London's hop-on hop-off buses are open-top sightseeing buses that loop past the main sights, with commentary, and let you get off and back on as often as you like for 24 or 48 hours. The two big operators, Big Bus Tours and Tootbus, charged from about £25 to £47 for an adult in September 2026, while an ordinary red London bus covers many of the same streets for £1.75 a ride.
The idea is simple. You buy a ticket, board at any stop, and ride a fixed circular route through Westminster, the West End, the City and the South Bank. Headphones or a live guide explain what you are passing. When something catches your eye, you get off, visit it, and catch a later bus from the same stop.
Whether that is good value depends on how you like to travel. For a first-time visitor with limited time, tired legs or young children, the tour can be a stress-free introduction. For a budget traveller who is happy to read a map, the public buses and a pair of walking shoes do most of the same job for a fraction of the price. This guide explains both and helps you choose.
Sightseeing buses at a glance
- Main operators
- Big Bus Tours and Tootbus (formerly The Original Tour)
- Adult price
- Big Bus from £32 online (full price from £39); Tootbus from £44, on sale from £24.99 when we checked
- Ticket length
- Usually 24 or 48 hours, counted from when you activate or first use the ticket
- First and last buses
- Around 08:30 to about 18:00, depending on the route
- Frequency on the main routes
- Every 15-20 minutes (Big Bus Red Route) or 16-20 minutes (Tootbus Red Route)
- Cheaper alternative
- Public bus: £1.75 per ride, capped at £5.25 a day (until 1 November 2026)
How the tours work in practice
Both operators run several colour-coded routes that meet at a few interchange stops in the West End and around Victoria. The buses have an open top deck and a covered lower deck. Commentary comes through headphones or the operator's app, in several languages, and some tours use a live guide who speaks English instead.
Your ticket is usually a code in the operator's app or a paper ticket. Big Bus Tours, for example, says a digital hop-on hop-off ticket must be activated in its app on the travel date you chose when booking, and the 24- or 48-hour countdown starts at that moment. A 24-hour ticket activated at 14:00 on Monday is therefore still valid at 13:00 on Tuesday, which lets you split the tour over two half-days. Once activated, the ticket is locked to that phone and cannot be paused, so keep the battery charged. Other operators and products have their own terms, so read them before you pay.
Buses do not run late into the evening. In September 2026 the last departures on the main routes were around 17:45 to 18:30, so an afternoon start leaves you only a few hours on the first day. Traffic in central London is often slow, especially around Oxford Street, Parliament Square and the City at rush hour, and a full loop can take much longer than the timetable suggests.
Photo: Kk70088 · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Big Bus Tours compared with Tootbus
Both products are broadly similar. The table shows what each operator published on its London website in September 2026. Prices online change often and sales are frequent, so treat these as a guide and compare on the day you book.
| Big Bus Tours | Tootbus | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest adult bus ticket | From £32.00 (full price from £39.00) | From £44.00, on sale from £24.99 (bus plus walking tours) |
| Bus plus river cruise | 24 hours plus one-way Thames cruise from £36.99 (full price from £43.99) | From £49.00, on sale from £33.99 |
| Bigger package | 48 hours, cruise, three guided walks and a 2-hour evening tour, from £46.99 (full price from £59.99) | Bus tickets combined with entry to attractions such as St Paul's Cathedral |
| Routes | Red Route (28 stops) and Blue Route (43 stops), plus extra routes | Four bus routes: Red, Blue, Green and Pink, plus six walking tours |
| Hours and frequency | Red 08:30-17:45, every 15-20 min; Blue 08:26-18:00, every 20 min | Red 08:30 to last departure 18:30, every 16-20 min; Blue 08:30 to 18:00, every 20-30 min; Green and Pink hourly |
| Commentary | Digital commentary in 7 languages on the Blue Route | Check languages when booking; separate live-guided tours |
| For children | Child ticket for ages 4-15; under-4s free | Child ticket for ages 5-15; a 45-minute London Kids Tour at weekends and in school holidays |
The main routes on both are the ones to judge them by. Secondary routes such as Tootbus's Green and Pink lines run only once an hour, so a hop-off on those can mean a long wait. Before booking, open each operator's route map and check that the stops you care about are on a frequent route.
Big Bus says it stops at the Royal Mews, about five minutes' walk from the front of Buckingham Palace. That matters if you plan to watch the Changing of the Guard at 11:00, when the area in front of the palace gets very crowded.
A "from" price on a sightseeing bus is rarely the price you pay. The headline figure is usually the cheapest online ticket for one adult on the shortest product. Children, 48-hour tickets, cruises and bought-on-the-street tickets cost more. Compare the full basket for your family on the official website before you pay a street seller.
The public buses that follow the same streets
London's red buses are part of the public transport network run by TfL. Most central routes use double-decker buses, and the front seats upstairs give you almost the same view as a tour bus, behind glass. There is no commentary, but a good guidebook or a free map app fills that gap. These routes were checked on TfL's route data in September 2026:
| Route | What you pass |
|---|---|
| 9 | Aldwych, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, the Royal Academy, Green Park, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge (Harrods), the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace and High Street Kensington |
| 11 | Waterloo, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Victoria, Sloane Square and the King's Road in Chelsea, to Fulham |
| 15 | Charing Cross, the Strand, the Royal Courts of Justice, St Paul's Cathedral, Monument, the Tower of London and Aldgate, then east to Limehouse |
| 24 | Victoria, Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road and Camden Town |
| 139 | Waterloo Bridge, Somerset House, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Selfridges, Baker Street and Lord's Cricket Ground |
| 453 | Baker Street, Regent's Park, Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster and Lambeth North (for the Imperial War Museum) |
Route 15 is especially good for a first look at the City: it goes from Trafalgar Square along the Strand and Fleet Street to St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower. Route 24 takes you from Victoria through Westminster and the West End to Camden Town. Route 9 follows the south side of Hyde Park to Kensington.
Bus routes and stops change from time to time, and roadworks or events can divert them. Check the route on the TfL website or app before you set off, and read our full guide to London buses and night buses for how stops, signs and route numbers work.
What the public bus costs
You cannot pay cash on a London bus. Touch a contactless bank card, phone or Oyster card on the yellow reader when you board (you do not touch out). An adult fare costs £1.75, rising to £1.85 on 1 November 2026. With the Hopper fare, you can take unlimited further buses within one hour of touching in at no extra cost, as long as you use the same card or device.
Bus-only travel is capped at £5.25 a day (rising to £5.55 on 1 November 2026). Once you reach the cap, every further bus that day is free. There is also a 1 Day Bus and Tram Pass for £6.00, but for most visitors the automatic cap is cheaper. Our explainer on Oyster and contactless covers caps, touching in and card fees.
Four buses in a day cost the same as three on contactless. Three bus rides at £1.75 reach the £5.25 daily cap, so the fourth and every ride after it are free. A full day of sightseeing on routes 9, 15, 24 and 139 therefore costs one adult £5.25 (before 1 November 2026), and children aged 5 to 10 ride free.
A worked example for a family of four
Take two adults and two children aged 7 and 9 who want one day of sightseeing from the top deck.
- Public buses: the adults each hit the daily bus cap of £5.25, so £10.50 in total. Children aged 5 to 10 travel free on buses without a card. If they also use the Tube, the adults' Zone 1-2 cap of £8.90 each applies instead, and the children still ride free with a paying adult.
- Sightseeing bus: two adult tickets at the lowest advertised online prices come to between about £50 and £64 before the children's tickets are added. Add a cruise or a second day and the total rises quickly.
The difference easily pays for a paid attraction or a good lunch. But the tour gives you commentary, guaranteed open-top seats, and no need to plan routes, which some families value highly. Our guide to children's fares on London transport explains the rules for older children, who need a Young Visitor discount or a Zip card to get cheaper fares.
Who should take a hop-on hop-off tour
Good choice if
- You have one or two days and want an overview first
- You have limited mobility or small children and want to avoid the Tube
- You enjoy commentary and want it in your own language
- You would like a river cruise and walking tours bundled into one ticket
Probably not worth it if
- You are on a tight budget
- You already know London or plan to walk a lot
- You arrive after lunch and have only a few hours of bus time left
- It is cold or wet, when the open top deck loses its appeal
We think the tour works best on the first day of a trip, used as a moving orientation rather than as transport. Ride one full loop of the main route without getting off, note what you want to come back to, and then switch to buses, the Tube and your feet. Our first-time visitor's guide and the one-day London itinerary show how to plan the rest.
If you have a sightseeing pass, check whether a bus tour is included before you buy one separately. Our look at whether the London Pass is worth it shows how the numbers work out.
Better alternatives for some travellers
Central London is more compact than it looks on a map, and many sights are closer on foot than by any bus. Our guide to walking in London shows when walking is faster than the Tube, and a guided walk gives more depth than any recorded commentary; see our round-up of the best walking tours in London.
The river is the other great way to see the city without effort. The Uber Boat river bus takes contactless and passes Westminster, the Tower and Greenwich, and sightseeing boats add commentary. Our guide to Thames river cruises compares the options and prices.
For wheelchair users, all London buses are wheelchair-accessible, with a ramp and a dedicated space. Sightseeing buses are less straightforward: Big Bus Tours asks wheelchair users to contact it in advance with the width and weight of the chair so it can confirm there is room, and it cannot take mobility scooters. Ask any operator before booking. See our guide to step-free transport in London for more.
Frequently asked questions
Are hop-on hop-off buses in London worth it?
They are worth it if you want an easy overview with commentary on your first day, especially with children or limited mobility. On a budget, public bus routes such as the 9, 15 and 24 pass many of the same sights for £1.75 a ride, capped at £5.25 a day.
How much is a hop-on hop-off bus ticket in London?
In September 2026 Big Bus Tours advertised adult tickets from £32 online (full price from £39), and Tootbus from £44, with sale prices from £24.99. Tickets with a river cruise or 48 hours cost more. Check the operator's official website for today's price.
Which London bus route is best for sightseeing?
Route 15 is a good choice for the City, passing the Strand, St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. Route 9 follows Piccadilly and the south side of Hyde Park to Kensington, and route 24 runs from Victoria through Westminster and the West End to Camden Town.
How long does a hop-on hop-off ticket last?
Most tickets last 24 or 48 hours from the moment you first use them, not from the time of purchase. Buses stop running around 18:00, so a 24-hour ticket started in the afternoon can be used again the next morning.
Can I pay cash on a London bus?
No. London buses do not accept cash. Pay with a contactless bank card, a phone or watch with a card loaded, or an Oyster card, and touch the reader when you get on. Children aged 5 to 10 travel free without a card.
Sources
- Big Bus Tours - London bus tours (checked September 2026)
- Tootbus - London hop-on hop-off (checked September 2026)
- Big Bus Tours - London terms and conditions (checked September 2026)
- Tootbus - London timetable (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Bus and tram fares (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Route data for bus route 15 (open data) (checked September 2026)
- Mayor of London - MD3517 July 2026 fare changes (checked September 2026)