i don't know why everyone is going on about 'crowded buses'. yes, some buses are horribly crowded. however, EVERYTHING in london gets horribly crowded at times. like many very large and dynamic cities, you will be alone one minute and suffocated in crowds the next...often with no understandable logic. this goes for museums, restaurants, pavements (sidewalks), tubes, pubs, stores, everything.

but are buses really crowded compared to everything else? surprisingly, no. hop on a bus in the City (financial district where tens of thousands work) at 5:30 pm and you can often have a crowd free (own seat with many others free) ride all the way to the west end bar/entertainment area -- a popular route at rush hour. traffic yes, crowds on the bus, often no.

but you will need to walk to find your stop - there are stops everywhere but your stop is always around the corner and a couple of hundred metres away (if you know where you are going - more if you don't).

don't even think about the routemasters that flanner mentions....they are hardly part of any argument not to use london buses. strange that they are even brought up in this context.

there are only a handful of Route Masters rolling in London - just on a tourist-oriented route from i think Victoria to the Tower or some such trajecture.

Wow everyone... Thank you so much for all of your suggestions. Let me clarify a few things:

My Mother is fairly mobile. She can walk, but tires easily and needs to sit. Additionally, she is the type of person that will sacrifice her health in order to see more so I want to make sure that she doesn't do this. I just want her and my dad to be comfortable and not be completely exhausted by the end. The private driver sounds kind of interesting, but we had also thought about getting a bus tour. Any suggestions for bus tours that are "hop-on hop-off" type?

Thanks Again!

I'm pretty sure that the Routemasters only serve route 38 these days.

Buses are easy. Just look at the signs at the stop. It tells you each stop the bus will stop at. Lots now also have dispalys teling you which stop is next. The ones I go on talk to me!

Bendy buses are indeed the devil's work and Boris is sending them back to hell. But not fast enough.

One thing to remember if using the buses in Central London is that most require you to pay before you board - either by having a travel card or buying a ticket at the machines (this is a VERY expensive way of doing things if you plan on taking more than a couple of trips - the cash fare is £2)

One of the loveliest things we always do in London is to board a boat at Westminster Pier and cruise up river to Hampton Court. You don't have to sit all the way and can walk around on the boat or stand next to the rail.
The scenery is ever changing with islands and bird life the nearer you get to Teddington Lock.
We step off at Hampton Court and walk to the Tearoom for a delicious Devonshire Cream Tea with proper clotted cream.

The journey is long, so these days we walk over the bridge to the little railway station at Richmond and get the train back, or take the train there and catch the boat back (but that's risky because if you miss the boat then it means the train again).

As for hop on hop off bus tours - need no planning here - just buy your ticket at any stop and ride all day i believe - i think there are at least two competing companies but seem likes peas in pods to me.

http://www.theoriginaltour.com/

this is the site of one them

just today took bus 512, i think it was. from the City to the West End at 18:15 (major rush time on a very popular origin/destination). had a seat for my arse and another for my bag...and the bus was only about 1/3 full (it was a bendy one). it also went on to waterloo which is a very popular commuter scenerio. i would bet that you couldn't breath on the waterloo and city line (the tube running a similar route).

buses are so nice, roomy and civilised that i think i'll stick with them even when my city bonuses return to obscene levels.

all buses horribly crowded and worrying about routemasters!?!?!? just shows that you shouldn't take advice from people long retired and living hundreds of km out of london. crikey.

But -- one cannot SEE much of anything from inside a bus (bendy or otherwise) and a first timer won't know what they are seeing even when they CAN see something.