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City Tour Madrid bus company hop on hop off

Posted by (Oregon) on

We are considering taking the hop on hop off City Tour Madrid bus when we arrive to get acquainted with the area. We had Palace tickets but we’re informed they will not be open to the public the entire week we are there (3rd week of April).

In researching, it looks like there are times when the City Tour Madrid service has to change to panoramic only (no hopping off).

"The Madrid City Tour operates primarily in a Hop On Hop Off format, allowing passengers to explore the city at their own pace. However, there are occasions when this service may be altered.
Temporary Suspensions: The Hop On Hop Off service can be suspended due to municipal regulations or traffic conditions. For example, there have been instances where the service was changed to a panoramic mode, meaning passengers could not get off the bus during the tour.
Current Status: As of now, the service is designed to allow passengers to hop on and off at any of the 34 designated stops across three routes.
Municipal Regulations May lead to temporary suspension
Traffic Conditions Can result in changes to service mode
Special Events May affect bus routes and stops
While the Madrid City Tour generally operates as a Hop On Hop Off service, it is important to check for any updates or changes, especially during busy periods or special events.”

I get that sometimes the bus will have to change panoramic. I am not concerned as we are getting an overview and can come back later.

My questions is how the rest of the ride is. It looks like you can bring your own headphones and with the tour app listen to an English translation of each stop. Anyone have any recent experience with this company?
Thanks!

Posted by
1 posts

Hi Janey - sorry no one replied. How did it go? We're heading over in a few weeks and are looking the hop-on/off tours as well. Were they really hop-on/off when you where there? Did you have to start at Stop 1 or could you start at any of the stops? Was the bus air conditioned (the lower level)? It's going to be over 100 degrees when we're there!

Posted by
73 posts

Yes we did do hop on/hop off in Madrid. The one we did had 3 different routes. All start at the Neptune plaza, very near the Prado museum. We bought the 24 hour ticket online ahead of time. There were employees there to help you and guide you to the route you wanted. But be aware, there are also a couple of other bus companies (with different names) getting on at the same plaza. We specifically did the CITI TOUR hop on hop off.

I would say it was a mixed bag. We sat on the upper deck because my husband wanted to take pictures. It did make it hard to hear the audioguide because there was lots of traffic and it was noisy. I’m sure the lower area would make it easier to hear. Also, at the very end we discovered there were 2 english translations. The first was a Spanish person speaking English with a very heavy accent and difficult to understand. There was a second english translation (maybe #14??) that was much easier to understand.

So a separate issue for us was that we got off at Plaza Mayor. The drop off point was actually a couple blocks away and we had to walk to Plaza Mayor. Then we walked around a bit outside the plaza and could never find a place to “HOP ON” the bus again.

There’s no SPECIFIC map, just a general one, and there are no signs posted. We walked and walked and finally ended back at the Neptune plaza (where you start) never finding any location or bus to get back on. By then, we were so exhausted we didn’t even want to try another route!

So, I think it could be a good thing, depending on how you play it, but for us it was a bit of a disappointment and probably not worth the money. If you don’t get off it should be ok. Or maybe one of the other companies has a better map and signage to find how to get back on again. If we went again, I would consider trying it, just would get more information nailed down if we wanted to actually be getting off and on.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions.

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