Rating this tour over a 1 is being kind. What an unorganized mess. An embarrassment for DC tourism. It is waste of money and time. The lineup for the buses was terrible. They advertise buses every 15 minutes. The buses came around every half hour, and in the case of the yellow line not at all. In many cases the wait was over an hour to get on a bus at a stop as they were so oversold. After we bought tickets at union Station and walked outside we saw the lineup stretching down the sidewalk. From the time we bought the ticket to the time we boarded the bus was an hour standing in line, then another 20 minute wait in an idling bus before we left the station. Once you get a seat on the bus you don't want to hop off because of the long lines to get back on. I didn't come to see Washington from a lineup which could easily take up half your day of site seeing. For some reason you would stop at every stop for five minutes and just idle with no one getting on or off. On this tour you see the White House once for 15 seconds and nothing of Arlington National Cemetery except the parking lot. They advertise a live tour guide but it is a recording that gives little information beyond the name of the next stop. This recorded tour is only on one of the three lines. The other two have nothing. I have been on hop on hop off tours in new york, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto and I felt like I was ripped off in DC, a concern voiced by many in the lineups for the buses. At the end of the day we bought 2 day tickets for two people and spent $100. We ended up spending an additional $80 on cabs and subway fairs to get around because the bus waits were so long and our time limited. read more

Oversold and too crowded - buses do not run every 20 minutes, we could not enjoy the sights as we were packed in like a city bus. Waist of time and money would recommend using any other tour service in DC but this one. I only chose this so the kids could sit up top and see the sights as we went from place to place and that happened once in 2 days - also the automated narration falls short, could provide more info or use a live person instead read more

A first class experience! In early October, my husband and I hopped on one of these buses (and paid the driver with our credit card) near the National Mall. We each paid $30, for which we got a 1 1/2 hour tour of the city and monuments. A free night tour was also included. We hopped off at Union Station, had nice dinner in one of the restaurants there, and then went back out to stand in line for the night tour. The driver had told us to arrive a 1/2 hour early because they were expecting a large turnout due to the mild and clear weather. He sure was right! The company had a on-site dispatcher and they brought in as many buses as necessary so that everyone got a seat on top of the bus. We had been worried that we would have to settle for sitting below, but when I saw that they were only filling up the top of each bus before bringing along the next one, I was able to relax, knowing we were assured up-top seats and that we would be together. All the employees we encountered were courteous and the operation was well-run. Since we took the tour in October, air conditioning was not an issue. The weather was beautiful. read more

Once the tour gets started, its not bad. There is a real issue with the way this company handles there ticket sales and tours. They essentially sell tickets to anyone that shows up but only have the capacity to comfortably handle 1/2 to 1/3 of the business that comes through. The lines start around 6:30pm and stay about 200 people deep until the end of the night. They run about 3 double deckers (but understandably, its only the top deck for the twilight tour) every 25-30 minutes and once they board the bus, it sits for another 15-20 minutes. The tour was shorter than the wait to get on a bus. read more

the absolute worst!!! April 22, 2011. I escorted my family on the (dirty) open top bus, there were no available seats but thats not the problem. the bus broke down and never moved form the pick-up point. i paid via credit card $80 for family. the driver refused to credit us and gave me a phone number that some nasty person answered in broken english 202 408 1904. had to call the credit card co and start a dispute. i hear there are better tours available but stay away from this group. its a biog red bus with the open top read more

It's really a mixed bag. The day tour was good, times and routes were good and accommodating. For the night tour, We lucked out and showed up early at 6:30pm. And told when we bought tix it would board at 6:45. When we arrived we jumped in the line already boarding and got the last 4 seats. They did a great job showing us around, and to extend the tour to make sure we got to see things at night, and a few extra stops. read more

This bus tour was terrible !! We had been accustomed to the blue trolley tours from prior visits to DC but it seems that they are not around anymore. The tickets were pricey, the buses did not run on time, and the pickup locations were not always clearly marked. To make matters worse, they sold far more tickets than they were able to manage and there were several times we were not able to get on a bus because it was too full. I really think it would have been cheaper to take an air conditioned cab to all the places we wanted to go read more

Do not believe them when they say 15 minutes between buses. We waited a minimum of 25 minutes in the freezing cold. Our first bus we waited 45 minutes! They need to get their act together. read more

Sorry but no. dirty buses, lousy sound system, three people got whipped on top by tree branches, no attendant and $40 a person for the yellow tour which was mired in traffic.. No where near the quality of other on off tours we've taken. read more

This is not a tour, it is let's see how many people we can cram on a bus so we can make more money. Plus the buses that had someone explaining the sites gave wrong information and many times it just seamed that they were making stuff up. Take our advise and stay away from this one. read more

This review is for the night tour only. I can really only second many of the reviews here. Long wait in line next to the bus exhaust, another long wait once everyone was on the bus. The canned and cheesy narrative was usually out of synch with what we were actually seeing. By the time we got to the White House we'd had enough and bailed - it was 10 p.m. by then. Walked up the street to the Old Ebbitt Grill for drinks and a late dinner and walked back to our hotel. Would not do the night bus thing again - very poorly executed business. But you know they make money hand over fist anyway ... read more

Took a bus from Fords Theater to the Jefferson Memorial. For some reason, there were two buses at Union Station, so we had to sit for about 30 minutes so the buses could be spaced 20 minutes apart. I froze sitting for that long in an air conditioned bus. Waited 30+ minutes for a bus at the Lincoln Memorial. In the meantime, there were 7 trolley buses that came by. Once the Doubledecker bus came by, it was packed with NO air conditioning. One passenger lost it when they kept trying to pack more people into an already hot, stifling situation. I am going to tell the hotel concierge that they should not recommend this service. I could understand the air conditioning being out on a bus, but they need to run to schedule. If they say they come by every 20 minutes, they need to stick to that. read more

Have been on other hop on hop off tour buses in London, NYC,Nashville... This one in DC was the worst! I encourage the operators to visit their colleagues in NYC andthen rtn home and take a tour on their own buses. the guides could only talk about food, cafeterias at various museums, or shopping areas. Very little about the history of this city. Personally, I chalk it up to the overall US paranoia. They wouldn't dare talk about the history of the Pentagon...but rather kept insistimg that no one take pictures!! And the anount of time these tours took boggled the mind. So many times we were left sitting at a stop...waiting. Our suggestion is to find 4 or 5 friends and share the cost of a limo to give you a tour of the city. Or a cab driver. But stay away from the DC bus tours! read more

This is really a 1-star review, but I hate to give a company a 1-star review no matter how bad. Having said that, this tour was AWFUL. It was nothing more than a city bus driving by sites. Let me explain the big reasons why I would not take this bus again: 1. There was no protection from the sun when sitting on top. It got VERY HOT. While we were driving, I saw another bus line that had a roof covering the people on top (It was called Old Towne Tours). We were miserable in the heat. I was regretting that I had not considered how hot it gets on top. 2. The air conditioning downstairs was virtually non-existent. It was about 90 degrees outside, and 88 degrees in the bus. It was unbearable. 3. You couldn't see anything when sitting downstairs. Terrible site lines. Worse yet, the seats were configured so that they were in groups of 4: 2 seats facing foward and 2 backward, so that a small family could sit together. The problem is that half the time you are sharing these small sets of seats with total strangers. Even worse, the seats were so close that you (quite literally) were touching knees with the stranger across from you. A horrible idea. 4. What made this a complete joke was that there was no narrator on the tour. We rode three different buses. Only one had a person on board narrating the tour. The other two had no narrator. Rather, you had to plug headphones in a hear a pre-recorded message. It was unbelievably lousy. I joked with my nephew, "Since this is a British company, they are probably intentionally sabotaging the tour about America history." It was horrible. 5. When we finally got off the tour, I said to my wife, "How was this any different from riding a city bus?" This tour might be fine in cooler months, but not during summer. No way, no how. read more

Even though we have been in the DC area for 3 years, we decided to do a "cheesy bus tour". We actually enjoyed it a lot. We viewed more landmarks in an hour than our previous three years in the area. We started at union station. We also wished that we could have gotton off at certin stops (they don't allow for this during the night tours). So here are the negatives: no air conditioning, hard seats and a driver in a bad mood. I guess you get what you pay for. If you are looking for a chance to see a lot in a little time, and don't need the most comfortable ride - this might be for you. My wife and I are used to city buses (some wiht out AC) So even though there was room to improve regarding the actual bus, and the cranky drive, it was still worth it to us. read more

Where to begin? I should have known these were not the brightest people when they had about 25 of us load onto the bus and then asked us to get back off to move the bus appx 20 ft. I have no clue what this accomplished. Then the "tour" began. Like others said here it is a prerecorded CD; however on our tour the CD barely worked ...skipping, getting stuck, etc. Furthermore, we were on the night tour and the CD was for the day tour where you get off and on so half of the narration we were hearing was telling you how to reboard later, be sure and take all your possessions etc. The night tour is not a "hop on/hop off" tour. When the CD was working, it didn't match the locations where we were. Your couldn't hear the CD when it was working because the brakes on the bus are in obvious need of repair and were squeaking at every stop (which is alot on the streets of DC). I did attempt to report this at the end of our tour to three people who were inside at the desk in Union Station. The only response I was given is "Yea...the CD's don't work in all the buses". Customer service is not a high priority to these people. It is the cheapest of the night tours and I would generally say "you get what you pay for" but this tour was definitely overpriced for what we received. Pay the extra money and take a real tour of DC...probably alot safer too. read more

As mentioned with nearly all other reviews, the main problem of the company is the infrequent service. When asked, they will tell you a bus arrives every 7 minutes. They simply do not have enough buses and you'll have to wait 30+ minutes any time you want to get picked up. There's good coverage of the main tourist areas. I had no problem with the coverage area or the drivers but again the availability of the bus service is 30+ minutes and then you run the risk of not having a spot on the bus and waiting until the next bus. We paid $37 per 48 hour ticket which was the full price. We called and complained and they pretty much say delays are due to traffic and offered no recourse. Not sure why so many delays are needed at various stops. The drivers do not communicate anything at all either. I would recommend skipping this service. A much better option is using the DC circulator buses for $1 a ride. read more

I have tried Doubledecker Bus Tours twice with horrible results both times. First time, we got off at the Natl History Museum, saw an exhibit and an hour later were back out at the stop across the street. We were still at the stop 1.5 hours later. We tried calling the number on the brochure, but only could get a recorded message. So much for hop on and hop off. We ended up walking back to Union St. to get the next bus, but had to get off the tour early due to the delay. The second time they told me that the bus was right outside Union St. and if we missed that bus the next one would be 15 min later, as they had been "watching buses come by every 15 min". When we got outside, there was a HUGE line and the people in the line said that no buses had come for over an hour. I went back to the kiosk to tell the attendant and ask why she had apparently lied to me, she denied the whole thing and refused refund our money. Back in line outside, we did not make the next bus, which came a 1/2 hour later, because there were too many people ahead of us and ended up waiting another 20 min.....Not sure the other bus tour service across the hall is any better, but I will not be using Doubledecker in the future. read more

Don't waste your money!!!! We paid for both the day hop on and night tour. The night tour was a joke. Seemed like the driver was more concerned about getting home. The recorded narrative was often off track with the tour. We did get a free tour on the water front which was exxcellent....but not associated with the same tour company. Busses don't run as presented. We spent more time waiting on the bus than on...then had to flag down a taxi to get us back! Try another group read more

Wow, I'm very surprised by the other reviews regarding this company. I have to say that I found them great and informative and worth the $30 I paid for a day of touring. Possibly my experience was positive since I took it on a slow weekday, I survived and with no complaints. The price includes 3 different routes, the night tour and its good for 24 hours. I was only able to get thru 2 tours, the grand tour and the yellow uptown tour. I missed out the night tour and the Arlington tour but I'll be back to finish those up someday. I loved the grand tour because it included everything and anything. It also included an unscheduled delay due to the Presidential motorcade leaving Capital Hill, so awesome. I have to say that I fell in love with D.C., I was blessed with wonderful weather and a wonderful tour ride. I loved, loved that you could get on and off and have another bus pick you up quickly at each of the hot spots. I have also used this tour company in NY and recommend it as long as the weather is nice and its not super busy. read more

We were in DC on June 26 and asked the hotel concierge which bus tour to take. He gave us a brochure for "Open Top Sightseeing", the red, white & blue bus and said "this is the best one". We were looking for the loading point for that bus & were approached by a salesperson who asked if we wanted to purchase tickets for the bus tour. I said "yes, this one" and showed her the brochure. She nodded her head & said "ok". We gave her a credit card & she charged $79 for the bus and $35 for the boat cruise, a total of $114. Then the bus came & it was NOT the red, white & blue. The Double Decker Tour buses are not air conditioned, and it was a beastly hot day. We asked for a refund & she said to call the company. Well it says clearly on the tickets "no refunds given". We then purchased tickets for the "Open Top Sightseeing" red, white & blue bus, so we were cheated out of $114. More bad news about the Open Top Sightseeing tour, in another posting. read more

i liked i dont know while yall didn't. it was fairly cheap and they gave you a free night tour.the ride was enjoyable and we saw a lot. i feel as though i am a great multi tasker- i tanned, saw cool stuff, talked to my dad and enjoyed the tour. i loved and it was nice not to be obligated to stay on the bus. i reccomend to all. read more

DON'T DO IT. Most ignorant thing I've done in my life -- even after reading the reviews. How BAD could it be for just a couple of days worth of transportation? Well -- I'm warning you --DON'T DO IT, even for a heartbeat. #1 LACK OF COMFORT: DC was experiencing a heatwave and you couldn't sit on top (heat stroke weather) and the bottom was worse than an oven, with most windows not providing enough ventilation, with some buses only having the tiny pop out window. #2 WAIT TIME: Pick-up at random. We were stranded out by FDR Memorial with no sign of buses coming after an hour in 100 degree heat. Took an a/c cab back to hotel. #3 Company not responsive when called due to full mailbox. No response after request for refund was sent in. You are better off taking the Metro or cab. If you are going to spend time & money seeing sights you really want to see, go for the Tour Bus companies with a live guide. I would give negative stars if I could. read more

Despite some of the critical reviews here, I bought a 2 day pass while on vacation last week. I found the buses to be clean and the service very worthwhile. I spent the first 2 days walking everywhere in DC and tried the big buses so I could get a rest. I took the blue line to Arlington cemetery and continued on to get a view of the pentagon on Friday. I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus. Yeah the audio tour can get out of sync as traffic dictates but I was not using the bus for the tour..just fun transportation on the roof of a doubledecker bus. Saturday was surprising as there was a live tour leader on the second level. It was sprinkling a bit and she gave me a rain poncho to keep dry! I took the yellow line to Georgetown and learned a bunch of fun facts. I would recommend the big bus as long as your not in a hurry and not looking for a live guided tour (except on weekends I guess). read more

Just came back from Cherry Blossom Festival and unfortunately wasted a bunch of time waiting around for the buses to come. Like other reviewers we ended up walking or taking a cab in desperation in order to make our dinner reservations. We stood with an off-duty driver who was waiting with us - he had no idea why the bus was over 30 minutes late! Other double decker tour buses came around the corner one after another, but not "Doubledecker Tours". Money would be better spent on cab fare - but we ended up doubling that. Do not recommend. read more

Never, ever use this company again. I have been travelling every month for the last two years, and I have used sight-seeing busses all over us and europe. But I have NEVER had so bad service. We used the bus i washington for two days - and we spent about 7 hours waiting for the bus. We never got on the yellow line - the (so called) infos almost never fit the places we were and the voice was interrupted from time to time - so we did not get any informations at all. I have been in Washington several times - and luckely used other bus companies - but I was with friends who we there for the first time - and it was such an dissapointing. We just came from New York where the Gray Line workes beautifully. read more

Also known as "Big Bus," "Top Off Sightseeing," Doubledecker Tours," "Hop On Hop Off," and "DC Tours." Poor/missing signage -- never knowing where they will actually pick you up and impossibly poor map -- but worst of all is that after the trip is over and you're back home, you'll find out that even though you are a USA citizen, making a ticket purchase in the USA -- Citibank will charge you an additional 3% "foreign transaction fee" for purchasing your tickets from this company because they have listed themselves with the credit card company as a UK firm. Doubledecker says it's Citibank's fault and Citibank says it's Doubledecker's fault. I say, avoid the fee completely by forgoing this company's poor tour services. read more

i dont know what happen to the other people but we got a 2 day pass and all the bus drivers were as nice as they can be and most of all very very patient with customers, maybe alittle over crowded but it was easter weekend and we waited no longer than 10 minutes for a bus and we rode all three routes. Did i mention our drivers were very friendly having to deal with some impossible folks. i would recommend this tour bus. read more

If I could give this tour negative stars I would. It was absolutely terrible. I live in the DC area and thought it would be a good way to show a visiting friend around the city. We also thought it would be a good way to escape the heat for the day. The bus was old, run down, rusty, dirty and NOT air conditioned. It was also over-crowded. On top of all this, the bus had a terrible exhaust smell and the engine was very loud. It was impossilbe to hear the narrated tour. We rode the bus for about an hour and got off because it was unbearable. It was a complete waste of money. DON'T BUY this tour. Explore other tour options and if air conditioning is a priority for you, make sure you ask the tour operators the state of the buses prior to booking your tickets. read more

Stay away from Double Decker Tours, unless you really want to ruin your vacation!!!! We wanted to do RED ROUTE (aka Grand Tour) that consist of 18 stops and goes around most popular sights. The bus made it to second and third stop ...and that was it!! Bus driver announced that bus is coming back to first stop, skipping the rest of 15 stops!!! Apparently they "forgot" to tell us about street closures before selling tickets to us!!! We could not believe that!!! One the way back to Union station bus broke down and we were let go of the bus. Driver told us to use Metro train in order to get us back to Union station!!! This is outrageous, since we already paid so much money for the bus tickets!!!! . When we finally got back to Union station and asked to refund our money, people who sold our tickets refuse to do so, saying that we have to send email to Double Decker Tours to further investigate this problem ! Do your homework before choosing company for your tours and sightseeing. I am sure; there are many other bus tour operators in Washington D.C. to choose from! If I did some extra research in advance I would never ended up with Double Decker Tours read more

I purchased the family pack which I thought was a great deal until I saw why it was so great. The buses run every 30+minutes which is good time if you don't choose to hop off the bus to take pics etc. If you want to get off to take pics or buy souveniers etc. you may only get to a number of sites. There is another bus company that has almost identical buses, they were more expensive but I wish I'd gone with them. Their buses passed us every five minutes while we waited and waited on our Grayline. Also, unfortunate for me I only had 2 days in the area, on one day it rained. I wasn't expecting a Grade A experience as I knew everyone would be forced to stay in the bus but the problem really was that the windows have some sort of screens over them so if it is raining, you can't even see out of the windows. We never got to see most of the sites they mentioned on the overhead. I'm going back in a couple of months and I will definitely be using the other doubledecker company. read more

Just left d.c...we did enjoy the night tour but BEWARE of these buses & workers! We paid $50 in cash for family night tour and the cashier Rhonda pocketed the money right in front of us! I couldn't believe it. The bus was supposed to leave at 8:30pm...the driver Leroy stalled until the ticket booth closed...then added about 6 more passengers who paid HIM in cash on the bus. What a bunch of thieves!!!!! read more

We got this tour because my mother has a bad knee and can't walk long distances. The buses don't drop off anywhere near the monuments; they drive right by them and drop you off down the street and sometimes around the corner! The buses are really old. There is no air conditioning and the windows are tiny so no breeze either. You spend a great deal of time waiting on the bus to come get you, too. We asked for a refund, and they are supposedly sending us our money back. read more

What an awful experience I had with this company. After having a couple very bad experiences I called customer service, they were very apologetic and told me they would refund my money. I called back like I was asked to and was asked to send an email with a copy of my receipt and did so. Have not heard back from them AT ALL! There were so many unhappy customers the weekend I used them, every stop people were complaining. Too few buses, they never stop selling tix so are very oversold. Take the trolley instead - I wish we did! I am hopeful that they will still refund me my money but I won't be holding my breath. read more

My experience was in October 2010, a bus every 30 minutes (not advertised), they sell sell sell and don't have enough seats for sales, if you like to be treated like cattle, this is for you, if you like to suck up diesel fumes from them and busses in the next lane, this is for you, if you want to see full busses once every 30 minutes, this is for you. if you want to hear recorded messages that change as the new GPS location is recognized as they zig zag back and forth past the same places and go slowly to catch red lights, this is for you. Take a taxi, or a limo mini van. If I could give them a 0 I would, this is a terrible experience. The brochure pic is helpful to identify this terrible outfit. read more

Not again! Don't waste your money and time with this service. The first bus was half hour late then the next bus couldn't fit everyone in it because the bus before that decided to go out of the route. The bus stopped way too long at each stop. The bus sounded like it's about to die. I'm so disappointed...nothing good to say about this tour. I want my money back! read more

I rode "The Big Bus" tours in the D.C. area on August 8th and 9th of 2012. It was either them, or the Trolley Town service, which would have been a little cheaper, but I succumbed to the allure of an open-top bus, so I spent the extra money on the big red bus. I've read many of the previous reviews, so I think there is some basic information that needs to be updated. This service has FOUR lines: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. Both Red and Yellow start and stop their lines at Union Station (which worked out great for me because I took the metro into town). The Red line is what I would consider their main line; the most common attractions in D.C., from Lincoln's memorial to the capital are found on the Red line. The Yellow line has a few of the same stops as Red, but it also includes several hotels, Georgetown, and Georgetown Harbor (Harbor is a pretty grand word for what it actually is; it's essentially a small dock on the Potomac River). The Blue line takes you to Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon (you don't get to go in the Pentagon, just drive past it). And the Green line is a free 30 minute ride that starts and concludes at the Hilton where Reagan was shot and that line has only 2 stops, the zoo (and they drop you off a good 4 full city blocks away from the zoo entrance) and the National Cathedral (I can't speak to where they drop you there because I walked from the zoo to the Cathedral (THAT was dumb)). Another thing that I learned the hard way was that I needed to be more intentional about the order that I chose to see the sights. Picking them randomly, AND using this company as transportation was terribly prohibitive. Because it takes 2 hours for the bus to complete one loop (the Red and Yellow line anyway), if you hop on when the stop you needed was just 3 stops prior; that's 1.5 hours out of your day just waiting for the bus to drive you back around. I must've ridden in 9 to 12 different buses and only 1 of them DIDN'T have air conditioning. So I would say that's a noticeable upgrade from the previous posts. I only ran across 4 tour guides though, the rest of the buses relied on the bus driver to push start and stop on the recording(s), which really didn't work out well. I don't know what it is about those recordings; I mean they do provide information that I wouldn't have gotten in any other way, but considering that I paid that company almost the same amount of money as an all-day pass to Disneyland, I expected more. It just felt like I was getting the short end. The longest I waited for a bus was 23 minutes (it was the Red Line near the Washington Monument). And by and large, the staff was friendly and courteous. Here is where I am going to be critical of them. The handful of tour guides they do have seemed to have learned English as their second language. I don't mind the occasional accent or two, but these folks were difficult to understand. I asked the guide why the flags were at half-mast around the capital, she didn't know, one of the riders informed us it was because of the shootings in a church in Wisconsin. The open-air gets old FAST! I should have thought that one through. You're in a major metro area, of course you're going to be stopped more than you're going, and when stopped, you COOK!! You sit there and baste with everyone else, some of whom haven't seen the business end of a deodorant stick in a while. If you pay for the 2-day tour package (which I did), you receive a free 45-minute river cruise. I noticed that nobody had posted on that yet, and so that was one of my primary reasons on going; maybe I would find the diamond in the rough. The cruise wasn't awful, the seating is all patio furniture with tables; think floating sidewalk restaurant. I sat in the back hoping to get a better view of things to come, which was a good idea; because I could see well, but I was so near the engines I couldn't hear the recording telling us about the attractions that we couldn't see past the tree line. You get a really decent photo op of Georgetown University and Watergate, but then...trees. All you can see are roof-tops, steeples and pillars. The city isn't laid out to flatter the river front. There is a stop at the White House where 3 of the lines meet; if you want to hop off of one line and jump on the other, you get to stand on this sidewalk in front of a café. While I did this once, I saw a Trolley tour bus come up and drop off some folks; I got to see the same thing happen in front of the Washington monument. Those buses are Trolleys essentially; great big open windows (so no A/C), but there is a ROOF that keeps the sun off of you. And the driver also looks to be the tour guide. Well in both cases, I heard folks thank their driver BY NAME as they left the bus. I know, the grass is always greener right? Well, Big Bus was VERY clear that there were NO REFUNDS! Trolley Town? Money back guarantee. What U.S. based company is still doing that? read more

Visited July 3-7, 2013. Terrible experience. Buses ran hap-hazardly. At one point we waited over an hour for a yellow bus, while three red buses and four blue buses went by. We were on about 10 different buses over 2 days and half of them had canned narrations, We were usually already past the sight we were hearing about, if we even heard because most of the headphone jacks didn't work. Most of the rides were standing room only, one because there were four seats that were soaked due due to leaking a.c. units. Speaking of A.C., most of the time it was non-existent. Next trip will be on the trolley. Only good note is that it was cheaper than a taxi. For that you get one star. read more

My friends and I took this tour bus around Washington DC. It is a double decker bus, the bottom being enclosed, and the top being open. The nice thing about this tour is there is 3 different routes that run all day. Each route will take you to different areas of the city, one that even takes you all the way to Arlington Cemetery. Plus, we used it as our transportation for the day. There is no limit to how many times you can hop on and hop off, and your pass is good for 24 hours from the time you bought your ticket. A few problems, is that the voice that speaks to you over the microphone is a pre-recorded taping so it would often play after we already passed what it was talking about. Also, included in your ticket is the night tour, but when we got on the bus was PACKED!! However, all the other times we hopped on it was OK, and not too crowded. I recommend this tour simply to use as transportation, but if you want to take a tour to get more information about the city I definitely recommend using another tour company. read more

This was the biggest waste of money. The bus was old, it thunked and clunked so loud you could not hear the recorded tour information coming from the crumby speakers. It had just started to drizzle when we boarded the bus. Within a few minutes the roof of the bus started to leak, not just a little but a steady stream right down the back of our seat and as I looked around it was the same over every seat. My daughter finally opened her umbrella INSIDE the bus to keep us dry. About half way through the tour the driver's windshield wiper stopped working so we driving through the rain and the driver can't see. When the driver announced the stop at the White House Visitors Center, it's about 5:15 pm. We get off the bus, it pulls away and the visitor's center closed at 4pm. That information would have been nice to have, especially since it was pouring rain. All in all if I could give it less than one star, I would. read more