NOTE: Please read the latest article where I forgot to mention about the prices for 'City Tour London.'
I am writing this to show the comparative prices of various sightseeing tour operations between different private companies. I am also comparing them to London Transport Bus services', because not everyone can afford to use the open top bus services.
You can see the table below
Big Bus Tour
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City Sightseeing/The Original Tour
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GoldenTours
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London Transport Bus services
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Adult £32.00
Online £24.99
Child £12.00
Online £12.00
Family £65.99
Online £59.99
All 24 hour ticket
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City Sightseeing prices
Adult £30.00
Child £15.00
The Original Tour prices
Adult £29.00
Online £25.50
Child £14.00
Online £12.00
Family £86.00
Online £72.00
All 24 hour ticket
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Adult £26.00
Child £12.00
Family £65.00
All 24 hour ticket
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Oyster Pay as you go and/or contactless bank card single fare £1.50
Daily Price cap (for buses only) £4.40
One Day Bus Pass £5.00
Zone 1-6 One DayTravelcard
£12.00
The price caps andTravelcards valid till 4:30 am on the following day.
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More information from TFL fares page.Tourists can also buy a Visitor Oyster card which provides discount prices.
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(Central London Spider Map)
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The most expensive Adult day pass for a sightseeing service is the Big Bus Tour that will cost you £32, but if you book online then the price drops to £24.99. The cheapest tour company is Golden Tours, from which you can purchase a Child day ticket for just £12.
But for those of you that aren't fond of the Tour Buses, you can use London Bus services. However, you need to bear in mind that London buses are closed top so you won’t necessarily be able to take that 'perfect shot' when taking photos of London's famous landmarks.
Why are the open top bus operators expensive?
Well, because the operating companies are not subsidised in any way so they have to put the prices up in order to make money for their tour operations. They also have to be registered with Transport for London to have a ‘London Service Permit’. This means that a private operating company has to obtain a permit in order to operate a service within the Greater London area because the bus operations in London are regulated and routes tendered off to private operating companies.
What are the best London Bus routes for sightseeing?
In my opinion it would be Routes 11, 24, 15, 521, RV1, 453 and 188.
Please note though that some of the routes may operate using single decker buses. You can see the map on the table I've provided above.
I hope my advice helps you and if you have any concerns then please feel free to ask me by using the comments section below and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image attributions
"Lambeth Bridge - Big Bus AN341 (LJ12JVL)" by Geof Sheppard - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lambeth_Bridge_-_Big_Bus_AN341_(LJ12JVL).jpg#/media/File:Lambeth_Bridge_-_Big_Bus_AN341_(LJ12JVL).jpg
"Arriva Original Tour VLY604" by Arriva436 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arriva_Original_Tour_VLY604.JPG#/media/File:Arriva_Original_Tour_VLY604.JPG
"Grovesnor Square - Golden Tours 102 (YJ11OHN)" by Geof Sheppard - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grovesnor_Square_-_Golden_Tours_102_(YJ11OHN).JPG#/media/File:Grovesnor_Square_-_Golden_Tours_102_(YJ11OHN).JPG
"London General LT46 on Route 11, Fulham Broadway" by Au Morandarte - Flickr: London General LT46 on Route 11, Fulham Broadway. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_General_LT46_on_Route_11,_Fulham_Broadway.jpg#/media/File:London_General_LT46_on_Route_11,_Fulham_Broadway.jpg