Tootbus, The Original Tour and City Sightseeing — three names, two companies

Is Tootbus London now The Original Tour?

Yes — Tootbus London is The Original Tour again. It’s one company with a long history: London Transport launched the Round London Sightseeing Tour in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, and the business went through several owners before RATP Dev bought it in 2014. In 2021 RATP Dev renamed it Tootbus, in line with its other sightseeing operations. FirstGroup bought it in December 2025, and in 2026 it returned to The Original Tour name to mark 75 years. The Tootbus London website now says its tours are operated by The Original Tour, and some booking sites still sell them under the Tootbus name.

City Sightseeing London is a different company. The City Sightseeing brand operates hop-on hop-off tours in cities worldwide; its London tour launched on 20 May 2021 as a joint venture of Stagecoach, Grupo Julià and City Sightseeing, and GetYourGuide lists the supplier as City Sightseeing UK. If a listing says “City Sightseeing (Tootbus)”, it’s mixing up two firms.

The two operators compared

Direct prices from the operators’ own sites on the day we checked; platform prices and ratings from our partner feed today.

Original Tour and City Sightseeing tickets

The Original Tour: London Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour & River Cruise

• 4.2★ 1,837 reviews

from £43per person

See on Headout

London: The Original Tour Hop-On/Hop-Off Bus & River Cruise

• 3.9★ 38 reviews

from £22

See on GetYourGuide

Tootbus: London Night Bus Tour

• 4.3★ 1,122 reviews

from £35per person

See on Headout

London City Sightseeing Hop-On/Hop-Off Bus & Bookable Extras

• 4.3★ 8,839 reviews

from £25

See on GetYourGuide

City Sightseeing: London Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Optional Thames River Cruise

• 4.2★ 393 reviews

from £25per person

See on Headout

Prices and ratings checked 21 Oct 2026; they change daily.

The Original Tour: routes, tickets and special tours

Four bus routes plus a river cruise give The Original Tour more routes than any other London hop-on hop-off operator, and the company claims more than 200 sights along the way. Every hop-on ticket includes the Thames cruise, audio commentary in English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Polish, six self-guided walking tours in its partner app and free 5G Wi-Fi. The 1–3 day passes don’t have to be used on consecutive days — you have two weeks — which is unusual and genuinely useful.

Three non-stop tours run alongside:

• Kids Tour — 45 minutes with a live guide, four departures a day, from £18 per child.
• Night Tour — 90 minutes from Coventry Street at 18:30, until 13 November. Headout still lists it as the Tootbus night tour. See our night tours page.
• Christmas Lights — 75–90 minutes, live-guided, from Coventry Street from 16:30, running 14 November to 3 January with a break from 25 to 31 December. Compare it on our Christmas lights page.

Buses run in all weather, with covered lower decks. Wheelchair users are asked to contact the company in advance; pushchair storage is at the driver’s discretion.

City Sightseeing London

City Sightseeing sells a one-day bus ticket, Bus + Cruise tickets for 24, 48 or 72 hours (the 72-hour version adds a night tour), a non-stop 2.5-hour London Express loop, combos with the Tower of London or afternoon tea, and a 90-minute Christmas Lights tour. Its strongest card is its record on GetYourGuide — more reviews than any other hop-on hop-off product there, at 4.3★. Its weakest is transparency: when we checked, its main London page showed prices in US dollars and no route timetables, so a platform listing is the easier place to compare sterling prices and terms.

Booking and commission

Both operators sell direct and through GetYourGuide and Headout. The Original Tour refunds or changes dates up to 24 hours ahead when booked direct; the City Sightseeing listing on GetYourGuide offers free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. We earn a commission on bookings made through GetYourGuide and Headout links here; we have no agreement with either operator directly.

Pros and cons of The Original Tour

Pros

• River cruise included with every hop-on ticket.
• Four routes — the widest network in London.
• Multi-day passes usable on separate days within two weeks.
• A proper live-guided Kids Tour.

Cons

• Recorded audio, not live guides, on the hop-on routes.
• Green and Pink routes run only hourly.
• The renaming means Tootbus, Original Tour and City Sightseeing listings are easy to confuse.

Verdict: 4.0 / 5

The Original Tour is our pick of the London hop-on hop-off buses for most first-timers: the cruise in every ticket and flexible-day passes beat Big Bus on value, even if Big Bus’s app is slicker. It misses a higher score because the day routes use recorded commentary and the two smaller routes are thin. City Sightseeing is a solid, well-reviewed alternative — just make sure you know which company you’re buying.

Alternatives

• All four operators scored: our hop-on hop-off comparison.
• Recorded commentary but the best app: Big Bus Tours London.
• Live guide on the bus: Golden Tours London.