Our verdict
Best overall
London: Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off with Optional River Cruise
The core Big Bus ticket with an optional river cruise, from about £32 — the same as Big Bus’s own One Day price — with free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. 4.2★ from 5,100+ reviews.
4.2★ · 5,139from £32 GetYourGuide →
Best value
Combo (Save 20%): Big Bus 24/48-Hour Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Thames River Cruise + London Eye Tickets
Bus, river cruise and London Eye in one combo, from about £63. Headout bills it as 20% off buying the pieces separately — worth it only if you were going to ride the Eye anyway.
4.5★ · 507from £63 Headout →
Best with kids
Big Bus: London Evening Bus Tour
The 75-minute Evening Tour has a live guide and costs £19.99 for children aged 4–15 on Big Bus’s site. Short, lit up and done before bedtime with the 19:30 departure.
4.8★ · 31from £30 Headout →
Skip it if
You want a live guide on the day routes
Big Bus uses recorded commentary on all its hop-on buses. Golden Tours still puts live guides on many of its buses.
Who are Big Bus Tours?
Big Bus Tours calls itself the world’s largest operator of open-top sightseeing tours, running in more than 25 cities. It started in London as the Big Bus Company, a family business, and merged with the Paris operator Les Cars Rouges in 2011 to form today’s brand; it has been owned by the private equity firm Exponent since 2015. In London it runs three hop-on hop-off routes, an Evening Tour, guided walks and attraction combos.
Big Bus London tickets and prices
| Ticket | Validity | Includes | Adult (direct) | Child 4–15 (direct) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One Day | Same day | All three routes | from £32 | — |
| Discover | 24 hours | Routes + one-way river cruise | from £36.99 | from £29.99 |
| Essential | 48 hours, consecutive | Routes + cruise + 3 guided walking tours | from £46.99 | from £36.99 |
| Evening Tour | One departure | 75-min panoramic loop, live guide | from £29.99 | from £19.99 |
Family tickets (two adults, two children) cost from £113.99 for Discover and £148.99 for Essential. Prices are Big Bus’s discounted online “from” prices on the day we checked; full prices are a few pounds higher. Combos add the Tower of London or London Eye fast-track entry.
| Platform | From | Rating | Check price & dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuideLondon: Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off with Optional River Cruise | £32 Lowest today | 4.2★ 5,139 | GetYourGuide → |
| HeadoutBig Bus: London Hop-on-Hop-off Bus Tour with Optional Thames River … | £32 | 4.3★ 2,002 | Headout → |
Big Bus London tickets on GetYourGuide and Headout
London: London Eye, River Cruise & Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour
from £55
See on GetYourGuide
London: Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off with Optional River Cruise
from £32
See on GetYourGuide
Big Bus: London Hop-on-Hop-off Bus Tour with Optional Thames River Cruise & Evening Tour
from £32per person
See on Headout
Combo (Save 20%): Big Bus 24/48-Hour Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Thames River Cruise + London Eye Tickets
from £63per person
See on Headout
Big Bus: London Evening Bus Tour
from £30per person
See on HeadoutPrices and ratings checked 21 Oct 2026; they change daily.
Routes, frequency and commentary
- Red Route — central London’s greatest hits: Green Park, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, the London Eye, and on towards Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. 28 stops, every 15–30 minutes, first bus around 08:42 from Green Park. A full loop takes about 2 hours 30 minutes.
- Blue Route — east to west, with 43 stops, every 15–30 minutes, from around 10:54.
- Green Link — a connector from King’s Cross, St Pancras and Euston to central London, every 45 minutes.
Commentary is pre-recorded in seven languages on all buses, with free headphones. The Big Bus app shows live bus arrival times, which matters more than it sounds when buses run every 20–30 minutes. Free Wi-Fi is on every bus.
The Evening Tour leaves Stop 12 (London Eye) at 19:30 and 21:00 for a 75-minute loop of the floodlit sights with a live English-speaking guide. It isn’t hop-on hop-off, and Big Bus warns that a top-deck seat can’t always be guaranteed. More evening options on our London by night page.
Is the Essential Ticket worth it?
Usually, yes, if you have two days. Direct, the 48-hour Essential costs £10 more than the 24-hour Discover for adults (£46.99 against £36.99) and £7 more for children. For that you get a second consecutive day on the buses and three live-guided walking tours, which start from Big Bus stops and are the only daytime Big Bus product with a real guide. If you only have one day, the £32 One Day ticket is enough — pay the extra £4.99 for Discover only if you want the one-way cruise from Westminster to the Tower.
Booking, cancellation and where it’s cheapest
Booking direct, you add your booking reference to the Big Bus app and press “Activate” on the day; multi-day tickets then run on consecutive days. Big Bus says you can change your tour date for free. Through GetYourGuide, the main ticket offers free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, which is the safer choice if your dates might move.
On price, the platforms and Big Bus are close — about £32 everywhere for the entry ticket in our feed today. Check both duel rows above on your date, and look at combos if you want the London Eye: the bus-cruise-Eye bundle on Headout starts at about £63. We earn a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Headout links on this page; we have no commercial agreement with Big Bus directly.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Big network: 70+ stops across two main routes plus a station link.
- Best-in-class app with live bus arrival times.
- Essential ticket includes three guided walking tours.
- Free date changes direct; free cancellation on the GetYourGuide listing.
Cons
- Recorded commentary only on the hop-on routes.
- One Day ticket has no river cruise.
- Multi-day tickets must be used on consecutive days.
- The Red Route loop is long — about 2½ hours in traffic.
Verdict: 3.8 / 5
Big Bus is the safe, well-organised choice: frequent buses, a genuinely useful app and an Essential ticket that bundles a cruise and three live walks for under £50. It loses marks for dropping live guides on its day routes and for the consecutive-days rule. If you want a person on the microphone, choose Golden Tours; if you want the cruise in every ticket and flexible days, The Original Tour.
Alternatives
- All four operators scored side by side: our hop-on hop-off comparison.
- One afternoon only: a live-guided Routemaster loop from our London bus tours page, from about £13.
- Mostly the river: an unlimited Thames river pass.
Questions people ask
How much is Big Bus London?
What are the Big Bus London routes?
Does Big Bus London have a live guide?
Is the river cruise included with Big Bus?
Do Big Bus tickets have to be used on consecutive days?
Does Big Bus stop at Buckingham Palace?
Sources
- Big Bus Tours London — tickets and routes (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- Big Bus Tours London — Essential Ticket and FAQ (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- Big Bus Tours London — Discover Ticket (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- Big Bus Tours London — Evening Tour (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- Big Bus Tours London — Red Route timetable (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- Big Bus Tours — about the company (checked 21 Oct 2026)
- GetYourGuide — Big Bus hop-on hop-off listing (checked 21 Oct 2026)
Written and checked by the Private Tours London desk