London is certainly a city with a lot to take in. A London bus tour allows you to get from site to site, museum to museum, and even from one tour to another. With someone else doing the driving, feel free to watch this beautiful city pass by and snap the perfect photos.

You may even be able to rid in a vintage London double-decker bus. Here are the top London bus tours available that are worth your time and money.

Be sure to see our reviews of Stonehenge Tours, Windsor Castle Tours and Tower of London Tours.

Best London Bus Tours

	Buckingham Palace and Vintage Bus Tour of London	Vintage London Bus Tour Including Thames River Cruise w/ Optional London Eye	London Pass including Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour and Entry to Over 90 Attractions
Location:	Victoria Coach Station	Victoria Coach Station	Multiple Hop-On Hop-Off Points
Start:	7:45 AM	7:45 AM, 1:00 PM	Immediately After Purchase
Duration:	5 hours 30 5.5 hours	3.5 hours	Between 2 & 10 days
Includes:	1960's Vintage bus with guide, Thames river cruise, tour of Buckingham Palace, free snacks	London sightseeing tour in 1960's Vintage bus, Thames river cruise, priority access to the London Eye or Tower of London	Access to 90+ attractions, Skip-the-Line access at several attractions, hop-on hop-off access to the London red bus
	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking

Quick Answer: The 5 Best Double Decker Bus Tours of London For 2026

1. Buckingham Palace and Vintage Bus Tour of London
2. Vintage London Bus Tour Including Thames River Cruise w/ Optional London Eye
3. London Pass including Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour and Entry to Over 80 Attractions
4. London Vintage Bus Tour Including River Thames Cruise with Optional Lunch
5. London Tootbus Hop on Hop off Bus Tour and Thames River Cruise

London Bus Tours Reviews

1. Buckingham Palace and Vintage Bus Tour of London

The red London double-decker buses are as unique to the city of London as Buckingham Palace itself. This sightseeing London bus will take you by many of the city’s attractions so you can pack as much as possible into just over 5 hours.

See the infamous Tower of London, the year-round residence of the Queen, the Houses of Parliament and even Big Ben among others. That is only the beginning of the excitement this tour of London has to offer.

You’ll then see the city from the perspective of a cruise boat as you travel the Thames. Plus, you will be able to tour Buckingham Palace to experience the royal residence up close and personal.

2019 marks 200 years since Queen Victoria was born and there is a special exhibit at the Palace to commemorate her.

Other London Activities You May Enjoy

2. Vintage London Bus Tour Including Thames River Cruise w/ Optional London Eye

This is one of the best London bus tours if you are looking to enjoy the city from one of their popular, vintage red buses. In addition to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, you’d also ride past Shakespeare’s famous theatre, The Globe.

That’s only the start of the attractions you can see and experience on this London double-decker bus tour. You’ll ride over the London Bridge, made famous by song and rhyme, and pass by Westminster Abbey.

If you decide to add a ride on the London Eye to your big, red bus London tour, you’ll have priority access to the attraction. The same for visiting the Tower of London. If you purchase tickets in advance, you will have priority access.

Enjoy the Changing of the Guard, lots of photo ops, and even a Thames river cruise. You’ll be brought back to the Victoria Coach Station where you can easily board another tour to Stonehenge taking place in the afternoon.

Other London Experiences You May Enjoy:

3. London Pass including Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour and Entry to Over 90 Attractions

When it comes to a hop-on hop-off London bus, this “all-inclusive” option is one of the best London bus tour deals available. What is a hop-on hop-off London bus tour? You can literally hop on the bus and hop off at many places around the city. This makes it a great mode of transportation while sightseeing.

With this hop-on hop-off tour, London is at your fingertips. You will enjoy discounts at many shopping venues and restaurants you can access with this bus tour.

While the full list of stops and included attraction tickets are listed in the free London travel guidebook you receive with the confirmation of your booking, there are more than 80 and way too many to list here. However, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Zoo even have skip-the-line access.

With this hop-on hop-off bus, London is yours for the taking. You can take advantage of the best London bus tours with many different lengths of use. For example, you can purchase credits for everything from 2 days to 10 depending on the length of your stay.

4. London Vintage Bus Tour Including River Thames Cruise with Optional Lunch

If you won’t be in London long enough to enjoy all 90+ attractions included in the above hop-on hop-off big bus tour, London can still be yours with this one. Doing a bus tour is the perfect thing to do on your first day in London. You will get a good overview of the city and see the major sights for the convenience of a bus.

You will start your adventure at the Victoria Coach Station and depart for your tour. You will get to see all the sights London is famous for like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge. All the while your local driver/guide will give you the insights to bring the city alive with inside information only the locals know.

After your bus tour you will get the see the city from the Thames River in a boat cruise. Now you will get a close and better view of the Tower of London, the notorious prison and execution site. The glass enclosed boat will give you 360 degree views while protected from London’s famous cool and rainy weather.

Your local skipper will give you commentary of the sites along the river as you cruise along slowly giving plenty of photo opportunities. After your cruise, you will end up back at the pier where you can finish the rest of your day.

Pro tip: Upgrade your ticket to include the fish and chips at a local pub. You can’t leave London without trying this London staple.

5. London Tootbus Hop on Hop off Bus Tour and Thames River Cruise

Looking for a more family-friendly hop-on hop-off bus tour? London has plenty for families with younger children tagging along. This isn’t just any sightseeing London bus. Sure, you have hop-on hop-off access to many of the city’s attractions, but Shrek’s Adventure is the best attraction of all.

With your confirmation for this original bus tour, London is open to you and your family. Many of the 80+ stops are at or near family-friendly attractions such as museums and walking tours. There are 3 walking tours included with this package, making it one of the best London bus tours.

Another great inclusion with this hop-on bus: London seen from the Thames river on a river cruise. Cruise past many of London’s biggest attractions as you take advantage of wonderful photo opportunities.

The children’s activity will keep the little ones busy during the less exciting parts of the London city bus tour, at least for them, until it’s time to head to Shrek’s Adventure. There, you will board another bus, but you’ve never seen one like this. Have fun with Donkey as he takes you through Shrek’s Swamp and to 10 different fairy-tale themed shows.

London Bus Tours: Which Hop-On Hop-Off Actually Earns Your Money

Three companies run the open-top double-deckers around London, and every one of them will tell you theirs is the best. It isn’t a mystery once you know what each one is actually selling.

Pick wrong and you’ll spend your one good weather day stuck on a bus route that skips the thing you flew here for.

Why Bother With a Bus Tour At All

London’s tube gets you everywhere faster, and locals will tell you the bus tour is a tourist trap. They’re half right.

The upside is real if you’ve got one day and want the lay of the land before you commit to walking anywhere. You see how Westminster connects to the South Bank, how close the Tower of London actually sits to St Paul’s, and you do it all sitting down with a guide talking in your ear.

The people who should skip it entirely are anyone staying more than four days. You’ll cover the same ground on foot or by tube for less money and you won’t be stuck waiting fifteen minutes for the next bus in the rain.

The Three Operators

Every hop-on hop-off ticket in London comes from one of three companies. They run different routes, different bus counts, and different price floors.

Big Bus Tours

The widest route coverage and the most frequent departures, which matters more than people think when you’re standing at a stop with kids getting restless. Three routes cover Central London, Kensington and the museum quarter, and a river cruise add-on links the Tower of London to Westminster by boat.

Pricing starts around £32 to £35 for a 24-hour ticket, running toward $70 to $80 for 48-hour tickets bundled with the river cruise and an evening tour. This is the safe pick if you want the fewest gaps in service and don’t mind paying for it.

City Sightseeing

The best all-rounder by traveler reviews, sitting at 4.3 stars across more than 8,000 of them, and it’s tied for the cheapest ticket in the city at around £25. Route coverage is solid without being the widest, and the price gap versus Big Bus is real money if you’re traveling as a family.

Book this one if the goal is simple. Good coverage, strong reviews, lowest entry price, no need to overthink it.

Golden Tours

Golden Tours runs the only hop-on hop-off buses in London with live guides instead of recorded audio on every route, which changes the experience more than the marketing makes it sound. Four routes cover over 60 stops, and the cheapest ticket runs around £25 for a two-hour non-stop loop with a live guide.

Their Classic Tour, the Blue Route, hits the London Eye, Tower of London, Big Ben, and St Paul’s. The Essential Tour, the Red Route, swings north through Covent Garden, Hyde Park, and Regent’s Park.

Golden Tours also throws in a one-way Thames river cruise worth about £14 on most of their standard tickets, which the other two operators charge extra for or leave out.

What You’re Actually Comparing

Strip away the marketing and it comes down to four things. Route coverage, live guide versus recorded audio, price, and what’s bundled in.

• Route coverage: Big Bus wins on breadth and frequency.
• Guide quality: Golden Tours is the only one with a live human on every bus instead of a recording.
• Price: City Sightseeing and Golden Tours both start around £25. Big Bus starts closer to £32.
• What’s included: Golden Tours bundles a river cruise into most tickets. Big Bus sells it as an add-on that pushes the 24-hour ticket toward £47.

None of the three is wrong. The choice comes down to whether you’d rather save the ten pounds or get the wider route map.

When to Ride

Morning departures beat afternoon ones every time. The first loop of the day gets you photos without fifty people in the frame at Westminster Bridge, and traffic on the Central London routes gets noticeably worse after 11 AM.

Avoid Saturdays if you can help it. Central London traffic on a weekend afternoon can stretch a two-hour loop closer to three, and you’ll spend more of your ticket sitting still than moving.

Winter tickets are worth it despite the cold. The buses run covered upper decks on some routes, the lights along the Thames are genuinely better after dark, and crowds thin out enough that hopping off actually feels worth it.

How to Actually Use the Ticket

Most people buy the 24-hour pass and use about a third of it. Plan two, maybe three real stops, not six.

Get off at the Tower of London first if history is the priority, since the queue outside gets long by midday and the bus stop drops you close to the entrance. Save Westminster for last, since Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament look better in late afternoon light than they do in the morning glare off the Thames.

Buses run roughly every 10 to 20 minutes depending on the operator and time of day. Waiting for the exact bus you got off is never worth it.

Any bus on your route works, since the ticket covers unlimited rides for the full validity window.

Where the Buses Actually Stop

Every operator drops you close to the same core landmarks, since there’s only so much of Central London worth seeing. The differences show up at the edges of each route.

Big Bus and City Sightseeing both run a stop near Green Park Underground on their Central route, which puts you a short walk from Buckingham Palace without threading through the crowds at the main gates. Golden Tours departs from Belvedere Road by the London Eye, right in front of Jubilee Gardens, which is the easiest meeting point of the three if you’re staying anywhere south of the river.

The Tower of London stop is common to all three companies and it’s worth taking first thing. Queues at the Tower build fast after 10 AM, and getting dropped there before the crowds means you can walk straight to the ticket gate instead of standing in a line that wraps around the moat.

St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey show up on every core route too, so the choice of operator rarely costs you a major landmark.

Where it matters more is the outer stops. Big Bus reaches further into Kensington and the museum quarter, covering the Natural History Museum and the V&A directly, while Golden Tours’ Museum Tour route covers similar ground on the Orange line but with fewer buses per hour.

Regent’s Park and London Zoo only show up clearly on Golden Tours’ Essential Tour and a couple of the northern-reaching City Sightseeing routes. If the zoo is actually on your list, check the specific route map before booking, since not every ticket covers it.

What It Costs and What to Add

A 24-hour ticket without extras runs £25 to £35 depending on operator. Add a river cruise and you’re looking at £40 to £48.

A 48-hour ticket with a river cruise and an evening tour bundled in runs closer to $70 to $80 on Big Bus specifically.

Kids, students, and seniors get discounted tickets on most operators, so check the fare chart before buying full-price for the whole group. Online booking runs 10 to 15 percent cheaper than walking up to a stop and buying in person, so book ahead even if it’s just the night before.

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What the Bus Tour Won’t Do

It won’t get you inside anything. Every stop is a drop-off point, not an entry ticket, so Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey all need separate admission if you want to go in.

It also won’t beat the tube for actually getting somewhere on a schedule. If you’ve got a 2 PM reservation at a restaurant in Shoreditch, take the tube.

Save the bus tour for the day you have nowhere specific to be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which London bus tour company is the best value?

City Sightseeing and Golden Tours both start around £25, which is the lowest entry price of the three. City Sightseeing edges it out slightly on review scores if that’s the tiebreaker you care about.

Is Big Bus worth the extra money over the cheaper operators?

If route coverage and departure frequency matter more to you than saving £7 to £10, yes. If you’re on a tight budget or only need two or three central stops, City Sightseeing or Golden Tours covers the same core landmarks for less.

Do I need to book a hop-on hop-off tour in advance?

Not strictly, but booking online saves 10 to 15 percent over buying at the stop. There’s also no reason not to, since free cancellation up to 24 hours out is standard across all three operators.

How many stops can I realistically hit in one day?

Two or three real stops is honest. Six sounds good on paper but between wait times and actually spending an hour at each place, most people run out of daylight after three.

Is the London bus tour worth it if I’m staying a week?

Probably not as a full-day activity. One loop on your first morning to get oriented makes sense, but a week gives you enough time to walk or tube to everything without paying for unlimited re-rides you won’t use.

Does the ticket include entry to attractions like the Tower of London?

No. The bus ticket only covers transport and, on some operators, a river cruise. Every attraction along the route needs its own ticket bought separately.