Hop On Hop Off Bus Worth Cost?

We always find the hop on/off buses to be useful when we are first in a city. Not the same as the metro. Generally the tickets are good for 24 hours so will buy around noon, ride one complete loop and listen to the commentary (no commentary on the metro). That gives us a good orientation and then we decide the sites we want to visit longer. Hit those sites that afternoon and evening and do the same in the morning. Generally we find the buses are good value.

We usually love Hop on/off tours but HATED the L'Open tour in Paris. We felt the commentary was juvenile and unless you could see the street signs that showed what stop you were on, you had no idea. We should have just gone to places we wanted to go. I never even felt like it was a good overview as there were 4 lines and it was long waits.

Frank is right, if you want an orientation to the city the HOHO bus is the way to go, that is it's advantage, for that the metro is not the way to go. It's underground so you don't see any of Paris getting from one place to the other and there's certainly no commentary about the area sights, not to mention that you need to know how to use it before you attempt it for the first time. If you're only using the HOHO bus as transportation from one sight to another then I would say it's too pricey for that and, yes, the metro works well if you know where you're going and only want to get there. If you want to see a bit of Paris during the ride and don't need the commentary there are regular buses that you can use that are much cheaper and easy to use.

I agree that the regular RATP buses are excellent for sightseeing but only if you can get a seat. The numbers 42 and 69 have interesting routes and you will certainly get seats at the beginning of their runs. The 42 starts at Gare du Nord and the 69 at .Champs de Mars.

I generally do not consider using HoHo tours, prefer to ride the metro, bus or tram to get to the areas I want to visit and do the research so I make good use of my time, but I did use one in Salzburg. I was there for just a long day trip, came by train, and many of their sites worth seeing are spread over quite a distance so that was the major selling point for me. In Paris you might use it, or a similar tour bus, to get oriented but otherwise I think you'll accomplish more using transit to get to areas you want to spend time in.

Paris is one city where the HOHO buses do a good job seeing the sights, but like all, not that great for general transportation. The metro or city buses are cheaper and much more efficient way to get around.

maria,

I tend to follow the same travel method as Frank. The HOHO buses are a great way to get an idea of where the major sights are, and it's nice to be able to get off and have a closer look if desired. I also find them to be a good way to rest my aching back and legs, after a lot of sightseeing, and it's great to have the elevation from the second floor to take pictures. I don't care about "cheaper" when I'm touring, and they're not really that expensive.

If you ride the Metro, you won't be seeing any sights but rather only the inside of a tunnel, along with some garish advertising posters and large monitors in the stations broadcasting annoying adverts ad nauseum.

So much of the joy of being in Paris comes from being on the street. Not just with many of the famous sights being close together, but also finding delight in unexpected corners. If you can, get off the bus and walk.

This is entirely a personal preference thing. I hate HOHO buses -- you wait forever for them, they are slow, the commentary is always ridiculous. On the other hand a person with a broken foot or with other mobility issues can see a good deal of the city while seated. Some like them for an overview of the city; if I wanted that in Paris I would probably take Foxity bus tour where at least you aren't stopping an waiting endlessly.

The normal city buses let you see the world go by but I prefer the metro which is quick and easy and gets you where you want to be swiftly. If you enjoyed them in other towns, you would probably like them in Paris. to each his own. But they are terrible as transportation to sights; you are much better off taking the metro to get around. It is also cheaper; you can get a pass for a week for the metro/buses (Mon-Sun week) for the cost of a day or two on the hoho.

Here's how we used the HOHO. On our arrival day, we were too tired and jet-lagged to want to do much more than ride a bus all around the main tourist sights so we could get oriented. If we had wanted to actually visit the sights, then no question the Metro would have been easier and cheaper. But with the Metro, we would not have gotten the visual perspective. With the HOHO, we saw where the sights were in relation to each other, where the crowds were, etc. So the next day, we knew exactly what we wanted to go back to and how long it would take between them.

Here are the most common complaints about HOHO buses:

We couldn't hear the audio guide - or - the audio guide wasn't interesting
We couldn't get a seat on the upper level

We had trouble climbing the stairs
We couldn't see anything from the lower level
It rained - or - it was too cold - or - too hot - to sit on the upper level
We couldn't find the stop when we wanted to get back on
It took too long to catch the next HOHO
We wanted to use it for daily transportation, but it takes too long

If you are there when the weather's good, aren't in a hurry, don't use the audio guide (maybe use RS version or a guidebook instead), and just want to enjoy the sights for an hour or two, that's probably a good idea.

But it's important to download the map of the HOHO stops before you get to Paris, so if you do want to walk around awhile, you'll know where to find them and how often they run.

If you need to use a bus for daily transportation, it would be easier and much cheaper to use the city bus system.
But again, you'll have to do some research to find out how the system works - and find the bus stops - before you get to Paris. There are good references in RS guidebooks.

PS - I would never recommend buying a ticket for the HOHO bus ahead of time. Wait until you get to Paris then buy it from the driver.