Bus & Boat & Bike Adventure - 3 Tours in 1

Wandering

Two friends gave us a pass with 3 attractions of our choice for our vacation days at SFO. We were able to choose and take advantage of the Tour Bus Service which was discreet except that there is no possibility to choose the Italian language but headphones are delivered with a speaker who speaks into the microphone in American; we chose the bike rental option for 3 hours and it was great and lastly I leave a negative note for the incorrect advertising of the Free 1 day cable car Service (including Muni transportation) as despite having chosen it among our 3 attractions, it was not available. The salesman explained that they would advertise the tour before they even realized they could not sell it because they were not yet equipped. I think it was "dirty" advertising... alternatively we took a ride with the ferry to the golden gate bridge, good despite a bitter taste in the mouth.

Response from the operator: Thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback, we are happy to hear that overall you enjoyed your MegaPass package.

via Tripadvisor (translated)

Not worth the money - no hop-on hop-off bus option

We booked a 3 attraction Mega Pass on line in advance because it would include a hop-on hop-off bus tour and shuttle transfer from our hotel to the airport. In July 2019 City Sightseeing didn't seem to be running any buses in San Francisco. Rather, you must take your ticket to Sky Line Tour's office in Fisher Man's Wharf who then redeem the purchase. The office is tiny and very easy to miss. Unfortunately, the Mega Pass online information is very misleading. Sky Line / City Sightseeing are not currently operating the San Francisco Explorer Hop-on Hop-Off bus tour which is currently included in the Mega Pass and there is no option within the Mega Pass for other similar tours. We therefore chose to get a refund for the Mega Pass voucher and instead booked a combined bus tour and Bay Cruise Ferry ticket. The Bay Cruise ferry ride was very good. There was timely and informative commentary and we enjoyed very good (if quite choppy) views of the city shoreline, Alcatraz and (intermittently) the Golden Gate Bridge. The open top bus tour was not good value for money. The tours are in fact provided by the Big Bus Company who are a separate operator again and branded entirely differently. None of this was made clear when we purchased the ticket and it was only a when we made a passing remark to one of the Big Bus ticket sellers in Union Square that we realised we were able to board their buses. The tour does take you all around San Francisco and quite near to most of the main sights. However, most of the commentary is, fairly short, intermittent recordings and it was often only apparent that we had missed a major sight (such as the houses on Alamo Square) after the bus had driven passed them. It is worth highlighting that to see a number of the major sights (such as the Alamo Square houses, or crooked street section of Lombard Street) that you need to leave the bus and walk a number of blocks. Trips with live guides were slightly better. The commentary was certainly more informative, however the guide was speaking so fast that it was often difficult to understand what was being said. For the cost, I think it would have been cheaper, quicker, and probably more informative, to arrange taxis / Ubers to take us to each of the major sights

via Tripadvisor

Enjoyable way to see the City

Easy to find the office to pick up the tickets, and a nice variety of choice. We ended up visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum and the Zoo with our other options including the bus tour. Had considered the airport transfer, but it was so easy to get into the city using the trains and BART system we decided it wasn't worth it. You get a full 24 hours with the bus ticket so when we got on in the afternoon on the first day we decided to do a full circuit and see the city. Very windy through the tunnel towards the Golden Gate bridge - especially if you are on the top floor, but other than that we saw plenty. It was a shame that we didn't get a real guide until our third jump on the bus, and that was just for a short moment, but he was really good! The rest of the journeys were the pre-recorded information which just isn't the same. The company really needs to get some more real people as they make it so much more interesting. Only issue was waiting for a bus for over 30 mins at one point, but other than that we had no issues and would go on them again.

Response from the operator: We hope to see you again soon, and bring a friend!

via Tripadvisor

Bus tour

We enjoyed the sites the bus stopped at and the staff are all very pleasant. Most of the busses we caught were audio recordings which had nice info but the 2 tour guides provided more insight when we were on a bus with them. We enjoyed ourselves and a nice way to view the city

Response from the operator: Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with us. We hope to see you again on your travels!

via Tripadvisor

Mega Pass

When preparing to book this tour I found the information extremely confusing. There are three major players in the hop-on-hop-off arena in San Francisco. We elected the mega pass because we felt it would be the best value. We booked in advance online which saved us $2 for each ticket. This caused us to have to get to the main office to redeem which was opposite Cannery Row and a bit of a trek from our hotel. The tours are sold on every street corner. Not sure this was the best way to go. We elected for the 3 tours for the base price. We took the city tour which is valid for 24 hours. Since we activated our ticket around noon on one day we had it available until the same time the following day. This actually worked out well in our case. The first day we had headphones which we plugged in, which was available in many languages, to describe the sites we were seeing. The second day we had an actual live guide who was extremely knowledgeable, very interesting, and entertaining. I liked that a little better. Seldom where are tickets checked and it was chaos if you got off the bus and decided to get back on but we were midweek so never really had a problem finding a seat on the upper deck. We found the buses to run fairly regularly and never had to wait more than about 15 minutes. We also selected the Sausalito tour which seemed to take just about everybody. We took the main tour to the Golden Gate where we picked up the Sausalito tour. After that you get back on the main hop-on hop-off bus to return to your location. By this time we were tired of the bus and called an Uber which took us back to our hotel for a very reasonable price (we had been around the entire tour the previous day) or a good option if your ticket had already expired (not that they were checking much). Our third tour was the Blue & Yellow Bay Cruise which we didn't end up taking. We didn't feel that we really lost any money as the value on the first two was significant enough. We honestly just ran out of time. Being an advance type planner I was concerned we wouldn't get a seat or things would be sold out. I debated between the bus companies and now I realize any of them would have been fine. Overall The Hop On-Hop Off worked well for us but we could have purchased while we were there without problem. We had three generations in our group and we all agreed the tour was worth the time and money.

Response from the operator: I am sorry to hear that the information was confusing, but I am very happy to hear you enjoyed your Mega Pass! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback.

via Tripadvisor