I have seen recommendations for do it yourself bus tours of London using the 11, 9, 15 and 136 bus routes. I also seem to recall that on a couple of the routes, the old style buses are used. I think the 15 is one of the "Heritage" routes, but not sure of the other. Does anyone have a more specific recommendation about the various routes? Where would you begin if you were going to do your own tour? Where, generally, do the various routes go? Or is there perhaps an old thread discussing this that I haven't found? We are staying near Westminster Abbey, and the 11 goes right by. It looks like it will take us up Whitehall, through Trafalgar Square, and then to St. Paul's and that we could then switch to the 15 and go to the Tower. Any recommendations for other specific routes?
Do it yourself bus tours in London
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I've seen some of the old routemasters on the #9 which ends on the Strand at the Aldwychg Theatre.
The #15 is a really good line for site seeing...you can pick it up anywhere along Oxford Street say outside Marks & Spencer or Selfridges
Details of the various bus routes are found on the tfl web site along with maps.
If you don't have a 7 day travelcard for zones 1 & 2, either paper or on an oyster card, any day you only use the buses and use your oyster card PAYG, the one day bus fare will cap at I believe £4 somewhat cheaper than a one day travelcard (there are no paper one day bus tickets available any longer).
The bus map you need is at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/visitor-guide.pdf
In my view, particular highlights worth seeing from the top deck of a bus would be from any of the routes
- running between the Tower, Trafalgar Square and Oxford Circus
- crossing Waterloo Bridge
- from Kings Cross passing St Pancras (though the view gets a bit dull after that)
- running along Piccadilly past Hyde Park Corner and the Albert Hall.
But each to their own....Have fun planning.
There's also a route that goes from South Kensington Tube Station to Islington that is very interesting from the top deck.
Here you go...
http://www.londonforfree.net/outdoors/bustour/bustour.shtml
Terrific link mscleo! Thanks so much. That entire website seems interesting, especially some of the walks. It also contained a link to some audio tours, including podcasts that look interesting. And PatrickLondon, thanks for the link to the pdf guide. It has good info. Appreciate it.