London's Best Double-Decker Bus Routes for First-Time Visitors

London's sightseeing buses charge a premium for a loop through traffic you could ride for the price of a normal fare. The city's red double-deckers cover the same streets all day long, and a single tap of a contactless card gets you on. No commentary, no queue at a ticket kiosk, no schedule to keep — just a front seat upstairs and one of the best moving views in Europe.

What follows are the routes that repay a first visit. They are not museum pieces; they are ordinary commuter buses that happen to pass Big Ben, St Paul's and the Tower of London. Ride them properly and you will see more of London in an afternoon than most guided tours manage in a day.

Why the bus beats a sightseeing tour

London buses charge a flat fare no matter how far you travel, and the Hopper rule means a second bus within an hour costs you nothing extra. A daily cap then limits what you can spend across the whole day, so a long morning of hopping on and off will not empty your wallet. Tubes are faster for crossing the city, but they run underground through the parts you came to see.

You also get the top deck. On a bus, the front seats upstairs put you above the traffic, level with first-floor cornices and shop signs you would otherwise walk straight past. Arrive at a terminus, wait for the bus to empty, and claim the front row. It is worth ten minutes of patience.

Route 24: the one to ride first

If you only take one bus, take this one. The 24 runs between Pimlico, near the river, and Hampstead Heath in the north, cutting through the middle of historic London on the way.

Heading south to north, you pass Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square, then Whitehall with Downing Street off to your left. Trafalgar Square follows, then the theatres around Leicester Square and the long climb up Tottenham Court Road. After that come Mornington Crescent, Camden Town and its market, and finally the wooded edge of Hampstead Heath.

Where to sit, and where to break the journey

Going south towards Westminster, sit on the left upstairs — the Thames and the South Bank open up beside you. Going north, either side works, though the right side gives you a cleaner view down Whitehall.

End to end the run takes the better part of an hour and a half in traffic. Get off at Camden Town for the market and the canal, or stay on to Hampstead and walk onto the Heath. Both are good half-day stops in their own right.

Route 15: St Paul's, the Monument and the Tower

The 15 heads east from Trafalgar Square through Aldwych and along Fleet Street, past the Royal Courts of Justice and the dragon-topped boundary markers that once marked the edge of the City. St Paul's Cathedral sits just off the route; you will see the dome before you see the stop.

From there the bus runs down towards the river, past the Monument — built to mark where the Great Fire started — and on to Tower Hill, with the Tower of London and Tower Bridge within a few minutes' walk. Many journeys continue east to Limehouse and Blackwall, which is a useful look at London beyond the tourist centre if you have the time.

This is the route for a City-and-river morning. Ride it east, get off at Tower Hill, walk across Tower Bridge, and come back a different way.

Route 9: Kensington to Aldwych

The 9 starts out west at Hammersmith and works its way along Kensington High Street, past the Royal Albert Hall and the edge of Hyde Park, through Knightsbridge — Harrods is a short walk from the stop — and down past Hyde Park Corner into Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square before finishing at Aldwych.

It is the most comfortable way to link the museums and the West End without spending the whole time on the Underground. Kensington High Street is a fifteen-minute walk from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum, and the stretch through Piccadilly is one of the best bits of people-watching on any bus in London.

Three more routes worth a detour

• Route 139, Waterloo to West Hampstead. Northbound it runs up through Trafalgar Square, Regent Street and Baker Street, then along Abbey Road past the famous studios and zebra crossing.
• Route 12, Dulwich to Oxford Circus. The best river crossing on a bus. It goes over Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on one side and the London Eye on the other, then up Whitehall and through Piccadilly Circus.
• Route 14, Putney Heath to Russell Square. Runs along Cromwell Road past the South Kensington museums, then through Knightsbridge and up to Piccadilly. Handy if you are staying south-west.

One warning: London's bus network is redrawn periodically. Routes get split, shortened or renumbered, so check the current termini before you set out rather than trusting a guidebook printed years ago.

Riding it well: fares, timing and tips

• Buses are cash-free. Use a contactless card, phone or Oyster, and tap the same one every time so the daily cap counts your spending correctly.
• Tap on only. There is no tap-off on a bus, because the fare is flat wherever you go.
• Avoid weekday rush hours, roughly 8am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 6.30pm. Weekend mornings and early afternoons are calmer and quicker.
• Oxford Street, the Strand and Whitehall are the slowest stretches. Treat a bus as sightseeing that moves, not as a way to make an appointment.
• Download a live bus app or use the departure boards at the stop. Stops are labelled with letters, and the spider map on the pole shows every route serving that stop.
• All London buses are low-floor, with a wheelchair space and room for buggies. Seats near the front downstairs are priority seats for passengers who need them.

The two-hour version

If you want one clean loop on your first day, start at Trafalgar Square. Take the 15 east to Tower Hill, walk around the Tower and the riverfront, then ride back west. From Trafalgar Square, switch to the 24 north to Camden Town, spend half an hour at the market, and take the Northern line back into the centre if you are running short of time.

Two buses, one tap of a card, and most of the landmarks a first-time visitor wants to see. Add the 12 over Westminster Bridge another day, when the light is good.

Photo: fietzfotos / Pixabay