Big Bus London HOHO with river cruise

[ihopfar]

We will be in London for several days before our cruise.   Thinking of doing the Big Bus HOHO the day we arrive.  I believe the standard one day ticket includes a one-way river cruise.

 

Has anyone bought this ticket and then taken the river cruise a few days later?   it might work better in our schedule to take the boat ride later in our trip.  

 

Also, can we choose which direction we take the river cruise?

 

Thanks!

Brad

[matamanoa]

I can't reply to every question in your post but my DH and I have taken a Thames River cruise towards Greenwich and found it very interesting.  There was commentary the whole way about London and the buildings we were passing and Greenwich itself was nice to walk around in and we visited the museum and observatory before catching the boat back.  It made for a nice day.

[John Bull]

Yes, for a one-way river trip offered by Big Bus and TootBus you can choose which way - just go to the departure point of your choice.

 

Matamonoa mentioned Greenwich - that's not offered in a standard ho-ho ticket but can be up-graded to include it with Tootbus - well worthwhile if you have the time,  not just for the river trip but also the destination (Greenwich Royal Naval College & Maritime Museum, the tea-clipper Cuttyy Sark, and the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time.)

 

I'm pretty certain the boat trip has to be taken during the validity of your ho-ho ticket.

 

The three ho-ho operators offer much the same basic deal at much the same cost, but the river options, feeder ho-ho routes, walks and one-day vs 24-hour tickets vary. 

Here's a decent comparison

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

(lots of great London  logistical stuff on other pages)

 

BTW, altho the ho-ho's are great for an over-view, for inside visits they're a painfully slow way of going from sight to sight, so don't waste money on a ho-ho ticket for more than a day or two. To get around central London quickly, use the Tube - London's metro, and by far the most-comprehensive network in the world.

To visit the various places that you want to see in detail, check on their websites for their nearest Tube stations (all places note their nearest tube station/s). Then use the Tube map (on all tourists' London maps, at stations, etc) to figure your route underground. Don't try to use the Tube map above-gound - it's diagrammatic and very very not-to-scale.

An Oyster card makes paying for travel by tube & buses (not ho-ho's) very simple

 

JB 🙂

 

[milolii]

If the website has a chat feature ask there.   We did this years ago amd took the cruise but I think it was  within the timeframe  of the tickets.  Agree with John Bull. Very slow,  even rained.  Get an Oyster card. 

[ihopfar]

7 hours ago, milolii said:

If the website has a chat feature ask there.  

 

I actually did this before I posted on here.   I asked a few different questions and realized some of the answers were incorrect so I don't believe I can trust the others!  Big Bus is a large company, and I would guess that the person I was chatting with was NOT in London and just reading the same FAQ I was!

 

That is why I was hoping for some folks who had actually done this before! 🙂