We only had 4 days in NYC this trip. And we wanted to see as many things as we possibly could. The Big Bus Tour ended up being the perfect solution for us. At first we were unsure about taking this tour because many of the sales people are a little pushy and they seem to be all over the place....but after taking a few minutes to talk with one of the representatives outside of our hotel, we changed our minds....he actually took the time to show us the reviews on trip advisor...which we use anytime we travel and want accurate descriptions and reviews of activities and restaurants....and there was no comparison between Big Bus Tours and the closest rated similar tours. We chose the 2 day, 2 route tickets. Since this is a "hop on/ hop off" tour, we could choose where we wanted to go ...we were provided with a really good route map that was actually a pretty good map of the Manhattan area of NYC. It showed all of the stops on the routes. We decided to do the Uptown route one day and the Downtown route the next. We were also provided with earbuds, which we were allowed to keep, so we could hear very clearly the narration by the guide whether we were sitting in the open air upper level of the bus or on the air-conditioned lower level. The tour guides we had (4 different people at different times) were not only informational, but quite entertaining as well. One of the days we went it looked as if it might rain and Big Bus Tours provided rain ponchos for everyone that we also were allowed to keep. We got to see everything from The Empire State Building to Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the 9/11 Memorial and the One World Trade Center Building. We would highly recommend these tours to anyone who wants to see as much of NYC as possible in a convenient and reasonably priced way. We would not hesitate to take this tour again the next time we are in NYC!