Los Angeles Hop-On Hop-Off Buses

The city of Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the United States. The distances make it impossible to get around on foot and, if you rent a car, you must be prepared to deal with the traffic. That is why a very good alternative for you to know the best places to see in Los Angeles are the Hop-On Hop-Off buses.

These allow you to travel in a few hours the most characteristic places of the city, without dealing with traffic and delays of public transportation. If you do not plan to rent a car, a tourist bus will make it easier for you to get around the city and provide you with information about each site of interest.

These are the main Los Angeles tour buses that you can take to tour the city:

• Los Angeles Big Bus tour bus - from $62
• Los Angeles City Sightseeing Bus City Sightseeing - starting at $51

The Bis Bus sightseeing bus makes two very complete tours of the city of Los Angeles. Both tours can be done in the same day and are very convenient for you to plan your visits to the places that are of interest to you. In addition, the open top bus has a panoramic view that allows you to see the city and the coast in all its splendor. It is perfect, therefore, if you are visiting Los Angeles in the summer.

The Big Bus tours are the following:

• Hollywood Circuit: it is the red route and takes about 2 hours.
• Beach Circuit: it is the blue route and takes about 90 minutes.

Hollywood Circuit - Red Route

This circuit allows you to visit Hollywood landmarks such as the Walk of Fame, the TCL Chinese Theater, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and many more. The complete tour lasts 2 hours and has a total of 12 stops.

This itinerary also allows you to use it as a means of transportation when taking any of the Hollywood tours offered by the city.

The first bus of the day departs from stop 1 at 10:00 a.m. and the last bus at 4:30 p.m. Each bus departs every day, both in the morning and afternoon. Each bus departs every day, both summer and winter, with a frequency of 30 to 45 minutes.

The Hollywood circuit passes through more than 12 iconic sites in Los Angeles, many of them related to the film industry, and is ideal if you have booked a visit to Universal Studios or the Warner Bros. studios tour in LA.

• Big Bus Visitor Center Hollywood
• TCL Chinese Theater
• Guitar Center "Rock Walk
• The Comedy Store
• Whiskey A Go Go
• Beverly Gardens Park
• Beverly Center
• LACMA / La Brea Tar Pits
• Farmers Market / The Grove
• Melrose Ave Shopping
• Paramount Studios
• Hollywood and Vine

Beach Circuit - Blue Route

With this circuit you can get to know the coast of Los Angeles: its beaches, the Santa Monica Pier, the 3rd Street Promenade, Venice Beach, Muscle Beach and many other places.

This tour takes approximately 90 minutes and has stops at 6 places of interest.

• Beverly Gardens Park
• Santa Monica Pier
• Santa Monica Beach
• Venice BoardWalk
• Main Street
• Marina del Rey

You can get off at any of these sites and take as much time as you wish to tour each location before resuming your tour. You can also start your tour at any of their stops. The frequency of these buses is between 1 hour and 1 hour and a quarter.

Beach Loop buses run year-round, whether you are looking for things to do in Los Angeles in the winter or in the summer.

The City Sightseeing bus is another Hop-on Hop-off bus that you can take to tour the city of Los Angeles. This bus makes 3 different circuits in the city. You can buy a ticket to do each route separately or buy a ticket that allows you to combine the 3 routes during the time you hire the service.

All City Sightseeing buses depart with an approximate frequency of 45 minutes and the tour lasts about 2 hours, depending on the route chosen. You can get on and off at any of the stops, as well as resume the tour as many times as you wish during the time you have contracted the service.

Each bus also has pre-recorded audio guides in several languages that provide information about each site of interest, which you can access using the headphones on the bus, or your own, if you have them.

The company also offers private tours for groups on its buses. It is always best to purchase tickets in advance online.

City Sightseeing's Los Angeles city tours include:

• Hollywood Red Route
• The Yellow Route of Santa Monica
• The Purple Route through Downtown Los Angeles.

The Hollywood Red Route

This tour allows you to visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Rodeo Drive shopping district and many other emblematic places in the city of Los Angeles related to the Hollywood film industry.

The tour runs every day of the year in about 2 hours, and departures are every 30 minutes. The first departure is from stop No. 1 at the Dolby Theater at 10 am and the last bus leaves at 4:30 pm from the same stop. This route has 16 stops at different sites of interest in Los Angeles.

If you purchased the combined ticket for all 3 routes, you can combine this route with the Yellow route when you arrive at stop #7.

• Dolby Theater
• Walk of Fame
• Guitar Center, Rock Walk
• Chateau Marmont
• Rodeo Drive
• The Comedy Story, Sunset Strip
• Whisky a go go
• Santa Monica Boulevard
• Beverly Hills
• Farmers Market, The Grove
• Melrose Avenue
• Pink's Hot Dogs
• Vine Street
• Hollywood and Vine
• Petersen Museums

The Santa Monica Yellow Route

This tour allows you to see Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and other beautiful sites along the coast of Los Angeles.

The tour lasts 2 hours without interruption and buses leave every 45 minutes every day of the year, except on holidays, which I recommend you check in advance.

The route has 16 stops at different sites of interest and starts at Ocean Ave, Santa Monica Pier at 9:30 am. The last bus leaves at 4:15 p.m. from the same stop.

As with all tourist buses, you can get on at any stop, not necessarily the first one, and resume the tour whenever you wish after visiting the sites proposed in its itinerary.

• Ocean Ave, Santa Monica Pier
• Wilshire, 3rd Street Promenade
• Montana Ave
• Brentwood Country Mart
• Westwood
• The Beverly Hilton
• Beverly Hills
• Rodeo Drive
• Century Plaza Hotel
• Intercontinental Century City
• One Westside Shopping Center
• Santa Monica College
• Barnard Way
• Venice Beach
• Main St.

The Downtown Los Angeles Tour

With this tour you will discover the most emblematic places in downtown Los Angeles. The bus allows you to visit historic sites of the city such as Union Station, Olvera Street, Chinatown and Walt Disney, as well as museums, bars and stores.

This tour has 16 stops at the various sites of interest, lasts 2 hours in total and can be done throughout the year.

The tour starts at 10 am at stop No. 1, in front of the Dolby Theater, and the last bus leaves at 3 pm from the same stop. Buses leave every 45 minutes, and you can catch them at any stop.

• Dolby Theater
• Engine Co. #28 / 7th Street
• Westin Bonaventure Hotel
• Walt Disney Concert Hall
• Cathedral of our Lady
• Chinatown Central Plaza
• Chinatown Shopping Malls
• Olvera St./Pueblo and Union Station
• Little Tokyo
• Grand Ctr. Mkt
• Library Central
• Jewelry District
• Fashion District
• Convention Ctr.
• L.A. Live/ Grammy Museum
• DTLA architecture

Like all Hop-On Hop-Off buses, you can get off at any of the stops and hop on the next bus once you complete your visit.

But, in addition, this tour bus offers you the advantage that you can change routes on the same day, using the same ticket. For example, you can go to stop No. 7 on the Santa Monica Yellow Route and change to the Hollywood Red Route, as the two routes converge at this stop.

Los Angeles sightseeing buses tour the main sites of interest in the city, without intermediate stops like public buses. Their services are contracted for one or more days, from the morning until approximately 4 p.m.

You can hop on and off as many times as you wish at any point along the route, for as long as you contract your bus ticket.

Of course, the bus does not wait for each person to make their visit, but approximately every half hour, a bus will pass by each stop so that you can get on and continue the tour.

In addition, you can hire the service for one or more days. Each bus has pre-recorded commentary in several languages about each site of interest, which you can access using the headphones provided. Or if you prefer, you can use your own.

Los Angeles is one of the top 5 cities with the worst traffic in the world. Getting around on your own using public transportation can be time consuming. Tourist buses, on the other hand, avoid the inconvenience of traffic, since they tend to travel the least congested streets.

They also have established routes through the main tourist attractions of the city, so they are a good introduction for those who are visiting Los Angeles for the first time and/or those who have little time to tour the city.

Touring the city on a tourist bus is much more practical and economical than using local buses, since in these you must pay the fare every time you get on the bus.

Tourist bus tickets are a one-time purchase and you must keep them for the entire time you have booked the service. You can get on at any of the available stops during that time, but you must show your ticket each time. If you booked the service online, it is best to print the ticket.

An interesting fact to keep in mind is that you can buy a ticket for a whole day, two days or even 3. This is more economical to tour the city and visit the proposed sites of interest.

In addition, you can take the bus, get off wherever you want, walk around and then take the next bus, which will be very practical and entertaining at the same time.

Keep in mind that it is best to book tickets on tourist buses in advance and online, because they are highly demanded services. You can also buy your ticket at any stop along the itinerary.

One of the frequent doubts about this type of tour is whether you will be able to hear the tour guide, but this is not a problem, as you can access audio guides using the headphones provided on the buses, or your own, if you have them.

This is an important advantage as it allows you to enjoy the panoramic views of the city more fully, as you don't have to strain to hear the guide on a large bus.

City Sightseeing and Big Bus tour buses offer audio guides in 9 languages, which I recommend you check before booking the buses.

All Hop-On Hop-Off buses have Wifi and other amenities such as air conditioning or heating. In addition to the audio guides, you will also have maps and brochures of Los Angeles available for you to consult during the trip.

The ideal if you visit Los Angeles is to combine the tourist bus with a tourist pass to avoid delays and to be able to enter the sites of interest saving money.

For example, the Los Angeles Explorer Pass is a ticket that allows you to enter more than 30 attractions in Los Angeles. It also includes discounts at bars, stores and other places of interest.

I recommend that you purchase the pass in advance to ensure that you will be able to visit the attractions that require an entrance fee.

If you must board the tour buses with your wheelchair, you must notify your chosen tour bus company in advance to secure a seat on the buses that are accessible.

An alternative to the tour buses is to hire private tours for smaller groups with a guide who will explain the different attractions you visit during the tour.

Some of these tours also include admission to museums, art galleries and places that require an entrance fee.

One such tour is the tour of celebrity homes in LA, which is not included in the tour bus route.

These tours also include visits to other iconic movie sites such as the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Sign, the TCL Chinese Theater (the theater of choice for the best movie premieres), the Dolby Theater (where the Oscars are held) and many more.