 bus which included the two routes. You can see the other companies constantly, this one not the case. Waste of my time and money! Horrible do not buy

All I can say is, I wish we’d kept our money in our pockets!! We did HOHO a couple of years ago when last in Rome and it was excellent. Now they’ve cut routes, used to leave you at pretty much the entrance to things, the bus turns its engine off at the train station and you’re stuck for ages, now you’ve got good lengthy hikes to get anywhere! So disappointed 😢

Your staff member Christiaan who was in pur shuttle bus grom the port of Rome to the city of Rome was a very kind and helpfull person.
So keep him by your company, he is excellent.
Marinus Heer.
Holland

If I could rate this 0 out of 5 I would. Don’t waste your money. Incompetent company looking for ways to not service the ticket you bought. They issue you a paper ticket upon your first check in and even with a family of four expect you to have it each time even though you have a valid QR code given to you digitally at the time of sale. Bought a 72 hour ticket on a Sunday, validated it, then lost my paper ticket Monday (24 hours later). Employee checking people in at a stop refused to reprint me a new ticket. Absolutely rediculous.

Was one of the worst tours I have been on. We bought our tickets at the Colosseum and waited over 50 minutes for the bus to turn up then had to stand so couldn’t hear commentary. Guide didn’t speak to anyone !! We got a seat at the very back of bus but couldn’t really see anything. We eventually got a seat upstairs where what we did see and hear was lovely but had no confidence in getting off the bus to visit any of the attractions as we couldn’t guarantee another bus would turn up after our experience of waiting for the first one. All in all very disappointing would not use this company again!!

It is unacceptable service!!!! They advertise the bus every 13 minutes in high season. In fact you need to wait for 40 minutes +. The buses may come every 13 minute, but if 2 buses in a rów happen to be private buses on which regular tourists are not accepted you need to wait for either a 3rd or even 4 th bus. At the same time buses operated by other compqnies leave half empty. I asked for a refund after 40 minutes waiting time and noone wanted to hlpe they kept responding next bus is in 10 minutes!!! Unacxeptable! Don't let chat yourself! Choose a different bus operator!

booked 3 days trip on big bus paid 86 euros booking ref SZSD1P4B not allowed on bus the 2nd day requested refund not given.

Waiting time in the winter period is to long.
They say 18 min. Between busses, in reality 35 min. And then it is not sure you can take that one because it is full

Do not waste your money with this company, when they are selling they are the best people, but when you need support they treat you like nothing. The bus stop out of nowhere, busy all the time, we spent 120€ for 4 people and we were able to use it only once. Bad company with no respect with the consumers.