The 72-Hour Bus Ticket Adds a Night Ride and Cruise
Two open-top loops across Manhattan, where ticket length decides whether you also get a night ride and a Circle Line cruise.
Big Bus runs two open-top loops out of Midtown. The timetable shapes your day more than the route does.
The Downtown loop leaves Stop 1 at 7th Avenue and West 48th Street between 9:00 AM and 4:30 PM, every 30 minutes, and a full circuit takes about 90 minutes. The Uptown loop leaves Stop 14 at the Hope Sculpture on 7th Avenue and West 53rd Street between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, once an hour, and its circuit runs about 75 minutes.
That hourly Uptown headway is the number to plan around. Step off at the Met without checking the app and the next bus can be the better part of an hour away.
The ticket comes in 24, 48, and 72-hour lengths. All three ride the same two loops. The longer two add an evening tour and a cruise on top.
Big Bus New York Hop-On Hop-Off TourBig Bus Tours · 24, 48, or 72 hours · Two open-top loopswww.viator.comTwo Loops That Run at Different Speeds
The Downtown loop is the workhorse. It runs 7th Avenue through Times Square, down Fifth Avenue past the Empire State Building and the Flatiron, into SoHo and Chinatown, then around Wall Street, Trinity Church and the World Trade Center before returning north along the Hudson.
The Uptown loop covers the museum side: Central Park, the Met, Grand Central, and the shopping stretch of Madison Avenue.
Ride Downtown first and save Uptown for a morning you can give it properly. The half-hour Downtown frequency absorbs a spontaneous hop-off. The hourly Uptown one does not.
What the Longer Tickets Actually Add
The 48-hour ticket brings in the two-hour Night Tour, which leaves from Stop 1 outside M&M'S World. Big Bus lists its departures two ways. The ticket page shows 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM; the service page lists one tour per evening at 7:00 PM. Confirm the slot when you book. Night tour seats are tied to the date and time you pick and are not transferable.
The 72-hour ticket adds a Circle Line cruise, either the one-hour Liberty Cruise or the 90-minute Landmarks Cruise, both leaving Pier 83 at West 42nd Street. It also opens four self-guided Vox walking tours.
Circle Line issues boarding tickets at the pier for most passes. Bring the QR code to the Pier 83 box office and the counter scans it. Neither Big Bus nor Circle Line says a bus voucher can be reserved online, so plan on that counter, and allow the 45 minutes to an hour Circle Line asks of anyone collecting a boarding pass before security.
Starting the Clock
Your ticket is measured from the moment you activate it. Open the Big Bus app, add your booking reference, press Activate on the morning you travel, then show the screen to the driver at any stop. The app also tracks buses in real time, which turns a guess into a five-minute wait.
Without the app, a uniformed staff member at 7th Avenue and West 48th Street can swap an unactivated confirmation email for a paper ticket. Once the digital ticket is live, that swap closes.
Activation has to happen on the travel date you booked, and the countdown cannot be paused. Multi-day tickets run on consecutive days.
Who Gets the Most Out of It
This suits a first visit with a loose plan and a lot of ground to cover. Buses are wheelchair accessible, service animals are welcome, and strollers can ride along. Children count from age 3 to 12, adults from 13, and infants travel on an adult's lap.
Hotel pickup is not part of it. You reach Stop 1 on your own.
The listing carries a 3.5 average across 4,946 reviews on Viator. That score covers the whole hop-on hop-off operation, across every route and every driver. Weather decides a lot on an open top deck, and so does how tightly you plan around the Uptown hour.
The pin above sits on Father Duffy Square, at the top of the red TKTS steps. Buses do not board there. Stop 1 is two blocks north, on 7th Avenue at West 48th Street, outside M&M'S World, and Stop 14 for the Uptown loop stands five blocks further up at West 53rd.
Viator refunds in full when you cancel at least 24 hours before your scheduled departure. Tickets bought through an agent are handled by that agent.
Catch the 9:00 AM from Stop 1 and the whole Downtown circuit is behind you before lunch, with the afternoon still open and the top deck half empty on the ride back up 7th Avenue.