Hop On – Hop Off

I wish we would have chosen a different company. Google reviews for
was 5 out of 5. NOT!!! We waited 45 minutes for a bus only to find out that the information given to us when we purchased our online tickets was out of date and the bus no longer made stops. The tour guide was friendly but hard to understand due to his accent. The PA system kept cutting in and out. The best views were from the top but it was freezing. Sitting down below you couldn’t see that much. They flew by the stops so fast I didn’t know we were in the locations. The whole thing seemed second rate and I felt like we were ripped off by a scam. I can’t believe the reviews were from real people. I also swear that the tour guides were doing street performances next to the bus while we were waiting to leave for the tour. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. Grey line tours, under
hop on and off tours, isn’t worth your time.

I was somewhat concerned about this company after reading the Unilocal reviews (after purchasing six nonrefundable 1-​day tickets). I had to call because two credit cards were rejected online. The agent I talked to said that the credit cards are processed through Germany, and this can cause problems. The third one worked.
However, the bus tour was nice. We went to the main ticket station at Stop #1 at Fisherman’s Wharf. and rode the top of the double-​decker bus. There was a person giving commentary through the headsets. He had some interesting information, but seemed to be selling various restaurants and bars. We got off at stop #4 to have lunch, and then caught another bus to take the rest of the route. That bus had a taped commentary, rather than a person. We actually liked that better. The route had the best of areas of the city to see, and provided a great overview for our first-​time guests to California. We have lived in the area for over 30 years, and we learned a lot as well. The tape was dated, though, discussing Robin Williams as if he were still alive, and Sean Penn and wife Robin Wright Penn (divorced over five years ago). The head sets worked well. Both drivers handled dense traffic and narrow streets very well.
One nice surprise was that admission to Madame Tussaud’s Wax museum was included with our tickets. We thoroughly enjoyed that, and probably would not have paid the $ 24.95 price of admission were it not included. Three walking tours were also included, but we weren’t able to make the times work for our larger group.
We used Parking Panda to find parking at Fisherman’s Wharf, and that worked well.
Overall, I recommend this company.

We’ve been to San Francisco before and the last time there with a rental car we just could not find a good place to park, street parking was limited to 2 hours and some places wanted 10 dollars an hour to $ 60 for all day! This trip we had family with us and a 6 year old and was not sure what to do. The first day we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and parked to see the sights, then we happened to see a «Hop on — Hop off» bus. When we got to the door the driver shut the doors on us and we waved at him and asked how we could take a ride, he opened the doors and told us tickets for all of us would be $ 140 for 2 days. Well with 4 adults and a six year old it sounded like a ok deal. We asked if we could leave our rental car in the parking lot and he said it was not a problem. (I am still not sure if all day parking there was permitted, but when we got back 5 hours later, no ticket and everything was fine).
The bus was empty when we got on, but in a few minutes some others boarded too and we were all on our way. I just expected a ride into San Francisco, not to worry about parking and enjoying the sites from the open air double decker bus. The best part was not worrying about where to go and navigating the crazy San Francisco traffic. We started our run and to my surprise the bus driver started a very thoughtful LIVE narration about the sites and historical facts as he drove into the city. I was just expecting a bus ride and we would have to fend for ourselves on where to go and what to do, but this driver played music to set the mood and told stories about the history and interesting facts about San Francisco. He took us near the historic 1960s Haight Ashbury and described the hippy vibe that was flowing through the area at that time. I was impressed with his narrative and it made the price of admission that much worth it. I didn’t catch the driver’s name, but I gave him a bonus tip from what we left him when we first got on. The bus made a stop in the middle of town and the driver told us his run was over and we could catch another bus that was already parked short distance away. This driver also had his own tour style, but I liked our first driver a little better. Soon we arrived near the harbor and we spent a few hours at fisherman’s wharf, had some clam chowder, fish and chips then some souvenir gathering. When we decided to call it a day we waited about 15 minutes and another Hop on Hop off bus arrived, it too was ok and it seems each bus has it’s own style. Overall we enjoyed the ride and in the long run it was worth it to not have to drive without any guidance through San Francisco. We would use the service again, it was what we needed.

This was our first trip to San Francisco and loved this tour! We got on and of as we pleased for 3 days! Our tour guide TT and driver Harry gave us am excellent tour! I would do this every time I come! The convenience was amazing! We did downtown and the bridge.

Worst tour ever! Their company is also shady… read the last part of this review and I’ll explain. Drivers and guides are unprofessional, unorganized, and don’t care about your safety. They are supposed to announce every stop and make a full stop but two buses we tried barely did. In fact, we came to get up to exit and the bus started moving on us. The buses are also old and unsafe. If you sit in the lower deck, you will inhale nasty and dangerous fume. The top deck– watch out for tree branches hitting you right in the face. They are also supposed to come to each stop every 30 minutes but they don’t. We were stranded at Haight and Clayton for 45 minutes. We called the local number and it went to an automated cell voicemail. Really??? We called the main number and some Indian guy with a thick accent picked up and after giving him all this info he still didn’t even know which country we were even in! He didn’t even help. Frustrated, we called the number half hour later and they hung up on us. If you ask me, stick to the bus or other tours that will let you hop on and off.

Worst tour I have ever been on. So unorganized. Our driver was so incompetent. Didn’t know how to drive. The tour guide woman was the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. She couldn’t say a complete sentence. She didn’t know anything about any of the locations. She didn’t even bother preparing notes. Then at one stop we waited over an hour and no bus came so we had to get a taxi to go home. I tried to contact the phone numbers on the pamphlets no one answered. Don’t waste your money on this scam.

My family and I went on the 5;30 evening tour and the bus never showed up. They put us on another bus after waiting until 6:15. This was supposed to be a 1 hour and twenty minute narrated tour of the city, however the African American narrator was difficult to understand at best and the microphone wasn’t working with the speaker, so nobody could hear what he was saying most of the time. Before we started he pitched giving him a tip as being customary and he repeated his tip pitch at every stop. He put down out of country tourists as being cheap and that it’s customary to tip in the United States. He pitched giving him a tip to the point of embarrassing people when getting off the bus. So very unprofessional on all accounts! He spent about 15 minutes talking on his cell phone with a friend or relative, while passing numerous points of interest. The tour was rushed, only lasting 45 minutes, 35 minutes shorter than promised. Some of the people while exiting the bus at the end of the tour told both the driver and the narrator how the tour was very hurried and the narration was very poor. The narrator used various profanities and told people they were loud bitches! He even gave people the universal middle finger gesture. I couldn’t believe what I heard and was seeing. This company should not be used by anyone and is clearly a scam and total misrepresentation. Save your money and use the money that you would have spent on a nice lunch in the downtown area. Don’t waste your time and money with this company. It’s a fraud!!!

Worst tour ever! Fri., Sept 4^th Evening Tour… narrator was a large black man with a beige, shiny suit and beige hat. My description of him is due to him not identifying himself. Tour time was 5:30 pm, but it didn’t get started until 6:20 pm.
When the narrator showed up, he was spouting off (over the loud speaker, no less) about some people that had just been complaining to him and the driver, about what, we don’t know but he was obviously already agitated. He was extremely disrespectful towards them. His negative comments were totally inappropriate. His microphone was very staticky, likely a bad connection with the speaker. Several of us told him we couldn’t hear what he was saying, but those comments fell on deaf ears… he didn’t care. For some reason, when he turned off the speaker, we could hear every word of his entire 12 minute personal phone conversation.
At the beginning of the tour, he announced that in the UNITED STATES, it is customary to tip. He said this twice. This was obviously directed to the foreigners… very disrespectful and rude! He again repeated this announcement at the conclusion of the tour.
We were told the Evening Tour was an hour and 20 minutes. Our tour was only 45 minutes! That’s almost HALF of what we paid for!
When we exited the bus, we, another group, and a single gentleman all informed the narrator (and the driver) how disappointed we were in the whole tour, from beginning to end. The narrator was extremely rude, told us if we didn’t like it, we should NEVER come back. As we walked away, he was yelling obscenities at us. My husband, and another person, who was obviously on the tour, told him how unprofessional he was. He yelled out at EVERYONE that we were ALL loud-​mouth bitches! Really?!
His behavior was totally unprofessional. We will never use this company again, and will surely recommend anyone visiting San Francisco, to stay away from this business! Try another tour line… any tour line!

I never take the time to write reviews. Wish I had read some. So Save yourself a day of disappointment and TAKE BIG BUS TOURS INSTEAD.
We did that on our last visit to SF and it was a wonderful day. But Yesterday we got on this tour thinking it was Big Bus. Seems like ‘Hop On is Off’ trying to capitalize on the good rep of the Big Bus tour service by ‘posing’. Don’t be fooled. It is sooo confusing to use this tour bus BC you have to navigate three different lines to cover the full tour and they all run on different times with waiting times of 30mins — 2 hrs. We are really good at logistics and could only get to some of the tour. Then had to take a taxi. (add $ 35) to get back to our originating stop BC last bus on the ‘Green’ route leaves at 3:30. With 3 separate bus routes of ‘red blue and green lines’ it’s a real bummer.
Might work if you only want, (and only pay for one route), just to get around the city. But if you’re planning on the doing the GG bridge and /​or the GG park on same tour Then take Big Bus! They do one continuous tour on the same bus. It includes all stops and you can get on/​off anywhere knowing the next bus will come in 15−20mins and continue on with same tour sequence. So simple and easy.
Im not sure how THIS’ Hop on/​OFF got any good review except they probably get their workers to post them. BC yesterday whenever we passed the Big Bus tour on the street we were instructed to cheer so they would think Hop Off was a great ride. But it is sooo Not!

I booked this company for a tour while we were in S.F. on a mini vacation. I have to say I wasn’t overall impressed with the company. Somethings went just as I expected and some were not.
The tour guides where hit or miss but I’m sure this is the case with all companies. A few of ours were very funny and knowledgeable and a few seemed like they would much rather be someplace else. The traffic in S.F. is a bit rough through the week but this is not the companies fault. The buses could stand to be a little bit cleaner but were not disgusting by any means. What I really took issue with is the lack of any type of adherence to time schedule for tours or stops. It’s also hard to locate where the buses would stop. They give a general area but where in this area do they stop is very difficult to locate. If you happen to get off the bus and wonder through a section of the city and then go back to that area to get on another bus that might be coming by, you could wait quite a while. It was very common to see at least 2 or 3 each of the other groups busses come by while waiting for this companies. I saw more of the other red group busses than this groups all trip. Also they say they run certain routes all day but after waiting at a stop for an hour and then calling the company to see what’s going on, we find out that they only have busses on that route 3 times throughout the day. «A bus should be along in a bit» is the only response that you get about the lack of buses or wait times when you call. I completely understand that you can’t expect the moon for the price of a dollar but I feel that you would be better off spending your money on either one of the other busses that I watched go by us all during our trip.

This group SUCKS! Terrible website with no information on departure times or locations. You have to call and wait on hold for the privilege. Good luck finding a bus if you «hop off.» Totally confusing system, with no way to find out where you should go to catch the right bus. Never again.

We took the city route, mostly around the financial district. Not at all worth it. Our guide was not very informative and hard to hear – seemed bored. About half his spiel was about his favorite restaurants (or so he said – probably got paid to say it).

A recent taxi-​driving adventure found me dropping off a nice couple on Fillmore Street, right in front of Dosa. I couldn’t pull all the way to the curb because there were cars parked there, but I got as far out of the way as possible so other traffic could continue. Other private vehicles had no problem passing by me as I processed my passenger’s credit card payment, but suddenly I heard frantic honking behind me. It was a Hop On-​Hop Off bus behind me, not even making an effort to go around like the other cars did. And to make it worse, the tour guide on the upper deck decided to provide narrative to his «guests» about how inconsiderate taxi drivers can be. After hearing this, and the driver is still honking like a maniac, I decided that I’m going to take care of my customers first, and I’m not going to let these jerks behind me raise my blood pressure. My passengers were feeling intimidated by the the bus driver’s actions, and I assured them that everything’s alright.
Once I dropped off my passengers and continued driving up Fillmore at speed limit, the bus driver still kept honking at me. Finally, at the next light, I got out of my car and politely asked him to cut it out, and he STILL continued to honk. That’s when I got out and took a photo of him, so he can be immortalized right here on Unilocal.
For a number of years, I’ve recommended this bus service to my passengers as a great way to see the city. Sadly, that won’t be happening anymore…

I booked this 13-​stop tour given by a live tour guide, which I prefer rather than listening to a recording on headphones like with some tours. I thought it was wonderful and showed a nice portrayal of the city and the price was great! If you got off a stop, another bus came within 20 – 30 minutes to continue the tour, so it’s as if you never missed a thing being said. Yes, certain tour guides were a bit better than others (one may have talked too fast/​rambly or the microphone wasn’t as clear), but overall, this is a fantastic way to spend a good part of your day! It was such fun. Try to always sit on the upper deck in which the rooftop is open.

I was extremely impressed with this tour company, though that could be largely due to the fact that we got an incredible tour guide — Misha. He was interesting, funny and extremely friendly. He had interesting anecdotes about every inch of our trip all over San Francisco.
The ticket includes the night tour bus (fun, beautiful and cold) and the bus to Sausalito (we are going to hit that one today).
This tour provides an easy way to see the city comfortably and enough stops to easily fill two days with adventure and fun.

Definitely a sham! Their prices are different depending who/​where you buy it from. Make sure you bargain with them b/​c I observed and witnessed a couple buying a 2 day passes for $ 41, and they requested 1 day and the vendor said we cannot accommodate you for just one day, the couple ended up having to buy the 2 day pass. As the couple turned away after paying the two guys (vendors) smiled behind their backs like they made a great deal ripping the couple off. I bargained and bought my tickets for $ 40/​person for 2 days b4 witnessing the couple being ripped off… I still felt like I could’ve bargained for more after realizing this vendor is a sham!
Their pick up time is always delayed, we had to wait 45mins each day for every ride.
Do not buy from this agency, buy from the legitimate one, I think it’s called SF City Sight Seeing.

Good price to see San Francisco but poor quality tour. No live narration. They expect you to listen on ears phones. More than 15 minute wait between some stops. We were hesitant to get off at times because we didn’t want to wait for the next one in fear that it would take a while to come. One of the drivers recognized us and was very friendly when picking us up again. I recommend that you search for a better tour.

The Good-​fair price for an overview of the City-​Drivers we had were very helpful–
The «garden route“will get you to Alamo Square where the Painted Ladies are and drive you past some other places you may not ordinarily see!
The Route that allows you to drive over the bridge is nice but it might be better to have a few more buses on that route so you could return from Sausalito with more choices!
The BAD– I am not sure I would have bought the 5 tickets if I had know the NIGHT BUS is not a Hop On Hop Off at ALL… you can only stay on the bus… this does not allow for any snapshots of the City at night…
Our Sales guy kept saying YeS Yes the Night bus IS a Hop On Hop Off…
So just check the Routes– Barter a bit if you have a group– there is more than one City Bus tour of San Francisco– just go to UNION SqUARE… they are all there!

I’m a Bay Area native, born in San Francisco and raised in SF and around the Bay Area. While I’ve lived here for most of my life and have traveled a good part of the world, I have neglected to explore my own backyard. It took some out-​of-​town friends visiting for me to check out some of San Francisco’s major landmarks.
That said, we chose the Hop On-​Hop Off tour as our way to explore the city. It has a bunch of advantages:
–From the top deck, you get an amazing view of the city that you don’t get to see from a car or MUNI. If you aren’t vertically challenged, just make sure to watch your head when passing by trees and going through tunnels. :P
–At $ 38, it’s a great deal. The pass is good for two days so you can explore the city at your own pace. Buses come and go from each stop every half hour.
–The guides are really knowledgeable. Even as a native, I learned a bunch of new things about the city that I never knew before.
–You don’t have to deal with driving in SF. Plus, you don’t have to fight for parking in some of the busiest parts of the city.
Some tips:
–In total, the tour takes about two hours if you don’t hop off the bus. If you plan on hopping off the bus, make sure to start earlier in the day.
–Bring a jacket or sweater, even if it’s summer. I forgot to mention this to my visiting friends. San Francisco is cooler in the summer. Not to mention, there are so many different micro climates in SF. When we took the tour, it was warm and sunny at Pier 39 but overcast and windy by the time we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge.
–If you’re looking to get off at the winding part of Lombard, you’ll have to make a separate trip. The bus is too big to make it down this super curvy street.
Rant: When hopping back onto the bus, be prepared for a bit of chaos. This is especially true if you are hopping off and on at the Golden Gate stop. This stop is incredibly popular, for obvious reasons. This is compounded by the fact that you will have to contend with people coming back from the Sausalito stop. There is no line; just a crowd of people pushing and shoving to get on the bus. For my friends and I, it was a terribly chaotic experience, complete with an inconsiderate man elbowing my pregnant belly to push his way to the front of the crowd. We were one of the first waiting for the bus, but to the tour guide it didn’t matter. She chose people at random to board her bus, even though I’m visibly six month pregnant and really needed to sit down. If Hop On-​Hop Off can figure out a way to organize the process of people boarding the bus, I would have gladly given 5 stars.

Good deal for the two day pass if you use them all. The tour really depends on the tour guide. We started with Spencer who was excellent. Then got a German national Ulrich or something like that. He liked to tell dumb jokes. I probably knew as much about San Francisco as he did. Then we got an older man, whose name escapes me. He was pretty good, and delighted in telling us about public parks on tops of buildings. I bet he knows where each one is. By far, the most professional one was the girl, Shelby maybe, She had a flip set of 3×5 cards with notes on them That was the night tour which was not really at night at all. It was over with when it was still day time.
While no one was actually rude, it is rather loosey, goosey. Once two riders flagged us down. The bus stopped and he opened the door and they got on. The driver then told them this wasn’t an official stop. He kept telling them that. I don’t know if wanted them to get back off or what. Then when we drove to the official stop, They had the curb all blocked off by construction. He admitted there would not have been anyplace to pick them up there.
Then, one of the rules is to not get up when the bus is moving. Someone did to take a picture. They got a verbal tongue lashing for about five mins. The offending rider said he was sorry, but the old guy just kept harping on him. I don’t know if the offender was supposed to slit his wrists and commit suicide on the spot or what. In the mean time, no one was getting the benefit of the tour guide since he was fixated on the guy who stood up.