My first day of sightseeing in London over New Year’s came along with grey skies and cold weather. In fact, if it weren’t for the 8-hour time difference and the jet lag, I could have sworn that I hadn’t left San Francisco. So, I bundled up in my best winter gear and jumped on the double-decker bus tour for a day of semi-sheltered sightseeing. Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, London Eye & the London Bridge, and the Tower of London & the Tower Bridge all made sense after taking this tour. And, given how much time I spent the rest of the week cruising around town on the Tube (underground in other words), the hop on hop off tour was hands down the best way to get my bearings in and around London.

If you are planning on taking this tour, I’ve got a few tips:

1. Start your hop on hop off tour as early as possible in the day. Tours start around 9AM most days and getting there early gets you a choice seat and the personal attention of the tour guide. Our tour guide tailored her narration based on where we were from and what we wanted to know about London. Go ahead and ask about the statue of George Washington in front of the National Gallery.

2. Hop off and get back on another bus with a different guide. While each guide will deliver the highlights, each guide will have varying skills for both entertaining and informative banter. So, take a stop off for some up close sightseeing and hop on another bus to see what you could be missing. Our first guide gave us history, our second guide gave us celebrity gossip!

3. Use the bus tour for both sightseeing and transportation. Thrifty travelers use the tour to both get their bearings and shuttle themselves between destinations. If you start early enough in the day, you can make the full loop with the guide before most people wake up and manage to cram all sorts of sightseeing in by the end of the day. (Viator’s even got a special 2 days for the price of 1 running until February 28th.)

As someone who usually forges my way with good map and guidebook, I’ll admit that I was skeptical about the value of the hop on hop off tour. But after one loop of the sightseeing tour, I was able to identify landmarks and streets well enough to get around London without getting too lost. And, for me, spending a little less time being lost gave me that much more time sightseeing!

-Suzann M

Find all Viator blog posts about London

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Deals, Specials & Promotions, Departure Lounge, Destinations, Europe, Suggested Itineraries, Travel Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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