Need help with Sightseeing Tours
 

Can anyone recommend sightseeing tour buses in Zurich, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Verona? Thank you in advance.

Zurich.... there's the fountain, there's the cathedral...... that's it. :-)

Sorry, I can't help.

Hi
Do you mean just tours that are taken by bus or are you open to other types if tours like bikes and walking? I can recommend a few tours in Paris and Rome but they weren't by bus.

In Paris, I love Paris Walks. Inexpensive walking tours. Check them out at www.paris-walks.com

If you google "sightseeing tour bus paris" you'll get many results for the well known bus tour operators in Paris. I'm assuming the same would be true of Zurich, Rome, Florence and Verona.

Do you have some mobility issues that making walking difficult? If not, all of those cities are easily walkable.

Paris: A bus tour around Paris is, IME, painfully boring, just sitting in a bus and seeing the outsides of buildings. Pick places you want to see and use the metro to get to them. Choose places you want to walk around and do that.

Rome: Rome is best seen by walking, standing by fountains, going inside the Pantheon, etc. It is for the most part a very walkable city. You might want a taxi to go to any places not close to city center, but there is a metro (somewhat limited), buses everywhere, and taxis are cheap.

Florence: City center is very, very small, only a few blocks. Seeing things up close is absolutely the best way there. I do not know if there even are bus tours of Florence. It would seem silly for most things. The Duomo and Baptistery are only a few feet apart. Ponte Vechio is only a couple of blocks away. Other churches and museums are also only three or four blocks from the Duomo. You might want the bus up to Piazza Michelangelo or to Fiesole.

Verona: If you are arriving by train, you can walk about twenty minutes, take a bus or grab a taxi to the city center. The arena is right there.

roefn,
We have taken l'Open Tour, a hop on/hop off tour bus. It's good for an overview and will get you to wherever you want to go. That said, it's slow with all the people getting on and buying tickets. I prefer public transportation if there's time. There's also the Batobus, a boat that travels up and down the Seine, stopping at major tourist sites. We start at the Eiffel Tower, stop at the Musee D'Orsay, then Saint Germain, etc.

www.paris.opentour.com

http://www.batobus.com/en.html

Have a great trip!
Sandy

I can't imagine that Florence actually has tour buses. The historic center - where you will probably spend most time is not only very small - can walk across in 20 minutes - most of it is pedestrian only - so no place for buses.

Agree that within cities walking tours are much better than bus tours - unless you will be there quite a while and want the dreaded half day city tour on a bus just to give you an idea of the geography of larger cities (and don;t mind sitting in traffic a lot).

Thank you everyone for your helpful inputs. They are very much appreciated.

I generally take a hop/on--hop/off bus tour in any city that I visit. They give an overview of the city, and you can get off along the way to see specific sights, then get back on later.

I also have a guidebook or two, which gives more information about the sights.

Check Art Viva for Florence, Rome.