London Hop-On Hop-Off Bus: All 4 Operators Compared (2026)

Planning a hop-on hop-off bus in London? We compare all four operators, their routes, tickets and included cruises, so you can pick the right one for your trip

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If you are thinking about a hop-on hop-off bus in London, you will find four companies selling what looks like the same ticket, their open-top buses passing the same landmarks within minutes of each other.

The differences are in the small print. One ticket includes a Thames cruise and the next does not; the quieter routes run once an hour, and a 1-day ticket lasts only until the last bus that evening, so a 2 pm start buys you an afternoon rather than a day.

We checked every ticket, route and inclusion below against the operators’ own websites in September 2026.

This guide compares City Sightseeing, Big Bus, Tootbus (also known as The Original Tour), and Golden Tours side by side. It covers ticket options, which tickets include a river cruise, how often the buses run, wheelchair access, and which company suits each traveller best. For night tours, afternoon tea buses and the Christmas lights tours, our sister guide to the best bus tours of London compares them all.

Good to know: the cheapest ticket from each company usually leaves out the Thames cruise. The cruise comes with City Sightseeing’s 24, 48 and 72-hour tickets, Big Bus’s Discover ticket and above, Tootbus’s Must See London ticket and Golden Tours’ cruise tickets.

TIP: short on time or watching the budget? The Golden Tours 24-hour ticket with cruise, at around £34, packs in the most for the money: live English guides on selected Blue Route departures, two free guided walking tours and a one-way cruise you can take any time in the following 7 days.

How hop-on hop-off buses work in London

All four companies run the same basic idea. You buy a ticket for a set length of time, then use it as often as you like on that company’s buses.

Each bus follows a fixed loop past the main sights, stopping at clearly marked stops. You get off wherever you like, spend as long as you want at an attraction, then pick up the next bus that comes along.

A few things are worth knowing before you choose:

• Timed tickets start from your first ride, not from midnight, so a 24-hour ticket first used at 11 am lasts until 11 am the next day. The exception is the 1-day ticket, which ends when the buses stop running that evening.
• The main routes run every 15 to 20 minutes in the busy months. The quieter routes can be as sparse as one bus an hour, and Golden Tours drops two of its three routes to hourly in winter, so the route map is worth a look before you build a day around one.
• The buses finish earlier than many visitors expect. On the main routes, the last departures leave between about 5 pm and 6.30 pm.
• Every company provides recorded commentary through earphones, in 7 to 12 languages depending on the operator. Golden Tours also runs live English-speaking guides on selected departures.
• All four sell tickets that include a Thames river cruise, but not every ticket does, so the ticket name matters.
• Every bus is a double-decker with the open top deck up a steep, narrow staircase. If stairs are a problem, the covered lower deck is the alternative, and the access section below covers wheelchair spaces for each company.

London hop-on hop-off bus operators compared

Prices in the table are for the cheapest 24-hour adult ticket that includes a Thames cruise, as sold online on 30 September 2026 with that day’s discounts. They change often, as all four companies run regular online offers.

Which route passes which sight

All four companies cover the big Westminster, South Bank and City of London sights on their main route. Coverage varies once you head west to Kensington or north to King’s Cross and Regent’s Park.

Route names are the ones each company uses. “Not listed” means the sight does not appear in the route information the company publishes, so it is worth checking its latest route map before you plan around it. City Sightseeing lists its main stops without saying which route serves each one.

City Sightseeing London

City Sightseeing is the red open-top brand you will recognise from cities worldwide, and in London its main Red Route covers the headline sights on a loop of about two and a half hours.

The 1-day ticket covers the bus plus a self-guided Royal London walking tour in English. The 24-hour ticket adds a single journey on a Thames cruise, and the 48- and 72-hour tickets include a return cruise to Greenwich, which makes a lovely half-day out in its own right, plus a Routemaster bus ride.

The 72-hour ticket also includes a night tour.

Commentary is recorded in 11 languages, and on the Blue Route children get their own commentary and can ask the driver for a free London Quest activity booklet.

The Green Route runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only. The included cruise takes about 35 minutes, with departures every 40 minutes.

On the Red Route, the first tour leaves at 8.50 am and the last full loop at 5 pm, with buses every 20 minutes until 3.30 pm and every 30 minutes after that. City Sightseeing lists its buses as wheelchair accessible, though space on board is limited.

Best for: first-time visitors who want the classic red-bus loop, and anyone staying two or three days who likes the idea of a river trip to Greenwich. Tickets start at £25 for a single loop, £30 for a 1-day ticket, or £40 for 24 hours with the cruise.

Check prices and book City Sightseeing London

Big Bus London

Big Bus is the premium option, and its longer tickets carry generous extras. It runs three routes: the Red Route (28 stops, about two and a half hours for the full loop), the longer Blue Route (43 stops, about three and a half hours) and the Green Link, which runs every 45 minutes between King’s Cross, the British Museum, Covent Garden and Westminster Pier.

The One Day ticket is bus only. The 24-hour Discover ticket adds a one-way Thames cruise between Westminster and Tower Pier, about 40 minutes on the water, and the 48-hour Essential ticket adds three guided walking tours.

The 48-hour Explore ticket includes all of that plus a 75-minute evening tour with a live guide, which leaves at 7.30 pm or 9 pm and can also be booked on its own. There is no 72-hour ticket.

Red Route buses run every 15 to 20 minutes between 8.30 am and 5.45 pm, and the commentary is recorded in 7 languages. Children under 4 travel free. Big Bus asks wheelchair users to contact them before travel with the width and weight of the chair so they can confirm it will fit, and mobility scooters cannot be carried.

Best for: visitors who want the fullest package, including guided walking tours and an evening tour, and do not mind paying a little more. From £32 for the One Day ticket, or £36.99 for the 24-hour Discover ticket with the cruise.

Check prices and book Big Bus London

Tootbus London (The Original Tour)

We recommend Tootbus for families. In London, The Original Tour operates it, and the buses and stops carry both names, so either sign is correct. The London Discovery ticket comes in 1, 2 or 3-day versions and covers four routes (Red, Blue, Green and Pink) plus an early-morning shuttle, with six self-guided walking tours through the Pop Guide app.

It does not include a cruise. The Must See London ticket adds a 24-hour Thames river pass with City Cruises, starting from Westminster or Tower Pier.

The commentary includes a dedicated children’s channel in English and French, and child fares start at age 5. The Red Route runs every 15 to 20 minutes from 8.30am, with the last departure at 6.30pm, while the Green and Pink routes run hourly.

The Tootbus app isn’t available in London at the moment, so the live bus tracking some older guides mention isn’t an option here. Tootbus does not publish wheelchair space details for London, so confirm access with them before booking.

For more ideas on keeping younger travellers happy between stops, see our full guide to London with kids.

Best for: families with children, thanks to the kids’ commentary channel, and anyone who wants several days on the bus for a low price. From around £25 for the London Discovery ticket, or £33.99 for Must See London with the cruise.

Check prices and book Tootbus London

Golden Tours (Gray Line London)

Golden Tours, which also trades as Gray Line in London, is the value pick, and it packs in more than its price suggests. As well as 1-day, 24, 48 and 72-hour tickets, there is a shorter 4-hour ticket, a budget-friendly way to see the highlights on a first afternoon or a short stopover.

The cruise tickets include a one-way Thames cruise from Westminster, Tower Millennium Pier or Greenwich, which you can take any time within 7 days of your first bus ride.

The 24-hour ticket also includes two free guided walking tours: Royal London at 10 am from the bus stop outside the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, and Jack the Ripper at 3.30 pm from Tower Hill.

Selected Blue Route departures have live English-speaking guides, and Golden Tours aims to have one on every bus leaving the London Eye stop on Belvedere Road on the hour.

The recorded commentary comes in 12 languages with a separate English commentary for children, and under-fives travel free. There are three routes: the Blue Route past the central landmarks, the Red Route through the centre and north, including Regent’s Park and King’s Cross, and the Orange Route for the South Kensington museums and Harrods.

In summer, the Red and Blue routes run every 20 minutes. In winter, the Blue runs every 30 minutes and the other two hourly. Each bus has space for one wheelchair and one folded pushchair on the lower deck.

Best for: budget-conscious visitors, short visits, and anyone who would rather hear a live guide than a recording. A strong second choice for families too. From around £25 for a 1-day ticket, or around £34 for 24 hours with the cruise.

Check prices and book Golden Tours London

Choosing between 1-day, 24, 48 and 72-hour tickets

The right ticket depends on how you plan to use the bus, not how long you are in London.

A 24-hour ticket suits most first-time visitors. Used well, it gives you one full orientation loop, a few hop-offs at the sights you most want to see up close and, on most 24-hour tickets, a river cruise as well.

If your days are busy with pre-booked attractions and the bus is mainly a way of getting between them, 24 hours is usually enough. If you are working out how a bus day fits into a short break, our 2-day London itinerary for first-time visitors shows how the pieces slot together.

A 1-day ticket is cheaper but ends with the last bus that evening, so it’s only good value if you start in the morning.

A 48 or 72-hour ticket makes sense if you want the bus as your main way of getting around for several days, hopping between attractions rather than using the Tube.

It also unlocks the better extras: the Greenwich return cruise on City Sightseeing’s 48 and 72-hour tickets, the guided walking tours and evening tour on the Big Bus 48-hour tickets, and the night tour on City Sightseeing’s 72-hour ticket. The longer tickets offer better value per day, but only if you use the bus each day.

The 4-hour Golden Tours ticket is worth knowing about if you only want one unhurried sweep of the city, perhaps on a first afternoon or a short stopover, without paying for a full day.

Travelling with children or grandchildren: child fares and the starting age vary by company. On the 24-hour tickets with a cruise, Big Bus charges £29.99 for ages 4 to 15 (under-4s free) or £113.99 for a family of two adults and two children.

Tootbus charges £20.12 for ages 5 to 15 on Must See London, or £127 for a family of four. Golden Tours lets under-fives travel free and charges around £19 per child, or around £80 for a family ticket. City Sightseeing charges £30 for ages 5 to 15, or £120 for a family ticket.

Which tickets include a Thames cruise

The included cruise is one of the best reasons to choose one ticket over another. The cruises bundled with the bus tickets run between the central piers and give you a completely different view of London, taking in the South Bank, the bridges and the riverside landmarks from the water.

City Sightseeing’s 48- and 72-hour tickets stretch this to a return trip to Greenwich. The Big Bus cruise runs one way between Westminster and Tower Pier and takes about 40 minutes.

Golden Tours gives you 7 days to use yours, so you can save it for a quieter day, and Tootbus’s Must See London ticket includes a 24-hour river pass.

It is a restful contrast to the bus, and cruise tickets usually cost £5 to £10 more than bus-only tickets. If you want to compare cruises on their own, our Thames river cruise guide compares every London boat trip.

The best hop-on hop-off bus for your trip

Best for first-time visitors: City Sightseeing or Big Bus, for the classic red-bus loop, wide coverage of the headline sights and a cruise on the 24-hour tickets.

Best for families with children: Tootbus, for the dedicated kids’ commentary channel, with Golden Tours a close second thanks to its own children’s commentary and under-fives travelling free.

Best for a tight budget or a short visit: Golden Tours, for the 4-hour ticket, the low starting price and the walking tours included with the 24-hour ticket.

Best for a live guide: Golden Tours, with live English-speaking guides on selected Blue Route departures.

Best for an evening tour as well: the Big Bus Explore ticket, which includes the 75-minute evening tour, or City Sightseeing’s 72-hour ticket with its night tour.

Best if you are buying the London Pass: Big Bus, as a 2-day Big Bus ticket comes with every pass, along with a separate 24-hour Thames River Pass.

Best for wheelchair users: Golden Tours, which states a wheelchair space on every bus. The next section has the details for all four.

Access for wheelchair users and anyone who finds stairs difficult

Every bus on these routes is an open-top double-decker, and the top deck is reached by a steep, narrow staircase that is harder still once the bus is moving. The covered lower deck is the alternative, with smaller windows but no climb. Wheelchair access varies by company:

• Golden Tours: space for one wheelchair and one folded pushchair on the lower deck of each bus.
• Big Bus: asks to hear from wheelchair users before travel, with the width and weight of the chair, so it can confirm the chair fits. Mobility scooters cannot be carried.
• City Sightseeing: lists its buses as wheelchair accessible, with limited space on board.
• Tootbus: no published details for London, so worth confirming with them before booking.

Wheelchair space is limited (Golden Tours, for example, has room for one per bus), so boarding at a quieter stop or earlier in the day gives the best chance of getting on the first bus that arrives.

Sightseeing buses are not allowed to stop outside Buckingham Palace, so the nearest stops are around five minutes’ walk away. The included cruises mostly run on City Cruises boats, which publish their own access information.

Where to board and how to plan your loop

The loops are designed so you can join at almost any central stop, so the best place to start is usually the one nearest where you are staying or beginning your day. Popular boarding points cluster where you would expect, near the main railway and Underground stations and the biggest attractions.

Boarding early in the day gives you the best chance of a front seat on the open-top deck, especially in summer, when those seats go first. And it pays to plan your last hop-off around the final loop rather than the ticket’s expiry, since the buses stop running well before a 24-hour ticket technically ends.

On Changing of the Guard days, some stops near Buckingham Palace also close for the ceremony. Golden Tours, for example, closes four of its palace stops from 10 am to 12 pm.

Plan your hop-offs before you go: our Ultimate London Travel Planning Map pins more than 900 London places across 16 categories, so you can see which sights sit closest to your bus stops and decide in advance where to hop off.

Using the hop-on hop-off bus alongside the Tube

They do different jobs, and most visitors use both. The hop-on hop-off bus is for seeing London: it is slower, it stays above ground, and the commentary and the views are the point.

The Underground is for covering distance quickly when the view does not matter, or when the weather turns. A good rhythm for a first day is to use the bus to get your bearings and reach the big central sights, then switch to the Tube once you know your way around. Our full guide to how to get around London covers the rest.

If you plan to visit a lot of paid attractions, the London Pass may work out cheaper. Every pass includes a 2-day Big Bus hop-on hop-off ticket and a City Cruises 24-hour Thames River Pass, so the bus and a cruise come as part of it. Our guide sets out what else the pass includes and when it pays for itself.

Other London bus tours worth knowing about

Hop-on hop-off isn’t the only bus tour in London. Afternoon tea buses serve a full spread while you tour the sights, plus open-top night tours, a comedy ghost bus, and Christmas lights tours through November and December.

The Big Bus Christmas Lights Night Tour, for example, runs from 12 November to 30 December 2026. If the lights are the main draw, our guide to the best Christmas lights in London maps out where to see them.

We compare all the bus tours, with prices and who each one suits, in our full guide to the best bus tours of London. If you would like afternoon tea on board, our review of the Brigit’s Bakery bus tour walks through the themed menus and what to expect.

Tips for a relaxed day on the bus

The top deck is breezier than it looks from the pavement, even in summer, so pack an extra layer. Keeping your ticket and earphones handy makes hopping back on quicker. Big Bus, City Sightseeing, and Golden Tours each have an app with live bus times, which saves you from standing at a stop wondering.

The Tootbus app is not currently available in London. And there is no need to hop off everywhere on the same day. Two or three stops that really matter to you, with the rest enjoyed from your seat, makes for a far more relaxed day.

If riding up top gives you a taste for it, ordinary red London buses cover many of the same streets for a fraction of the price. Our guide to how to use London buses explains the routes and how to pay.

Help fitting a bus day into your London trip

Whether a bus day works best on your first morning, between pre-booked attractions or on a quieter afternoon depends on the rest of your plans. Our London Travel Guide and Itinerary Planners help you plan each day of your trip.

If you would rather talk it through, London Trip Quick Answers is a 30-minute Zoom call with Tracy and Doug for your London questions, with a recording and summary afterwards.