Big Bus Tours Shanghai Reviews 201

We had a 48 hour deluxe ticket and thought it was great value for money, especially when you get a one hour river cruise included. We chose to do the cruise in the evening when the lights were in full swing which was fantastic. There were two things that would stop me giving Big Bus five stars and that was a) the bus drivers drove the bus too fast when the traffic allowed and threw you around a bit, and b) the times for the last bus shown on the map were not adhered to and as a result we missed our last connection and had to walk. Maybe this was because it was October and the buses were only a third full so they put on less buses, who knows. After saying all that, the staff at the change over points very polite and very helpful......4.9 stars for me

Almost good. But...
The blue route bus skipped #14 stop without notice.
So many passengers mistook #15 as #14 and missed the cruise ride.
I also mistook, so I had to return to #15 stop to take the cruise ride.

Brilliant - does exactly what it says on the tin (or the side of the bus!) Staff very helpful and a great way to see any city.

Our third city location with this company and we'll use them again for Washington DC next year

It was a bad experience. The waiting times where to long, Its not possible to see the highlights in 2 days. Unfriendly personal and crazy drivers much to fast making telephonically during driving.
I can not recommend Big Bus and I believe that City sight seeing is much better

regards
Bart Engelen Netherlands

We bought the tickets online. First buss top we went to, could to change it to paper tickets. So we were asked to walk to the next station. There we got our tickets, but the man interrupted this procedure to do something else- the bus came the bus went- another 30 Min wait for us.
No timetable available, so everywhere you go off the bus, i could be that you wait 28 minutes. A lot of waiting time, with three little kids a bit annoying.
Otherwise the routes are good and informative. But no staff member could tell us, when the boot departed- we asked three persons. So there we had to wait 45 Minutes...

day of celebration in Shanghai, exchange of stops did not allow me to see what I wanted. Long waits at the major stops before the bus starts again

Brought my tickets on line before I left Australia which saved $10 USD / person. Difficulty finding the first stop so go the day before if possible to make the most of your day. We did the Red line first- twice to get our bearings but given this is the most popular and frequent line I would do the green first- see the temples and then come back and do the blue in the afternoon. With the red it is more readily available an goes later into the night and you can get home easier than being out further where the buses stop earlier and you could get stuck. I did not like the lack of order and the people pushing and shoving to get on the bus

if you are thinking this is similar t. o European or American Hop on /off buses, you will be sorely dissppointed. Supposedly the bus comes by every 45 minutes. I would say it is more like every 1.5 hrs. Disappointed.

I had a change to use Big Bus services in Hong Kong and had a very good experience. The buses always arrive on time, many options and the drives and staff are able to assist you, provide you earphones, maps etc... But when I was in Shangai the situation was absolutely different. They don`t even have the earphones to provide you, they stop in the attractions points and you don`t even know that you are there, and the buses take a long time to arrive, out of the proposed schedulle many times. I simply decide to use the subway instead of wasting my time inside of the big bus in this city. Sorry about that.

The taped description was not in sync with the location.

Very good job, I can be recommended the bus tour :-)

Audio-guide: few short and not informative stories, not updated data. I've checked both English and Russian. They even do not mention all places of interest we've been passed by. The rest of trip was annoying music.
Routes: Goes only in one direction, not a lot of stops has.

I think your tours are excellent, no complaints except some of your drivers are crazy.. they were really taking agressive decisions on the road, weaving through traffic very fast it was lucky not to have accidents, maybe this is normal in Shanghai but I felt given the safety of your customers on board you should maybe employ some spot checks posing as tourists to see for yourself, especially the blue route. Other than this - it was really great, thanks

Best value by booking for 48 hours on line. young male employee in booth at people's square not helpful when asked where Sofitel hotel was on map. The remarked in Chinese to female on sidewalk. Said he did not know where hotel was. It was by one of their stops. The routing of the buses were interesting. Included a cruise on river. Bus drivers very skilled on driven

It's a really good choice to visit the city, it's your time and choices to visit.

They justify the high price by claiming you have access to a temple, a boat ride, etc., but they don't tell you that you have to get special tickets through BBT to be able to access these deals. If you go straight to the site, the ticket agent will just stare at you blankly. We looked for BBT personnel to explain what we had to do, but by the time we found somebody our 48 hours were over. You're better off getting a taxi to shuttle you around.

I have landed in Shanghai and went out to this tour. What I didn't realise by then, is that it's extremely hot and humid during the day, making the tour very uncomfortable. A/C in the first floor is too cold, while at the top of the bus it's too hot.

Suggestion: extend the working hours towards later evening when it's cooler, but still not much traffic.

The routes are good, but when you get off or when you just missed a bus, you have to wait more than an hour for the next bus. City Sightseeying drives more often.
The subway is a better alternative, and much cheeper.

Shanghai is the most densely populated area in the world. It is unbelievable that the hop off hop on buses have frequencies of 30-45 mins. They also don't have a proper schedule to hand you. You can imagine how crowded the bus becomes on each stop. Sometime you event don't have a proper seat. What kind of tour is that when you don't have a place to sit and to listen to the cometary? The staff tries to help you however there is often a language problem (however this is common in China). Some of the buses are broken, they also turn off the air conditioning when they are on bus stop which can last up to 15 min. and then the bus gets flooded ones they turn the A/C again.
Also you may consider including entrance tickets to some of the new tourist attractions as the observatory on the Shanghai Tower instead of Jin Mao Tower (not the tallest building in Shanghai any more + old unpleasant observatory venue).
Hop this review will help to improve your services and to alarm tourists bout what to expect.

What a disappointment the big bus tour was! Route is ok, buses come ever 30 mins which is alright but there is also an enforced waiting time at the end of each route, before it begins again. So I found I was hanging around for the next bus in some pretty uninteresting parts of the city.

Audio guide was terrible, over 70% of it is bad elevator music, it hardly taught me anything about Shanghai's rich history. Such a miss as there is so much to say about Shanghai.

Audio isn't always in line with the route, so it's talking about something you can't see! Also quite a few of the audio ports weren't working on the bus.

The ticket cost me 100rmb for 24hrs, I bought it directly at one of the stops instead of buying it online.

I wouldn't recommend the tour because of the poor audio guide.
Visited July 2015