Bus tours of London

For a visitor to London especially a first timer, taking a tour bus around town is a good way of getting an overview of the city and an initial look and some of the city's major attractions and tourist sites.

There area number of tour bus companies operating in London offering a variety of tours.
The Original London Sightseeing Tour The largest operator, running for 60 years, they offer a hop on hop off service with tickets that are valid for 48 hours in the winter(this offer ends 28 Feb 2007). A free river cruise is also included in the price of the ticket, normally these are worth about £7. Tickets on the Original London tour cost £18, £16.50 when booked online.

The Big Bus Company These operate the brown and biege buses that you’ll see all over central London, they’re also a hop on and off service offering a ticket valid for 24 hours and as well as a free river cruise they include a free walking tour.
Their buses run every 20-30 minutes and every day except Christmas Day. They have an information centre at 48 Buckingham Palace Road. Tickets cost £20 or £18 if bought online.

British Tours They offer a more individual service for anything from 2 people upwards in cars , minibuses or coaches but their prices are probably out of the range of most visitors, £185 for three hours for 2 people. They provide tours in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Chinese but there’s an extra charge for that.

City Sightseeing This comapny has two tours both lasting around two hours, one with a live guide the other pre-recorded in a number of languages. They have two starting points, one outside Madame Tussaud’s, the other in Coventry Street near Piccadilly Circus and leave every 10-20 minutes.
They run all year round and the £18 ticket is valid for 24 hours.

London Duck Tours A tour company that uses World War 2 amphibious DUKWs troop carriers that were built in the US in the 1940’s to give a combined road and river tour.
There tour starts on Chicheley Street behind the London Eye and they enter the Thames from a slipway at Vauxhall. Tickets cost £17.50