TopView Night Tour: Open-Top Double-Decker NYC Bus Tour

In the Price

Your $69 covers the 90-minute open-top double-decker ride, the live English-speaking guide with commentary and trivia, and panoramic night views from the upper deck. The tour runs rain or shine, so dress for the weather.

Everything else is on you. The listing excludes hotel pickup and drop-off, food and drinks, and there is no entry to any attraction. No boat ride, no observation deck, no stops to buy anything. Plan dinner before or after, and use the restroom before boarding because there are none on the bus.

Boarding Rules That Catch People Out

You cannot board with a paper voucher. Add your ticket to the TopView Sightseeing app before you arrive, using the Tour Operator Confirmation Number from your booking email. Do this at the hotel, not at the curb.

Seating is first come, first served. If the upper deck matters, arrive early. The listing also notes traffic and weather can change the route and duration, so keep plans after the tour flexible.

From Times Square to Brooklyn and Back

You start at TopView Bus Stop 1 on 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, right in Times Square. The bus rolls down 5th Avenue past the Empire State Building, whose tower lights shine from sunset to 2 am. Then it works through Greenwich Village, Chinatown and Little Italy.

The ride continues across the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn, where the listing says you see the Brooklyn Bridge at night above the crowd, and you get skyline views of Manhattan from the Brooklyn side. Then the bus returns to the meeting point. No stop on the route lets you get off, so a photo means shooting from your seat.

Timing note from TopView itself: the night tour takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and ends at 10 pm in winter and 12 am in summer. A 6:00 PM summer departure therefore starts in daylight, because sunset in New York is around 8:30 pm at the summer solstice. If you want the city fully lit, the 8:00 PM bus is the safer pick in summer. In winter even the 6:00 PM ride is a night ride, since sunset in New York is around 4:31 pm at the winter solstice.

Check the Exclusions Before You Pay

There are no hop-off stops, so if you want to explore Greenwich Village or Chinatown on foot, a hop-on hop-off pass such as Big Bus New York fits better. There is no attraction entry, so travellers who want the Empire State deck with their bus should look at the hop-on hop-off ticket with Empire State and a cruise.

The guide speaks English only, so non-English speakers may prefer an option with more languages. The bus is open-top and runs rain or shine, which in a Central Park January means a normal high around 39.5F (4.2C) on an unheated deck. Dress for it, or pick the enclosed three-hour night bus.

Group size runs up to 65, a shared crowd, and there are no restrooms on board. Children must be with an adult, and infants up to 3 sit on laps. Wheelchair access is listed but limited, so contact the operator in advance. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before, so book the time you think you want and adjust a day out if the forecast turns.

Finding TopView Bus Stop 1

The tour leaves from TopView Bus Stop 1 on 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, and returns to the same spot. The listing says public transportation options are nearby but does not name subway lines, so check a transit app for your route. The Times Square district runs from 40th to 53rd Street between 6th and 8th Avenues and averages about 330,000 daily visitors, so build in extra time and arrive early for the upper deck. There is no stated pickup window, so treat the departure time as firm.

Around the stop you can pair the ride with other evening sights. The Empire State Building tower lights shine from sunset to 2 am if you want to see the tower up close afterward. Times Square Arts runs Midnight Moment on the billboards nightly from 11:57 pm to midnight. For the skyline from across the water on another day, Liberty State Park in Jersey City is open daily 6 am to 10 pm.

Want to stretch the night further on your own? The Staten Island Ferry is free and a local MTA bus fare is $3, though neither has commentary. The guides on the NYC night bus tour scene and hop on hop off NYC tickets compare every option.

Manhattan After Dark

The bus leaves TopView Bus Stop 1 on 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets at 6:00 PM or 8:00 PM, so the first thing you see is Times Square itself, a district that runs from 40th to 53rd Street between 6th and 8th Avenues and draws large nightly crowds. The route then goes down 5th Avenue past the Empire State Building, whose tower lights shine from sunset to 2am every night across more than 1,000 LED zones, with a signature hourly sparkle. Next come Greenwich Village, Chinatown and Little Italy, where the guide tells stories and NYC trivia as the streets go by.

There are no hop-off stops on this ride, so everything is seen from your seat. If you want a longer night route at a lower price, the three-hour luxury night bus tour adds a DUMBO photo stop, and the Big Bus hop-on hop-off pass includes a live-guided night tour on its 48 and 72-hour tickets.

The Bridges and Brooklyn

From Little Italy the bus heads for the Manhattan Bridge, completed in 1909, and crosses it into Brooklyn. This is the ride's most photographed stretch, because the bridge frames the Manhattan skyline behind you while the deck is high above traffic. On the Brooklyn side the route gives views of the Brooklyn Bridge, whose towers have been lit since a 2024 upgrade by NYC DOT that installed 56 new LED lights, replacing a setup that had barely changed since 1983.

You ride through Brooklyn and back over the bridge to end where you started. Traffic and weather can change the route and how long it takes, and the tour runs rain or shine.

How the Open Deck Feels by Season

The upper deck is open, so what you wear matters more than what you see. In winter, sunset in New York falls as early as 4:31 pm around the shortest days, so even the 6:00 PM departure rides in full darkness, and the Central Park normal low in January is -2.3C (27.9F) with average January snowfall of 8.8 inches. Dress for the wind, because a moving double-decker feels colder than the street.

In April the normal high reaches 61.8F (16.6C) and October 64.5F (18.1C), which makes those months comfortable with a jacket. Summer brings the opposite trade: sunset on the longest days is at 8:30 pm, so the 6:00 PM departure runs in daylight for its first stretch, while the 8:00 PM catches the sky going dark. The July normal high is 84.9F (29.4C), so evening air on the deck is a relief.

Seating is first come, first served, so arrive early for the front rows up top. See the NYC night bus tour guide for how the night options compare.