My brother and his family are visiting NY for the first time this summer, and want to take a hop on, hop off bus tour. I took a Gray Line tour on my first trip and found it to be good, but that was years ago and these tours are now getting really bad reviews on tripadvisor etc. Is there another option that would be better?

Got great advice from this site for a trip last year so hope you can help me (or them) out this time.

I think it's hit-or-miss with all of them, depending on how good the guide is. I took one of these tours a year ago, and it was terrible because the guide was clueless, and we also were really slowed by gridlocked traffic.

I would suggest they do one loop, without getting off the bus. And then get unlimited metro cards so they can go back and explore areas that look good to them. The buses are popular, and particularly in the summer, ticket holders can have a long wait to reboard a bus, they're very crowded.

I agree with Oracle, I have taken the tour a number of times with friends who were visiting and think it is much better to do a whole loop and then go back to the places that appealed the most. Otherwise you are wasting a lot of time waiting for buses.

I just did the "sex and the city" bus tour with a couple friends who were in town and who really wanted to do that. I've only seen the show a couple times but they are big fans and loved it. It's sort of a specialized bus tour, of course, but in case that one is an option, it got great reviews from my two friends. Even for me, a non-fan, it was OK.