London in 7 hours!

[SteveD]

We have 7 hours next Wednesday to "do" London with an American niece and her husband. They have already been to the Tower and the Eye.

All suggestions are welcome!

Does anyone have details of a "hop-on-hop-off" tourist bus service which operates in January?

[waimarie]

The 'London Bus Company I believe operate the open topped buses which give a very comprehensive tour. You can hop on and off wherever you want and includes a trip on the river. Very good value and excellent if you have limited time to see the mostest!!

[SteveD]

Thanks, waimarie. I hope they have some closed top buses to use in January! I'll check their website.

[lb24]

It's worth seeing Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.

[theo_wyvern]

if the weather is inclement they have a covering for the top, but if there is no rain your best wrapping up warm and sitting on the top deck !

[Mikeyd2]

Get a day bus pass �3.50 and take them on one (or both) of the "Heritage" Routemaster bus routes. They go past all the main iconic sites . Routes 9 and 15 have them between 09.30 and 18.00 I believe.

[koogar]

heard the dungeon on tooley st is quite good....never been though....just hear say

[spaced]

try croydon, its lovely this time of year.

[Bob A Job]

Try the 'Natural History Museum' or the 'British Museum' trust me, most americans have never seen anything older than 200 years.

[Dee Sa]

Hi SteveD

I am a Londoner, birn & bred and heres what I do with my many visitors:-

firstly by Rover bus/underground ticket areas probably 1to 5.

Take the DLR [good experience for visitors] to Island Gardens, get off use directions and walk under the Thames, theres a lift at each end, to Greenwich, takes under 10 mins, when u come up visit the Gypsy Moth, look at the Cuty Sark from the outside[ not much to see inside] and walk up to the Greenwich Observatory and pose on the meridian line, come down and take the pleasure boat up the Thames to the Tower from there Thames side walk through to St Kathryns Dock [about 2 mins away] and may be have lunch in the Dickens Pub there, take the tube to Westminster, you have Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey to look at, walk over Westminster Bridge to the London Eye [ well worth a trip] and if you are tiring a little either go into the South Bank Festival Hall for tea and a rest or walk a little further to the Imax theatre and have a sit down and watch a 3D film.After that make your way to Convent Garden for free street theatre and some dinner and maybe a show.

Good Luck

[Buenchico]

http://www.theoriginaltour.com/tour_information/
http://www.bigbus.co.uk/uk/html/uk_our_tours.html

The two companies above both offer 'hop on, hop off' services. For a different type of trip though, why not do the amphibious 'Duck' tour. It's much more fun and you get to see lots of the sites:
http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/product_show.js p?ID=1010&PRODUCTID=1016&CODE=3268FROG&AUID= 1911

Chris

[SteveD]

Thanks for all (well, nearly all) the replies. Considering the time of year and the iffy weather, this is what we did:

We got tickets for The Original Tour hop-on-hop-off bus tour. During the morning the weather was foul. Fortunately, the bus we got was partly covered upstairs so we got the advantage of the better view but didn't get wet. We did half the tour (1 hour) and got off at Westminster Bridge, "did" The Eye (great as the weather brightened during the "flight). After a quick lunch we got the bus again and did the other half of the tour getting off at Trafalgar Square.

We then walked through Covent Garden and Chinatown (where we were interviewed by BBC World Service TV on our impression of the decorations for the Chinese New Year).

That filled the time perfectly and we had a great day.