Big Bus Tours Reviews

BEWARE! There was a parody disaster movie called “Big Bus,” but unfortunately, our experience was NOT a comedy. Too bad negative stars isn't an option...

Big Bus continued to book tours when London was gridlocked and more than one of their buses were out of service. They "activated" our online purchase at what turned out to be a non-working bus at St. Pancras (we tried to board, but were told “no, this is just a ‘office;” the company now claims this bud doesn’t exist so I wish now I’d taken a photo); in retrospect this smacks of bad faith.

After wasting an hour (personnel walking us to alternate pickup locations while still selling tickets!) completely unable to get near a bus, we ended up taking the tube to other stops to try and "hop on;" unfortunately all were packed with no room to get on, as bad as the tube at rush hour. After wasting yet more time we ended up taking the tube, yet afterwards, they keep claiming NON-REFUNDABLE.

I'm filing a dispute with my credit card company, and contacting various UK and London authorities.

Also notable were other buses (e.g. Toots) were not over-capacity, and even seemed to have room on their open upper decks.

Had such a great tour - really enjoyed it and great service from the staff.

Booked this tour at 2.30pm and only wanted the bus tour as wouldn't benefit from river cruise. When paying had trouble seeing terminal and when got on the bus noticed we had been charged for river cruise. Also 24 hour ticket expired at midnight on same day. Driver wouldn't even listen to my query. Ticket bought at Victoria train station. Was misold this tour

Very bad customer service, just been informed 11 of the stops on Saturday will be out of use, no offer of a refund or partial refund at all, out of order selling a service at full price for that day when so many of the stops are unavailable that day.what about a refund ? Over a third of the stops where not in use ? Why not offer a refund or partial refund? Very greedy company, do not use.

We did not like the ear buds. One of us wears hearing aids so the buds were useless. One of us had a very sore ear by the end of the first day. The recorded information was out-dated and sometimes not in sinc with the location. Wish there were live guides on board as it was difficult to even know which stop number we were at. Very confusing. We did enjoy the walking tours with Julia and give her a 5-star rating. Her knowledge and information were outstanding! Please add guides to the buses!

The staff are amazing. Did not like ear pieces as I have hearing aids and they didn't fit very well. By the end of the tour, me ears are really sore. Would have been nice to have a person talking and saying what number stop was approaching as I kept missing my stops. Julie or Julia was awesome. Told us heaps of information about the walking tour I did. Watching og the guard's. Fantastic

Booked Big Bus Tours 2 day pass in January for myself, my husband and 2 children I also booked the Night tour at the same time. We have travelled over from N.I. to receive a message this morning saying that 18 of the stops have been removed from the route and that the night tour has been cancelled. When I contacted them asking for a refund they said that they have a non refund policy. When I pointed out that this was in fact their error as there was no way they didn't know that the big bike ride was happening before this morning and that their policy states that a full refund will be issued if 24 hours notice was given and that I wasnt given 24 hours they forwarded my request onto the refunds team and that I would receive an answer in 7 to 14 days! I think this is absolutely disgraceful and now have to try and work out what transport we can us last minute, not to mention I have to try and find the money to do so. Absolutely appalling costumer service!

Never got on the bus. Agent sold us a ticket and knew the route was closed the next day for the ride london. Buyer beware do not buy from an agent at the marble arch.

Very underwhelming experience that lacked any real insight. No live audio from a guide and the auto-service you listen to via headphones was mostly music. As a Londoner I was hoping for more. Avoid if you live here or visiting.

I was today almost run over by one of your drivers at approximately 5.25 pm 18/3/22 on Kensington High St. I believed that the driver, who had a bus full of passengers was probably looking down at a mobile phone. It transpired that he was actually looking down at a book when he moved forward without looking and almost ran me over. He then went on to sound his horn and abuse me when I remonstrated with him. Please do not board a bus with the reg SN12 APU. You will be taking your life in your hands. I will be taking this matter further as I have photos of the driver and the bus.

what a great day in London, wonderful commentary from free headphones, got to see all of the sites ,plus hopped on and off few times, the traffic in London is still terrible so do not expect to not have to wait for a few minutes past schedule, all staff were spot on with us , ignore bad reviews ,great service, thankyou BIG BUS

I’ve cancelled my ticket from another tour bus operator to go with Big Bus Tour because they offer an app with live timetable. But what a surprise when I realised that the timetable wasn’t available on the app! So I went to the bus stop hoping to find information about the next bus : nothing. I’ve then decided to be in contact wit BBT by chat: the nice lady said there is no live at the moment on the app. She said the blue route is operating every 60mn with 1st bus at 8.27am. I arrived at 10.10am and stayed there until 11am. No bus at all. So I asked for a refund because if you can’t know when is the next bus, you don’t want to waste your time waiting at the stop…… right? But the lady said they don’t offer refund. instead, she extended my ticket for 12 months. Hope next time the app will work fine! Thanks to the nice person I was talking to, but I would never recommend this company. No live timetable, no refund, no buses: it is a BIG NO for me. I am a tour operator and I was there to have a look if I will advice clients to use this company… definitely not

Awful customer service. Forced to cancel our trip because of a bereavement but hit a brick wall when trying to speak with their Customer Care Team about a refund.
The Big Bus Tours website doesn't mention anywhere that tickets are non-refundable. The only thing it mentions (in section 1.13) is that they will give a refund if they are unable to offer a service. But that's it. It doesn't offer any stipulation on refunds in other circumstances. It doesn't say that tickets are non-refundable. I might not have bought the tickets if their Terms and Conditions had made that clear. But try telling that to their Customer Care team who simply repeat again and again that you can only extend the validity of your ticket.
They don't seem to appreciate that the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 requires traders to provide details of any right to cancel. A strong case for pre-action protocol, in my opinion, and I'll be considering my position.
Awful company. Deeply regret buying with them. Would strongly advise people to book with someone else.

UPDATE - Further to my earlier review I can advise that I was eventually successful in obtaining a refund.

Waiting time for the blue line was 45 min (advertised 15-20)
Poor guiding comments, for the most part continuous loop 8 songs about London.
Very expensive for the value the tour offers.
If you want to give it a try, do it in warmer weather because sitting on windy top for 2.5h is tough (you won't see much from inside)

Went on the Halloween special bus trip on Sat, 30th October 2021 with Big Steve telling us spooky stories!! We had a fabulous time!! The lady who boarded us was excellent, the driver was pleasant and polite then storyteller Steve was amazing!! Full of interesting facts of London's dark secrets. 6 of us in our party, all adults, we had a great time. Thank you Big Bus Tours!!