Liverpool: River Cruise & Sightseeing Bus Tour

Booked this four weeks in advance. Got all the way to the ferry terminal, only to be told the ferry wasn't running. Fine - these things happen. But on Googling, I then find that the ferry has been non-operational FOR THE PREVIOUS 12 DAYS! Nobody from either the operator, nor from Tripadvisor (who I booked through) had bothered to notify me the ferries weren't running! This is completely inexcusable, resulting a wasted trip. To make matters worse, rather than issuing automatic refunds to everyone who had booked for days when the ferry wasn't running, they expect each customer to waste further time in individually requesting refunds. Exceptionally poor.

The ferry makes a circle in the port harbor to see the sites of the city. The tour is narrated by downloading a QR code on your phone.

Efficient , both for ferry guided by talk through using mobile phone (earphones not essential) and hop on hop off bus on whiich we had a good personal local guide using bus speakers system.

Commentator very good very basic tour ferry very clean and quite pleasant

A wonderful tour of the Mersey River. I liked the opportunity to use Q code to listed to commentary on my mobile phone. Well worth the money

We did the Beatles tour and the tour guide luis was brilliant we really enjoyed our tour and for the price we paid I would recommend

Initial info not clear on which of several bus options were the correct ones to board at initial meeting point as on our ticket - I suggest you make this piece a lot clearer. Davy the first guide was good - clear, informative and witty. I'm from Merseyside and I learned some new stuff - always good. Volume was Ok but some people on bus struggled a bit - would be good to have more speakers at rear of bus. River cruise was fun - should be a proper commentary instead of having to download something via a QR code etc etc - boring. Make it easy for tourists to hear where the ship is. The second guide (we went off again on the trip) was hard to hear and spoke very quickly so "foreigners" were not able to catch all his Liverpool wit. I got the sense his heart wasn't in it! that day. Despite the above it was a good trip and not bad value for money. I'd recommend for newbies to Liverpool to get a sense of the place by doing the whole one hour tour forst, then the river cruise, then go back to specific places you saw on the first run.

Fantastic and enjoyable trip on the Ferry Crossing the Mersey . Very comfortable and smooth journey in glorious sunshine and a brilliant way to see the the impressive sights of Liverpool. Really enjoyed the bus tour which was very insightful and informative of the history at all the different locations on the tour. Tour guides were very friendly, witty and so articulate, knowledgeable and interesting to listen to . I would recommend this to anyone visiting Liverpool and very competitively priced.

The bus tour was fantastic. Keith, sorry Chris was full of facts and one liners, it felt like an educational comedy show. My kids and i loved it very much. We were visiting to scope the city out for my daughter who wants to go uni here. I was extremely impressed with Liverpool!

Two great tours of Liverpool. Some interesting facts about the city. Very enjoyable experience and would recommend

Having a live guide is nicer than most HoHo's with the pre-recorded information. The city tour was nice and the boat ride an added plus.

Well worth doing! We went on an early ferry and found that there was only a small number of people waiting at the Pier head compared to when we returned. The free audio guide was excellent and we learnt a great deal. The bus tour was equally as good. Our guide ,Eileen, was very friendly and knowledgeable about Liverpool. We did the whole tour first thing and we were able to decide what we wanted to do. It was very convenient to be able to get on and off as we needed and even able to use the bus ticket the following day

Both the boat trip and the hop on hop off bus were very enjoyable and the commentaries informative.

What a cracker way to see the city and with a live tour guide. Chris was brilliant this morning, pointing out all interesting spots and interacting with everyone. Loved it !

Brilliant way to see the city & its sights. Great locations. Staff were friendly, funny & super helpful

Enjoyed the bus commentary telling us about the city and it's history. The boat trip was great as you can download a commentary on the sites you see enroute.

Great bus tour of the city Dave the tour guide was very knowledgeable funny and interesting. He engaged with the tour extremely well. We like you can hop on and off for 24hrs so is a good way to get around as well. Very helpful to let you know what stop you need for difrent areas and attractions. The ferry was nice you can perchance tea coffee snacks and alcohol if you wish all in all a good few hours spent in Liverpool

Excellent experience. Very good ferry journey and the sightseeing tour was friendly and a good route taking in a lot of sights. The children loved it and were made to feel welcome. Great that we had the use of the bus for two days. We were able to cover lots of places by using this.

Such an iconic song we thought we can’t go home without taking the Ferry across the Mersey 🎼🎶🎵🎶🎵and in no way were we disapointed. From the moment we walked into the terminal to walking off of the ferry at the end we were delighted and so pleased we did it. Another thing off of the bucket 🪣 list.

Mersey Ferries: Excellent way to see a section of the historic River Mersey at Liverpool and both the east and west banks and to see and learn about some important and significant landmarks. Very comfortable ride on the ferry and the pre recorded audio, heard through your own headphones via a QR code on the ferry, was very informative. City Explorer bus: Our tour was fantastic - so good that we did the entire circuit, plus another half circuit, without getting off. Our guide Oliver was informative, interesting and particularly humorous and bus driver Barry provided a very comfortable ride, negotiating tight turns, narrow streets and parked and moving traffic with skill. Later in the day, we hopped on another City Explorer for the final five stops to take us back to Albert Dock. Dave, the guide on this trip was also fantastic and driver Wayne provided a comfortable ride. I’d thoroughly recommend City Explorer.

A wonderful day! Lots of interesting facts!

Boat broke down and we were not able to go on a tour. We tried 2 days in a row to be able to go and it was closed.

Great trip being on the Ferry Crossing the Mersey as it's something my Wife and I have always wanted to do. It was much better than expected and a great way to see the amazing city of Liverpool. The bus tour was great and very informative of the history at all the different locations on the tour. I would recommend this to anyone visiting Liverpool and would say it's great value for money.

All very easy and covers alot of history. It's the yellow bus with a real person talking and answering questions. Will look for them again. We are seniors with walking issues and this very easy from cruise port

We booked the ferry trip and bus together No contact to say bus stop was closed and a 15 min walk from ferry terminal The ferry was disappointing as you needed headphones for the dialogue A 5 second splurge of the song ferry across the Mersey was played we expected more we had no idea what we could see so a pointless trip The bus stop as much better a great manned trip with handy information and tips with lots of history given we enjoyed this

In all honesty I wouldn’t recommend the cruise however the bus tour was really good and made more memorable by the great commentary by Dave with assistance from driver Wayne’

The Sightseeing bus was really great - helped by the sunny weather on the open top bus. Commentary was interesting and just enough. We stayed on for the whole 'lap' then got off a few extra stops by the Docks. The river cruise was just a ferry trip to the other side, in a big loop. Disappointing there was no commentary at all. It was still good and enjoyable and with the bus tour, was excellent value for money.

The hop on hop off bus tour was good, informative and reliable. Enjoyed it. The river cruise was a glorified ferry boat between the two sides of the river. Wouldn’t do that part again.

I have been a regular passenger on the Mersey Ferry when I have visited the City of Liverpool, over the last 20 years, and have always thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However, my most recent trip last Wednesday was quite disappointing. I took a open top bus tour of the city. Very enjoyable with a narrator on the bus explaining where sights and buildings were and giving us details about them. I have no problem with that whatsoever. However, I was looking forward to the usual on board commentary about the River Mersey and the city of Liverpool, along with hearing the iconic song Ferry Cross the Mersey. My Aunt and her partner have never been on it before. What did I hear? Complete silence throughout the crossing. I could have been going anywhere for all I knew. While I personally have a smartphone, my mother (who is nearly 80), my aunt, and her partner (who are both also pensioners) do not. The only way to access the commentary was via a QR code, which was not clearly signposted and only noticed once we were seated. I heard it, but the older members of our group missed out on the experience entirely. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Liverpool itself, as I always do. However, I will not be using the Mersey Ferry until the traditional narration is reinstated. I will also be advising friends and family to avoid using it in its current form. I hope you will consider restoring the broadcast commentary, as it is an important part of what makes the ferry crossing special — particularly for older visitors.

Guide was excellent. Good sense of humour and knowledgeable. Excellent trip. Xx

The cruise was very scenic. The bus tour had knowledgeable and friendly tour guides with microphones, and that did have me thinking that the cruise could have done with tour guides too. The bus tour takes you to great sightseeing locations around the city, including The Cavern Club, the cathedrals, and Liverpool Chinatown. It was well worth the price, and the bus tour tickets is valid for 24 hours so you can go round as many times as you want. Although, bare in mind that this will not be for you if you want to visit the childhood homes of The Beatles members.

Both trips were enjoyable. The guide on the bus was not to my liking, a bit over the top for me. However, other passengers seemed to enjoy his banter and singing. Both trips were on time

Excellent value for money trip. The guide in the bus was excellent, very knowledgeable & personable. Was disappointed that the commentary is no longer on the boat & that you have to scan a QR code to access commentary now. All in all though very enjoyable & recommended

You need to bring earphones & have a smart phone to listen to the commentary. Which some of our group & many others did not have , so missed out on the information on the boat .I can't understand why the don't use the tanoid . The bus was great we had Viv she & her replacement were so good & funny we went round twice & they both had different points of interest ..the chick on a stick is still a shocking waste of money £60.000😱not to mention the poor guy who had to be moved all those years ago 🤣 I highly recommend the bus tour it's fun & you find out lots of interesting facts we also had a "hot"driver & as it was freezing he was needed his humor warmed us 😁 pity about the cruise though 😔lovely friendly people

Great river ride along the mersey

It's okay if you're not sea sick, if you sit inside boat you have limited view, can't really see much inside,

Liverpool's Hop On Hop Off bus came in the middle of a 26-day European run that included similar tours in London and Belfast, so I had recent benchmarks fresh in mind. Liverpool stacked up unevenly. The bus does what these tours are meant to do. You get a quick read on what a city has to offer, and the highlights sort themselves into "come back here" versus "saw what I needed." Talking with the driver between stops is part of the value for me. It's how I figure out whether a follow-on visit to one of those stops is worth the time. That conversation worked in Liverpool. The local accent was a pleasure, and the driver was generous with his time. The problem was hearing him on the bus itself. No earphones were provided, and the microphone setup did not carry well past the front rows. If you weren't close, you missed half of what he said. The river cruise was the bigger letdown, and that one is partly on me. London's HOHO bundled a cruise with a live narrator, and I assumed Liverpool would follow the same pattern. It does not. There is no guide. The narration is a recorded track you stream on your own phone with your own earphones. I had the phone. I did not have earbuds. So I rode the Mersey watching the skyline go by without context, while the passengers who came prepared had the benefit of the commentary. Lesson learned: do the homework on every leg of these packages, even when the format seems standard from city to city.

Our river cruise was very good, well informed and the app explaining all the landmarks worked well Very enjoyable. Hop on hop off bus was amazing. Viv our tour guide was brilliant Full of information and her knowledge of liverpool was fantastic great asset to the company

Bus and ferry tours great for giving the big picture. Then with the bus, you can hop off at venues of most interest and hop back on. Saved time, hassle, and expense of parking. Driver Jon M. got us where we needed to go. Wish I knew the guide's name because he had us belly laughing. Was the person working the morning of April 23.

Interesting, plenty of space on board, refreshments, lots to see. Very friendly staff. Easy to book.

The ferry tour was great . The hop on hop off well worth doing we used it for 2 days so useful to get around and the commentary on board was great ( didn’t get his name) but very funny and very knowledgeable highly recommended this

A great day out. Took my teenage daughter and her friend so was anticipating the worst. They absolutely loved it. Ferry cross the Mersey to see the spectacular Liverpool river frontage is amazing. A truly beautiful city. Jumped on one of the open top buses and looped around the city. Excellent informative guide “Dave” gave us a great hour long tour of some of the fascinating facts about Liverpool. We wished we had gone earlier to make the most of the bus tour so we could have hopped off at the various stops to explore.

Excellent value ferry river cruise and hop on hop off bus tour. Travelled on Royal Iris great views from ferry. Plenty of seating . Would recommend the trip.

The experience was great., although we weren't lucky with the weather. The only thing that could have been better was telling us what colour bus we needed as it wasn't clear at all on the booking or when we got on the bus.

Fantastic! So easy to get off the ferry and onto the bus outside the terminal. Every 30 mins Chris was so informative and totally knew his stuff about Liverpool! Very engaging Well worth the money

Fab way to see the city and hear about its history and interesting facts from the tour guide (a real person not a recording!) Boats go every hour, buses every half hour. We loved the cathedrals, especially the anglican one. Had lunch in their cafe and also went up the bell tower for an amazing view of all if Liverpool..

Great boat trip and even better open top bus ride. Paddy was brilliant and kept us informed and entertained 👌

Fantastic experience with our wonderful commentator Dave! We learnt so much and he answered all our questions. A wet and windy day trip to Liverpool was lightened by the experience. Thanks Dave and the team. Highly recommend Ferry trip was cool, very smooth, great commentary and a good introduction to life on the Mersey

Liverpool as a port needs to be seen from the water as well as from the street, and this package provides both, giving good value for money. And you don't have to do both on the same day but can spread over into the next day