Big Bus (HOHO) London

Hmmmm....after reading reviews on TripAdvisor, maybe I need to rethink the HOHO bus for our first day in London. We arrive a couple of hours before hotel check-in so I thought it would be a good plan to drop the bags off at the hotel and use the HOHO to orient us. But, seems getting around is difficult due to traffic and construction and a lot of TripAdvisor peeps seem really peeved by the staff/commentary of the BigBus. Any Forum Folks have any recent HOHO bus experience, or a better Day 1 suggestion? We will hopefully be over the jet lag as we will be arriving in London on Aug 20th (a Saturday) after 3 nites in Bath. Thanks!

HOHO buses don't really work very well in London in general in my view. There has to be multiple routes to cover everything, the frequencies can be quite low on some of these circuits and the traffic can snarl everything up.

The London BigBus HOHO sells day passes (1 or 2 days). A Day is 9 am until 7 pm.
Ride it all you want in that period; any route or routes
It is the only city I have done this, and I think it was worth it.

Where is your accommodation?

Asking to give you a better option to see things instead of getting stuck in traffic on the overpriced HoHo bus.

Been visiting London since Nixon was in office. Its always changing yet always the same.

Happy to share.

We will be staying at The Resident Kensington. Thanks!!

Walk a few blocks to the Earls Court Station. Either get an Oyster card from the Ticket Machine or use your tap CC or Debit card. Board a District Line train to Westminster Station. About a 15 minute ride.

At Westminster exit the train ( Mind The Gap ) and exit out to Parliament Square. You’ll be across the road from Elizabeth’s Tower and Big Ben.

Walk about, snap pictures, if you have reserved tickets enter Westminster Abbey. You can walk up Bird Cage walk adjacent to St James Park to Buckingham Palace

OR

Walk across Westminster Bridge

OR

Walk up Whitehall pass the Royal Horse Guards and #10 Downing Street to Trafalgar Square and then to Covent Garden

OR

Walk along the Thames Path

OR

Have a pub lunch upstairs at the Red Lion Pub on Whitehall or the Two Chairman Pub and then take the Cockpit steps to Birdcage Walk and then stroll to the Palace.

Lots of options.

The London traffic makes HOHO buses a bit of a negative experience in my mind.

Thanks very much! I will cross the HOHO off the list!

Yeah, just to add to the pile on, the HOHO busses spend most of their time stuck in traffic and you’ll see office workers having a smoke or eating their lunch outdoors, fine, but not worth the pice of the HOHO.