Bicycle tours of London

If you’re looking for an alternative to a walking or a bus tour of London you might be interested in seeing the city from two wheels with the London Bicycle Tour Company.

The company is based at Gabriels Wharf on the south bank of the River Thames just east of Waterloo Bridge. Among the guided tours they offer are The East Tour, which covers the south side of the river to Tower Bridge, then into the City of London and the East End, and the West Tour which takes in the areas from Waterloo through Victoria, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden and back to Gabriels Wharf.

Both these tours are around 9 miles in length, last approximately 3.5 hours and cost £17.95. The East Tour runs every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm and the West Tour Saturdays and Sundays at 12pm.

There’s a Central Tour that runs daily at 10.30am that takes in most of the main sights in Westminster through to Covent Garden and over to St Paul’s Cathedral. This is a 6 mile ride lasting 2.5 hours and costs £14.95. If you think the guided rides are a little too pricey you can also rent a bike from them by the hour, day or week.

Sunday is the best day of the week to bike around London if you want to take things in, especially in the City when the hundreds of thousands of office workers are at home and there’s way less traffic.