Rome Big Bus Hop-on Hop-off Open-top Sightseeing Tour

Get your ear piece when you get on!!! Very informative. Still plan on walking a good bit to get attraction.

Been using Hop On-Off for years but Rome was horrible. Lost over 45 minutes at a terminal stop which became 2 stops (one on each side). The route doubled back multiple times and 20 minutes between buses often were double that. Absolutely the worst bus experience I have ever experienced.

I took a ride on the bus for the full circuit to orient myself to Rome. The bus was clean and the stations are easy to find. The Vatican stop is on the other side of the Tiber River and a good 15 minute walk from St Peter’s Square. It should be called the Castel Sant’Angelo stop, which is also an amazing place, with killer city views from the top.

BIG bus was the perfect way to see Roma. Bus stops are easy to find. Experience all the beautiful sites.

Booked 2 tickets advertised at 25€ each but got charged 32€ each (64€ total). Generally poor and very slow experience and service; wouldn’t recommend. It’s a tourist trap that constantly tries to upsell other tours (to actually see any of the advertised sights, which you can’t from the bus itself) through the poor audio guide, and the technology for it was broken at several seats. I’m still not sure what we actually paid for. Two of seven stops are closed, so we ended up walking a good 3km from the Colosseo (where we wanted to start the tour initially) via Circo Massimo to Lungovere Tor di Nona stop. You can’t see most of the main landmarks from the bus (but only get "close" to them - more or less, i.e. a couple of corners away); a couple of stops on the route are closed (Colosseo entirely at the time of writing, and Circo Massimo too today). Plus we were mostly stuck in bad traffic: so bad that we had to get off outside the usual stops after advancing about 100m in 40 minutes. Next time I’d definitely choose a different way to get a first idea of the city. The app is only good for finding out that stops are closed; each time when boarding a bus we were asked for a paper ticket (which we didn't have as we fell into the trap of buying tickets via the app, only to now find out at home we were charged 20% more) in a rude tone. Very unpleasant.

Was on the bus for probably two hours but was only moving for probably less than 40 mins at most. Numerous stops were just sat for 20 minutes on end. Audio was dreadful - desperately wanted to learn about the buildings we were passing by but listened to an accordion for about 100 mins and 10 mins of nonsense trivia. Three minutes about Via Veneto and the square at the bottom of Via Veneto was interesting. Paid Eur 125 for 3 adults and 1 child. Totally not worth it. Very disappointed. Lots of roadworks in late October so didn’t even go past the Colosseum or the Termeini station.

Stops, routes, times can be arbitrary during high traffic periods. May be asked to exit bus and load on another. However, it was a great way to get an overview of the city and served as a helpful resource for getting in reasonable proximity to most sites.

I enjoyed the all-day long access to so many different amazing places in Rome and the historical facts of Rome’s history. Only the Audio equipment was challenging. Many of them were not accurate with which channel to use & some had different languages in both earbuds at the same time. Had to change seats a few times to find one that was functioning correctly. All in all, very worthwhile exposure to an ancient and complex city.

We were able to get the last 2 seats on the upper level. However the audio didn’t work and we missed about 20 minutes of it until 2 seats became available further up. Once we established that the audio worked, we then couldn’t see much since a lady sitting in front of us, kept standing taking photos and videos. After another move forward we had the same problem with a large man. All in all, it was not a very good experience.

Everything went well. Clear and working headphones although sometimes I felt what was being described was out of sync with our location ! Safe driver!

The commentary was bad, we had 2 different languages in the earphones at the same time. I wanted English, but had Italian in lefr earvand German in the right!! However, the app was good with live tracking of busses and the waiting times were short.

We did the entire tour in about 2 hours, and chose not to get off at any of the stops. Our ride was towards the early evening, which was fantastic to see Rome at night, especially the Colosseum. The only thing was that we had to transfer buses because of the schedule, which was a bit confusing (and a bit inconvenient, as it was about a 10 minute walk from one bus to the other), but we didn't mind.

Bus was crowded so we had to stand for the first part which I was not expecting. They also did not give out the headphones we had to copy someone else to go and get them ourselves from the front of the bus. They recordings were not great and missed out loads of sights with stupid music played inbetween. Also could not always tell what buildings were being referred to as the bus did not always line up with the sights.

Big Bus over sell tickets through ticket touts, which means buses are overcrowded and result in poor visibility for sightseeing. Look at other operators.

The BIG BUS vendors at stop 6 were not polite. They let people who bought tickets from them cut to the front of the line. They didn't give us headphones.

I've used this service in London and Paris and never had any issues. So naturally I expected the same experience in Rome. Nope. The staff was borderline rude and came across as annoyed with passengers. We couldn't enjoy the last half of the route because the only language that was coming out of the radio system was German. Rome tourists should consider another company.

We say time in 24 hours the hop on hop off was great!

It was great! We’d done this in London and it was terrible. It was great in Rome though! Drivers were safe and drive smoothly, buses on time, and it described much as we toured.

Awesome commentary . Busts Buses are clean and easily accessible. Hopping on and off as you want is great

Was very disappointed in this Big Bus. Have traveled on a few others which have been great! This bus stopped away from the sites we wanted to see…some with quite a few blocks away. Also, by the time they mentioned sites, we were pass them. Next time i will just take a taxi and get to the sites.

It was a great way to see the city! Right from the airport couldn’t check into the hotel but too tired to walk the city. I would recommend this trip to everyone.

Best way to get a taste of a new city’s major sites while vacationing. The hop on/off feature and frequency of bus schedules and stops maximizes time.

Most of the bus stops were closed. I was quite disappointed since this was something I purchased so my parents can enjoy without having to walk at long distance at a time.

Good way to see a lot— then later go back . The site needs to have the addresses of all stops where you can get on to start and directions and where to find the ear phones and maps .

When we hopped on we initially weren’t given a map and headphone. Finally went below and asked for 2. Took so long to figure out on the map where we’re even at. Some big stops like the Colosseum and Vatican weren’t even driven by. Things pointed out on recording were on opposite side from our map. It was a mess!

The concept is great, and I use this at most cities I travel to. In Rome, most of the attractions are within walking distance from each other, this bus makes a loop that can easily be walked instead of walking forever to find the bus stop and waiting a long time to get on the bus! It also skips one of the main stops at the coliseum! I got the 48 hour pass and it was really a waste of money. Only used it for one round about and got off to walk the rest of the way! The gelato at the Gelatist was delicious!!

The bus tour in Rome was ok, once we found the bus stop. As someone visiting a new city that is busy and chaotic, more stops and helpful staff at ticket sales booth would be helpful. If it not for asking 5 people, we never would have found the stop. The app was not easy to work with.

Stops Not ok Driver so casual Not interested driver Waste of money Just because the city is so picturesque, it makes up for everything else.

Great way to see all of Rome! Loved it! The best seats are always upstairs! Great experience! Would do in other cities as well!

Some of the attractions are not right at the stop and the bus doesn't provide any decent maps etc. They give you a map of the area but it's not easy to figure out. The employees on the street after you get off the bus seemed to be more concerned about their cell phone conversations then helping you find where you needed to go. We got lost several times and Rome is not the easiest city to navigate. If I go back to Rome I will definitely schedule separate tours and skip the hop-on-hop-off.

This a quick way to get around the city to visit some of the biggest attractions quicker. Definitely worth the money.

The audio guide was at least 5 attractions in-front of where we actually were. When I told the guy on the bus he just laughed. The app kept saying I was in “wrong city” every time I tried to find a stop. When it eventually worked it took us to a stop that was no longer in operation. In the end we had to follow where we saw the buses going until we found a stop. I contacted the company and they offered me a tour in another country in the future but after this experience I don’t think that is acceptable.

What can you say about the hop on hop off bus, it met its goals. At one point they had to stop going to the Colloseum stop as it was way too crowded. I love doing the hop on/off buses as it is a great way to see a city at your own pace.

Gets you to all the main attractions with ease and were frequent.

We had a bit of.a walk to get to the stop nearest to our hotel. Thank you, Big Bus, for making online ticket activation so easy now! We rode the entire loop, took pictures, and decided where we would hop off the next time around. Easy walk to Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Enjoyed a delicious lunch near Trevi (so prices and service charges were noticeably higher, but pizza was delicious). We appreciate Big Bus the first time we visit a new city!

This is one of the easiest ways to get around Rome. Streets are crowded so the bus makes it the most efficient. We did have to wait a few buses due to volume to travellers. The audio worked well and was informative

It was a good way to see the city. I like doing it first. The. You get a good idea of where things are

Only one route, buses don’t always follow the same routes. Traffic is not always great so plan on extra time. Frequency of buses was good.

We have done a BigBus tour in nearly every big city we’ve gone to and this one did not live up to expectations. Despite booking ahead we had to wait in line for 25 minutes to board a bus and they packed us in like sardines. At our seat only one of the earphone ports played in English so my husband and I had to share an ear bud set. The commentary was mediocre at best; we learned very little new info. There were 8 stops where we waited quite a long time at each one in hopes of taking on new passengers. The route also showed we would cross over the river to get closer to one of the sites but never did. Overall I rate it a C+ as far as value for the money. Also 85% of sights are best seen from the right side of the bus.

right off the port and cruise ship there were boots to buy tours and bus ride .

We were excited about doing the hop-on-hop off again as we had just utilized it in Messina and had a wonderful time. We hopped on initially at Stop 6 (Vatican City) and were looking at both the digital map and our copy of the map that was provided to us. We utilized the back door of the bus because one of the members of our 6 person party was injured and it was easier access. We reviewed the map and saw that, with our limited time available and our one member who was injured we could check out Stops 7 and 8 (Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps) and then stay on the bus until Stop 3 (The Coliseum) and end our trip there - especially since that was the only landmark one of the people in our party wanted to see. Imagine our surprise when that Stop was passed and we were dropped off a mile away at Stop 4 (Circus Maximus) - with a one mile hike uphill to see The Coliseum. When we asked the driver, he pointed to a small sigh on the door saying that that stop was temporarily suspended. There was no other documentation advising us of that as we would have gone straight to Stop 4 and walked the mile to get to this landmark and then see what time is available from there. Unfortunately, we only have a picture in front of The Coliseum through the cab's window driving us back to port to catch our cruise ship. It was very disappointing and easily avoidable with communication.

Fantastic way to see and experience many of the city’s tourist attractions. Ensure you buy tickets prior to the different attractions though, if you wish to go inside.

The audio recordings are not good. The clarity is bad and the actual recording is not in sync with when the beat s actually reaches the attraction. Live tours are so MUCH better!

Very crowded, noisy, inconsiderate passengers. It was rainy when we visited so that may have contributed to the ambience.

Great tour of the city with detailed commentary, we felt they spent too much time at some of the stops

We did the 1 day hop on/off in Rome and found it a great means of seeing the sites in Rome. I would recommend this tour to get an overview of the sites in Rome.

It was a good way to get around the city. There weren't as many stops as I expected and for some reason the one nearest to the Coliseum was closed, so it was a 10 - 15 minute walk, which may not suit some people. There were quite long queues for the buses but they were quite frequent.

Great for getting around to some of the main sights and we would use as stops to walk from. Worth getting the 72 hours ticket which included evening bus tour and a free gelato.

Not a good use of your money. Stops were a good distance from sites and it was very time consuming validating our tickets. The ear plug system was scraty and very jard to understand. We would not recommend this to anyone.