The Easiest Way to Cover Manhattan in a Weekend
Two loops on an open-top double-decker, with a night tour and a harbour cruise included on the longer tickets.
Two loops, nineteen stops, ninety minutes to ride either one all the way round. The Downtown Loop starts at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street and works Midtown down through the Flatiron District, SoHo, Chinatown, the Brooklyn Bridge approach and Wall Street. The Uptown Loop picks up five blocks north and runs Fifth Avenue, Museum Mile and Columbus Circle.
The top deck is open and the daytime commentary is recorded. The two loops meet at one shared stop, 42nd Street and Broadway. That corner is where you change circuits.
Big Bus Tours runs it. Tickets come in lengths, and the length is the product: 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, each tier carrying something the one below it does not.
The scoreboard is split. The Klook listing holds 4.3 from 62 reviews. The same operator's hop-on hop-off product on Viator sits at 3.5 from nearly 5,000. Two sample sizes, one fleet.
Big Bus Hop-on Hop-off (Open Top)Klook · operated by Big Bus Tours · open-top double decker, two Manhattan loops, 19 stopsaffiliate.klook.comWhat Each Ticket Length Adds
The 24-hour Discover ticket buys the Downtown Loop and nothing else. Published at 62 dollars for an adult, it is the cheapest of the three hop-on hop-off lengths, and the only one that leaves the Uptown Loop off the map.
Forty-eight hours opens both loops and adds the two-hour Night Tour. Seventy-two hours keeps all of that and lets you pick one Circle Line sailing, either the Liberty Cruise at an hour or the Landmarks Cruise at ninety minutes, leaving from Pier 83 at 42nd Street.
- Discover, 24 hours, from 62 dollars: Downtown Loop
- Essential, 48 hours, from 83 dollars: both loops, plus the Night Tour
- Explore, 72 hours, from 99 dollars: both loops, the Night Tour, and one Circle Line cruise
- Night Tour on its own, 2 hours, from 67 dollars
The Klook listing carries a fourth line item the operator does not sell on its own ticket page, a three-hour Taster ride. It sits outside the 24, 48 and 72 hour ladder, so check which one is in the cart.
Twenty-one dollars separates the 24-hour ticket from the 48-hour one, and the second loop sits on the far side of it.
TopView, the other open-top operator working these same Midtown corners, prices the same split. Its 24-hour Downtown ride is 45 dollars, and the version that adds Uptown is 55. The second loop is a paid upgrade whichever company you ride.
Two Loops, Two Different Clocks
Thirteen stops sit on the Downtown Loop and seven on the Uptown Loop, with 42nd Street and Broadway counted on both. Nineteen corners in all. Either circuit takes ninety minutes end to end if you stay aboard.
The frequencies are what catch people out. A Downtown bus comes twice an hour, and the last one leaves Stop 1 at 4:30 PM. An Uptown bus comes once an hour, and that route shuts at 4:00 PM. Hopping off at the Met at half past three is a decision about whether you walk back.
A Klook reviewer who rode the 48-hour ticket in December 2025 measured the gap from the curb: "The Red bus is frequent and waiting time is less than 15 mins but the Blue takes 30 mins sometimes."
The app tracks buses live and stores the ticket. That matters more on the hourly loop than on the half-hourly one.
Recorded by Day, Live Guides at Night
Daytime commentary is recorded, and it runs in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. The daytime loops do not include a live guide.
The Night Tour works differently. It lasts two hours, carries live guides, rides with the 48-hour and 72-hour tickets, and sells on its own from 67 dollars. The ticket page lists departures at 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM, while the operator service page lists one a night at 7:00 PM. Confirm the time for your date.
Nothing on this listing includes hotel pickup. Every ride starts at a numbered stop.
Before You Book
Tickets run on elapsed hours from activation. The clock starts when you press Activate in the app or hand the voucher to a driver.
- Full refund on cancellations made at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure, as listed by the sellers carrying this tour
- Activate in the Big Bus app, with staff at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street, or with any driver
- The app carries live bus tracking and the route maps
- Downtown Loop: 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, every 30 minutes
- Uptown Loop: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, every 60 minutes
- Circle Line sailings on the 72-hour ticket leave from Pier 83, 42nd Street
The clock runs for 24 hours. The buses run for seven and a half. Activating at two in the afternoon spends most of a ticket on a service that has already stopped for the day. A Viator reviewer asked the obvious question in July 2026: "Sells tickets as 24 hours pass but operating hours are 9am to 4:30pm so how is that 24 hours ticket?"
📍 The map pins Circle Line at Pier 83, West 42nd Street and Twelfth Avenue. That is where the harbour cruise on the 72-hour ticket sails from, and it is the one fixed address on a product otherwise made of nineteen street corners.
Boarding and activation happen at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street, outside M&M'S World, where Big Bus staff work the curb. Any driver at any stop can activate a voucher instead.
The free Big Bus app holds the ticket, tracks buses live, and gives walking directions to the nearest stop. Worth installing before the first morning.