Since You Asked — Big Bus Tours

[Editor’s Note: As Las Vegas reopens, many visitors will be looking for ways to get outside more than usual. The open-air upper deck of the Big Bus Tour is a great way to do that. The tour is currently not running, but is expected to reopen as the casinos and the rest of the city do. Here, Dapper Dave Kamsler provides a first-hand account of the joys of the Big Bus Tour.]

One of my favorite ways to explore a new city is on the Big Bus Tours.

These double-decker buses operate in many major cities and use a hop-on hop-off system. You buy one ticket good for the entire day and you can start the tour at any of the stops along the route. Buses run all day, so you can hop off at any stop, spend as much time as you want, then hop back on the next bus that arrives at your stop. Or you can walk to a different stop and hop on there.

My wife and I have done this in several major cities (New York, Washington, Boston, and Las Vegas) and oftentimes, we hop on and never hop off. The top level of the open-air double-decker bus is a beautiful place to spend the day if the weather is nice and staying on the bus means you don’t have to worry about crowded sidewalks or driving through unfamiliar streets on your own. You get to see all the highlights of the city with none of the fuss.

The Las Vegas version of Big Bus Tours cost $45 for the day tour and $49 for the night tour when we did it last year; new (lower) prices might be in effect when it restarts. Discounts are available for children and for multi-day passes. The day tour runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and has stops all along the Strip, downtown, the Arts District, North Premium Outlets, and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Buses run every 30 minutes or so and the whole loop takes two to three hours if you stay on for the entire trip.

We did this tour when we were staying at Bellagio, so we hopped on by the High Roller, rode the bus up the Strip and to Fremont Street, then back around to Circus Circus. We had lunch at the surprisingly good Blue Iguana Mexican restaurant at Circus, then hopped back on to continue our tour down to the southern end of the Strip, where we got off and cabbed it back to Bellagio. It’s a fun and relaxing way to see all the sights for the first time, or to see things again from a new and interesting perspective from the top of the bus (such as the street sign, bird’s eye view of the Excalibur turrets, and eye-level perspective on Lady Liberty pictured below), and the tour guides on each bus are entertaining and informative.

The night tour isn’t hop on hop off, as it runs only once, leaving at 8 p.m. for the cruise around the tourist corridor in all its neon glory.

All in all, the Big Bus Tours are a great way to see the Strip in a leisurely way and to spend as much time as you like at the places you want to explore in more detail.