Hop On Hop Off in London

[grammawmoses]

I booked hotel near Paddington Station so I could spend a couple of days in London before taking British Isles cruise. I purchased 48 hour Hop On Hop Off tickets only to discover I did not purchase from Hop On Hop Off directly but from Golden Tours. I'm sure I can't cancel and get a refund. Also I find that there are no Hop On Hop Off stations anywhere near Paddington Station. I haven't been able to figure out where the nearest one is or how to get to it. I am really dreading this trip and making bad decisions. ☹️

[KforKitty]

If you are staying close to Paddington, then you are probably at the north western edge of the main tourist routes and probably not as far as you think from a bus stop.  If you let me know where your hotel is exactly, I’ll try to help.

 

Catherine 

 

 

[grammawmoses]

Thank you so much! I have reservations at the Tudor Court Hotel at 10-12 Norfolk Square.

[KforKitty]

OK, don’t panic, your hotel is well located and only a short walk to Hyde Park.  Although I don’t know the particular bus routes of the tickets you have purchased, I would have thought there will be stop(s) on Bayswater Road (the Northern edge of Hyde Park) and if not I would think the route would have a stop around Marble Arch/Park Lane/Oxford Road.  This is a little more of a walk but still less than a mile.

 

Alternatively, tourist buses usually take in Marylebone/Baker Street which may be worth a look to see if there are stops along there.

 

Regards

 

Catherine

[grammawmoses]

I thought I was buying direct from Hop On Hop Off but my tickets are from Golden Tours and they are 48 hour London Bus Tour. I don't know if I can present tickets at any bus stop or if I have to go to a station.

[Twickenham]

2 hours ago, grammawmoses said:

I booked hotel near Paddington Station so I could spend a couple of days in London before taking British Isles cruise. I purchased 48 hour Hop On Hop Off tickets only to discover I did not purchase from Hop On Hop Off directly but from Golden Tours. I'm sure I can't cancel and get a refund. Also I find that there are no Hop On Hop Off stations anywhere near Paddington Station. I haven't been able to figure out where the nearest one is or how to get to it. I am really dreading this trip and making bad decisions. ☹️

If this is the tour you purchased: https://www.goldentours.com/london-hop-on-hop-off-bus-tours/hop-on-hop-off-london-bus-tour-24-hr-ticket, a couple of points:

 

-The website states that you can cancel, up to the night before departure;

-There is a stop at Norfolk Place, just around the corner from your hotel.

 

Paddington is an area that I've stayed in several times (and enjoyed). It's well-connected transport wise to the more touristy areas of London, so if you do decide to cancel you have plenty of regular bus options, as well as the tube.

[KforKitty]

Is it these you have purchased?  If so their visitor centre is near Paddington and they do indeed have traditional HOHO routes.  It even looks from the website that you can cancel the tickets if they are not what you want.

 

Catherine

 

 

 

[grammawmoses]

Thank you so much!!!

[Cotswold Eagle]

2 hours ago, grammawmoses said:

I thought I was buying direct from Hop On Hop Off but my tickets are from Golden Tours and they are 48 hour London Bus Tour.

Some confusion here, I think. Golden Tours ARE one of the four(?) Hop On Hop Off bus operators in London. 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Cotswold Eagle

[grammawmoses]

Thank you!!!

[markeb]

What are your plans for your plans for your two days in London? The HOHOs are typically much better for an orientation/overview of London than for transportation between sites. They do have the advantage of being a single form of transportation to figure out, but with a limited amount of time it may be much faster to take the Tube, a taxi, or even walk between locations after that first overview on the HOHO. It helps to have some idea of what you want to see and do.

 

When's your trip/cruise?

[grammawmoses]

We arrive at LHR 1:25 pm on May 1 and head for cruise ship on the 3rd.

[markeb]

4 hours ago, grammawmoses said:

We arrive at LHR 1:25 pm on May 1 and head for cruise ship on the 3rd.

 

So figure 2-3 hours to get to and through the border control (depending on airline, it can be a walk, or a train ride) and into London. You're close enough to Paddington Station that either the Heathrow Express (buy tickets early!) or the Elizabeth Line are easy and fast options, so that saves some time. And you're arriving late enough to get into the hotel. Google says the sun will set at 8:25 pm, so you could have time for a loop on the HOHO. 

 

Other than that, it's a question of what do you want to see more thoroughly. You have a day; that's 2-3 locations with some depth or a few more walk in/walk out stops. So think about what those stops are.

[grammawmoses]

Thank you! I did book the Heathrow Express to take us to Paddington Station which is close to our hotel and we did plan to take the HOHO loop that day before dark and then decide what to see the next day. Unfortunately I also booked Heathrow Express to return us to the airport before I knew that the Princess Shuttle will pick us up at Victoria Coach Station so we won't be using the Heathrow Express tickets on 5-3 and they are non-refundable.

[markeb]

38 minutes ago, grammawmoses said:

Thank you! I did book the Heathrow Express to take us to Paddington Station which is close to our hotel and we did plan to take the HOHO loop that day before dark and then decide what to see the next day. Unfortunately I also booked Heathrow Express to return us to the airport before I knew that the Princess Shuttle will pick us up at Victoria Coach Station so we won't be using the Heathrow Express tickets on 5-3 and they are non-refundable.

 

Oh, well. It happens.

 

You've got plenty of time. Figure out the top 5 things you really want to do beyond the HOHO loop and post back with them. There are plenty of people here who can advise you on whether they're doable in a day. Everyone has different interests. If you're comfortable with public transportation, you can easily get to most of London from the Paddington area by Tube. You just need contactless cards (each of you needs a card) or Apple Pay/Google Pay. Look around, get some ideas, and ask! And please! allow time just to wander into a pub or walk the streets of London! You can easily schedule yourself so much that you don't have time to realize you're in London which is a great city just to get lost in!

[grammawmoses]

Thanks so much for your advice and guidance. I have never done anything financial on my cell phone or iPad so I'm hesitant about Apple or Google Pay. Is it really necessary? I will have pounds and credit cards.

[markeb]

You can ride the Tube with a contactless credit card without needing an Oyster card. TFL has a great page for visitors here.

 

It’s a great resource. We’re very comfortable using our phones, but if you’re not, a contactless card works fine. Contactless cards are the norm in the UK; cash is almost unheard of (see numerous threads in this forum). You’ll each need your own card for public transportation. And actually it’s very easy to ride the Heathrow Express with their app and a e-ticket. You won’t need much cash; you’re more likely to need pound coins for bathrooms and the like. Don’t pull that many pounds if you have credit cards and an ATM card. 
 

Like I say, do some research on your own and come back with questions!

 

 

[Steerpike58]

I wanted to add my own 'HOHO' experience in London here for the benefit of others, and I have a question or two of my own that I'm curious about if anyone can enlighten me. 

 

We like the idea of HOHO busses and have used them successfully in a number of European cities. But in London, we were surprised to learn that there are SEVERAL 'HOHO' 'lines' / 'operators', and they all have their own busses (not interchangeable) and possibly different itineraries. Since we didn't realize there was a choice, we didn't do any prior research, and just hopped on the first bus we saw, and paid the (pretty expensive!) fee. It cost us over $100 for two, for a day pass. We ended up with 'Golden Tours'. 

 

Question: is 'Hop On, Hop Off' a specific brand or do all the operators get to use that term? 

Question: do all the 'hop on, hop off'-like services offer the same, or different, itineraries? 

 

Our 'Golden Tours' advertised itself as the only tour that offered a 'live guide'. This actually meant we had a young kid yelling into a microphone at head-ache inducing volume, trying to be creative / funny by making stupid jokes about Boris Johnson and others.  I finally asked him to reduce the volume a bit but it hardly changed.  

 

The traffic in London was atrocious (this was mid-week). I believe they now have a center-wide 20 mph speed limit, but we went even slower than that due to construction and/or other issues, so we could literally have walked faster than the bus. So we crawled through London being deafened by a rap-DJ-like 'guide' until we couldn't stand it any longer and abandoned the ride altogether and started walking and taking the tube. 

 

So my advice would be - research which services are offered, what their pricing and itineraries are, and be wary of the 'live guide' (our guy may have been an exception but he was loud and obnoxious!). Be aware also that they try to bundle in other features like a river cruise or the London Eye, which may or may not fit your schedule.  We normally research everything to death but this one afternoon in London was a last-minute opportunity caused by schedule changes, so we hadn't researched it sufficiently. 

 

I'm a big believer in the 'tube', but beware you can end up walking literally miles through the underground warren of connecting paths.  Also note, we found public restrooms hard to come by in central London (compared to great success everywhere else in England and Scotland). We ended up having to go into a department store on Oxford street to find a public loo.  

[grammawmoses]

I already made the mistake of buying tickets that ended up being Golden Tour as I also did not realize that not all HOHO buses are the same and they don't all go to the same places nor are they interchangeable. And the tickets were expensive and non refundable. I am dreading the bad decisions I've made that can't be changed without a significant loss of money.

[fruitmachine]

3 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

So we crawled through London being deafened by a rap-DJ-like 'guide' until we couldn't stand it any longer and abandoned the ride altogether and started walking and taking the tube. 

You should have first tried getting on the next bus - at least you'd have sampled a different guide that may have been much more to your taste.

But all HoHo services - probably anywhere in the world - should be seen as a way of getting an overview of the area rather than basic transport speeding you round the circuit.

[Cotswold Eagle]

5 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Question: is 'Hop On, Hop Off' a specific brand or do all the operators get to use that term? 

Didn’t you answer this question in your own post? There are several operators in London (and other European cities). Big Bus and City Sightseeing are international brands. 

 

5 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Question: do all the 'hop on, hop off'-like services offer the same, or different, itineraries? 

Different routes. There is a wealth of information about them on this board and online. As m’colleague from Scotland says, they should not be confused with a transport pass to quickly and conveniently get around a city. Two different requirements. 

[Globaliser]

17 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

The traffic in London was atrocious (this was mid-week). I believe they now have a center-wide 20 mph speed limit, but we went even slower than that due to construction and/or other issues, so we could literally have walked faster than the bus.

 

This is pretty normal for central London. IIRC, the average journey speed by road is about 8 mph, and this figure has generally been pretty steady since before the invention of the internal combustion engine. If you want to travel faster than this in central London, you're very often better off taking some other form of transport.

 

HOHO buses are a modern contributor to slow road speeds, because unlike most other road users, those on HOHO buses don't have any particular interest in getting to their destination quickly, so they block and clutter up London's relatively narrow streets, which don't allow other traffic to overtake.

 

Anyway, if the speed limit is 20 mph, then by definition it's the maximum speed you can travel at - so in reality everyone must travel more slowly than that.