I've been on many hop on/off tours in various European cities and this one (Stockholm) is the ABSOLUTE WORST! I selected this tour because one of the stops was near my hotel. The first tour was supposed to start at 10 AM so I bought my ticket at 9:50 and waited outside the bus stop till 11, which was when the first bus showed up. The person selling the tickets onsite was no help whatsoever because when I asked him what time the bus would show up, he kept saying they were still at the previous stop. Well, they had been stuck at the previous stop for 40 mins so I had a feeling that guy was just BSing me to shut me up because he could not come up with a plausible excuse.
Now for the rides itself. Expected times for pickups were quite varied. I get that sometimes there's traffic but the reason why they're always late to stops? It's because they insist on looking and accounting for everyone's ticket before they step on board. My ticket was scrutinized for a few minutes and held up to the light like I was trying to pass a fake bill. The drivers also pack people in like sardines, drive slow (I swear tourists on bikes passed us on the streets), and are rude in general. One driver kept insisting to a parent that she had to keep her young kid (maybe 6-7 yrs) quiet or her family would have to get off at the next stop. Dude, tourists do include families and sometimes kids get excited and can't contain themselves.
I also felt that some stops were redundant and used as "filler" stops. For example, stop 4 was Old Town (Gamla Stan) and stop 9 was the Royal Palace. Well, the drop off point for stop 4 was just around the corner of the Palace. Same thing for stop 13 (Vasa museum) and stop 15 (Nordiska museum); basically right across the street from each other. Meanwhile, there were plenty of shopping stops, which is fine and dandy but I think most tourists like myself are on this bus to see some sights!
It's not even organized chaos. It's just poorly planned and run. Service people and it's drivers certainly do not represent Swedish hospitality that I've been fortunate to encounter everywhere else.
Bottom line: I felt like I should have been paid $ to ride this shoddily run hop on/off bus. If at all possible, find the closest Gray Line tour bus (green buses) and go with that. While waiting for my bus and hoping that it'll show up, I saw the green buses make its stops like clockwork (three green buses stopped at the same stop while I was still waiting for my one bus). read more