Red Buses Sightseeing

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).

Had looked forward to playing hop-​on-​hop-​off tourist in my own city. Was sorely disappointed by the lack of quality and professionalism at Stockholm Red Buses.
— the route said the first stop was at world trade center on klarabergsgatan. it is not. despite the signs and ticket seller up there the stop is down at vasagatan opposite central station.
— the time schedule says the first bus would leave at 10 am and then every 30 minutes. the truth is that the first bus arrived at 10.40.
— the headphones and audio guide system does not work at several seats. either you can’t switch language or the sound doesn’t work at all.
— the audio guide information is very random, poor, shockingly obsolete and most likely sponsored. eg. i fail to see the tourist interest on a guided bus tour about stockholm that there’s an ice bar, that per gessle lives at strandvägen (does he?), that it’s expensive to live on östermalm, that you have to pay X % income tax, that systembolaget is closed on saturdays in some locations etc.
— and on the other hand there are very few mentions about really interesting architectural and historical sights we pass. as well as cultural quirks and interesting tidbits as one would expect on a tour like this.
— the stops and the info are incoherent and flawed, eg. why say things like ‘the swedish foreign minister carl bildt lives on östermalm and he does this and that’ when he is a) the former fm and b) i didn’t pay for a crappy ‘celebrity tour’ and ‘here we are at grand hotel and next doors is the national museum…’ with no mention that the museum is closed for renovation for some years? oh and the stop was at close to hamngatan not at grand hotel.
— the ticket price was said to be 260kr — we paid 280kr.
— the route and the stops did not in parts coincide with the map.
I’ve done many tours like this in other European cities and they have all been professional, interesting and sometimes hilariously engaging. This is the first time I’ve been absolutely stunned by the absence of professionalism and relevant information.
So my advice is that you stay away from these Red Buses and chose one of the other two hop-​on-​hop-​off bus tours in Stockholm. This is just a waste of money and time!