I took a bus tour which I normally don't have the patience for, but it turned out to be very good. Plus the only other option to get around if you don't have a car would be the local buses, which slow and infrequent (but still impressive that they exist).
I did a similar thing when I was in Malta, doing a hop-on-hop-off open-top bus tour for much the same reason - too hard to get around using the local transportation, and didn't want to rent a car for the day. Allowed me a good lay of the island, and figure out a few places to go back and visit in more detail later in the trip.
Enjoying the report so far and looking forward to the next installment. Thanks for writing it up.