Hop on Hop off Bus Tours in Chicago

Booking a seat on the Chicago sightseeing bus is a perfect way to familiarise yourself with the city and reduce the time you have to spend touring the most iconic areas of the windy city. Daytime, ghost tours, mob and crime tours, minibus tours, barrel bus tours? Are you ready to get to know Chicago on wheels?

Chicago's tour buses will take you to the most important attractions of the city and some of them will take you to residential neighbourhoods. In addition, as opposed to the more traditional alternatives, you can also choose from more special buses in Chicago:

• Book a seat on Chicago's Big Bus: a two-hour bus tour with free stops on which you can choose between different routes, Classic, Premium or Deluxe.
• Take a tour of Chicago by minibus: you will travel with a maximum of 12 people and make 4 stops. You'll be able to photograph places like the Chicago River, Buckingham Fountain, Lincoln Park, the Rookery Building, the Museum Campus or the skyline of the Windy City.
• Take a keg bus beer tour of Chicago: you'll travel through Chicago on a keg bus, tasting different types of traditional beer and soaking up the city's beer history.
• Take a mafia and crime bus tour of Chicago: enjoy a thrilling tour of the crime and mafia of Chicago's streets on a 2-hour tour aboard a comfortable bus as your guide explains true crime secrets about Chicago gangsters such as Al Capone, the Untouchables, the Chicago Mafia, Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti and many more.
• Book a Chicago ghost bus tour: for two and a half hours, a historian guide will tell you the scariest ghost stories of Illinois' largest city.

Secondly, there are some that follow the traditional concept of having a guide or audio guide on board the vehicle to highlight the architectural landmarks that surround them, while others are more focused on details of the community's history. Just like the tours that focus on its gangster and mafia past.

Book a seat on the Chicago Big Bus and discover the most important monuments of the city of Chicago, such as:

• Chicago Theatre.
• Grant Park.
• Buckingham Fountain.
• Navy Pier on the shores of Lake Michigan.
• The iconic Centennial Wheel at Navy Pier.
• Northerly Island, a man-made island, on the shore of Lake Michigan.
• Soldier Field football stadium.
• Adler Planetarium, America's first science museum.
• The Wrigley Building skyscraper.
• Willis Tower.
• Legendary buildings of the Chicago Loop financial district.
• The Art Institute of Chicago.

Plus, the Big Bus makes strategic stops near major attractions so you can explore downtown at your own pace.

By the way, if you want additional benefits, such as a non-stop night tour to see the Chicago skyline lit up, choose your Deluxe ticket when you book your seat.

Interesting details

The first bus departs at 10am and the last bus at 5pm. This allows you to use the Big Bus as a convenient means of transport, hopping on and off as often as you like in the areas that suit you best.

Buses run every 30 to 45 minutes, so you'll have choices throughout the day.

Booking a minibus tour of Chicago will take you to the following sights:

• Chicago River: where you can photograph the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, Marina City, Chicago River, among others.
• Buckingham Fountain: located in Grant Park and considered one of the most beautiful fountains in the world.
• Lincoln Park: home to a zoo, beautiful gardens, important sculptures and fountains.
• Rookery Building: one of the world's first skyscrapers.
• Chicago Skyline: for one of the best panoramic views of Chicago.
• Museum Campus: located next to Lake Michigan and where you will be able to take unparalleled photos.

You'll also make four photo stops along the way and, if you choose when you book, you'll be able to sail aboard a cruise ship with a bar.

Chicagoans' love of beer has reached such a point that there are now more than 50 pub and brewery options in the city. If you are also a lover of this alcoholic beverage, then booking a beer tour of Chicago where you will travel around the city aboard a keg bus is a top plan for you.

Along the way you will learn about the history of beer and, of course, you will be able to taste multiple varieties of this beverage.

Booking the Chicago mob and crime tour you will visit iconic Chicago buildings such as the Biograph Theatre, where multiple murders took place, and the Holy Name Cathedral, where the St. Valentine's Day massacre occurred in 1929, on board a bus, in a comfortable and relaxed way.

In addition, you can walk through the streets of neighbourhoods such as Streeterville, the Gold Coast and the Loop where many dark stories from the city's past are hidden.

If you are a lover of mind-blowing stories of organised crime and the mafia, this bus tour is the perfect plan for you.

If horror stories are your thing, book the ghost bus tour and discover the city's most terrifying legends with a historian guide.

Along the bus tour, you'll learn about the most shocking points of the city' s dark history:

• The abandoned graves in the old city cemetery.
• The site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
• The ghost ships on Lake Michigan.
• The corners of the Fort Dearborn massacre.
• The great Chicago fire.
• The Eastland River disaster.
• The lair of the Devil Baby House of Hull.

A ghostly plan only for the bravest!

Many tourists arriving in big cities are often faced with the problem that they want to see the structure, learn about the history behind its construction and photograph it. However, having to walk several streets to get from one place to another is a real inconvenience. However, a nice and comfortable vehicle is a great way to marvel at Chicago' s architecture without having to spend several days walking around the area that can be visited in a couple of hours thanks to these bus routes.

The issue of comfort comes as the second major benefit associated with the best Chicago tour buses. This is due to the fact that being in a vehicle is something that all families have experienced at some point and for young children it can be a more favourable scenario than having to walk several miles a day to go to the places that their parents are interested in.

In fact, a bus that is air-conditioned, has two floors and no roof is one of those activities to do in Chicago with kids during the parts of the trip that are focused on learning about the cultural beauty of this city.

The length of a Chicago sightseeing bus tour depends on the type of route offered by the tour company. There are some that last 2 or 3 hours, others extend for about 5 hours and there are also some that are even available on more than one date if you purchase a package with these conditions.

In addition, sometimes the tour group gets off the vehicle to tour the attraction, while in others it remains a bus tour that is accompanied by a guide or an audio guide with the intention of making passengers aware of the historical significance of the environment they are passing through.

Tickets that give you access to Chicago's best sightseeing buses are fairly inexpensive by the standards of other major cities:

• If you book a seat on Chicago's Big Bus you'll pay 46 euros.
• If youtake a minibus tour of Chicago you'll pay 44 euros.
• Hiring a beer bus-barrel tour of Chicago will cost you 92 euros.
• Taking a mafia and crime bus tour of Chicago costs 40 euros.
• Hiring a ghost bus tour of Chicago costs 51 euros.

Most commonly, there are morning, midday and mid-afternoon buses. Some have night routes, but this is less common.

On the other hand, stop-and-go buses often have up to 15 vehicles running at the same time, so you can get on whichever one you want. As long as it's a time that falls within the daily operating timeframe, though.

Also note that the Big Bus includes access to an app that lets you know where the next bus is closest to your stop and how long it takes to get to that point in the city, improving the experience and avoiding long waits when you could actually be sitting in a café or restaurant near the pick-up point.