Open-Top Bus Tour of London (Bus tours in general)

Member Name: dooyoobaby

Product:	Bus tours in general
Date:	17/07/07 (342 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Serves the need of transportation in London!

Disadvantages: Fare is little high than the oher company but it is worthy to try!

I went to London for the first time in my life this summer, 9th June,2007 with my husband and have seen London with the bus from sight seeing bus company name Big Bus. They offer a hop-on hop-off tour which means you can hop-on or hop-off the bus when ad where you want within the valid period of your ticket.
The Big Bus tour offers a 24-hrs Hop-on Hop-off sightseeing tour where you can get on the Big Bus at any of their scheduled stop and get off the bus at your desired attraction stop, at any time with a valid ticket.

The Big Bus Company---------------
This company is the winner of sightseeing tour of the year 2004. The company established in 1991 with only two buses. The company was the first to offer a river-cruise, and remains the ONLY open-top sightseeing company to include three walking tour. In 1997 the company introduced the Big Bus Information Centre in Buckingham Palace Road, where staff can assist you planning your stay in London, help you with theatre tickets and a range of quality souvenirs. The London-based, family-owned company employs over 400 staff, and has over 70 buses.

Schedule and Tickets-------------
Operate everyday except 25th December
Tickets can be purchased from the buses, by telephone on 00 44 (0)20 7233 9533, or from Big Bus Information Centre at 48 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1.
You can also buy tickets Online at bigbus.com. Check the website for bus timetable too.
Checks, Credit cards, cash for all
Adults £22
Children £10 (5-15 years) children must be accompanied by a full fare paying adult.
£2 discount online, print ticket from computer and use it
Tickets are valid for 24 hours from the time u first get on the bus
Buses run every 20-30 minutes.
You can buy discounted theatre tickets through The Big Bus Company valid Monday-Thursday available at Information Centre at 48 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1, also full-price tickets for any West End Theatre show are available
Service-------
The bus ticket includes;
1.FREE River Cruise on Thames! The Cruise departs from Tower Pier, Waterloo Pier or Westminster Pier, and takes approximately 30 minutes. Cruise departs every 20 minutes. The bus tickets offer a free one way cruise so you can start from Tower Pier and get off the cruise at any stop in Waterloo Pier or Westminster Pier and vice versa.


2.FREE Walking Tours of London guided by Big Bus staff. They offer 3 types of walking tour and all are free to a valid Big Bus ticket holder. If you do not have a Big Bus ticket then you can buy only walk tour ticket price of £5 per walk.

-------Royal London Walking tour starts at 10.00am, everyday
Walk through historic Royal London from St. James's Palace, former official residence of Prince Charles, to Buckingham Palace, celebrated home of the Queen. You can see famous the Changing of the Guard at Palace when you reach there.

-------The Big Bus Beatles Walking Tour starts at 2.30pm everyday
This tour take you to Soho and Mayfair, where the Beatles based themselves throughout their rise in the Swinging Sixties and where Paul McCartney still has his London office today. Beatles' famed Apple headquarters where they played their last rooftop gig in 1969. It includes walking through the world of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

-------Ghosts by Gaslight Tour starts at 6.00pm everyday
Some part of West End of London at night you find there more chilling London of gas-lights and ghosts.

On Board------
They have digitally-recorded commentary, in eight different languages, you can enjoy it with a supplied headphone while on the bus!
Big Bus tours:
If you just sit on the bus and enjoy sightseeing then the entire Red tour would take approximately 2 hours 10 minutes, buses run every 20-30 minutes. The first Red Tour bus starts from Green Park at 8.25 am. A complete Blue tour would take approximately 3 hours 15 mins, buses run every 20-30 minutes and the first Blue tour bus starts from Hyde Park at 8.25 am.

Stops Or Attractions-------
MARBLE ARCH - Speakers' Corner, Oxford Street, Hyde Park
MADAME TUSSAUD’S - Planetarium, Sherlock Holmes Museum, London Zoo
OXFORD CIRCUS –Oxford Street, Fitzrovia
PICCADILLY CIRCUS - Soho, Chinatown
HAYMARKET - Haymarket , Leicester Square, Planet Hollywood, Trocadero
TRAFALGAR SQUARE -National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Nelson's Column
CRAIG'S COURT -Craig's Court and Whitehall , Admiralty Arch, The Mall, St James's Park
BANQUETING HOUSE - Horse Guards, St James's Park
WHITEHALL -Parliament Street Downing Street, Cenotaph, Cabinet War Rooms, Big Ben
LONDON EYE - South Bank Lion, Westminster Bridge, River Cruise, Dalí Universe, London Aquarium
WATERLOO -York Road , South Bank Arts Centre, Waterloo International Station
COVENT GARDEN – Aldwych, Royal Opera House, London’s Transport Museum, Somerset House
ST PAUL'S-The City, Barbican, Museum of London, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern
LONDON BRIDGE - London Dungeon, Tate Modern, H.M.S. Belfast, Southwark Cathedral, Globe Theatre
TOWER OF LONDON - Tower Hill, River Cruise, Tower Bridge Experience, Docklands Light Railway
EMBANKMENT PIER - Victoria Embankment, Embankment Gardens, Cleopatra's Needle
LAMBETH PALACE - Lambeth Palace, Imperial War Museum, Museum of Garden History
PARLIAMENT SQUARE -Houses of Parliament, Tate Britain
WESTMINSTER ABBEY - New Scotland Yard, Westminster Cathedral
BUCKINGHAM PALACE - Buckingham Gate
ROYAL MEWS - Buckingham Palace Road, Big Bus Information Centre
BAYSWATER -London Elizabeth Hotel, Lancaster Terrace, The Italian Gardens, Serpentine, The Long Water
PETER PAN
PRINCESS DIANA MEMORIAL - The Elfin Tree, Round Pond
BADEN POWELL -Baden Powell House, Natural History Museum 76
KENSINGTON GARDENS - Bayswater Road, Queensway, Whiteley's Shopping Centre
KENSINGTON PALACE - Kensington High Street
ROYAL ALBERT HALL - bus stop outside Royal Albert Hall, Albert Memorial, Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
NOTTING HILL - Portobello Road Market, Holland Park
GLOUCESTER ROAD - Stanhope Arms Pub
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUMS - Cromwell Gardens, Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum
HARRODS -Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, Harvey Nichols, Sloane Street
HYDE PARK CORNER - Lanesborough Hotel, Wellington Museum, Belgravia, Hyde Park, Wellington Arch
HARD ROCK CORNER - Hard Rock Café, Constitution Hill, Green Park, Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch
GREEN PARK UNDERGROUND
MAYFAIR -Little America

Big Bus also runs in Dubai, was launched in 2002, Big Bus Philadelphia 2003 and Big Bus Baltimore. in 2005,
info@bigbustours.com

My Experience-------
In my opinion this is the best option to see London and to enjoy your stay completely hassle free! A completely tourist friendly bus tour I ever enjoyed!
We preferred the Big Bus tour as it covers maximum attractions in London. We have actually bought the Big Bus Tickets from a private tour information store close to Big Bus stop at Madame Tussaud’s. The price was as listed above.
Either the Red tour or the Blue tour covers most of the attractions listed above and the staffs are very much helpful to assist the tourists so that we can visit all of the top attractions in London. Buses are frequent and on time. Tickets are stamped with time when we get on the bus for the first time and then are checked every time we get on the bus there after. Tickets are also sometime checked by a ticket checker while on board.
The headphones can be connected to the bus seat speaker to hear the commentary which has a good sound quality with a nice description for each attraction. Commentary about any attraction starts when the bus reaches the particular attraction so it is very easy to recognize the attraction.
We started the cruise from Westminster pier and ended up at Tower pier. You can just show the ticket to the City River Cruise Counter and get on any available city River Cruise. The cruise has a café at the bottom floor and the sightseeing sitting arrangement on the deck. There you can also enjoy a live commentary by an expert cruise staff. The view on both side of Thames is beautiful and I enjoyed the cruise tour most in my whole tour in London. While we get off the cruise at Tower Pier, we visited the Tower at that stop and get on the Big Bus again at a stop in front of the Tower.
The Big Bus tour is very much convenient, comfortable and tourist friendly tour. They have their helpful efficient staffs continuously assisting the tourists. The buses runs on perfect time and many of their buses runs all the time you can see them often while on board. The best way to see London no doubt.

Summary: Open-Top bus tour of London-very much friendly to the tourists totally unknown to the city!