To do the Hop-on hop-off bus or not

In Rome I once let myself be tempted to use the Hop-on-hop-off tour buses. After all, the person with whom I was in Rome and who had booked the trip had received free tickets from TUI for one day. The Hop-on hop-off bus in Rome was very good because the bus drove right through the city and every time you looked around you saw the real Roman beauty on both sides. We got on at Central Station, which was only 100 meters from our hotel. The bus then stopped close to each major attraction such as the Vatican, the Colloseum, the Jewish Quarter, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. From each stop it was always less than a five minute walk to the relevant attraction. It was nice that your eyes also had to endure a lot during that short walk. We were sold at that point.

The next time in Prague (I went with someone who had a minor injury to her leg) the choice for a Hop-on hop-off bus tour was made very quickly. We thought this way we would see the most important sights in one day. Well from our hotel we caught the Metro to Hlavni Nadrazi Prague Central Station. Inside we entered a kind of Bruna / Primera-like store (I thought it was a branch of Relay, but I'm not 100% sure anymore) because there was a paper on the door "Buy your tickets for the Hop-on hop-off bus tours here ". We paid the 1000 Krone and seriously thought we made a good deal. The price also included a tour of Prague Castle. What was the Hop-on hop-off bus tour disappointing. First of all, the route I want to comment on. Where the bus in Rome came really close to the important places, it was often a long walk in Prague. The Stop at the Burcht was removed due to work (which turned out not to be there at all). It was advised to get off one stop earlier and then walk the last bit, which was really quite a walk. Through all the PR resources of the company, we were promised panorama double-deckers, but in reality the fleet consisted mainly of small minibuses. What soon became clear to me was that I could have just as easily taken the tour by tram and since we still had 72 hour tickets for Prague's public transport we would have saved a lot of money.What I also found special were certain stops such as the Hilton hotel, what is the bus doing there? Okay, it is fairly close to the Florenc city bus station, but really stop at Florenc. Also I.P. I couldn't quite place Pavlova. In my eyes, Náměstí Míru would have made more sense. Fortunately, we had received a tour of the castle as a gift, perhaps that could make up for our loss a bit? Well that actually started with a downer because as previously reported the stop at the castle was out and we had to get off one stop earlier and walk quite a bit. Of course that tour was at a certain time so we really had to take it into account in terms of time planning. We depended on the bus and this resulted in unfavorable scheduling and a waiting time of more than 30 minutes at the starting point. However, the tour itself was well worth it. I will write something about that when I write an article about the castle. Afterwards we had to walk back a long way to the Hop-on hop-off bus, quite a downer.

All in all, you will be able to guess the final conclusion. I think the Hop-on hop-off bus tour is a waste of money. The tram would have been a cheaper and more pleasant option. In the tram I should have missed the audio guidance.