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OnBoard New York Tours

OnBoard New York Tours

OnBoard New York Tours
4.5
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
About
OnBoard New York Tours operates the Only Comprehensive Guided Tour of New York City. Our tour guides hop off the shuttle bus with you at each attraction, showing you the city in detail. Smaller groups make better tours, so we limit group size on our tours and use smaller shuttles that allow more interaction with your guide.
New York City, New York

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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.


4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles1,526 reviews
Excellent
1,027
Very good
223
Average
80
Poor
63
Terrible
133

kmmnb2
Roy, UT53 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020 • Friends
Brooklyn Jim and Johnny were amazing. Tour was from 1015-330. Directions to find your guide are horrible. Basically you have to stand and look around lost until they show up. Plan on standing at the corner by the shake shack.
Written March 11, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

íde
Midlands1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
My daughter and I took a New York Party Shuttle Tour on Dec 5 2006.

To say it was a brilliant tour is not an exageration and we will be
recommending it to any of our friends travelling to New York. Our guide was excellent and the fact that she visited each attraction with us was an added bonus.

Ita & Mary Coffey
Ireland
Written January 16, 2007
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sammyt27
Carmichael, CA80 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
I booked the See It All, tour as well as the Night Tour for my first day (and first time) in NYC. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed by a few hours so I knew I wouldn't be making the 10 am tour as planned. I tried calling the company what seemed like a hundred times that morning to tell them that I wouldn't be making the morning tour and to see if I could re-schedule for another day. Each time I called, I received a message stating that the voice mail box was full- I finally resorted to email and got a response from the company, stating that they had just switched over phone companies and there had been phone issues for a few days. I didn't quite understand how a tour company can operate without a working phone number (apparenlty the phone number on the website was the old phone number) but they did allow me to do the morning tour on a different day.

The See It All tour is great for an overview of the layout of the city so that you can decide which areas you want to come back to later. The bus seats about 30 people and my bus was full for the morning tour. I did the Night Tour as well, which covered different locations so I was happy that I didn't just get a repeat by doing the two tours.

On the See It All Tour, there were 2 French Canadian couples traveling together who spoke very loudly while the tour guide was talking. I of course was next to them in the back of the bus. One of them was even talking on his cell phone a couple of times, and all the tour guide did was try to talk over him. When I asked him at the beginning of the tour if he could move me so that I could hear him speak, he said all the seats were taken, and never once during the 5 hours did he tell them to please be considerate of the others in the group trying to listen to the tour guide. It would help if the tour guide took a more aggressive approach to making sure everyone in the group wasn't distracted by such rude behavior.
Written May 27, 2009
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Coastal674066
1 contribution
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2021
We booked a tour in Washington DC for our school. Covid made us cancel our plans. They still owe us over $10,000. There is no way to contact them because all of the emails bounce back and no one ever answers the phone. Steer clear!
Written January 11, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Unfortunately, the terms of their contract did not allow cancellation. The Covid pandemic was unfortunate for everyone, and we are sorry that this group elected not to reschedule their trip. OnBoard remains willing to provide the tour they paid for, but the customer declined that option.
Written March 4, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

MaraFromToronto
Toronto, Canada3,532 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2015 • Friends
As you can see, I write a lot of Trip Advisor reviews, because I rely on them to make my travel plans. Our "See It All" tour of NYC the other day was rife with problems. Perhaps they had a bad day? You be the judge.

It began with 35 of us packed onto the bus as suggested, 30 minutes early, and the guide, Shelley, showing up literally at the second we were ready to depart. It did not leave me with the most professional impression. We were told there would be no opportunity to use a bathroom for at least 2 hours, and that turned out to be 2.5 hours, which was not an issue for me, but was for others.

Then, our lunch stop was 25 minutes at the fast food court, really poor, in the Statten Island Ferry terminal. With all the neighbourhoods we were passing and being told there was great food there, I am not at all clear why we would have been eating where we were.

The main problem began when our bus was not at the ferry terminal upon our return from the ferry ride. I overheard a cell phone conversation and learned Fred, the guy in charge, had asked his driver to run a personal errand for him, and well, the driver did not get back in time. So....we walked the tour until about 3:00. At one point, Fred appeared, and told us there was good news! We would not have to take the subway back, the bus would return!
Was he kidding? At any point we were at risk of no transportation home because he decided to use our driver for his own use?

It gets "better". Shelley then left 15 of us while he escorted the group of 20 to the bus, which had finally returned. They needed to catch a train, and so....for 25 minutes (I checked), we stood alone, just wasting time. Unfortunately we had to continue the walking tour because the bus driver was not back from his shuttle run until about 4:00. It was clear to me that we were killing time until it worked for him to return.

When he did return, we boarded the bus for home, but a few minutes in, one of the group noticed two members were missing :P, so we stopped the bus and off Shelley went to find them. I guess the concept of head counts escapes On Board.

By now, the rush hour traffic was horrific, and now we were late for our own next commitments, so, at about 5:00, we jumped bus, so to speak, and walked a very long walk back. Shelley, for the record, was a good tour guide, but we did catch more than a handful of inaccurate facts, probably thrown out for the sake of a good story.

The other issue was that we booked a bus tour because one of our party had a broken foot, and while she could walk, the bus was planned to give her breaks. When we got back to the hotel, I wrote Fred, expressing our frustration throughout the day, and asked him for a partial refund, given the day was anything but as advertised. I got back from him a ranting, angry, rude email, basically telling me no one on the bus liked me from the beginning, and he ha checked with everyone else and they were all happy. Even if they were happy, this was not the issue. We were not, and for good reason. I tried again to send a second rational email, and got back more rudeness, at which point I asked Fred to refrain from contacting me again, which he did, and my final request made it clear I considered this to be harassment. At the least, Fred should have apologized to us for the day going awry. He did not. Instead he attacked me, his customer. Not a very good experience, to say the least.
Written April 27, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

earthbound06
Totland, UK100 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2012 • Couples
My wife & I visited NYC late March/April this year & had pre-booked the NY See It All! Tour via their web-site at a cost of almost $170 in February. The booking was made based on reviews etc on here & Tripadvisor & as the tour web-site also offered -

"New York's Only Comprehensive Guided Tour. Our tour guides will hop off the bus with you and walk you through each attraction and take you on a one-hour boat cruise to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty from the water. It's the highest rated bus tour in New York City because its' not just about the bus"

& this was our second/third visit to NYC we wanted to see as many sights as possible in the short 1 full day stay we were there - what happened on the day (3/31/12) was absolutely diabolical & totally unacceptable!!

We arrived as requested on the confirmation at the address on 7th Avenue well before our 10am start, approx 100 other people were waiting in the same area. Note that the address given is not really an office but similar to a garden out-house & was closed - it's actually in a set of stairs under the Winter Garden's Mamma Mia sign! One member of staff & one guide were there but no-one checked us in. After waiting 15 minutes we were told to join the correct group it was then apparent that other tours were also standing around in the same area. We continued to stand around until 10.15 when we were then told that our "bus" had been delayed & was en-route to us, arriving shortly. We continued to wait & wait & wait - no bus. Now from the images given on the web-site we would have expected a "smallish" bus to arrive BUT we wondered how they would fit 50+ people into one of these vehicles, then it dawned on us that it would probably be a coach - something to bear in mind!

Another few minutes went by & by now people were becoming frustrated, no bus/coach in sight. However the guide (name escapes me!) suggested that in order to keep to time, that the tour group walks (yes walks) to the first attraction which was the Rockefeller Center - a 10/15 minute walk in the cold/rain - nice, where the bus/coach would meet the group! So the group all walk up 49th Street behind the guide to the Plaza/Center where we are told a few facts, look at the ice rink (empty) & taken through the paths to walk (again) onto the next attraction - Saint Patrick's Cathedral where we are again told that a bus/coach was on it's way. The guide was making cell phone calls to check on the arrangements, all we were told was that he was awaiting confirmation & that calls were being made backwards & forwards frantically!!! But what was worrying me all the time was that the words "the bus may" & "the bus might" arrive soon - you can probably guess what happens!

We arrived in our group outside the Cathedral & are given a few facts & are told that we can visit inside, my wife & I light remembrance candles on behalf of her deceased parents & make our $$ contribution. After a few minutes we walk back outside to the steps where we confront the guide & ask him where the bus/coach is, by now the time is close to 11am, people are now very concerned. There was no straight answer from the guide as to when the bus/coach was arriving, only that it "may", he also mentioned that a bus had to be ordered which makes the earlier "delayed" bus total nonsense. I decided to try & call the Office from a nearby payphone using the 212 number on the confirmation - lo & behold NO answer!! Returning to the group we again wait until 11.20am & decide that we had had enough, time to go for the refund, by now other people were thinking the same as the whole experience so far had been a total mess. After a few minutes the guide confirms that NO bus/coach was on it's way & that the whole group were to return to the meeting point & register for refunds!!

We made our way back to meet the other member of staff who informed us that he could not issue the refund as the tour was booked by debit card & had to be processed, frustrated all we could do was write our details & confirmation number down on the back of a piece of paper & be $170 out of packet. By the way we are still awaiting the refund almost 2 weeks later! No doubt with the number of people involved this process took a long time but we did not hang around to find out - we tried to look for another half day tour but no luck.

Our only full day in NYC was totally ruined by this Company. Both the guide & staff member looked to be on short fuses & were quite abrupt/rude with their poor replies to peoples questions.

It's quite simple, if you are a Company that has a large number of people confirmed on a tour then you provide the transport accordingly at the time stated.

If there was the option for no stars then I would use it, I would not recommend
Written April 10, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

HappyGoLuckyOhioUSA
Dublin7 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2014 • Family
Please note, I am writing this review after talking with all details with customer care from onboard newyork tours. Our holiday light tour with this tour company was not at all a good exp. First of all Christmas holiday lighting tour is 70$ per person which is pretty expensive as compare to other tours in Time Square. We actually purchase this tour tickets online, but released that at time square similar tour with other tour company was providing for 34$.
Most of tour attraction were closed, no one from our bus was happy with tour. Tour pickup location and drop off location was not same. So Please be aware on that. You may need to walk in Cold weather. After our visit we contact customer care and explain about our exp. but they refused to agree with it. They felt we were lying.

Finally, we wasted 70$ per person.

So I would like to request you to please don't waste your money on Holiday Light tour with this touring company.
Written January 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are very sorry you did not enjoy your tour. Our tours do cost more than our competitors, because you get the benefit of a comfortable seat, a climate-controlled vehicle, free refreshments on board, and a professional tour guide who stays with you the entire time. With regard to attractions being closed, we obviously cannot control what other companies or attractions do with regard to closing unexpectedly. You are correct that the Holiday Lights Tour ends in a different location, but that is because our customers ask for the opportunity to spend more time in Rockefeller Center after the tour. We feel that the tour experience is outstanding, as evidenced by the huge volume of 5-star reviews we receive for our tours in New York, Washington DC, and Las Vegas. In light of the fact that you did not enjoy the tour, we will be happy to provide you with two tickets for any of our tours for free on your next visit. Just contact our office at and mention this response and your experience.
Written February 25, 2015
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

gchoffman812
Indianapolis, IN45 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Maybe our expectations were to high but after reading on board description of what we would see It sounded perfect but didn't meet our expectations. Going a hundred feet into Central Park is really not a visit. Looking at a bridge several miles away just doesn't do it. The trip to the Statue of liberty anyone could have done on their own the guide pointed in the direction then sat down and waitd for us to return. We signed up for the the two day see it all however On board cancelled day two that may have been a good thing. They gave us a refund of what they considered the right amount....and it took five weeks to get it... after several emails.
Written October 16, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

traveltime_0006
Perth, Australia126 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Please don't book this tour. Having attempted to take this tour tonight we found a sign on the bus the tour drivers had not been paid. They then turned up and told us the tour was cancelled. After calling the CEO he said a bus was in a different location. Having moved to here we found a bus with a driver who had no idea what was happening. After 30 mins the guide finally turned up. This was a joke. Please us another company if you want the tour guaranteed.
Written December 13, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kenzo2014732
Singapore, Singapore14 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2014 • Solo
Was the only passenger in bus for the NY shopping tour with OnBoard tours NY. Was abandoned at Jersey Garden mall as bus driver never came to pick me up despite being at the pick up point 10 mins earlier . Waited outdoors for one hour , missing 2 public buses in the process.

Bad experience for a tourist in an unfamiliar city. Very stressful then.
Had to return to hotel at my own expense.
Tour company never replied when I emailed my feed back to them about this, was simply ignored.
Written May 6, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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