New York: Empire State Building & 1-Day Hop-on Hop-off Tour

The bus drivers were extremely rude and unhelpful. When asking what the next stop was coming, they would respond with grab a headphone and listen. The wait times for the bus were ok, but the lack of AC made the rides so uncomfortable. The headphones were so poor quality that hearing the audio was poor even with the volume at maximum. The last bus from statue of liberty kept breaking down at each traffic light. Traveling with a group of 9 with only 1 paper ticket was also hard and getting a second ticket was impossible. When I boarded I showed my ticket indicating that I had 8 others with me, but the driver didn't listen and then yells at my family where is your ticket. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus for a 5 minute ride to the next stop was not worth it but no one to ask how to get around. Changing the time chosen for empire state building tour was not possible. Customer service didn't respond or understand question.

Highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the app before you travel/buy tickets, on there you can use it to plan your visit in advance. They do advise last bus times on the app - I've seen some reviews regarding this issue. I do think considering this is a city that never sleeps that the buses could do with running late. I think its very early for a lot of the buses to stop. However saying that, it's a great app, gives live updates and includes a photo of the bus stop. We used the 2 day one and never had an issue with the bus. We enjoyed the commentary, it was helpful and included some interesting facts. Some bus stops are obviously busier than others so there are times its just easier to wait for the next bus than it is to cram onto the bus at the stop. They are frequent enough. The staff were very helpful at the bus stops. We went last week and it was ridiculously hot in New York so the bus was a welcome relief to walking. We didn't find we were stuck in traffic either.

We did the whole loop. Didn’t hop on/off. Interesting but not overwhelming info with the earbuds. Great sights. Set us up for where we then knew we would want to spend more time. Highly recommend. Including the Empire State made this a fantastic deal. Go early.