Whether you're trying to plan out your hop-on hop-off San Francisco bus tour ahead of time, or you're having trouble accessing this information through other means, this post provides both route maps and descriptions of each route offered in this beautiful city.
Big Bus San Francisco Map and Routes
Here is the most current hop-on hop-off San Francisco map for Big Bus Tours as of September 2023. They currently offer 2 different routes: the red route and the blue route.
Big Bus Red Route
This is the main service offered by Big Bus in San Francisco, and it includes exactly 16 stops.
The Red Route operates year-round except on New Years Day and Christmas, and it takes approximately 120 minutes to experience the entire tour from start to finish.
Of course, a hop-on hop-off bus tour is designed to allow you the chance to jump off the bus and explore areas of interest at your leisure, which means you can make the tour last as long as you want!
Big Bus Tours San Francisco provides the Red Route service from 10:00 am to 8 pm each day, giving you a total of 10 hours each day to explore the city at your own pace.
Here are each of the stops made on the Red Route. We’ll include nearby attractions for each stop:
- Fisherman’s Wharf
- Pier 45
- Madame Tussauds
- Musee Mecanique
- USS Pampanito Museum
- North Beach/Chinatown
- The Beat Museum
- Washington Square
- Little Italy
- Embarcadero Center
- Transamerica Pyramid
- Wells Fargo Museum
- The Embarcadero
- Ferry Building
- Union Square South
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Yerba Buena Gardens
- Redemption Center
- San Francisco Cable Cars
- International Art Museum of America
- Civic Center
- Asian Art Museum
- San Francisco City Hall
- San Francisco Public Library
- Alamo Square
- The Painted Ladies
- African American Art & Culture Complex
- Haight Ashbury
- Golden Gate Park
- California Academy of Sciences
- San Francisco Botanical Garden
- Japanese Tea Garden
- De Young Museum
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Horseshoe Bay
- Bay Area Discovery Museum
- Palace of Fine Arts
- Walt Disney Family Museum
- Golden Gate Promenade
- Yoda Fountain
- Marina/Cow Hollow
- Lombard Street
- Ghirardelli Square
- Cartoon Art Museum
- Aquatic Park
- Pier 35
- Pier 39
- Sea Lions
- Musical Stairs
- Aquarium of the Bay
- Alcatraz Cruises
Big Bus Blue Route
The Blue Route of this hop-on hop-off San Francisco service is their night tour, and it is offered nightly at 6:30 pm, running for approximately 1 hour.
This route is more about enjoying views of the city than anything else, because you can’t hop on or off wherever you’d like.
There are no stops on this outing, but the tour does begin and end in Fisherman’s Wharf.
Here are a few of the sites you can expect to see on this San Francisco night bus tour:
- Fisherman’s Wharf
- The Embarcadero
- Financial District
- Chinatown
- Bay Bridge
- Treasure Island
- San Francisco Skyline
- And more!
San Francisco Skyline Sightseeing Map and Routes
Here is the most current hop-on hop-off map for San Francisco Skyline Sightseeing as of September 2023. They currently offer 2 different routes: the red route and the blue route. Both are very similar to the routes offered by their competitor Big Bus Tours.
Skyline Sightseeing Red Route
This bus line includes a total of 19 stops, and it operates year round from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm each day. The entire route takes approximately 2 hours to complete from start to finish.
Although you could just stay on the bus for 2 hours and experience the entire tour, don’t forget that a hop-on hop-off San Francisco tour is designed to let you jump off wherever you want and explore the city at your own pace.
Here are each of the stops provided on the Red Route:
- Fisherman's Wharf
- Chinatown / North Beach
- Embarcadero Centers
- Ferry Building
- Union Square
- Hilton Hotel
- Civic Center
- Alamo Square
- Haight Ashbury
- Golden Gate Park
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Palace of Fine Arts
- Marina / Cow Hollow
- Lombard Street
- Pier 35 / Cruise Terminal
- Pier 39
The attractions you can easily reach using this service are essentially the same as those available to passengers of the Big Bus Tours San Francisco Red Route.
Skyline Sightseeing Blue Route
Like their competitors, this company also offers a blue route that only runs at night, and it is not a hop-on hop-off service. This route will also take you over the Bay Bridge and to Treasure Island.
Here are some of the other sites you can expect to see on this route:
- San Francisco Skyline
- Fisherman’s Wharf
- The Embarcadero
- Financial District
- Chinatown
- And more!
