There were 3 companies touting for business by Santa Monica Pier on this particular day, we chose Big Bus because of the route and the bus driver offered a discount. The route along the beaches was nice and the recorded commentary was interesting , we changed to the Hollywood Loop with live commentary which was OK. We got off in Hollywood to look around and re-joined the Hollywood bus at 3.30pm , the commentator was dull and uninteresting (Carl I think) by the time we reached Beverly Hills, none of the 20 people on the top deck had their head phones on. We were then told that the last Beach Loop bus had left for the day, it was 4:10 pm. The driver and guide were unhelpful and said this was stated in their leaflet so we would have to find our own way back to Santa Monica, the Big Bus Company should make this clear to people before taking their money , and improve some of their tour guides