If you don’t want to pay for a sightseeing tour, then try a do-it-yourself version with some of the local buses. You won’t have the benefit of a guide or recorded commentary and it’s not easy to replicate the routes followed by the hop-on hop-off bus tours, but take along a decent map and simple guidebook and you should be fine.
A weekly or monthly Travelcard for any zone gives unlimited travel on all London buses for the whole of London. If you don’t have a Travelcard, get a Pay as you go Oyster card or use a contactless credit/debit card — the maximum charge for travel by the bus for the whole day is £5.25. Or you can buy a bus pass for £5.90.
Cash is not accepted on London buses. See Bus tickets & passes for more information on how to pay for travel on London buses.
You see something of interest on most bus routes in central London but the following routes pass some of the major sights:
Bus number 9 from Trafalgar Square to High St Kensington
Departure point:
Bus stop S on Cockspur St,on the south side of Trafalgar Square
Route:
- Pall Mall
- Green Park
- Hyde Park Corner (for Apsley House & Hyde Park)
- Knightsbridge (for Harrods)
- Exhibition Rd (for The Serpentine and the Serpentine Gallery)
- Kensington Gore (for the Royal Albert Hall & Albert Memorial)
- Palace Gate (for Kensington Palace & Kensington Gardens)
- High St Kensington (The bus continues to Hammersmith station)
Journey time:
Approximately 25-35 minutes.
View number 9 bus route.
Bus number 11 from Victoria Station to St Paul’s Cathedral Waterloo
Departure point:
Bus Stop S on Grosvenor Gardens near Victoria station.
This bus route is unfortunately changed on 29 April 2023 and no longer runs between Parliament Square and Liverpool St
Route:
- Victoria St (for Westminster Cathedral)
- Parliament Square (for Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben)
Whitehall (for 10 Downing St & Horse Guards Parade & St James’s Park)Trafalgar Square (for the National Gallery & National Portrait Gallery)The Strand (for Covent Garden, London Transport Museum)Fleet St (for Temple Church)St Paul’s Churchyard (for St Paul’s Cathedral, the Museum of London, the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern)
The bus continues to Liverpool St station
You could stay on the bus until it’s final destination Waterloo station, walk over Waterloo bridge to Aldwych and then pick up the number 15, which follows the same route (as the old 11) to the Tower of London. Alternatively, take the 139 from Waterloo to Trafalgar Square and pick up the number 15 fom there.
Journey time:
Approximately 25-45 minutes.
View number 11 bus route
Routemaster buses – Heritage route
The old-style Routemaster bus service on routes 9 & 15 has now been withdrawn.
Related pages
Last checked: 11 April 2023