I took the grayline hop on and off tour. I think its a great value for your money. Not only do you get to visit various sites along the tour but you can do it at your leisure. Our tour guide, Yvonne Burton was entertaining, knowledgeable and funny. I definitely would recommend this tour. read more

I have taken similar tours in New York and Washington DC but had never had an experience quite like this one. I brought some out of town friends into downtown for the day and since they wanted to go on a tour and see a couple attractions during the day, the hop on and off tour only made sense. At first I was moderately disappointed with my purchase our first tour guide named Paul was below par and a ticket agent at the sears tower was pretty scary. Then we got another tour guide named Aaron, who was nothing short of amazing and made the whole thing worth it. So your experience is highly dependent on the quality of the tour guide you get here I guess. read more

Tour was ok. $25 for off/on privileges throughout the day. Downside was that there may not be enough seats when you want to get on so you'll have to wait 15-20 for the next bus. The best thing about the tour was Manny! He was very entertaining and funny. read more

We took the tour of the South Side on December 17. The bus was comfortable. The acoustics were good. The guide was pleasant. We saw several new things and had a nice time. However, the "South Side" tour barely goes south of 45th Street, and the supposed two-hour trip lasted less than 90 minutes. That said, I would go again. read more

Simply awful is all I can say. We prebooked a 4 hour tour. Ticket said to arrive 1/2 early so we arrived at 9 AM for a 9:30 tour. Ticket agent arrived 15 minutes late so we stood around in the gift shop office waiting for someone who couldn't show up on time. Then we were told to wait (again) in the hotel lobby to be shown to the bus. At 9:40 we we're finally walked to a dirty coach bus that smelled like Pine Sol. After all that pre-purchasing, waiting, pre boarding and more waiting, we walk on the bus and there are several people on board already who had not even bought a ticket yet. So we wait again while they get their tickets bought and finally leave just before 10 AM. Several times on the tour the guide asks us to look up to see something but all we can see is the top of the bus over our heads. The tour was more about the neighborhoods and the guide's favorite places to eat. Most of his words were just filling time rather than being informative in any way. We had a 20 minute stop at Lincoln Park Zoo to stretch and use the restroom and returned to the hotel at 11:30 to find out the second half of the tour had to be postponed. The actual "tour" time was but on hour but over 2 hours had passed because of how disorganized they were. Such a dissapointing way to spend a good portion of our day downtown. We decinled to take part in the second half and walked on foot instead. From what we hear there are some really nice, professional tour companies operating in the city. I cannot recommend strongly enough to avoid Grayline Sightseeing Tours. The people are nice enough, but the operation as a whole is just so unprofessional. read more

Total hassle to find Gray Line office in hotel lobby to utilize Go Card and then once we were there, there were two lines wrapping around both sides of a store display shelf being serviced by just one lady behind the counter. Jumped on about 3 times in 2 days. Only once got on a double decker and had to wait our turn to go up top. No guide at all on one trolley. Lousy guide on the other trolley. Long waits to catch a rides. Poor signage so you don't know where to catch the trolley/bus. Only reason for 2 starts, not 1, is that the guide on the double decker was very entertaining. He deserved 5 stars (7/18/14 afternoon -- white guy about 30 -- wore a hat -- told a story about his grandfather being a Chicago cop and getting Frank Sinatra to sing in a hotel bar -- a bit like Adam Sandler). Find a different company. read more

Took the 4 hour city tour. Terrible. Don't waste your money. The guide/driver just talked and talked and we could barely understand a word he said. read more

Never use this. Terrible. As somebody reviewed before, once this bus stops it stays almost 30 minutes.. Especially hot weather, please use other transportations for yourself. read more

I had out-of-town guests whom have never visited Chicago before. So I signed up for the Chicago Grand Half-Day Tour with a 1:30pm Departure (TG3) on Aug. 11, 2018. The eVoucher clearly states to meet at The Palmer House Hilton (17 E Monroe St) which you can't miss since the hotel literally takes up the entire block. We arrived at 1pm and waited for the bus. At 1:20pm there was no bus in sight. So we proceeded to enter the The Palmer House and look for signs for the bus or Grayline and could not find any. So we asked the Palmer House staff if we were in the correct location. The gentlemen told us to go down the hall to the gift shop. We were puzzled.....why the gift shop all the way in the back of the Palmer House. By now it is after 1:30pm. So we proceeded to the gift shop. The person working in the gift shop told us we had just missed the bus?!?!? HOW IN THE WORLD WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW TO GO TO THE GIFT SHOP TO BOARD THE BUS!! Especially, since it is no where near 17 E. Monroe?!?! The gift shop worker proceeded to call the bus and the driver told her they would wait for us a block away. We proceeded to walk the block and saw several buses waiting. So we approached each one to inquire if they were conducting the Chicago Grand Half-Day Tour and both drivers told us we had the wrong bus. With no other buses in sight, we proceeded back to the gift shop. The gift shop worker called the bus driver again and she told us to wait there for her. The gift shop worker proceeded to take us to an area where we could wait. In the very back of the gift shop there is a sign that reads "Grayline Chicago Tours" with a picture of the bus. There is a desk with two chairs as if this is a place where you could purchase tickets - no brochures - just a desk and two chairs. We patiently waited for someone to arrive. After about 10 mintue this woman comes there yelling at my nephew (who is 10 years old) because he had taken a seat. She proceeds to tell him to get up and that he has no business back there. I ignored her tyrant because I wanted to know about the tour I had paid $179 for. She proceeded to address me in a very angry manner saying we were not there and she has 22 other people she could not inconvenience. I told her I understood that but why wasn't the gift shop listed on ANY of the documentation I received??? She proceeded to tell me she didn't know why and if I wanted to take the 3:30pm tour. I told her that tour was 4-hours long and leaving at 3:30pm would cause my party to miss some other obligations. She then told me to call Grayline for a full refund but I chose to dispute thru American Express. As I was finishing up, two gentlemen were waiting to speak to her. You could hear that they had foreign accents when talking to her. She immediately started yelling at them telling them to tell her what they wanted. They were trying to explain but she wouldn't allow them to finish their statements. I felt so bad for them - I sure hope that was not their first introduction to any chicagoans. This woman did not give me her name but she is a light-skinned african-american woman between 5'3" and 5'5" with very short hair working at the Palmer House between 1pm-2p. My advice to Grayline - either get this woman so additional training on how to interface with the public or get rid of her! As of this moment, I will NEVER sign up for another Grayline tour. I had to apologize for this woman's treatment of us and the people behind us - her total attitude was just awful. I believe the tour would have been nice but not if this woman had anything to do with it. Luckily, my guests and I were able to take some of the trolley tours (not run by Grayline) so all was not lost (of course, I had to pay additional money for the tours). Not just to get my money back for the Chicago Grand Half-Day Tour. What a terrible way to start off our Saturday. read more

Do not. I repeat DO NOT book a tour with this company. Not only did they show up to our hotel location 30 minutes late, but they reviewed our reservations and intentionally put us on the wrong tour, assuming we wouldn't notice or say anything. When we tried to resolve with the tour guide he refused to help us. To top it off the tour was terrible. You could not understand the guide and they had us on a bus with a roof you couldn't see through, that we were expected to look at Chicago architecture from. After a very long dispute process with my credit card company I was finally refunded for my tour; but not without them lying to my credit card company by attempting to deny they did anything wrong and accusing me of "a crime worse than shoplifting" because I sat on a 2 hour tour I didn't sign up for and don't want to pay for it. If it weren't for the fact that I am an investigator and knew how to produce solid documentation with my own resources, I never would have got my money back. There are dozens of tour companies in Chicago. Save yourself the headache and book with someone else. Chicago Graylines books their reservations via the Internet using a third party Alcatraz Media Inc. if you see either of these names affiliated with your tour, TRUST ME do not book it.!!! read more

I bought this tour so my friends from out of town would get to see the most important landmarks in Chicago on one day... it was a mistake. We wanted the double-deckers and those came far apart, at least one hour in between, so if it had just left when you got there, you were out of luck and in for a long wait - while waiting for the Grayline bus, two-three buses from the competition would go by, making me wonder why I did not purchase with them instead. The 3 tour guides we met all had an attitude and made for an unpleasant ride. One of them kept on mocking me outloud (using the mike) because I was trying to translate what he was saying so my guests would know the history of the different sites. I will never use this company again! read more

Can I give less than one star? My husband, sister and brother-in-law went on a Grayline tour in Chicago last Saturday. It was supposed to be a four hour tour with a bus tour and an architectural boat tour. It was AWFUL. First of all, we were supposed to check in at the Palmer House Hilton at 9:00am (tour was supposed to start at 9:30). The lady checking us in for the tour was 10 minutes late. Then, she took us out to our bus which was an OLD motorcoach, not a double decker or trolley or new motorcoach. There were already several people on the bus, many of whom had not yet registered or paid for the tour so the Grayline lady had to take their payment and issue them tickets. The bus absolutely sucked. The ability to see what the tour guide pointed out was severely restricted for people who were not next to the window or on the "wrong" side of the bus. The visibility for the folks in the window seats wasn't that great either. Our tour guide was terrible. He shared incorrect information and kept talking about the sociology of Chicago. The bus dropped us off for a break at Lincoln Park Zoo and then left. The tour guide did not tell us that the bus was going to leave and it was not back by the time we were supposed to reboard so we kept thinking that we were at the wrong place and had missed some announcement about where to pick the bus back up. We weren't. When the bus got back to the Palmer House Hilton, the lady who checked us in (late) got on the bus and told us that there was an issue with the boat and that we would have to wait until 2:00pm to take the boat tour. My sister and brother-in-law had a flight to catch in the afternoon so 2:00 did not work for us. The lady said that she would take care of a credit for our tour. Not sure how that is going but I certainly am not optimistic that it is going smoothly. What an utter waste of time and money. read more

We took the Grand Tour. The tour itself was interesting. The driver/narrator was awful. Spoke in a sing song voice almost yelling. His narration really detracted from the tour. I would recommend the hop on hop off tour. read more

I love the hop on/hop off in other cities. My recommendation would be to spend the extra money and go with the other company in Chicago. This one was ghetto! It was late at stops all the time, sometimes I had to wait a 1/2 hour. Even a security guard I was talking to at a stop in the pouring rain said they had the worst buses and trolley's and their customer service was horrific. On the way back to my hotel it was pouring and there was a waterfall coming from the top of the bus from the ceiling into the bottom. The windows had plastic on them, they didn't open. I tried to complain to the driver and he said Yo, it's not my fault yo. Need I say more?? read more

They don't even deserve 1 star. Pathetic. Don't have enough buses so waiting times are very long. The sound systems also don't function properly so you can't hear anything the guides say. Please don't waste your money and precious holiday time on them. read more

Avoid Grayline! Too bad there isn't a half star, because it doesn't deserve a full star. We waited nearly 30 minutes at Willis Tower to get started. The "tour guide" said his microphone was "broken"...yet there wasn't one on the bus...so I wonder how long it had been "broken". He was a master of the obvious, for example, he said "the L runs this way and that way." Overall the tour was boring, vague, non descriptive with very little insight gained. The bus even intentionally missed a stop...I wondered how do they know that someone was not there waiting to be picked up at that location. Save your Money...do NOT go on the Grayline!! read more

The holiday lights tour was the worst experience EVER. I would not recommend this to anyone. Our trolley did not have a tour guide. We sat on the trolley for 3 hours. Got to the zoo to view the lights and the other trolley tour guide ditched us and we had to get back on the bus and went to the kindl maket at 8:45 and it closed at 9. Then the trolley driver told us we had to walk back to the Palmer house. No ride back like stated on the website. Spent $100 to sit on a trolley for 3 hours. Then because we were not back in time as expected the parking cost us $41 dollars. Worst experience ever. read more

We had it from Chicago go card. They said it's every 30 minutes, but it was more like every hour. So be prepared to wait a little longer at the stops. read more

Avoid this tour company in Chicago. They have too few vehicles for it to be a " hop-on-hop-off" service. We waited an hour at one point while a competing line went by again and again. The trolley and busses we rode in where smelly and shabby. Pay the little extra for real service. The drivers and tour guides were very nice, but not good public speakers, the poor quality of the sound system did not help. read more

Our entire trip, we wished we had purchased passes with the "other" touring company of which we saw everywhere!! May of the pick-up locations were in the same places and their buses/trolleys came twice as often as Gray Line. A lot of time was wasted waiting. When we called the phone # to get pick-up info, the woman was so rude and gave us conflicting information to what their pamphlets say. Very disappointing. The only highlight was one of the tour guides (wish i could remember his name,) was a pleasure and we didn't want to get off his tour. read more

DO NOT USE. Waited 50 minutes for the first bus at Willis Tower. Supposed to be the first bus of the day. Got off at the Art Institute. Never saw another bus. Waited at the Hilton forever. Called to find out where the bus was, told it would be there in 3 to 4 minutes. After half an hour called back and was put on permanent hold. Waited for over an hour that time. Finally gave up and took a cab. Customer Service was terrible. No narrative on what we were seeing. A total waste of money and time. read more

I have been on many sightseeing double decker tours and this is by far the worst. Was told the bases ran every twenty minutes, but waited nearly an hour for one. I was told there would be a person waiting at each location and there wasn't. Had to call to make sure we were in the right spot. The tour guide Matt was not a tour guide at all. For 68 minutes we traveled downtown in complete silence. Who knows what buildings and landmarks we were seeing. Don't waste your time or money with this company. Shame on you go card for going with this company. read more

My mom and I visited Chicago for the first time recently and since she has a back problem, and it was raining, we thought a Greyline tour would be a good thing to do. Our first trip was a Northside itinerary with Antwon (sp?) giving the spiel - it was just terrific. There was a driver in training so Antwon was able to really do a great job of pointing everything out without having to worry about getting into an accident. We enjoyed it tremendously. Day 2 it was still raining. We opted for the Southside tour. First of all the nice cushy comfortable bus had broken windshield wipers so it was out of service. Instead we had a old fashioned jitney with seats not designed to hold 2 butts side by side for 2 hours. The sound system on board was awful, most of what came through was gibberish. The driver/tour guide was different and he had no business being in that job. Not driving. Not talking. He had this peculiar sing song voice that pitched high and low with no regard to the sentence structure. Every. word. HAD. a. period. After. IT. Inflections be damned. It was a crazy whacked out way to talk and no one on board had any idea what he was going on about. We all just wanted him to shut up so we could at least just look out the window in peace. If that had been our first tour we never would have gone again. The company needs to send people out on the tours periodically to see what they're delivering and this guy needs to be re-trained to do something else. read more

Chicago Holiday Lights Tour 2011- if there was a lower rating than 1 star avilable I would chose that. This was the worst experience possible, in so many ways...I took our office staff and their guests on this tour as part of the holiday office party, total of 14 people and we were treated like dirt, from the very beginning. First- the advertising is misleading...from the picture it looks like you would be taking a trolley. Instead we were on a huge tour bus. The staff on the tour bus were the most despicable people ever. (Except for the actual tour guide,an older gentleman) One staffer, a woman, was so rude and I think she was drunk. She yelled at my 14 yr old son because he was looking to see if I was on the bus yet- her words were "shut up and sit down kid, I'm not your mother".she kept insisting that the visibly pregnant mom with her well behaved young son move their seats..we had a man of color with us as a guest and she kept harassing him, questioning if he was really with our group... and when some of us got excited when the bus went by the Marilyn Monroe statue we were verbally scolded over the loudspeaker...we contacted the bus company to express our dissatisfaction with the tour experience and have heard nothing back from them....I wouldn't waste your time or money booking this tour... read more

My husband and I live in the western suburbs and frequently have family visit from out of town and love to show the beautiful sights in the city. We have taken a tour with Grayline in the past with not-so-good of a tour but I am happy to say we gave them another chance with much different results! It was a crumby day in Chicago but my sister really wanted to get on a double decker and check out the city. We boarded bus 1002 at the Willis Tower, by a VERY helpful and friendly ticket agent for a change, and were greeted by a sister team. Our driver Michelle and her sister Tiffany, who Michelle is training, made us feel welcome, and even though not many passengers were on board, we had the time of our lives!! Michelle not only drove, but she was giving key points of the tour with Tiffany filling in the gaps. They knew so much information about so many key points and even things that weren't part of the tour. There was so much laughing and learning that nobody even paid attention to the terrible weather! Even if there was something they didn't know, they had no problem telling us so and when we stopped they looked it up and gave us accurate information, unlike before when we were given false information just to act like they knew something. By the end of the tour we all felt like family and hated for it to be over! This was by far THE BEST tour we have ever taken and I am happy to say that Grayline has really turned things around! I look forward to my next family outing and I sure do hope we get the dynamic sister team again!! Kudos Grayline, job well done!! read more

This is the only review I have ever written. I do so because i have tried to contact Gray Line to get my complaints resolved 7 times and have had no response. I have traveled all over the world and like to take a bus tour to familiarize myself with a new city. I took a 4 hour Gray Line bus tour on May 28, 2012 with my family. It was the worst bus tour of my life. The bus was too cold, the air conditioning was up so high it poured out of the overhead lights. The driver was impossible to understand. I found if I plugged my ears I enjoyed the tour more. The driver almost hit a man pushing a stroller in a crosswalk. The ride was full of jack rabbit stops and starts. When I got off the bus I asked another driver for our bus drivers name. He told me there were many complaints about our driver, so many in fact he was to be removed of his driving duties the following week. Gray Line should be ashamed of running their company like this. read more

I was surprised when I read some of the more negative reviews here. I think we utilized Grayline to its fullest extent during our visit on April 16-19, 2015. Six people (three couples), aren't the easiest to manage, but every staff member was courteous, accommodating, and informative. We ended up running into Josh, who managed the tours from the Palmer House quite a few times. We think he got the impression that all we did was ride the trollies and buses all day. (We really did do a lot of walking). He always had a smile, always engaged us, and always made sure we were being taken care of. We took the North side tour as well. All of the tour guides were informative, extremely pleasant, and excellent drivers. Kimberly, who processed our tickets at the Palmer House was also friendly, accommodating, and truly invested in making sure we were completely satisfied. It is obvious that the staff that we encountered took personal pride in pleasing their customers. They made our visit to Chicago all that more enjoyable. It appears that Grayline has created a culture that emphasizes and rewards good customer service. read more