A London tour...one day

[1newf1not]

Hello!!

 

Looking for  a one day tour of the LONDON area.

We want a smaller group if we can.  Not a bus full of people.

 

Any ideas as to where to look or who to contact?

 

Krista

[Bob++]

One day is not much time at all., but you do have some options:

 

A HOHO bus tour will take you round most of the major attractions and you can get off if you want. 

 

There are taxi tours - https://www.viator.com/en-GB/London-tourism/Black-Taxi-Tours-of-London/d737-t6235 The drivers will give you an interesting commentary on what you are looking at, but the downside is the cost and the limited view that you get through a car window.

 

Several organisations offer walking tours - https://freetoursbyfoot.com/london-tours/walking-tours/london-in-one-day-tour/ There is no charge but a tip is expected and if you are up to it, they are by far the best way of seeing London in a day. You don't get to go into any of the sites though.

 

Another alternative is to choose a couple of places you want to visit (Tower of London, London Eye, Buckingham Palace (if the dates fit)  - there is a long list, and use the tube to travel between them.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by Bob++

[josh_hutchings]

yes i second a walking tour....the recomedation above is a good one. you can probably even do a morning tour and then an afternoon tour in a different area if you have the energy. i find london walking tours to be the most rewarding as there is sooooooo much to see by foot.

[Host Bonjour]

Walking tour is great, but....London is a city with many, many, things to see and it's not small. 

 

The best thing to do would be to decide what you are most interested in seeing or doing and then decide by what way you'd like to see it. You know you don't wish to be among a large group. But,  Bob mentioned the HoHo buses above and while I am generally NO fan of large tours, or groups, or buses, in some places, doing the HoHo makes perfect sense. London is one of those places. Berlin, for me, was another one, at least at the time I visited, because it was in the reunification mega reconstruction years, there were cranes and building sites everywhere, and I thought it just made a lot of sense when there still wasn't quite so much "there" there, especially in the booming former East Berlin, and it worked out well. But...I digress.

 

The London HoHo was quite wonderful in delivering a great open-air panoramic view of the city. You're there with others, but it's not like they're so much in your face. Everyone is listening to the narration on the headset, synched to whether the bus is moving or not. You can take a longer route or an abbreviated route but both are good. You'd see notable places in London that would otherwise require many tube rides and transfers or be otherwise perhaps take too much time and trouble to navigate for a first time visitor...unless one is just remarkably studious with maps and planning. Also, with the HoHo, one can as the Hop On/Hop Off name promises, at any time and decide to linger if one becomes intrigued by the current location. 

 

I'd also recommend searching through the many topics here on our boards and perhaps reading through some trip reports from some of our members. You may discover exactly what you are looking for in our rich repository of accounts from fellow members who have been in your position. 

 

After I took the longer HoHo bus (I used The Big Bus) I felt like I'd had an incredible open-air preview of the city and was then ready to hit the ground running on foot, by tube. My visits have varied from long to short but the HoHo was a great primer. Is it necessary? No. If time is limited, it can make it pleasant and easy, giving you the option to hop off any time to linger where you wish, and resume when ready, ultimately returning you back where you started. 

 

If you're not sure what are the highlights, again, peruse the topics to see what our members have enjoyed the most. It's different for everyone. 

 

Enjoy your visit 🙂