Amsterdam Hop-on Hop-off 24h Or 48h Bus And Boat Option

I do not like to complain, but the Amsterdam Hop On Hop Off is not ready for prime time. Their online information is not yet operational so it's very hard to figure out stops and times. They are not allowed to post signs indicating their stops. We spent over 40 minutes trying to find one stop and 20 minutes at another. They shut down early, 4 pm for the canal trips and 5 pm for the buses. We could not ever find a canal barge. The personnel were borderline rude and mostly unhelpful, with the exception of one bus driver who kindly dropped us off closer to our hotel than was indicated. We used this primarily to try and see the City in the two days that we had, but it was very frustrating. Unable to recommend at this time.

I’ve used HopOn/HopOff buses in many cities in many countries and they’ve been easy to find and identify. I NEVER FOUND THE BUSES OR STOPS IN AMSTERDAM!!! I visited for 5 days and not once did I see a bus and they are very easy to spot! I am a seasoned traveler so I not a novice. I’m so disappointed and have requested a refund. I am depending on Viator to honor my request.

1. we (group of 4 over 70 senior citizens!) stays at Pillows Grand hotel - 1.7M from this tour's # 5 on'n'off station of Holocaust Memorial & Dutch theater station. we walked & arrived that spot around 3:30pm of 10/14/26 - saw NO Hop-on/hop-off sign & waited there for ~ 25 minutes & there was no bus coming! we asked around (staffs at the museum & Dutch theater) - no one knows about this tour bus & suggested that we should check the 'Jewish Museum' where they believed was the route for the bus. I had to download the Amsterdam travel app - 20 minutes & another 1 km later, we arrived Jewish Museum (again NO hop-on hop-off sign & we don't even know if we're at the right spot!). 2. finally at 4:35pm, the tour bus showed up & we tiredly got on the bus only to hear the bus driver told us - this it the last bus of the day & he'd only drive another 4-stops to the central station & no more! our original plan was to tour Amsterdam on the bus (no on or off) & the whole tour lasted only 1 hour! 3. we could have gotten on the bus tour next day (10/15/26) on a 24-hour pass EXCEPT we already booked 2 tours with Viator on 10/15 (booking # 1455319027 from 6-8pm & 1446096923 from 8am-5pm) & we're going back the the US on 10/16. we ended up ordering a Uber back to the hotel as after more than 1 hour of running around, we didn't have any energy left!! when i escalated this matter to Viator, their response was : based on the local operator's "THOROUGH REVIEW - (a 300 characters - NOT words, write-up- ) of my complain, they refused to address my issue! 20 years ago, Viator was the only show in town so you have to use their offerings but today, there are dozen similar options, we've decided to stay with Viator for their customer services but this awful experience really damaged their brand & their selection of local partners!! extremely disappointed!

A little bit disappointed with this tour compared to other city centres. Lots of gaps on the audio and didn’t feel like I learnt anything about the city. Preferred the boat trip over the bus.

Worst Hop on Hop off bus we have ever been on and we have been on several this year alone. While technically you can hop off, it is not practical. None of the stops/pick up points are marked. They tell you to get back on at the stop you get off or you will not find it. We ended up riding the whole route, seeing very little. It was a waste of time and money.

Really enjoyed being able to ride the canals and get on the bus. Both were very informative. That way we could get off and do the things of interest. I will do this again in other cities. You get to see and learn so much, then decide where you want to return. Thanks Viator!

Don't book. We booked this for our excursion after arriving in the port as one of the stops for the boat was the cruise terminal. tried to find where to get on using the supplier maps - coudln't find it. the app says they are not allowed to have signs up. it definitely isn't in walking distance to the cruise terminal. What a waste of money

We wasted an hour trying to find the bus stop from the app. We finally found the ticket office who directed us in the opposite direction! Changed to the boat, got off, walked to a different stop only to find the same thing, NO SIGNAGE WHATSOEVER. Locating the stops is a fundamental and they have got it so wrong. AVOID

The ride itself on both the bus and the boat was great. I loved having the option to ride the bus or the boat. We wound up riding the bus the first day and the boat the second day. My only issue is in Amsterdam, they are not allowed to have their signs at the stops so it is VERY difficult to find the stops within the city if you want to hop on and off. If they can figure out a way to make them easier for people to find that still follows the law, that would be great!

I booked the boat only option. As first time to Amsterdam, it was a great way to see the canals and get some interesting information. I used it also for transport to museums on the route. Combined with using metro as well. The map in the app was useful to see where the boats were and to estimate pickup. The Lovers boat had headset plug ins on the back deck, the City sightseeing boat did not. Tony, the guide on the Lovers boat I ended up riding on twice, was helpful, informative. Even recognized me when I got back on his boat some hours later. The other boat was crowded, couldn't hear comments from captain or get the audio on the back deck, and the captain was less informative. Since I was using it as transport as well, I ended up redoing that part with Tony, so got the full tour. Overall recommend. Worked well for what I wanted and had more canal time than if I had done a 60-90 minute guided cruise.

Well for starters we were unable to find the bus after going to two of the stops listed. I emailed the bus operator on the app and I never received a response. The company needs to do a better job identifying the bus stops. I would not recommend anyone taking this tour . This was the worst bus tour experience that I've had and I have taken many bus tours throughout Europe.

Great way to get an overview of the city! The map points out each of the places of interest you may want to visit.

Boat was good, our guide JH was excellent. Bus was average, the commentary not overly interesting, driver/guide not overly friendly

We really didn’t appreciate how small the roads are in Amsterdam. Wherever we go to a new city, we always choose the hop on hop off to get bearings and understand a little bit of the location. This tour took you on a ring road around the centre of Amsterdam and stopped off at a diamond and Rolex Shop for a comfort break. The main sightseeing items are all covered by a bus stop annd titled accordingly. The explanations on the headsets were satisfactory and we were lucky with the weather being sunny as the bus was very full.

Need more boats and busses. We couldn’t do the diamond tour because it started in 20 minutes and the last boat was in 20 mins. These do not run 24 hours in a day like I thought.

The on/off Bus helps us figure out our different excursions throughout the city. This is an inexpensive way to get to get around.

We had paid for bus and boat but wound up only doing the boat. Simon was our guide and a great guy. We just ran out of time.

Not worth the money for hop on hop off bus, only 9 stops all close together, you could walk this area mostly the newer area of town not so much of the historical area

There’s no much to tell about the tour itself. Most Hop on Hop Off buses are about the same around the world. In the Amsterdam one I have to say that they a lot of room to improve as for signs or information. The route is not easily found on the reservation, but AI helped us so we headed to stop #3 to catch it there. There was not a single sing or person to offer information. Thankfully we found an employee of another business that said he thought he knew the place the bus stopped. My husband’s headphones didn’t work properly so we had to change them. Now, there’s rest was like any other Hop on Hop Off…

Since it was our first trip to Amsterdam, we decided to take the Hop-On-Hop-Off Boat Tour to get a feel for the city center. We paid a discounted price of 17€/person because we also booked their Windmills & Countryside Tour. We got on the boat at Stop 1 (Amsterdam Centraal). It was pretty crowded, so we sat in the back of the boat (small outside area with bench seating). They gave us earbuds for the automated audio tour, but since we were outside we couldn’t use them. That feature was only available inside the boat. The boat did have a restroom. Anyhow, we went the entire 8 stops which took about 2 hours. We enjoyed seeing all the sites on the route. People did hop on & off at the various stops. We hop off at stop 8.

Very hard finding where to find the pickup spot. We walked forever after getting off tram to the first spot.

The pick up spot was so far from our hotel that we had to take the tram to the bus. There were really no points of interest and the audible recorded guide did not coincide with the site. We rode on the outskirts of the city. Our bus was stuck at the gates of the diamond district building and we sat for a half an hour not knowing when we’re were going to proceed. Not fun especially when you have to pay for a taxi back to hotel. Not worth the money

It was very hard to find the on and off bus stops, and boat locations. Personnel with on and off bus vest on were rude and not helpful at all. Once we got on the boat, it was a nice tour. Never even got on a bus because the stops were so difficult to even find.

We enjoyed the bus/boat ticket. We saw many parts of the city with each, it took the better part of the day. We did one stop at the Gassan diamond factory and stopped for lunch between trips. It is a convenient way to see the city. My main “could be improved” comment is that the audio could be better. It was not a streaming commentary. Rather at each stop mentioned a few things and a few places during the tour were explained but I would have preferred a lot more commentary than was provided. Otherwise we really enjoyed both trips.

We paid for both the bus and boat 24 hour hop on hop off tours. The bus at Central Station has some flags but we still had to ask a shop owner where it was located. Finding the other bus locations was difficult since they are not allowed to put up signs. We never found any of the boat locations to board for a canal ride plus the boat comes around every 40 minutes. It is not a 24 hour hop on hop off since they run 9am-5pm. We found it was easier and less expensive to use the city bus system.

I found the bus only so good. It did t have the same value I expected after doing the same bus line in Berlin. However I enjoyed the canal ride

you should not book in advance. you can come to amsterdam first and then decide which service is better and book with them. the lady at Centraal who let me enter first to boat - she is a short heighted girl - looks like little bit asian - she was not willing to tell me second time where i can board the tour bus. i had to request her. there is no address on any of the points printed in the map. the capton of the boat was good. no address at all anywhere in the map or anywhere

Rude and not willing to help. They told us we couldn’t board the bus because we didn’t have the right bar codes v

Its not scenic at all limited information, earphones were uncomfortable, for the price probably could have just tried local buses. It was difficult to find a starting point as no map was provided on this app. Had to walk quite a few klms to find information

Finding the location of where the bus departs was almost mission impossible. Sure this was not the first complaint, also had similar issues with other tours through Viator on our trip. You should do a better job of vetting the tour operators.

Very few boats or buses available, especially boats. Wasted time and money. Boats didn’t show up for hours

Good way to get around & see the cities. This one stayed too long at each stop. Our first stop was 20 minutes. We sat waiting for people for 20 minutes. Most hop on/hop off is a quick stop.

Worthless. Too far between stops, too long a wait, too few busses, app that shows when busses are coming is not accurate. Worthless.

There was not a map available online through viator to show where to get on the bus or the boat. We stumbled upon a stop after seeing the bus leave and waiting for over an hour and never saw another bus.

We did not have a good experience with the bus tour. A woman fell down the stairs at one stop and the driver and person greeting the bus did apparently nothing to help her, even as she sat on the sidewalk for a long period of time to recover. Guests on the bus were given no explanation as to why the bus sat at Centraal for about 25 minutes. We were also given no explanation of why the bus sat at the diamond stop for a lengthy period. Rather than wasting our time sitting on a still bus, we finally departed the tour and won’t be using it for a second day.

Underwhelming information. Audio is not up to par as with Big Red bus. Some sites not covered by bus.

Very difficult to find the starting point - only to be greeted by the most miserable drivers / hosts . The tourists using the bus tour seemed an inconvenience to the staff. Let’s hope all the drivers aren’t the same !

Great on the first day in a new city to plan the rest of your stay. Note that in Amsterdam both boat and bus have glass roofs which slide in fine weather giving a partial view upward but not great for photography. Both services ran on time and the staff were good and helpful.

I always do this tour the first time I visit a country to get a glimpse of where to go and to help me prioritize the places I wanted to visit esp if I have only a frw days to spend in that country . Bus is clean and it vomes with audio tour .

It was really good to see all the highlights both from the bus and from the boat. Both the bus and boat were clean and everything worked on board. The only thing I recommend is more detailed instructions of where to find the starting point. This was difficult to locate.

Boat was great way to see the city - we had a long kayover and it was perfect. I would recommend taking boat all the way through and then getting off to walk around. It hit all the best parts and also I would recommend sitting underneath the covering in the heat.

Worth the effort. Drivers were excellent. Bus very clean. Went around twice to be sure we saw everything

It’s a recorded message, not live conversation. Doesn’t function like a Hop on/off. Was a bus tour. Also my earphones plug in didn’t work. Wasn’t a friendly enjoyable trip. Will take the canal trip next time.

We have been on these in various cities many times. Two main things are bad static on headphones; Driver and attendant are evidently not liking their jobs, In 30 minutes only 3 messages on what we were driving by, no mention of major places, such as the Holocaust museum in Amsterdam, etc. Unclean on top and half of windows would not slide. Need to step up a very good idea, here whoever in managing this section.

Great way to see the city. It’s a bit tricky since there are no signs for pickup in Amsterdam. But we managed

Can't find load points, takes 30 to 45 mins for a pickup. Have to wait for boat that takes two hours to complete loop. Had to wait at central station while driver took a long break. Not enough buses running to make it work smoothly. Horrible choice .. don't do it!

Be aware of the time between bus or boat pick up when you get off. Finding the location of the stops can be a bit tricky if you're getting on at any stop other than the first one. Getting the 48 hour bus and boat ticket allows lots of time to make stops along the route.

A great way to see the city highlights and learn a little of its history. Particularly enjoyed the canal cruise.

Very difficult to find the pickup stops. Not particularly informative. Would not recommend in Amsterdam.