London Hop On Hop Off Bus

[Donwoods123]

Has anyone use the London Hop On Hop Off Bus.  How was the experience? There appears to be several, which one is best?

[John Bull]

A precis of three of the hop-on services at

 https://www.londontoolkit.com//whattodo/london_hoho_bus_discuss.html

Not on that website is https://city-sightseeing.com/en/95/london/3287/hop-on-hop-off-london

 

IMHO the one to avoid is Golden Tours - a long-established & reputable tour operator, but they're late arrivals in the hop-on business so their ho-ho customer-base and therefore their frequency is poorer than the others.

But they offer a City Tour - you board near the London Eye, stay on the bus for the full route  and end back near the London Eye. That's been popular - so popular that one of the others, Tootbus, has copied them.  Since the best value of a ho-ho is simply a full tour on their main route that might be an option, especially if your hotel is near the London Eye

 

But the other ho-ho operators are much-of-a-muchness, their main tourist routes are identical or virtually-identical.

Things to bear in mind:

- Check the location of your hotel - it may be on the feeder route of one or another. 

- All (except the afore-mentioned City Tours) include a river cruise, some include various walking tours.

- A 24hr or 48hr ticket is better than a one-day or two-day ticket.

- Buses don't pass the front of Buckingham Palace - to see it you hop off at Birdcage Walk, walk round the corner to the front, then walk back to the same bus-stop for the next bus.

 

- Most important. Don't use the ho-ho as a means transport for inside visits at places, they're great for an over-view but way too time-consuming and the routes too rigid to use as "transport" between sights. For that you need to use The Tube - London's extensive underground system. So unless you fancy a few walking tours a 24hour ticket is best value, even tho' you'll be tempted by relatively-cheap 48 or 72-hour tickets.

 

Just MHO as always

 

JB 🙂

[Donwoods123]

Thank you so much.  Very thorough!

[SSAtlantic]

Which one is included with the London Pass?

[John Bull]

1 hour ago, SSAtlantic said:

Which one is included with the London Pass?

 

Big Bus & Golden hop-ons, as per the London Toolkit website linked in my post

 

JB 🙂

[USNA 72]

Just wanted to throw in here that the Big Bus has a night time tour leaving at 1930 from the big eye. It's a 2 hour tour and is not really a Hop On Hop Off just a bus tour of London sites with commentary in five languages of your choice.

[John Bull]

2 hours ago, USNA 72 said:

Just wanted to throw in here that the Big Bus has a night time tour leaving at 1930 from the big eye. It's a 2 hour tour and is not really a Hop On Hop Off just a bus tour of London sites with commentary in five languages of your choice.

 

With limited time pre-cruise, that's what we did in Rome (altho in Rome there was some walking due to restrictions on bus routes). A good opportunity for orientation.

 

Excellent use of an evening, streets & sights are well-lit (though in London dusk can be as late as 9,30pm), and roads aren't clogged with traffic. 

Tootbus and Golden Tours have similar evening tours, Golden Tours is the only one with a live guide (none of their ho-ho routes have live guides), Tootbus serve drinks on their evening tour.

None are included in a ho-ho ticket, but any of the three is worth considering - perhaps instead of a ho-ho.

City Sightseeing don't appear to have an evening tour.

 

JB 🙂

[LINDAE3213]

What's a london pass?

[Globaliser]

3 hours ago, LINDAE3213 said:

What's a london pass?

 

https://londonpass.com/en. FWIW, whenever I've looked at it in the past I've always thought it pretty well impossible to get decent value out of it. However, it may appeal to those who know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

[LINDAE3213]

Ok thanks  seems pricey for what is being offered vs what i need..

[Luckynana]

 

I've begun watching informative videos on YouTube about London, and one person suggested getting on the double-decker bus #11, which will take you around Westminster, for just the price of a bus fare.  Of course, there won't be any narrative, but if you've just arrived and want to get an idea where things are, you can't go wrong for the price.🤔

[Globaliser]

7 hours ago, Luckynana said:

I've begun watching informative videos on YouTube about London, and one person suggested getting on the double-decker bus #11, which will take you around Westminster, for just the price of a bus fare.  Of course, there won't be any narrative, but if you've just arrived and want to get an idea where things are, you can't go wrong for the price.🤔

 

You can hop on and hop off these buses, too, at any stop (of which I think there are far more than for the tourist buses) and on any route (of which there are definitely far more than for the tourist buses).

 

And the price? £1.75 when you hop on the first bus. Any bus you hop on for the next hour from that time is at no extra fare. And if you keep doing this for more than an hour in a day, you won't pay more than £5.25 (3 x £1.75) for the day because that's the cap for bus travel in one day. (Although you must make sure you use the same Oyster or contactless card every time to get the benefit of the 1-hour Hopper and the daily cap. A TfL fare day starts at 0430 and ends at 0429 on the next calendar day.)

[Cotswold Eagle]

8 hours ago, Luckynana said:

suggested getting on the double-decker bus #11, which will take you around Westminster, for just the price of a bus fare. 

I am very much in favour of visitor using the buses, but sadly the number 11 is not what it was - it used to run from Liverpool Street, through the City, past St Paul’s, up the Strand to Westminster through Trafalgar Square and then Victoria.

 

These days it serves Waterloo Station, rather than Liverpool Street, so basically does a straight run down Victoria Street, round Parliament Square and over the bridge to Waterloo. This is a useful route for locals and visitors alike, but anything online more than a year old does not represent the route now. 

Edited Wednesday at 09:14 AM by Cotswold Eagle