The Night tour (which is not hop-on, hop-off) travels from Midtown Manhattan into Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side across the Manhattan Bridge and into Brooklyn. The Brooklyn loop starts in Lower Manhattan and crosses the Manhattan Bridge and includes stops through Brooklyn, including the Prospect Park Zoo, the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Promenade. The Downtown loop covers much of midtown Manhattan, including Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, and the Empire State Building, as well as downtown neighborhoods such as SoHo and Greenwich Village and attractions including the Statue of Liberty and 9/11 Memorial. The Uptown loop travels from midtown up the Upper West Side into Harlem and back down via the Upper East Side along Fifth Avenue. Gray Line offers four different loops: Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as a 2-hour Night Tour (not hop-on, hop-off).

Gray Line's red double-decker buses are an iconic New York City sight and Gray Line has been providing tours of New York City since 1926! In most cases, it's less expensive if you book your tickets in advance, and there are frequently sales available online, so if the price is the most important factor for you, be sure to compare all the different choices.Ĭitysightsnyc/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 The coverage of each Night tour varies, but they often include Brooklyn and there isn't the option to hop-on, hop-off during the tour. The Downtown loop covers the area south of Times Square to the southern tip of Manhattan. The Uptown Loop covers Central Park and north: sometimes this includes the Upper East Side, sometimes the Upper West Side and less often, both. The Midtown loop typically covers the area between Times Square and Central Park. In most cases, each tour operator has a Midtown, Uptown, and Downtown loop, as well as a night tour. It also offers easy access to many tourist attractions that might not be as easy to reach via public transit. You can get on and off the bus as you please, making it easy to explore many different parts of Manhattan during your ride.

There are several great reasons to take a double-decker bus tour of New York City, including that they offer you not only a guided tour but also transportation around the city. Here we'll try to help you pick the right one for your trip by assessing each option's strengths and weaknesses. New York City offers visitors no shortage of options for just about every aspect of your trip.

Red double decker bus