City Sightseeing New York Reviews 

We bought a 48 hour pass for our recent trip to New York - it was a good way to get our bearings and start seeing where everything was. We did get stuck in a lot of traffic but, being New York, we expected that.

Pros: Our first tour guide was absolutely hilarious. She really made the trip exciting and brought New York to life for us. Had every tour guide been at this level, we would have given the experience a much higher rating! The boat tour was also excellent and took us past some amazing views.

Cons: My only real negative (other than the traffic) was that some of the tour guides weren't very good and it was pure luck as to who you got. One of our tour guides (an older gentleman) was actually quite offensive in some of his jokes. We like to think we've got a sense of humour but everyone on that bus felt very awkward. Another tour guide sat in the front seat and didn't say anything for most of the trip.

They do push tips very hard and we felt quite pressured when we were getting off the bus. And they really do need to send more buses towards the end of the day - they get full pretty quickly.

But overall the buses are in good condition and the routes are good for seeing a lot of New York that you wouldn't usually see.

Very difficult to find the stop signs where the buses pick up the people.

Loved your tour guide that changes hats throughout the tour. He is an asset to your business.

We experience New York via bus and boat tours. The boat tour was fantastic and the bus tours were also very good - if not a little cold and wet. Could do with some part covered double deckers as other companies do. The tickets are a problem if you have more than one, as they give you reams and reams of paper tickets stapled to a pamphlet. This felt very out dated and was actually a problem for us to figure out what was what and when to use them. So much so that we even managed to lose 1 of the attraction tickets as we had to tear it off to give another portion up for the Empire State building. I would recommend City Sightseeing New York, but the company needs to update the ticketing system as it is not fit for purpose.

Staff on the tours are superb as you would expect.

I purchased the tickets online and waited too long to pick it up at the main place and they did not have enough staff. The places where pick up or drop off were ok. Enjoyed the tours somewhat but you can explore the city by walking and taking public transport if you are an adventurous. If you have older folks and walking is not much of an option these type of tours are great for them, as it is a good option to see the highlights of the city. Also you need the 3 day pass to really enjoy all the routes. Missed some because of timing and the traffic in the city does not help much sometimes. :)

We experienced everything from Taylor Swift being described as 'yum' (coming from a man in his 50s or 60s) to being recommended to not experience Korea town because their food is gross. He spent the whole tour hitting on women on the bus! We didn't learn anything about the city except where the lingerie stores were that had good window displays! We were horrified >:(

First mistake - I bought tickets online. That left me with a voucher. Smart money buys the tickets from the man on the street in front of the bus and boards the bus. A voucher means you have to stand in line to get a ticket.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. When I showed up in front of the company's ticket office, this loud rude man in a CSNY suit gets in my face asking me 100 questions about what I want to do. I'm still mentally taking in Manhattan so processing his adrenaline took me a moment. To add insult to injury, some street hawker had handed me a brochure from a competitor tour bus so a$$hole starts telling me I am at the wrong bus since that brochure is not "theirs." I finally get a word in edgewise and tell the gentleman if he would just calm down, I will tell him what I to know. Did not go well but he did tell me that the vouchers I had earned me a place in a 50 foot line of tourists waiting for tickets.

So...about an hour later, we get actual tickets. We go and load the bus and it's not that bad...ish. We go to the top and we listen to the tour guide and see pretty much what we wanted to see. Of course, at each de-board, the tour guide has to go into his song and dance about how it is customary to tip but I suppose his life is worse than mine so...

We eventually get off the bus on the south end of Manhattan to see the 9-11 memorial, the new towers, and the Statue of Liberty. Once done with all that, we reboard the bus near Battery Park and the tour resumes. Again - not bad for riding around in a bus and listening to the tip begging but both guides were knowledgeable and that's all we wanted.

Oops! There is bad traffic in Manhattan and a road is closed.. OMG!!! How did this happen in a sleepy town like NYC? Near the Waldorf, the bus staff is clearly agitated. How a company that drives a huge bus in Manhattan 7 days a week can possibly be thrown by traffic and construction is beyond me but these folks were clearly out of their element. They have no alternate route and the dispatcher (someone back home I presume) just tells them to stop the tour, put all of us off on the street and leave. No apology, no explanation, and no ride back to the beginning of the tour. Just done.

I suppose the lack of tip begging at the last stop was pleasant but, dude, really?

Excellent, highly recommended to see many of New Yorks attractions in a day without the hassle. Very entertaining on board as well!

I like the tour guides giving trivias, and the buildings in the Manhattan borough are really fantastic.

Booked online and didn't have any difficulties getting into the bus although we thought we booked to the Brooklyn bridge only to find that we booked the downtown tour when we got to the bus.

This experience was recommended to us as a great way to be exposed to the city. Not so, for us. We spent over an hour and a half obtaining our tickets we bought online. Then, on the bus tour, the audio was at least a block or two off. We would hear about a site and then figure out the site being discussed was two blocks behind us. Would not recommend to anyone. You are better off on foot with a good map.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two days sight seeing. Reception desk and field personnel were very friendly. Guides in the buses and cruise were awesome. For a newcomer in Newyork this is a good opportunity to explore the historical city. Many congratulations and good luck!!!

It is a great option to move around instead of walking thru some parts that are good to see but not worth to walk by and to move from one area to another.
Also is great the night tour, the bad thing is the weather, be prepared for a low temperatures / cold wind.
The part we did not like we're the tour guides, some of them you could not understand them, another one seems he hated his work as well as tourists and also a bad thing was that the audio did not work most of the time so the people that did not speak English did not understand what they were saying or knew what they were looking at.

Having used City Sightseeing in Glasgow, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich and Paris we were really looking forward to the NYC tour; sadly we were disappointed. We had two day hop on and off tickets. Day 1 was great we headed downtown with interesting commentary and great views. Day 2 though was a whole different story - we waited over an hour and twenty minutes for an uptown bus tour! When it finally arrived the commentator was obviously not interested and only really spoke when asked direct questions by passengers. Such a disappointment.

The tour guides are actually very good, however the buses are awful. I took the tour in a rainy day and we had to stay on the lower deck but we were unable to see anything through the windows because they are covered with ads. it seems that this company is more interested in gaining money from the ads than from the tourists.

The on board tour guides are hugely inconsistent. Some barely say anything although, when approaching a stop they do talk for a minute or two about how they work for low wages and value tips etc!

We bought by internet and they did not send us the ticket. We arrived at the stop bus and lost one hour and taxi going to the office, because the ticket. In the office a one hundred file waiting.. It was horrible. Why they do not send the tickets by internet?

what sightseeing company covers its windows with partially transparent window advertising. this one does. rediculous.

I had bought a voucher in July but when I went to print it in October it would not print. I was told by the agent that my credit card, with which I had bought the voucher, would be credited and I can go ahead and buy a new voucher, which I did. However, two weeks later, I had still not been refunded for the voucher that would not print. When I contacted them again I was told because the purchase was over 3 months they couldn't reimburse my card and they would have to mail me a cheque. I pointed out to them that I live in South Africa. So the first problem is our post is not very reliable and even if it does reach me I don't know if my bank will cash the cheque. So, at this stage, I hold no hope of getting my money back. If I was told in the first place that they couldn't reimburse my card I would have never bought the second voucher. It is a lot of money I have lost and the company doesn't care.

We purchased a 3 day bus pass and 5 attractions online before we left for NYC and got a discount, there were 6 of us. we went to the office at 9.30 am to redeem our voucher & the assistant we got wasn t great, she printed the tickets 3 times before she got them right. At 10 am the queue was v long and we didn t get out of the office till 10.30. Buses were ok some tour guides were good others rambled on irrelevantly. Redeeming tickets for attractions was easy apart from American Museum of Natural History who REFUSED to accept them very rude man said we would have to pay $35 in each if we wanted to see special exhibits which we did but were not paying that and it was our last day!!! so must get your information right citysightseeing as this was one of the attractions listed!