IF you like bad music looped over and over and descriptions of locations that are no where near you...hop on this bus! IF you want a clean, comfortable, Informative Tour Bus...Hop Off this bus! Worst tour bus ever! No explanations of current location or stops...past by the Wall Street Bull twice and had no idea until we were just about past. Wish I could give a negative star rating. Don't waste your money. read more

My friends and I had a HORRIBLE experience with TopView Sightseeing-Liberty Cruise Statue of Liberty. The cruises were delayed because of heat wave (which I understand) but we were never provided updates about delay time and stood in line for 2.5 hours in 100 degree heat. People in line were getting sick from the heat and we were told to keep waiting. Conditions on boat are unsafe. Plastic folding chairs and clearly outdated, unsafe boat. We ended up getting off the boat early because it was so unsafe and such a bad experience. After complaining to customer service they said they do not refund and that I can use the passes next time I'm in NYC. Ha! I will never ever use Liberty Cruise and I recommend you stay far away. It is not worth saving the monty--go with a different company!! Or take the public ferry--cheaper and just as good of view. UPDATE: The company responds saying they will "rectify" my experience but all that means is that they extend the time you can use the pass but they DO NOT issue refunds. read more

Expensive slow ride to Brooklyn. If you are slow getting off a bus, enjoy listening to nyc tunes without educational commentary, like to sit on a bus for long periods of time this is for you. Drivers were polite. Bus is clean. read more

They use false advertising. In their flyers they stated that the tickets for the liberty statue are $49.00 this is wrong, the real value for tickets are $25.00. Not only that but when they sale the tickets they stated that their bus services are every 15 minutes completely false... they lied about the time of operation of their buses as well. They have a refund term thst stated that people has 7 days to request!! They are refusing to provide the refund. Stay away from this company read more

TopView - Wrong advertising - Bus Tours Near Me - New York, New York

First time using this sightseeing bus, not very good . Empty seats on top but supposedly can't carry more then a certain amount? So what are the seats for? Should've gone back to Big Bus!! The bus doesn't leave until the next bus shows up, what kind of business is that? Minus a star!!! Update!! I just asked a ticket seller where I could catch the bus for the ny yankee trip, once he found out I already had a ticket, he stopped being helpful read more

TopView - Bus sitting there not moving!! - Bus Tours Near Me - New York, New York

There was no guide, the recording is not very informative, and the inside is as hot as an oven.

Buyer beware! By far a big disappointment to a New York vacation. Bought 5 tickets for my family. Spent 30 minutes in line where the line grew to about 40 people, we were promised a bus at each stop every 15 minutes. At about the 30 minute point a bus showed up and was full. At the 48 minute point a bus showed up and let on 8 people. On the bus, they have the windows wrapped with advertisement so you cannot even see out the sights. The headphones for the tour are a nice idea, but for the price you would think they'd have someone live. I heard more safety updates than tourist information. When I called the number and pressed 7 for customer service. The phone then rang 47 times before a crabby employee answered. I was told sorry, no refunds and there is nothing they can do. I would say the Grayline tours may be a better option. They had busses running every 10 minutes with more room. read more

TopView - Bus Tours Near Me - New York, New York

SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!!! Do NOT get suckered into this company either on the street or on-line!!! You pay a high price without any room on busses. If you want to lose your money to stand on the street all day in NYC then its your choice. NO REFUNDS! UPDATE: i knew it was a scam and literally fell for yet another trap. Stupid me but no more. After my first yelp review I received a response from Top View to "rectify" my situation. I did contact them. After multiple canned responses, they absolutely didn't address their unethical business practice, they couldn't provide the courtesy of an apology. They certainly didn't offer or attempt any solution. Top View's Yelp response= for show, not genuine My original post stands. Buyer beware with this company. read more

Lamont is great to customers, he made it easy for is to ride, smiled on our tired faces.

This company is so unorganized. We were sent on a wild goose chase from the ticket booth to the dock and finally to the website to purchase tickets. THEN the boat left 15 minutes early because they had an unposted time change in their schedule. Afterwards, we waited a whole hour where we were told to wait for the next boat only to be told when the next boat arrived that the boat was overbooked. I was going to get a refund, but the company doesn't even do that. What kind of scam?! This company is super unprofessional and unorganized!!! Save your time, your money and your Tylenol. Ain't NOBODY got time for that! read more

Does not even deserve one star.. As a Native New Yorker I took my wife who is from Pennsylvania on a full downtown..uptown tour.. does not even go past Any landmarks.. has a recording that repeats itself over and over then loses where it is.. downtown tour drops you 3 blocks walk from uptown tour.. no UN Building no Radio City just a ride in back streets if you have a map you can walk just as fast as this thing goes Save your money !! read more

Do Not Take This Tour- This tour isn't that organized. I don't want to be negative but we were miserable on this tour. It was hot and the ride was bumpy and the buses were not clean and the bottom part was not air condiitoned. read more

Beware, they employ aggressive sales people in every popular tourist spot especially Grand Central. About 100 people waited about an hour for a bus that was supposed to come " every 10 minutes". They will give you a "deal"$35 instead of $49 but its a rip off on your entire precious day. The Brooklyn Tour and Night Tour is non-stop and only one tour- so you can imagine how crowded it was. We passed. read more

Summary of review: Terrible service Disgusting busses Voice recording with extremely limited information, and most of it stale and not memorable at all. Plays the same few songs on repeat till you loose your mind. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! They are cheap but it's because you are buys a shit tour! Other companies such as Greyhound and city sights NY have live guides and it's always so much fun! Disclosure: I do not work for any related company what so ever Full review: I have had many experiences with these tour buses around NYC but never anything this bad. First of all the person handing out the tickets at the main office looked like she was going to jump off a cliff any second. Second of all there was zero information about the fact that several of the stops closest to the ticket location were closed due to the Puerto Rican day parade. So we ended up walking for about an hour trying to find a stop that was actually working, which could have been avoided with the slightest information from the employee if she had a clue about service. Additionally, the tour was terrible, it played the same 5 songs on repeat and the information when it finally came on was extremely sparse and short, so it was not informative. The buses were old, run down and dirty and the inside was just sad. We had the downtown and the uptown pass and took the downtown first. It was super boring because of the lack of information and same song on repeat driving you crazy. There is so much to say about this city, and somehow this tour was extremely stale and just playing music 90% of the time. The uptown tour was a disaster! The system wasn't working and it was just the same music on a loop until finally the driver rebooted the system, which cause much confusion as it started in a wrong place and played the same spiels multiple times in the wrong location, it wasn't until about 30 minutes into the tour the tape had finally caught up, and then again this was minimal information. Didn't even mention the Apollo. Any regular New Yorker could have done this a million times better just knowing the basics about this city. Additionally, the bus turned of course on 86th street and bypassed everything on 5th avenue because of the parade, but again there was zero information! We missed the entire museum mile and it didn't stop till 42nd street - with no orientation so everyone was very confused. All around this was just terrible, the buses were bad, the information a joke and the service absolutely none existing. Needless to say I requested a refund which again gave this useless company a chance to shine the light on their utter incompetence with standardized robotic answers and basically just a big fat fuck you. Sorry to say this is the worst tour experience I have ever had. Spare yourself the trouble! read more

THIS BUS TOUR COMPANY IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST. Wish I can give 0 stars. I have been on tour buses in London, Paris, LA, and here in NY as well while I lived here and my family came to visit. Now I came back to show the city to my sister and got two 48 hrs tickets on TopView not realizing this was a FAKE bus tour company. The tour bus has no guide. You are stuck with dirty little headphones off the floor (unless you use your own) that you would need to plug into the wall of the bus. Their headphones have a couple of inch of a wire so you can't even twist comfortably to look around. I was already thinking this cannot possibly be how they operate?!!? But oh yes it is. And the worst is yet to come. 90% of the time you will have a variety of songs blaring into your ears for the only reason (wait for it!!) that they have the words "New York" in the lyrics somewhere. Oh and also Eye of the Tiger. Which is a great song and loved it till I heard it 50+ times within 48 hrs on this bus. We had several other bus tour companies top decks running parallel to us and I swear I was leaning over to try to hear their tour guide entertaining the lucky customers! Meanwhile on TopView we were trying to look around without yanking out the earplugs hoping there will be a random fact thrown at us. Oh when that happened it was usually 5 minutes before or after of the actual landmark so we were none the wiser of what they looked like and but then the whole segment was played twice back to back for good measure. Also as the day progressed you are lucky if the bus stopped and picked you up. There is only one person per bus who works the entire crowd: the driver!! So the poor guy has to stop, tell the line up to wait, close the door again, go upstairs, count the people, come down again and do his little math which group of how many can board. The time wasted is insane!!!! Going on a Top View tour was one of the most aggravating, insulting, ridiculous, time and money wasting experiences of my life. read more

I wish I could give less stars. They never announce when they are stopping. The drivers are crazy and almost all of the attendants are rude. Save your money and do literally anything else. read more

Bullshit, that's the best word to describe the tour bus experience BEFORE even getting on the bus. As one bus was finishing loading another bus pulled up and as you can see there was a very long line. The driver of the second bus began allowing people on from the back of the line and the driver of the first bus stated he was not supposed to be doing that. The first driver went to speak to the second and was gone for at least 5 minutes, coming back and exclaiming that the second driver "is crazy!". The driver of the second bus hauled ass out and left in a hurry while the driver of the first bus came back and was trying to leave. Patrons in front of us said this was exactly what kept them waiting for two hours yesterday. Clearly all of your bus drivers are not clear on the protocol at each stop and makes the feeling of already being scammed for these tours increased. If you want a tour of the city, contact a friend that lives nearby with a car and they can give you a better experience OR just contact me and I'll be happy to drive you around in my car. read more

TopView - Bus Tours Near Me - New York, New York

It looked like a great way to get around and learn about the city, but it didn't work out that way. The narration: poor quality recording with irritating music between talking. We like to hear about the area's history , the architecture, etc. Not much of that. There were no announcements of which stop we were on. Most people around us seemed confused by this. And most of the drivers seemed totally uninterested in helping us. "I'm just a driver". We got to stop number 17 and thought we would go around the loop again, as did many others who were on the bus with us. Then we learned this was the end of the line and we had to get off. There was no one to direct us where to get on the other bus, we finally figured it out. There is no information posted on their website or written material about hours of service. We learned the hard way that the uptown bus only runs from 10 to 4 and service is only hourly. I could go on. But I will end up by saying that while this company's routes and options seems the best for the price, I would definitely go with a different company if I return return to New York. This was a pretty negative experience overall. read more

I was very worried buying this ticket but the price was great. I paid $48/ person for a 2 day. I was NOT disappointed. We had a great time thanks to topview. Went on all the trips they provide for the 2day ticket. Gave it a 4 star because it was a bit on the dirty side, but with all the visitors on that bus who can complain. Here is the secret. Go out early for all your trips. Didn't come here to sleep. I was always the first 10 family to line up in the morning and had NO problem at all. Thanks Topview Oh forgot to mention it was independence weekend. So you can imagine the crowd read more

Must do in NYC! I had an issue with my ticket and Tyrone R. And Eli were lifesavers. They got me in contact with costumer service and took care of everything. I'll be back! read more

I'm not one to normally write bad reviews like this but this experience warranted the time and effort. Having only started my experience with the Liberty Cruise, I have no intention of cashing in the rest of the bus tour or so called benefits of my 2-day pass. In fact I want a complete refund. We made a reservation for the 3 pm cruise on a Saturday. We docked our boat at 6:05 pm (it was supposed to be 75 minutes long!) Ok let's get a few more details in here...to start, our boat left 40 minutes late. Ok I get it... 3:00 pm on a Saturday in July. Things are busy and crowded, but 40 minutes late to leave and over an hour late to come back, who has that kind of time when they are trying to sight see anywhere especially in NYC. Most importantly, courtesy of this extremely delayed experience I missed the 6:00 pm engagement I booked my entire NYC trip around. Something I should have finished by 4:30/5 at the latest, I missed the most important part of my trip for. Complete disrespect of people's time and money. While in line for the 3:00 pm ferry, I clarified with a couple workers that I was in the right line since no boat was in sight at 3:00, no one was boarding at 3:10 and when we sat idle for 30+ minutes before docking because their other boat was in the spot. Either the workers were not helpful or gave attitude. I asked one of the workers about the delays, he started by ignoring me and then when I asked him again about the length of this cruise and me that the pamphlet from TopView I had was wrong and that this tour was 2 hours because of the boat we are on. To top it all off, while in the boat, other patrons were sharing stories from earlier that day when they were on the hop on hop off buses - their driver not only side swiped another bus, he also crossed multiple red lights and when asked questions about which stop they were near, he couldn't answer their questions. I would and will never recommend this excursion to others. read more

we bought our ticket from a street peddler explaining we wanted to use the tickets later in the week. we asked if purchased now, would they be valid later in the week. we were assured over and over . I asked them a dozen times, sure enough go to use them and they tell us the tickets are expired! a very nice supervisor named Labron helped us but it took a long time and we lost about an hour. my advise is buy from a supervisor at the bus not from the guys on the street! it definitely was not worth the money. next time it's more walking and/ or subway. We only did it because it was so cold out, but then we were stuck up top MOST of the time. save your money. read more

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!!! Do NOT go sightseeing with them. We took a trip in NY and after going a little while one way, my family was left stranded. Keep in mind that the cost was almost $400!!!! Avoid traveling with this company! read more

AVOID THIS SCAM FROM AGGRESSIVE SALES PEOPLE. They are dishonest and just care about taking your money. One of the female sales rep for this company near the Westin hotel in Times Square became so aggressive when people did not want to buy tickets, and threatened to "fight." Unbelievable. A lot of red flags to avoid buying tickets or any service from this company. You are better off using public transportation in NYC for $2.75, then giving your hard earned money to these unscrupulous scammers. read more

Don't use this company. The bus driver today was rude. When I asked the supervisor for his name she said she couldn't give out read more

TopView - This is what you get. Employees standing around doing nothing. - Bus Tours Near Me - New York, New York

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Problem with the Liberty Cruise Ship: My friends and I RESERVED seats for the 3:00 cruise. We got there right at 3 only to be turned away because the boat was full!!! HOW?! There were other people waiting in line who also made reservations for the 3:00 cruise, and they all had to wait for the next one at 4:45. Terrible Customer Service: When we arrived to the location to pick up our tickets ALL the employees were in the employee room chillin! We were standing there for a while and there was one guy who opened the door just looking at us for a while and said "someone will be with you". LIE. No one ever showed up or cared that we were standing there waiting. He could've told us to download the app and activate our tickets there. I recommend getting a tour but some other way instead. read more

Nobody told my family to grab earbuds which are on the bottom level of the bus. We were stuck on their 1.5 hour night tour not knowing what we were looking at the entire time. Most of the upper level didn't grab a pair either. All the drivers had to say was to grab a pair and point out where they were located. Their response was disappointing, they simply said, "you should've seen the earbuds". read more

We were disappointed in this sightseeing trip. As hard as it is to believe, two of the buses we were on had accidents. The first hit a parked car, and knocked off it's side mirror, and the second hit a low-hanging traffic light, and we were showered with breaking glass. As if this was not enough, the app, which updated in the morning, wiped out your QR code after one swipe, so when we tried to board the bus after getting off, the driver did not want to let us on, saying we needed to call customer service, even though the previous screen clearly said our passes were valid until tomorrow. The app is also worthless - it does not even tell you when to expect a bus - and so you can wait a long time at a stop, or have to run for a bus, either of which is not fun. Not sure I would use this company again. read more

Went on the night time tour. While the route was interesting, a lot of the sights were seen "as you turn right as we pass this street" rather than actually driving by - I realize that some (such as Washington Sq) was because of traffic patterns and a large bus. The Audio quality through the provided headphones was distorted at best and at times unintelligible. The worst part however was the guide. Very perky and engaging to some on the tour, What was mostly pointed out was who lived in what neighborhoods, what the rents were, and which restaurants and stores she liked - almost to the point of appearing to be underwritten by sponsors. Other examples included as we passed the Flat Iron Building, rather than saying ANYTHING about the architectural or historic importance of the building, the entire anecdote was about the recent controversy over the sale of the building - followed by "over 160 million for an old empty building - how crazy is that?" She also randomly broke into song and some of her information was slightly dated. read more

This is the feedback just sent to the company and posted everywhere I could. People should be aware of how sad of an experience this is and how much of not true s facts they advertise (including the ability to see arrival times on the app, frequency of their busses departure- all a sham!!!). They should be ashamed of the misrepresentation they do!! Absolutely dissatisfied with the experience. Waited at stop 17 for 1 h in line to board the red line (which you say is every 15 minutes)... when asked your staff for an update or indication of when we could expect to board was ignored and ask to 'just stay in line' . Your app never shows estimated arrival times for any of the stops. The blue line departure time from stop 17 are not accurate (they state leaving every hour), yesterday waited for 1.5 hours and the bus never came.... N the end took the red line. An absolute joke of experience, will make sure will blast the entire internet with this feedback! People should be aware you are a fraud of experience!! read more

I didn't want to leave this review, this happened in February of 2019. I have taken a double decker bus tour in different cities about a dozen of times. I'm familiar with how things work and the pricing. This experience in New York left a bad taste in my mouth. I came up to one of the representatives selling tickets in Time square, explained to him that I only needed a ticket for 1 day, 24 hrs not two days because I was leaving the next day. It was an extremely cold day and all buses were practically empty. He said "I understand I understand" took my credit card and gave me a bus ticket. Told me the bus would be leaving in about 5 min, in sat on the bus for 35 min waiting for it to depart, I was the only one on, they waiting until two more people got on to leave. ( I looked at my ticket and realized it said "48 hours" and the price was $68.00 that I was charged, as the bus was trying to leave I stuck my head out of the door to ask him why he changed me so much and he simply said "it's a better deal" for who!?!? Use another company, there are several!!!!! Please see photos provided of the proof! read more

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Terrible on every level. Huge lines, bus audio didn't work on any of the busses. Statue of Liberty cruise is a very long walk from bus stop and only runs once in the afternoon and once in the evening and has way more people then room. Choose any other bus line! read more

Lie #1: tickets were quoted as being 69$ but the street vendor ended up charging 75$ per ticket at the end of the transaction Lie#2: we would be stopping at Ellis Island and be able to go UP the Statue of Liberty with the purchase of a 5 day pass...after booking their Liberty Cruise, we come to find out that we would just be touring the waterways between these tourist attractions, and NOT what was promised to us prior to our purchase Lie#3: free bike rental is included with the ticket purchase, when in fact you have to rent the bike, and then they will include a few extra hours free Inconvenience#4: while taking the hop-on hop-off Bus tour on DAY 1, the bus operator did not announce ANY of the stops, leading to confusion as to where we were in our sightseeing tour Inconvenience#5: this being a sightseeing tour, it would have been nice to have a narrative or commentary on the different areas of manhattan...nothing Inconvenience#6: being told to get off of the bus 3 stops prior to getting to the liberty cruise stop, and being told that via walking "this is a faster way to get to the stop" when in fact it just led to more confusion amongst the sightseers visiting New York for the first time, as they had little idea which way to walk to get to the cruise stop. In fact all we needed to do was STAY on the bus and it would have taken us directly to the cruise stop. Inconvenience#7: despite being lied to about what we were buying, there are NO refunds, period. TRUTH: do not purchase from this company or their vendors, instead use your money on Uber rides or a MetroCard to enjoy the city yourself, do not trust this business to provide an enjoyable NYC experience for you. =========== Thank you Ori for your generic response (as seen on your other poor reviews on yelp). I have already submitted my request to that email address...BUT unless you are planning to refund my ticket purchases, you are useless to me. read more

DO NOT BOOK WITH TOP VIEW. They canceled our brunch cruise due to hurricane henri and wouldn't offer a refund. Since we are from out of town, we are out $250 for a service we never received. They consistently ignored that we have no plans to return to NYC and offered to reschedule, but refused a refund. read more

My father was detected with small cell lymphoma. We have canceled all of our travel plans because of this problem. He can not leave Brazil because of the treatment in the minimum period of 6 months. We are requesting the money back because the treatment can take up to 2 years and we wish to make the trip with it. Unfortunately the company does not consider the reason for his illness a good enough reason to ask for the money back read more

Heavy presence of selling near Times Square! #Lamont helpful to get on 9pm night tour. Thx

Props to Lamont R. for helping us get new tickets!! Had to walk to find their customer service. We were frustrated because we had lost our phone with the digital tickets. Lamont made it to be a smooth transaction!! read more

This is the worst tour I've ever been on. There's no live tour guide on the bus. No one to ask questions. The recording is not synchronized with the bus ride. Driver told us we would be going in Harlem and able to get off at or near Apollo. Not true. I'm so disappointed. Do not waste your time and money. You will be disappointed. If you're sitting at the bottom of your bus, there are only windows on one side. Horrible, horrible, horrible!!!!! read more

What could have been a cool experience was ruined by their lack of organization and common sense. The bus left an hour late but could have been fine if that's all that happened. We rushed from our other plans to make it to our departure time only to stand in line waiting for an hour. They do not organize seating and do not care if you sit with the people that you signed up to do the tour with. They split up my group of 3 just to make sure the people behind us in line could sit together because they were mad at something else that happened with a different group of people. You are supposed to have an entertainer on board but ours called in sick so we didn't get the information on the city since the cheap headphones that they give out are garbage and cut out. Don't waste your money! We should have got a 50% refund for only getting 50% of the ride that we were promised. read more

In a word, maybe two: absolutely HORRIBLE. There are more "sales" people in the street than actual customers on bus. I had to buy these tickets because the "other guys" were oversold. Problem no. 1: there is absolutely NO organization at the lines. You are told to line up at the Westin and there is no rhyme or reason to where you line up. It is a mob scene. First come first serve and you likely will not get to the top of the bus. The employees are rude, not informed and they simply do not care about you or your family. The narration is way off the GPS. Sometimes the narration was so off that we were being told about something that we had passed for blocks. STAY AWAY from this company. It is a complete rip off! read more