The hop on hop off is run by the government but they said they do.not have the bosphorus cruise. In Sultanmet stop. They do not know where to.ride the cruise . So we missed the cruise that I paid for. Hope it is clearer where to take the cruise, signage of the cruise. I would suggest to buy directly with hop on hop off site or they accept walk-in anyway.
The commentary was a bit out of sync first time on all the years and cities we've used it? Not sure why.
I took the BusForus hop on hop off from near Sultanahmet Square on 14 September, my first full day in Istanbul. I stayed on the tour from start to end - it takes about 2 hours 15 minutes in total. Taking the hop on hop off bus is an excellent way for a tourist to understand the geography of an unfamiliar city, and where the main sights are located (most of the sights are on the European side, but the bus gives the rider a chance to cross continents over to Asia via the Bosporus Bridge).
We liked so much you can find bus every 45 min and if its your first time in Istanbul ı can recommend for everyone this tour.
Amazing experience and the service is wonderful, i can repeat again and it is highly recommended , wonderful location and customer service
Buyer beware. Guide will only take cash for entrance fees. Hundreds of dollars. You won’t find this information in the ad. Also, will message you a day ahead and tell you they can’t pick you up at your hotel.
Great bus great tour info. Always book a hop on hop off bus before you do any tours. This will show you what you really want to see
Great assistance to clarify our experience as I was unsure of procedure. Great way to explore by land and get incite via commentary.
This was a good experience. They had wifi on board, earphones were working. I sat at the upper deck of the business and I had a great view of everywhere and everything. I would do it again.
This was a major RIP OFF. Public transportation offers better stops and better times. It was not worth the $50 plus dollars at all. What a big disappointment. .
There's so much to take in. Istanbul is an amazing city, and this bus is a great introduction to it. At the end we dropped off right near the Blue Mosque and took a second tour of the Old City, then got back on the bus to go straight to our cruise ship.
Everything was great! The information shared was perfect and made everything so much easier. Tickets were sent in time. We had a good trip.
The bus trip encompassed all the essential sites. Amazing drivers to navigate the narrow roadways and massive crowds.
Liked their service it's quick and easy. Booked then through get your guide app they are easy to work with and very responsive
everything was ok., but there were too many trafic, so it takes more time than usual. But i know that this is out of your control. Thsnks
Beautiful and Spectacular of the most important places in the place 100% Recommended. Me encanto mucho así que lo recomiendo
Excellent bus ride around Istanbul, spanning between the European amd Asian Continent . Loved it. Highly recommended.
The trip was very beautiful. The staff was very kind and punctual. The services offered (helmets, materials provided) were of the highest quality!
Money for value. Good route and flexible schedule. Enough time to see the main points of the city and also vist Asian side
Great trip. Lots of fun info and great views in the route. Prime photo opportunities and the audio tour is filled with lots of fun facts. Prices are reasonable for the experience.
If you want just to relax a couple of hours the hop on and drop off it’a a good idea. You can drop off everywhere you want ,they have the mainly stops, and it’s is really ease to get.
Thank you so much for fantastic help with everything and keeping in touch with us and helping! Can't thank you enough! Best hop on hop off company!
Very knowledgeable tour guide! Saw all main sites. Love hop on hop off, go at your own pace! Loved the palaces!!!! And the Bosporus
Very knowledgeable and polite. I would highly recommend this tour and this guide! His English is excellent. Very friendly group!
We really enjoyed the tour, the views and also the information shared. We had a nice hop on hop off day. What could be even better, the timing, perhaps there could be buses more than once per hour and it would be lovely to have them until cca 8pm. (Just a suggestion, otherwise a really lovely experience also thanks to the staff.)
HOHO bus is good for tourists who have very limited time to visit all attractions within a short period of time. Highly recommended!
Tour was nice. Plenty of comments in French, personnel very nice. Maybe a bit too hot in the bus and thé tour could be a bit longer. Good experience anway
Would not like to recommend this, because of the traffic in Istanbul. The traffic is notorius, all the time, and therefor wou will not have the time to hop off and on.
What a waste of €40 per person. When they show you on a map the route they go it looks like a big long journey where you will see a lot of interesting places and they say it’s a 2 hour round journey. However at least 30-45 mins of the journey is spent sitting in heavy traffic near the port especially. There is nothing much to see across the river but expensive hotels. There is no friendly customer service, once you’ve paid that’s it. I would say spend your money elsewhere
It’s an absolute scam. Departure was delayed for about 30 mins because the bus wasn’t full to capacity. The frequency was one every hour. It’s cheaper and more time saving to hire a taxi
If you've never been to Istanbul, be prepared for the insane traffic. My mom and I only hopped off on one stop for about 30 mins, and were waiting for the next bus for at least 45 more. Probably spent at least 4 hrs doing one full loop due to the unbelievable amount of cars on the road. This tour needs to have more busses running to account for this because there's just way too long wait times between each bus. They also don't announce where the upcoming stops are so you have to always check the map to see where you actually are. Overall just an ok experience.
Great way to see part of city but to see whole city you have to pay for several routes which is expensive .. best to buy one ticket to do all routes
Very informative voice guide. Lovely staff and buses ran on time at every stop. No main feet when the traffic is so heavy!
I would have given it 5 *s, if there would have been a real tour guide. We were driven to different locations w no explanation.
We are experienced travellers and enjoy doing a hop on hop off bus when we arrive at a new city however we found this bus experience to be the worst we have ever had. Firstly the map gives the impression of two routes (a blue and a red) so we purchased a 2 day pass to give us time to explore both routes but this is not the case there is only one route making it a long day with no time to explore all the attractions. With the traffic in Istanbul we couldn’t face doing the whole route again. Secondly there are not enough buses so you experience long waits. Thirdly, do not book the boat cruise we booked it and was told by the person selling the ticket the incorrect meeting point. We spoke to the hop on hop off tour person at the bus stop near the meeting point we were told to go to that the cruises were run by another company and that she could not assist - our ticket clearly said hop on hop off bus cruise not a third party provider. We finally got onto the tour company who told us the meeting spot which was a long way from the pier, when we asked if we could meet the group at the pier she refused to give us a meeting spot. We ended up doing a cruise for the pier for 5 Euro each and it was fabulous but lost our money on the hop on hop off bus cruise. Finally, the commentary is virtually non existent all you hear is very poor quality music, Istanbul is so full of history I was left wanting more. Apologies for the long review but I don’t want anyone else to go through what we and by the look of this forum others have experienced. Don’t waste your money and look at other options.
Don’t bother! Took 1.5 hours to go 3 stops, everyone on the top deck were burning as we were sat in the blistering sun. One man pulled the shade over to protect everyone and the bus driver came up and started shouting at him. We had been sat still for 20 mins by this point. I got off the bus and thought I would try the next one. On this one the bus driver and the staff member were taking selfies while driving the bus along a 3 lane road! Very unprofessional and rude staff. And you pay a fortune for the privilege. Take Ubers instead!
Worst hop on and off bus experience we have ever had. First off ai thought Viator had a low price guarantee but other people paid 35 Euros when they purchased at the bus stop. Second I hear people complain that the buses don’t run on schedule because of traffic but our experience was that it was by choice. We got on a bus that was suppose to depart at 3:30 at 3:15 and it sat until 3:45 even though there were two other empty buses sitting behind them. It’s like they didn’t feel like running unless they had enough people in them. I would recommend spending your money on something else.
Despite the reviews saying that the Hop On Hop Off feature ranges from unreliable to outright frustrating, we decided to give it a try -- but just as a tour around the city. You are basically in a 2 hour + traffic jam which is OK if you put the headphones on to get some information. The trouble with that is there are all kinds of people who do not want to learn anything and basically talk over one another throughout the tour. Also the headphones have this very short music clip (Mozart?) on repeat which can drive you crazy after you've had to listen to it a couple hundred of times waiting for the next bit of information.
Excellent tour to get to know Istanbul. Bus was newe, in great condition, good space between seats and a tarp for those who wanted to sit on top but ot in the sun. Narration was informative. Whole loop was long - over 2 hours due to traffic but a really good tour.
Gave it one star because I couldn’t give it no stars. Don’t waste your money using this company. I bought two day tickets for my husband and myself. Day 1 we got on at stop 4 and waited in the bus for close to 15 mins past scheduled departure time. Our plan was to go to stop12 or stop 1 for the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. At stop eleven 1.5 hours after getting on the bus the driver announced that this is last stop we are going back to beginning (which was stop 4). The claim was road closure due to cycling race but there was no evidence anywhere of such an event nor was there notice of road closure on live traffic site. We were told after spending €120 for two days that we could get a tram at an additional cost to get to the mosques and palace. So €40 each for not even a full circuit. And no guarantee that we won’t have a similar issue tomorrow. I contacted the agent who refused to give a refund as I had used the ticket! Not their fault there was a cycling race on was the response and they claimed that the bus company had provided the advertised service (not true). All passengers should have been advised before they boarded the bus and had their tickets validated so they could make an informed decision about purchasing a useless ticket. The company would have or should have been aware of all occurrences that would prevent them from providing the service they advertise in full. Never had an issue with any other hop on hop off bus before. These people are thieves and liars. Use them at your peril.
I usually enjoy a sightseeing hop on/off bus whenever I visit any city in the World, but this is the exception! Initially I thought it wouldn't be a problem that the bus was infrequent as we were aware in advance and could plan around it. The problem then arises when you realise that the busses are all completely full - and as they operate every 45 minutes, if one bus is full you have a loooong wait for the next. Add to this that when the bus turned up the guide who told us it was full promised there was an extra bus added which was 10 minutes behind never turned up. When you consider an Uber in Istanbul costs £3-£4 to go pretty much anywhere and the public transport system is so advances and cheap, it's much cheaper and more efficient to just work your own way around the city. I honestly cannot stress enough how much you should avoid this rip off operation. It's not worth your time or money.
If only I had checked the reviews on trip advisor! Total waste of money and time. Initially thought it might give a good overview of the city - it didn’t : stuck in traffic and commentary was dull . Complete rip off . Recommend taking ferries across to the various districts .
Easy to hop in and hop off because they keep up the time by the minute. Comfortable seats with great view …
Pretty exprnsive for what it is and where it is. It is basically a single route and not that long either. It feels longer than it is because of the istanbul traffic and the 10 minute stops at multiple places. Expensive, maybe because they have no competition, when infact taxis are much cheaper in Istanbul
I always like the Hop On Hop Off bus. Can get a lot of information and see the basics. I do wish the audio recording matched up with what we were seeing a bit better. The customer service representative was very helpful and kind.
Ignore the timetables as due to the terrible Istanbul traffic these buses get to you when they can! Informative voiceover but again due to traffic constraints it was always 10 minutes out if cync with the things it was describing, and barely any commentary on the more modern parts of the city. The staff were brilliant, advising passengers where to get off and change for the bus following the second route when we were stuck in traffic meaning they would not get back to the terminus in time to swap, and they let us off outside our hotel, bonus!!! Good way to see the city’s sights!
Very convenience and reasonable price for private tourist. Using own private one-day tour schedule. Bus operating schedule was almost on time.
Very expensive for a hop on/ off bus but generally good for seeing a lot in a few hours. Blue bus does not exist its all 1 line but info has not been updated. Make sure you take a photo of the timetable as if you get off you may be waiting a while.
I went around on the full loop twice. I recommend it close to the start of your trip so you can get your bearings, easily see a lot of the city quickly and plan the rest of your trip. Was a fun day listening to the history on the headphones provided 😇
When the tickets were emailed to me, the bus schedule with times and bus stops should have been included. This seems obvious to me and I don't understand why it was not done. You need to be on the top level to really get the most out of the tour. This was not always possible as the bus is very crowded. Traffic is bad which makes the tour a little slow.
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