Whenever you travel to a new city, the Tourist Information Office is usually
your best
friend. Cheerful representatives hand out free maps, make recommendations
about what to see and do during your stay, and answer questions about attractions,
hotels, tours, and local transportation.
But be sure you’re visiting the official tourist information
office, not just a vendor who provides “tourist information.”
On our recent cruise to Iceland, we had a stop in Akureyri, Iceland’s
second-largest city, located on the northern side of the island. The onboard
port lecturer told us that all the city buses in Akureyri were free, and he
encouraged us to use them.
When we got off the ship, the first building we saw displayed a big
sign saying, “TOURIST INFORMATION.” We went inside. It was basically a souvenir
shop, but they also had an information desk and free city maps. We asked the
woman at the desk where we could catch the free public bus.
She made a face. “I have no idea where it stops; I never take the bus.
Tourists shouldn’t ride it. You’ll get lost.” She was selling tickets for the
Hop On, Hop Off bus for $25 each.
In many cities, the Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) bus delivers good value.
Sometimes, not so much. It depends on how long you’ll stay in the city, what
you plan to see, and how close the major attractions are to one another.
If you’re going to be in town for several days and the HOHO stops near your
hotel, a multi-day pass that includes discounts on attractions might be a great
deal, because you’ll have plenty of time to get your money’s worth. If you’re
only in port for a few hours, you might have time for just one loop—a poor
man’s guided tour—and you won’t be able to reap all the benefits you’ve paid
for.
And if the sites you plan to visit are within walking distance of each
other, it could be more cost-effective to take public transportation or even a
taxi to the center of town instead of trying to hop on and off every block or
two. Also, pay attention to the schedule frequency and crowd size. I’ve seen
HOHO buses in some cities packed so full, you can hop off, but when you try to
hop back on, you have to queue up and wait for several buses to pass before you
get a seat.
In Akureyri, we skipped the HOHO bus option and continued on foot into
town, where, a few blocks away, we found the real tourist information office.
That representative gave us a better map and told us exactly where we could
catch the free bus. She explained that the number five and the number six made
a complete loop, over the same route. One headed clockwise, the other
counter-clockwise.
Before we boarded a bus, we decided to explore the downtown area. We
hiked up a slight hill to the church (which was under renovation) and then
walked to the botanical garden, a touted HOHO stop and also a destination for
ship’s shore excursions. The grounds were beautiful and there were numerous
plants in bloom. And admission was free.
When we finished our stroll through the botanical garden, we found the
public bus stop. The number five wouldn’t come for twenty minutes, but the
number four would be there in ten. Should we get on the four? What if we got
lost, as the HOHO saleswoman warned? We noticed that the final destination of
both buses was a stop called Midbaer. We figured we could take the four to
Midbaer and then switch to the five.
Midbaer turned out to be the central station across from the real
tourist information office. It was the end of the line for the four, and there
was a five ready to depart (probably the same bus we would have boarded if we’d
kept waiting at the botanical gardens). We hopped on the five, rode a complete
loop, and since we still had time before we had to go back to our ship, we did
another loop on the six.
We compared notes with a couple from our cruise who had taken the HOHO.
The routes we had traveled were similar. “Just so-so,” was their assessment.
“Was the commentary interesting?” I asked them.
“You could barely hear it for all the static,” they replied.
Unlike the HOHO, the free public bus doesn’t provide commentary. But
you get to chat with the locals, mingle with them as they go about their daily
life. And you can’t beat the price…
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