On board bus tours

Id like to hear from anyone that has actually taken this trip, ive read reviews and it sounds really good, what im wanting to know is how long you get at each stop, see i plan to go to st pauls cathedral, and i know it is on the list of stops but is it a quick on and off or do they give you a resonable amount of time to look around.

Also whats the longest your on the bus for between stops, im travelling with my bf who isnt a great traveller on buses, if it was half hour or so hed be ok but if we were on it constantly for like 2 hours then he wouldnt like it.

Your answers to these 2 questions will help me decide between the hop on hop off and this tour. Thanks in advance

On board bus tours

Not sure what tour you are talking about BUT I have done the Hop on Hop Off 24 hour and the 48 hour.

When you get off (if you want to that is) the bus only stays to let people who are moving on, on. YOu have as long as you want to check out area or icon. Then you go back to spot you got off the the next bus comes.....I think they are about 20 min to 1/2 hour apart.

Staying on it the whole 2 hours is long but that is what I did my first visit to get a feel of where things were and what I wanted to do. Then, I walked or took subway the rest of the holiday.

I did the Coney Island/Brooklyn Pizza Tour which was 4 1/2 hours with a GREAT personal guide Tony Muia.

We got off alot with him and he commentated on the area with great history and humour. We ate %26#39;calmly%26#39; at 2 restauarnts (2 pizza slices at both); walked the boardwalk at Coney Island; saw alot of movie locations (then Tony shows you them on his bus screen, very well done); all this in a 22 seat, airconditioned modern big windowed van. YOu can book that on Zerve.com.

I would check with Tour Bus of the other tour you are talking about, they could tell you.

It may be like the shopping tour someone does, yes they take you to some stores geared to what you are looking for, but you dont have alot of time to look and shop................good luck.

On board bus tours

I did the on board bus tour a few years ago (then it was called New York Party Shuttle) and loved it. I can%26#39;t remember how long we spend at each stop but you do have enough time to snap pictures at the cathedral and look around a bit. I don%26#39;t think you are ever on the bus a half hour straight even with traffic. I%26#39;m prone to motion sickness and didn%26#39;t have a problem at all. There is a very nice mix of riding and walking. There is also a break to eat at South Street Seaport and a ride on the ferry, both take away some of the bus time. After being in the city last weekend and seeing the people on the top level of the hop on hop off wearing rain ponchos and getting soaked, it made me appreciate the covered tour all the more (I%26#39;m going back this weekend and happily the weather sounds great!). The covered van worked out well for us even though it wasn%26#39;t raining since it was a fairly warm summer day and it was night to have the air conditioning between stops! It was great having the guide walk us through the sites too and not have to spend a lot of the day waiting for buses. I know that works better for some, but the tour we took worked out perfectly for my mom, my daughter and I. The other thing to note is that if you don%26#39;t want to walk at some of the sites, you can stay on the bus. This worked out great for my mom since she had knee problems at the time. Water is also provided on the tour.

Have fun no matter what you decide to do!

If you want to go to St. Paul%26#39;s cathedral, you need to head for London, not New York.

The Catholic cathedral in Manhattan is St. Patrick%26#39;s.

The Episcopalian (i.e., Anglican) cathedral is St. John the Divine.

The Greek Orthodox Cathedral is named ';Holy Trinity';

The Serbian Orthodox cathedral is St. Sava%26#39;s.

The Armenian Orthodox cathedral is St. Vartan%26#39;s.

There are many churches and chapels in NYC named for St. Paul, but none is a cathedral.

Perhaps the best known of these is the old chapel-of-ease for Trinity Church Wall Street. Trinity%26#39;s chapel of St. Paul is the oldest religious structure on Manhattan Island (the oldest in the city is actually the Quaker Meeting House in Flushing, Queens), and quite handsome -- but it%26#39;s not a cathedral by any means; heck, it%26#39;s not even the church of a separate parish.

So where did you actually want to go, anyway?

I was just there this past weekend and took the 3:00 tour on Friday, August 1st. You get VERY little time at the stops they make. Enough to snap a picture, but you couldn%26#39;t go inside St Patricks to look around if that%26#39;s what you really want to do. We went back the next day. The only stop of any length was at the seaport before getting on the ferry. Our break was almost an hour...way too long...I would rather have spent more time at the stops we made. We did the tour the first thing when we arrived. It%26#39;s a decent enough tour to get yourself oriented with things and to help you plan where you want to go back to and experience with more time. You%26#39;re sitting in an air-conditioned bus and don%26#39;t have to find your way around yourself so those are the benefits. If you sign up on the nytix site and pay $3 for a membership for discounts, you can save $12 per tour...so at least $48 is better than $60.

We took the Onboard tour in June. Not sure if all tours follow the same schedule, but here%26#39;s what our 10:00 tour did IIRC. Before we stopped for an hour lunch break at South Street Seaport at about 11:45 a.m., we%26#39;d gotten off at Strawberry Fields in Central Park, the sidewalk across from St. Patricks%26#39; Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and Madison Square Park.

After lunch, we were on the 1:00 Staten Island ferry for an hour (roundtrip), then got off the bus at the World Trade Center site, Wall Street, and a churchyard before returning to midtown at 3:30.

Other than the lunch break and the Staten Island ferry, the stops are very quick; there is no time to walk around on your own. For example, we didn%26#39;t go into St. Patick%26#39;s Cathedral; the tour just saw it from across the street for a few minutes (but we went back on our own the next day). Also, be aware that several of the stops on OnBoard%26#39;s website are combined (i.e. Rockefeller Center and the Today Show are the same stop) -- there are not 20 separate stops.

The traffic was slow on the way back to midtown and that was the only time when I was ready to be done with the bus. You can make the trip a little shorter by taking the option of getting off at Herald Square for Macy%26#39;s/ESB, instead of ending back at Times Square. (Or you could quit the tour earlier -- just tell your guide.)

I thought the OnBoard tour was a great way to pack a lot of sightseeing into a day. I liked our guide; he gave a lot of helpful information (grocery stores, TKTS booth, etc.) in addition to info on the sites. BTW, I subscribed to nytix.com and got a 20% discount.

I initially considered the HOHO tour, but I was concerned about wasting too much time waiting for the next bus, especially in the heat. Hope that helps!

Thanks for all your replies, I think im going to go for the on board bus tour, it sounds good and im sure my other half will be happy on it from what you have all said.

Greenwhiteblue, sorry my mistake its st paul%26#39;s chapel that i was wanting to visit. My mistake!

Thanks again