A tour on the hop on hop off bus in New York City is a great way to get to know the never-sleeping city. We have compared the best providers and most popular routes.
Do you want the full Big Apple experience and see it all? Great! Check out our Hop on Hop Off bus comparison for New York City:
| Big Bus | Topview Sightseeing |
|
|---|---|---|
| Live Tour Guide | ✔️* | ❌ |
| Audio Guide | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Downtown Loop | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Uptown Loop | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Brooklyn Tour | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Night Tour | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Included in the New York Pass | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Included in the Go Explorer Pass | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Included in the New York Sightseeing Pass | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Included in the Freestyle Pass | ❌ | ❌ |
| Tickets | Buy tickets here | Buy tickets here |
* included in Brooklyn Tour and Night Tour
Discover the most beautiful highlights in the Big Apple and enjoy the convertible feeling – the hop on hop off buses in New York City make it possible. Also known as HOHO buses, these vehicles with open upper decks take you on various routes to almost all of New York's top sights.
Hop on hop off buses follow set routes across Manhattan and Brooklyn. On the two main routes, the buses stop at several points, and you can interrupt and continue your ride as often as you wish. In addition, tour guides or audio guides provide you with interesting information and anecdotes about New York City during the tour.
If you want to explore New York City by hop on hop off bus, you can choose between these popular operators:
Big Bus* is the market leader among the providers of hop on hop off buses in New York City. The wine-red buses with the yellow logo are considered the most modern sightseeing buses in the city and include an audio guide in six languages that informs you during the ride with information about the sights, history, and life in New York.
The services offered by Big Bus* include the Downtown Loop and Uptown Loop, which take you to all the highlights in the Southern or Northern part of Manhattan. You can choose between the Discover Ticket (Uptown Loop / 1 day), the Essential Ticket (Uptown Loop & Downtown Loop / 1 day), and the Explore Ticket (Uptown Loop & Downtown Loop / 2 days).
If you want to get to know a different borough of New York City, you can choose the three-hour Immersive Brooklyn Tour. Also, the two-hour Night Tour includes a detour to Brooklyn. Both of these tours are accompanied by a live guide, in addition to the audio guide.
The newcomers on the streets of New York City are the red and white buses of Topview Sightseeing*, which tour the Big Apple on four different loops.
An audio guide in eleven different languages is available on all the Topview buses. You can purchase the Hop on Hop off Pass from Topview Sightseeing* for 24 or 48 hours or as a single ticket for the Downtown Loop. The Skyline Night Tour can also be booked individually.
Some providers of hop on hop off buses in New York are included in various New York Passes. With the popular sightseeing packages, you can save a lot of money on admission to sights and museums as well as tours and restaurant visits. We've looked through the jungle of New York passes and compared the different packages.
The hop on hop off buses in New York City travel on four loops. Basically, the routes of the various providers are largely identical, and there are only minor deviations in the routing. However, not all providers have all routes in their programs.
The Downtown Loop is by far the most popular of the four routes. It starts at Times Square and goes to the southern tip of Manhattan and back. On the 2.5-hour tour, you'll see attractions like the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, Macy's department store, Broadway, the SoHo district, Battery Park, One World Trade Center, and the skyscrapers of Hudson Yards.
The Uptown Loop, like the Downtown Loop, starts at Times Square. The ride goes north from there, passing Central Park, Columbus Circle, the American Museum of History, the Apollo Harlem Theater, and the Morningside Heights and Washington Heights neighborhoods. The trip takes about two hours.
The three-hour Immersive Brooklyn Tour is not a hop on hop off route in the strict sense, where you can jump on and off as you please, but rather a round trip. The buses start in Lower Manhattan and, depending on the provider, take you across the Manhattan Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River to Brooklyn Heights and back.
A special highlight is the bus tour through New York City at night. Like the Brooklyn Tour, it is not a hop on hop off loop, but a round trip. The Night Tour starts at Times Square and goes past the illuminated Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, Washington Square, and finally across the East River to Brooklyn. On the way back on the two-hour loop, you'll also see the United Nations Building and the Chrysler Building. The Night Tour is offered by Big Bus and Topview Sightseeing.
The Downtown Loop is a great way to start your first visit to New York City. It's best to ride the entire loop once without getting off, so you get a good first impression of the town and its most popular sights. If possible, get on at the first stop in Times Square. This way, a seat will be guaranteed.
During your exploration of New York City, you will pass by numerous top sights. You should definitely take the time to visit the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. If you want to experience the city in an extra festive atmosphere, enjoy the New York highlights during Christmas time!
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