Retractable Glass Top Tours of RMNP by Purple Points Tour Company
Recommended by 100% of travelers
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Estes Park, USA
- 3 to 4 hours (approx.)
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Enjoy unobstructed views–come rain or shine–as you discover all that the Rocky Mountains have to offer in a retractable glass-top vehicle. This 3- to 4-hour, small-group adventure takes you above the treetops, to cascading waterfalls and past glaciers. Fill your lungs with Rocky’s fresh mountain air during a pleasant short hike or two to some of the points of interest.
- Learn about the history, geology and wildlife in the Rocky Mountains
- See many of its key landmarks with ease all in one tour
- Relax and enjoy the ride while somebody else takes care of the driving
- A maximum of 14 travelers for a personal and intimate experience
What's Included
- SnacksComplimentary snacks as well as hot and cold beverages provided while on board our tours!
- Entrance fee - Park entrance fees are included!
- Timed Entry
- GratuitiesTips are a way for guides to have feedback on their performance. Standard practice is to tip tour guides as you would a server at a nice restaurant typically 15-25% based on performance & experience
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Purple Points Tour Company165 Virginia Dr, Estes Park, CO 80517, USA
Check in at PURPLE POINTS TOUR COMPANY, 165 Virgina Dr. Paid parking is available around downtown, the BEST OPTION is the free ramp at the Estes Park Visitors Center and walk along river walk to PURPLE POINTS! Arrive early for parking, tours will leave at scheduled times!
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Itinerary
Purple Points Tour Company (Pass By)
Rocky Mountain National Park (Pass By)
Old Fall River Road (Pass By)
Alpine Visitor Center (Pass By)
Trail Ridge Road (Pass By)
Estes Park (Pass By)
Purple Points Tour Company (Pass By)
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 14 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
I booked the tour after reading so many positive reviews. Zak was excellent. The tour was a huge highlight of our vacation. I wanted my husband to be able to sit back and enjoy instead of doing all the driving. He thoroughly enjoyed it. So much history provided as we traversed the 4 hour tour. The windows were retracted going up to the top so we had breathtaking, expansive views. It started sleeting when we almost reached the top, approx 12,400 ft. Beautiful alpine tundra. The windows were put in place and we enjoyed warm hot chocolate, tea and coffee along with snacks. Cold beverages were available too. We would highly encourage this tour. Zak was engaging and offered great knowledge and insight. We have a special needs daughter who was also super comfortable and was not bothered by heights or navigating getting in and out. Thank you sooooo much. From the warm, caring check in offering pre-departure drinks and snacks to the conclusion, we felt the value far exceeded the cost. Oh and there are bathroom facilities along the the way. Some more outdoorsy than others. 😊
Reviews
5.0
based on 605 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Worthwhile open top bus tour. Spectacular scenery. No guardrails. Wear a jacket. Tour Guide was informative and likable.
The office staff were incredibly friendly and our tour guide/driver Lex was phenomenal. (Bonus points for being from MD) The tour was the perfect blend of historical, fun, and strange facts coupled with scenic views and very purposeful stops along the way. Having the glass and roof retract was a nice feature that made the views and experience that much better. Overall I 100% recommend anyone do this tour.
Chris gave us the best tour possible. Music and our singing was an added pleasure to all his knowledge. It was a fabulous experience.
Awesome tour!! Definitely recommend!! Bring a coat regardless of time of year. Your guides are great!
Totally worth it! We really enjoyed our guide, Aaron. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and accomodating.
Great experience. Got to see beautiful country and a mama bear and her 2 cubs. Aaron was a great narrator.
This was by far the best tour I have been on. The details that this company takes from the beginning to the end are amazing! The tour guide we had Aaron was very knowledgeablable and made our tour so fun and felt like you were hanging out with a good friend that’s showing you around. From the snacks and drinks in the office while you are waiting to the snack, drinks and even blankets available on the bus were perfect. I would definitely do another tour with them when we come back next year !!
We highly recommend this tour. We did this on our first day in the Rockies and it was an excellent, thorough introduction that helped us to get oriented. We appreciated that all of us could sit back and take in the scenery without having to do the driving, checking the map, etc. We got out of the mini-bus several times for short walks/photo opportunities, so there was a nice mix of sitting and walking. We had beautiful weather and kept the retractable roof open for the entire tour, but it was good to know it was an option to close it if there was rain, wind, or colder weather.
This tour of RMNP was absolutely worth every penny we spent. The open air tour bus was great for sightseeing, we spent a lot of time looking up at sights, that wouldn't have been possible in a regular tour bus.
Dave was an incredible guide, with his knowledge and history of the park. We appreciated his sense of humor and his reminder to enjoy the view no matter where you are.
We will definitely utilize this tour company again!
Thanks to Dave and Purple Points Tour Company
This tour was the highlight of my trip! Our tour guide Brian was fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable.
Good option to view the best parts of old Fall River road and trail ridge road above the Rocky Mountains to take in the views without having to worry about driving. Lovely information from our guide/driver Brian, and the refreshments were welcomed.
Overall excellent. The van was comfortable & well stocked w/ refreshments. Our guide, Dave T., was affable, knowledgeable, informative, humorous, considerate & flexible. Scenery was beautiful. Definitely recommend this tour.
Our driver Dave, an avid outfoorsman, is a very friendly guy and safe driver. He explained the rich glacial history of the mountains along with their native peoples and the routes they took years ago. His knowledge of the animals, trees, weather, and history of the beginnings of the park made for an enriching afternoon. Highly recommend!
First: they take care of your Timed Entry! Second: they do the driving - even the notorious Old Fall River Road, which is best left to professional drivers.
The small group is ideal for quick stops. We enjoyed a beautiful day so the retractable roof remained open for our full 4 hour tour. Be sure to take a jacket for the wind & temperature drop at higher elevation & a snug-fitting hat.
Brian is a wonderful guide. Even though we are Colorado residents & have visited RMNP many times, we learned so much about the park’s animals, terrain, trees, history and more. We plan to return with visiting family and friends for this incredible tour.
Excellent experience. We only had a day in RMNP, but we saw so much. Chris our guide was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. The retractable roof was excellent for the rain that came and went.
Bus was very nice and this company clearly takes pride in what they do.
Awesome way to see the Rockies. Beautiful weather, great pictures, hikes and memories. Tour guide was great!
Super fun experience, and the open-air van was a lovely treat for uninterrupted views and fresh Rocky Mountain air! Wesley was our guide/driver and was very entertaining and informative, and made it a very enjoyable experience.
This is a fantastic way to see the park! Our guide, Aaron was knowledgeable and funny. The tour was 6 hours and I think we got to see everything on our list!
This was the most amazing tour experience. Dave was an amazing tour guide. We learned so much about the Rocky Mountain Park. I can’t say enough about how amazing this tour was.
I appreciate detailed reviews so please take a moment to read mine. This company was a cut well above the others. First and foremost: their Mercedes vehicle! The seats are comfortable and face FORWARD. We noticed other companies had 2 bench seats that lined the outside of the passenger area. So you face other passengers. Views behind you must have been difficult to turn and see. Not the Purple Tour vehicle! The retractable top left your view totally unobstructed, no bars or pipes for the top to get in the way. The refrigerator held COLD soft drinks, power drinks and water. Chips, cookies, candy and other snacks for the taking. They even had a hot water dispensor and good tea products as well as coffee. Blankets were available. Very comfortable ride, no bouncing around. The office staff was welcoming and helpful. The store front had snacks and drinks. Brian was our guide. What a rock star! OMG, lived in Estes Park for 16 years and knows his stuff! Personable, interactive, and such a safe driver! Great job Brian
This company really has set the bar higher for tour companies. Money well spent!
The Retractable Glass Top Tour (by Purple Points Tour Company in downtown Estes Park) has an excellent half-day bus tour through the eastern portions of Rocky Mountain National Park. I booked my tour on a particularly clear & warm day (some recent rain also kept the dust on the dirt roads down), so the glass top on our van remained open our entire tour. That made photography and observation of the passing scenery (including a herd of elk) much easier.
Our tour Guide (Chris) was very knowledgeable on the Park's history and how that's reflected in the scenery we were seeing (such as where recent fire burns & floods occurred). We also rode up the the Park's Alpine Visitor's Center via the original one-way dirt road; an experience as we travelled through switchback curves & narrow roads without guardrails but with steep drop-offs to the canyon floors. A much more pleasant way to visit this Park versus trying to drive those roads by yourself.
We were here during the (short) peak visitor times, so the lines on the narrow roads, scenic outlooks & Visitor Center were long. Our guide knew a few of the less crowded stops, so that's where we tended to stop. I'd suggest the early morning tour, as that gets through much of the Park before the larger crowds arrive.
A nice touch from the tour company was beverage & snack service inside the van. Nothing fancy, but you get dehydrated very quickly at these high altitudes. Also one less thing to be carrying around. This is a great way to tour this National Park.
This was an extremely informative and enjoyable tour of some of the key areas of Rocky Mountain National Park. If you’ve never been to this area this is a fantastic way to gain rapid exposure without the hassle of getting a park pass and registering for timed entry and dealing with traffic yourself. Instead you just drive into town check-in at the office and board when your party is called. Both the office staff and the tour guide were friendly and welcoming. Complimentary soft drinks and light snacks were made available in the waiting area of the tour office and on board the vehicle. Our tour guide, Wesley, was really great. He was super chill and very knowledgeable. He shared a ton of great information about the park, the local history of the community, and other points of interest. This was a family vacation to Estes Park with my wife and 16 year-old daughter. Neither of them had ever been to Colorado before and they both had a blast.
Some miscellaneous logistics information: Seating is not assigned and you are boarded in order of your check-in to the office so if you want the best choice of seating try to arrive early/first. We did the 815 start and got there about 740 and it was a ghost town so you should be able to get good on street parking during the week at least if you are on the early tour. There isn’t much parking so if you don’t get there early you may build in some time to walk from wherever you have to park.
Again if you have never been to this area, follow the warnings of others: it’s always colder here in the morning than you expect so heading up the mountain with the top open was cold. Not unpleasant but definitely cold. Make sure you have a sweatshirt or a softshell jacket. Definitely bring sunglasses as well for both sun and wind protection for your eyes. Be sure to apply sunscreen to your face and don’t be surprised if you end up a little bit wind burned. As you get toward the top it does get suddenly colder and much windier even on a very nice day so be ready for that. If you are afraid of heights there will be parts of this trip that are momentarily nerve wracking. Even though you’re way up high on the mountain most of the time it’s either heavily wooded on both sides so it doesn’t seem scary or you are still layers up not a direct edge with a 10,000 foot drop. With that said there are some points along the trip where it is a pretty big drop on both sides. They are short-lived and not worth skipping all the other awesome parts of the experience.
Restroom access is available at each stop along the tour. The tour lasted approximately four hours and there was an opportunity to browse a comprehensive gift shop on one of the stops.
If you are a big and tall traveler, this is a Mercedes sprinter van with comfortable but somewhat snug seats compared to the seats in a full-size pickup or SUV for example. Leg room was reasonable but not abundant. You’ll probably wanna board first if you can get there early and snag the first row of seats that way you don’t have to squeeze in between the gaps to get to the additional seats further back. If you find traditional theater seats tight you may want to select a different tour company. There was one that had what looked like big yellow open back trucks with roll cage frames and perpendicular bench seating in the back of a truck bed and it was more accommodating to big big folks. We saw them stopped at one of the points of interest we stopped at as well.
Everything about this experience is delightful! Wesley is a charming host who makes it an exceptional experience!!
It is a great tour, and you get to see so many interesting plants, animals, and scenery. Because the jeep has a retractable roof, weather is not an issue.
Very professional, engaging, and competent driver/tour guide. Safety was always first, and we got to see fascinating places we would not know about if we drove ourselves around the park Well worth the investment.
What an amazing way to see the mountains! Our driver Chris was great, gave us alot of fun facts, played great music to make the scenery even more memorable and most importantly navigated those switchbacks like a pro!
The RMNP tour was just wonderful. We loved being able to enjoy all of the natural beauty. Our tour guide, Chris, was very enjoyable and informative.
Wear layers because temp. Fluctuates. It was nice having someone do the driving so you are able to see the sights and we were given a lot of information about the Rockies.
We attempted to get a timed entry pass to RMNP with no luck. We searched for a half day tour that would give us the highlights of the park. This tour was perfect! About 4 hours with multiple stops throughout the tour. And our driver Aaron was the best! Very highly recommend!! And we loved the retractable top on the tour vehicle! Plus lots of snacks and drinks are included. DON’T miss this one!
Such a beautiful trip! The open roof top van was perfect! And they provided cozy blankets for when it got chilly!
Lots of drinks and snacks too!
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up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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Retractable Glass Top Tours of RMNP by Purple Points Tour Company
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