Is there a particular route on the public bus system that replicates one of the tour company routes? We are considering riding the public bus to orient ourselves to London. Of course we would not have the advantage of the guide. We will be staying in Belgravia.

not one but you could easily cobble several rides together to approximate it. Get a London bus map at tube stations or online check out www.tfl.uk - transport for London web site. Get a one-day bus pass - i think 4 quid or each ride is 1.5 quid, maybe cheaper for each with an Oyster Card.

If you get over to Paddington station and take the #15 bus, it follows pretty much the same route as the two main tour bus companies until the Tower of London (I guess the reverse would be true too, starting at the Tower and heading back to Paddington, but I've never done it that way).

Thanks- may try the #15!

The 77 is pretty good and the 38 is the only route that still has routemasters on it.

Rode the 38 back from Tower of London, in th old routemasters, but I am glad for the newer doubledeckers on the other routes. A tall guy like me has a hard time squeezing into those tiny routemaster seats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6173193.stm

No single route will get to even 1/2 of teh sites on the bus tours.

But w/ a combination you can get to just about all of them. Print out this map http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/cen_bus.pdf and it is really easy.

I am sorry if these notes are dated, because I put them together in 2005 when we were headed to London, staying between Hyde Park and Paddington. Maybe they will help:

"Paid Tour: The Original Tour – Hop on/off bus with a 90-minute Thames cruise included. 60 GBP for Family pass, 24 hours. If you start your "tour" mid-day or late morning, and take the last Thames cruise, you can get on again early the next day and do some more riding around, so long as you board before your 24 hours has expired.

Bus Tours: If you don't need to travel long distances, forego the tube pass for a bus pass. With a £3 Bus Pass, you can also hop on and off the city buses for a day (£11 per week). Ride in front seats on the upper level. Especially useful are routes 15 and RV1.

Sample Bus Routes:
On the corner of Queensway and Bayswater Rd (which is the continuation of Oxford St.) you can hop on the #12 bus which goes up Bayswater Rd to Oxford St. makes a right turn at Oxford Circus down Regents St. to Picadilly Circus makes a right turn on Haymark through Trafalger Square up Whitehall past the government ministries and Downing Street to Parliament Square past Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (Parliament) by the London Eye all the way to the Imperial War Museum at Elephant & Castle. Not a bad way at all to get to know London; especially with a travel card; there is also a relatively new bus line that goes along the same route till Marble Arch and turns up through Hyde Park Corner to Victoria and up Victoria St. to reach Parliament Square.

You can also get off the #12 along Oxford Street and switch to the #15 which follows the same route to Trafalger Square but then turns the other way up the Strand and passes through the City, by St. Pauls, by Monument to the Tower of London.

You can ride the #15 all the way from Paddington to Tower Hill, stopping along the way. Then the RV1 will take you down the south bank and into Covent Garden. From Leicester Square, the #24 to Victoria takes you past many sights, followed by a #73 to Marble Arch and back to Paddington."
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