Los Angeles Big Bus Tour (Review)

This is a very quick post to round off the end of the USA and Canada trip content. I ended up booking another Big Bus Tour for Los Angeles. After initially going for the Starline Bus Tour, I was given a complimentary voucher for the Big Bus Tour so cancelled the Starline Bus Tour within the cancellation period instead. 

As I was staying towards the Santa Monica end of Los Angeles, I wanted transport that would take me from Santa Monica to LA and back. The Big Bus tour offered two routes to accommodate this which was crucial for me. The downside was that the Santa Monica started late in the day and finished early in the day so it didn't give me very long to explore LA itself, and I only could sit on the route in Santa Monica and then walk the rest, as it had already stopped running before I could go round a second time. 

The distance from Santa Monica to LA is actually quite far. It was almost a 1 hour bus journey, without really stopping so it was much further than I had anticipated. Having said that, even on the journey is was better than getting an taxi because they did still give the audio tour guide throughout the journey and I learnt a lot about the history and saw lots of filming studios. 

In LA, the bus route was questionable. It didn't really feel like we got to see the picturesque, popular areas of LA and instead we did a lot of back roads and more rundown bits. We heard about the famous celeb spots, but they weren't visible. I ended up getting off and going to see the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory, then walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but other than that, I didn't have time to get off and do any other attractions which was a shame. 

There were lots of other Big Bus Tour routes and packages, with two others that I considered. Had I have had more time I think the TMZ Celebrity Tour would have been fun and intriguing because that was the part of LA I've been somewhat used to seeing, however there was two reasons I didn't in the end. One being that I didn't have time, and by the time they were finished, the route back to Santa Monica had stopped so I would have had to get an expensive taxi back. The second being that they sold it as a celebrity spotting trip which didn't feel right, because I don't want to intrude on their privacy. The other package was the Griffith sunset tour for the Hollywood sign. Like I said previously, I'm glad I didn't do this one because whilst the Griffith Observatory would have been better at sunset, the view of LA and the Hollywood sign would have been poor, especially if we came after sunset which a lot of the winter reviews mentioned.