A Day Out in Brisbane, Australia
These Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus sightseeing tours can be a great way to get an overview of a city and have the main sights pointed out. They might not be so great if you actually want to hop off and spend more time at some of the locations.
The problem with taking a hop-on-hop-off bus is that when you hop off to visit a site, you must wait until the bus comes back to hop back on. Sometimes that can take a while and you are left cooling your heels wishing you could get to the next stop more quickly. If there are several buses doing the route, you might only have to wait 20 minutes or so. If there is only one bus, that could mean long waits at each stop.
The first time I used a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus was in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
I picked up the bus near where I was staying, near the big football stadium. The bus cost $35 dollars for the day and I bought the ticket from the driver. This bus was not a double decker bus. The windows were large and the AC cool.
The first stop was Mt. Coot-Tha, the highest point in Brisbane. This was about a fifteen-minute ride out of the city up to the top of the hill and the first stop after I got on, about the middle of this 19-stop circular route. I got off the bus to see the view, the visitor center and the monument. After about 15 minutes I was ready to leave, but the bus had only waited 5 minutes (the length of the scheduled stop) and I had to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus to arrive. I didn’t really plan on taking that much time there. If I had read the schedule more carefully, I would have gotten right back on the bus and not dawdled looking at the view.
Mt. Coot-Tha Lookout
Back down the mountain to town, I got off at a heritage listed hotel on the riverfront. A neat addition to the bus pass was an included pass for the Brisbane CityCat ferries that travel up and down the Brisbane River. I walked to the ferry dock and continued into the city on the ferry. It was great to see the the buildings pass by from the water.
Regatta Hotel 1874
CityCat Stop
I got off the ferry at the South Bank Parklands, where there are many walking paths, museums, and cafes. It was easy to wander there and see that part of the city. It didn’t matter that the bus wouldn’t be along for at least an hour.
Bougainvillea Walk South Bank
I found the City Sights Bus Stop near the Maritime Museum and headed around the river back into the central business district. I saw a few places that would be good to stop at, like the City Lookout, but I decided to ride for a while longer.
Maritime Museum
I ended up getting off at the Brisbane Windmill, the oldest industrial building in the city, built in 1828. The windmill turned out to be an old tower, with no entry, but there was a cute pocket park just down the street from it with some interesting art. It was after 1:00 pm by this time, so I got a sandwich at a cafe across the street, as I had a good 45 minutes until the next bus.
The Old Windmill
Still Life with Landscape by Robert Parr
The bus came and I was only a few stops from my starting point, so it was about a 15 minute ride back to my stop.
One good thing about this bus is that it did cover a wide area, not just the downtown area. Some stops were places I had already visited, so I could just ride until I got to a place I wanted to see.
