Hey guys, I'm back. As you probably know, University didn't work out for me, I'm now taking a gap year, and joining the real world and am getting a job. Until I find a job, I'll probably be writing a lot more, so you'll be sick of me soon. Here is a review I wrote ages ago, after I came back from New York.

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Don’t worry; this is the last New York review that I am planning on writing, maybe. Before I went on holiday to New York, being the responsive person that I am, came up with an itinerary, making sure to include everything that we wanted. We did come up with a way of getting around New York however, but because there were barely any reviews on the subject, we assumed that it wasn’t that popular within New York and obviously not a lot of people use it. How wrong we were?

On the second day (Tuesday) we started walking to Central Park, not only were we going in the wrong direction, but a man in a blue coat came up to us asking us to join their bus tour. Around us, we could see hundreds of men, in blue and red waistcoats, all holding laminated pieces of paper. My nan being the sceptical person she is, said no, we’re not buying anything from someone on the street, we don’t know what it is or if it’s any good. Luckily we were just near the Empire State Building, which if you read my previous reviews, you will know it’s right near our hotel, so we padded on back to the hotel to ask about the City Sights New York Bus Tour.

The receptionist said she didn’t know too much about that particular bus tour, however, she has dealt with the Grey Line New York Bus Tours and they were supposed to be brilliant. She then told us, to walk out of the hotel, turn right and then go right again and then you’ll get there. Bull. I’m sorry; I really wish we had moaned about this, because the woman had obviously never used this bus tour before. If you stay anywhere near Times Square then you should be fine, I believe the pick up for the uptown tour is near Madame Taussauds, find that and you should be fine. From our hotel however, considering this was our first day in New York, finding this took about an hour, especially considering the men in the RED waistcoats, kept on sending us the wrong way. We later found out they were sending us to the pick up for the downtown tour.

Once we found the pickup spot, we were already shattered, it was about 95 degrees at this point, so we were ready to pass out, we had also run out of water, from our walk.

Tour Guides

The first tour guide we had, I’m afraid I have forgotten her name now, was brilliant. When we got onto the bus, we said we wanted to go to Central Park, but wasn’t sure when and where to get off. She advised us to not get off at the first stop outside Central Park, and come and see the uptown of New York, and get dropped of outside Central Park Zoo which was where we eventually wanted to end up. Not only did she get the bus to stop there, she turned to us and asked if we enjoyed the trip.

Throughout the whole trip, she was knowledgeable and answered any questions that we had, she also brought a lot of her own personal history into the tour and told us about what life was like for her back in the day. She pointed out things like the beautiful buildings and even the first ever McDonalds in New York.

She did mention tipping a few times, but she didn’t push it and just said that their job was just like a taxi drivers was. She was brilliant throughout the whole uptown tour, and really made us happy that we had chosen the tour.

On the Wednesday however, we went to Empire State and then picked up the tour bus for the downtown tour. We wanted to get to see the ground zero sight, however when we got on the bus, there was no room at the top. So we sat down at the bottom, and wish that we had never got onto that bus at all. The tour guide was foreign and very, very loud. For us to hear what he was saying above, they used speakers which rang through your ears by the end of it all. We did not tip, even though this guy pretty much was asking for one and was saying we should give one. As soon as we got off at the Ground Zero sight our ears hurt and we promised next time, if there weren’t any seats at the top, we would not get onto that particular bus.

When we got back on at that same site, we were absolutely shattered, this time we got seats right at the front of the bus, which limited our view a little but we still managed to get to the Rockefeller Centre learning a lot about the city. This tour guide was very good, even slightly scary, I asked my mum where this woman was standing and she was like ‘right here dear’ all the way from on the stairs. I quickly shut up, and didn’t say anything bad about this tour guide at all.

When we got onto the last bus we used, we found ourselves on the night bus. We cheated slightly, as we didn’t want to walk all the way back from Times Square to our hotel again, so we got the Night Bus and got dropped off outside the Empire State Building in theory. This meant it was only a five minute walk from our hotel. This last tour guide seemed great, it was a shame we were only on the bus for five minutes as she seemed very knowledgeable and it might have been nice to get the night bus and see New York at night.

The Bus

The Bus was bright red, and looked just like a double decker bus. If you sat in the middle at the top you had a great view of the city, however if you were stuck at the front on the top or if you were stuck at the bottom, you could barely see anything which was a shame. We were a little bit worried on the trip from Statun Island Ferry to Rockefeller Centre when it started to rain a little bit. We were told when we brought the tickets that the bus has a roof on it if it starts to rain, well we later learnt this was a lie, they give you all macs if it begins to rain and this is your ‘roof’.

Price

I believe in the end it cost us around $44 each, so around £25. For what we got to see, it was well worth the money, we got to see most of the different boroughs in the city, including Harlem, which was so different from what I thought it would be. I am really glad we did this, but I wish we took a lot more time to explore it a little, we did not to the night tour which would have been brilliant and in hindsight I wish we had now, because I think we missed out on a lot of New York because we missed seeing it properly at night.

The reason why my title says $45 as my mum is sure it was $45 and I'm sure it was $44. I thought I'd better cover myself by putting $45 on the title, just in case Grey Line reads this.

The Map

They give you a map with your purchase and I have to say it was very helpful. On the morning of the Wednesday, I sat down and worked out where to get on and off and it worked perfectly. Considering I’m terrible with directions and working out how to get places, this was very easy to do and it helped me loads. I would recommend using this to help you decide where to go if you decide to use this service if you are in New York.

Views

There are some amazing views to be seen on this bus, some of the best pictures I took in New York, were taken on the top of the bus. I would recommend that if you go in the middle of August or a very hot day, take sun glasses and a hat, you will get easily dehydrated and I found myself getting quite ill during the uptown tour as on the walk up to get the bus for the tour, we had drunk all of our water bottles, if it wasn’t for the amazing people on the streets of New York (see below), then I think I would have been very ill even with my hat and sunglasses.

The views are stunning, they really are, on the uptown tour we saw Harlem, which is somewhere that was beautiful, I was really expecting this rough part of town, but it was lovely. I have some lovely pictures from Harlem and it really was an amazing part of the trip to see that borough.

Water Bottles People

As we were driving along a lot of us were gasping for water, the bus stopped and suddenly this man came on board with this tub of ice cold water. He must have made at least $30 easily on that bus alone; we had two each as we knew that we would go through it very quickly. If he had that for each bus that came past, he must have made a lot of money during the week we were there and during that heat wave.

We thought this guy was a one off, but during the whole trip we found thousands of these people dotted around Manhattan. They all had different ways giving bottles to people on top of these buses and we it was like moth to a flame, everyone was dying for water during that week, so they got a lot of money from us, for what was probably frozen tap water.

Sellers

If you do not get someone in a waistcoat come and start selling one of these trips to you then I would be seriously shocked. In the main areas like Empire State Building and Times Square you will find hundreds of them, in the south of New York you will find less, but they are still there. These guys are an annoyance, if you say no, they don’t really understand that word, and will keep trying to sell it to you.

We did work out a way to shut them up, tell them you’ve already got tickets for the bus trip or you’ve already done it and tell them it was brilliant. Shuts them up straight away and they become less pushy and become nice people.

Downtown Tour

We decided to get on the bus on the second day of using the service just around the corner from the Empire State Building. This did become our worst trip possible of the whole service, we didn’t get to see anything because we were down at the bottom of the bus and the air con was leaking all over us, however we got dropped off just down the road from where the World Trade Centre was. We go on the bus again at the same stop, and got dropped off just near Battery Park. We wanted to go to Statun Island Ferry, but we took the time to look around Battery Park and got one of the best pictures of the trip, one I will hopefully show you. I look awful in it, however it was with two men from the NYPD.

We then went onto the Statun Island Ferry and got back on the bus at the same stop we go off, and then went through rush hour in New York to get dropped off outside Rockefeller Centre. Then we got the bus back from Rockefeller Centre to Times Square. We then were a little naughty and jumped on the Night Bus and got dropped off outside the Empire State Building.

The reason why I have wrote this down, is because this was the best day of our entire trip, I think it was an amazing ‘tour’ and I would recommend if you want to see any of those sites, to this specific time table as it worked brilliantly for us. I would recommend also, using the Night Bus. I’m not sure if that’s the correct name for it but it looked amazing

and regretfully we were so tired that all we wanted to do was get into bed. I now in hindsight wish we had done this trip as it really did look amazing.

Running Times

The downtown loop runs from 8.00am to 6pm daily, which is great, however the uptown loop only runs from 8.30am-4.30pm. We were stuck in the middle of Central Park Zoo until 3.30pm, and we thought we had ages as my sister had read it ran until 6.00pm, luckily I looked and we made sure we went at that point.

If you want to do the Night Tour then it runs from 6.00pm-9.00pm, you get the bus in Times Square. If you also want to do the Brooklyn Tour, which I haven’t talked about in this review, because I know nothing about, but it runs from 10am -3.30pm every 30 minutes from South Street Seaport.

Tipping

If you get on a bus and the tour guide doesn’t ask you to tip, then I’ll be amazed. Some are a lot more polite about it than others, and generally those were the ones that got the best tips from us. We found it very hard at times to walk of the bus and not tip, but sometimes, we really didn’t want to give the annoying and waste of time tour guide our hard earned money. We usually gave around $2 per trip for four of us, it’s not much, but I’m sorry that’s all we could really afford.

Overall

It’s kind of hit and miss with this service, you either get the lovely tour guides who know a lot about the city and who allow you to ask questions, but then you get the very hard to understand tour guides and the guides who almost are quite rude expecting tips and giving you an evil eye if you do not give a tip. We only had one tour guide who made a comment when we didn’t give a tip, but we really didn’t care after his appalling service and the fact that we wish we had got off the bus.

You will probably notice another bus service, which does pretty much the same job. These guys will be in the blue coats and their bus is also blue. I don’t know what these are like at all, but our receptionist only knew about the grey line sightseeing bus. You will be approached in New York by these men and women in this waistcoats, if you want to listen, listen, they are quite interesting and they are very good salesman. If you don’t want to use the service, we found saying no thank you didn’t work as well as, we’ve already used the bus, or we’ve got tickets already worked brilliantly and it stopped them bothering us for a little while.

If you feel you are getting a poor service any time throughout the trip, jump off the bus. Well not literally, ask to stop at the next stop and they will stop the bus for you, and you should just stand there and wait for the next bus. It means you will not be dissatisfied and you will maybe get to see more of New York by doing this as well. If you do try this service, then you will get quite an annoying one, don’t let them ruin your trip, get off the bus, and get on to the next bus and you’ll get to hear about New York from a different mouth and hopefully this one will know a lot better than the previous one did.

I would recommend taking the 48 hour trip, make sure that you write down what you want to go and see, and make sure that you get to the bus as early as possible, or you waste half a day. It is an amazing idea, and it is made a lot better if you get an amazing tour guide. Try the uptown tour, you will see less up there, but it is stunning and it is worth the trip, believe me. I would stop near the Central Park Zoo, have a look at that and then walk around Central Park before going to look at Times Square on the last bus trip.

Would I Recommend It?

Yes, I think for the price you pay each for the 48 hour tour, which was I think $44 each for us lot, I think its well worth it. We got to see a lot more of New York because of this bus tour and I was glad we did it afterwards. Make sure if you don’t think you are getting a good tour guide, get off the bus and then get on another one. Don’t let yourself become disappointed with the service.

A great idea, and if it’s your first time in New York, use this service, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed as you’ll save yourself the money of taxis and you’ll get to see more of New York than you could ever dream of.

Hope this helps.

(C) Kirsty 2009