Grab a picnic, catch a boat at Tower Pier…

Welcome to the forum!

I suspect you saw/heard something on a Rick Steves show? We need more context to help. Not everybody on the forum is familiar with everything Rick Steves.

Can grab picnic lunch items at a Sainsburys, Tescos, Marks and Spencers…..unsure what boat you are referring to

The Tower pier is near the entrance gate to the Tower of London. You can't miss it when you walk along the west side of the Tower all the way to the waterfront.

The boats you catch at Tower Pier are usually the Uber Thames Clipper, and you can go either direction--East on the Thames to Greenwich, or west to Westminster Pier. (Edited to add after isn31c's post: or you can go farther west along the Thames on the Clipper.)

As far as "grabbing a picnic", you will have time to eat a sandwich or a picnic on your way to Greenwich, as it's a fairly long boat ride.
It doesn't take as much time to get from Tower Pier to Westminster, so you may only have time for a snack.

I'm not really sure why a tourist in London would be so short on time that you'd want to eat on one of the boats instead of simply enjoying the view along the river. You'll be passing historic buildings with stunning views of them from the water.
I'd rather be looking at that than looking down at a sandwich, or crackers, cheese and fruit spread out on my lap/napkin.

Better place to have a picnic would be in one of the many lovely parks in London.
Borough Market would be a great place to buy food from the vendors. Stalls selling cheese, fruit, breads, chicken sandwiches, wine, bakery items and more.
Then find a bench beside the Thames and have your picnic, with a view of passing boats. Great for people-watching, too.

To Rebecca's comprehensive answer, I'll add that if you've been in the Tower of London in the AM, there is a cafe where you can get takeaway sandwiches if you need to eat on the move. You'd not want to eat on the Tube.

TBH, the times I've been to the Tower I was ready for a sit down in the cafe for a sandwich and something to drink!

The Thames Clipper goes a lot further west than Westminster- every half an hour it goes all the way to Putney.

And eastwards it extends in the peaks and at weekends from Greenwich to Woolwich and on to Barking Riverside (a new housing development with a new London Overground rail link to Barking for the historic Barking Abbey- a former Royal monastery, well off the beaten tourist trail.
As a town Barking gets a very unfair bad press, usually from those who haven't been there.

Occasional trips extend all the way to Gravesend and Tilbury.

It's not clear if the OP is planning to eat on the boat, or take it to a picnic spot.

Liz, you are right. The OP didn't give much information for us to go on.
Which leads to us having to make some assumptions, if we are going to answer the question at all.

I do remember this part of an older Rick Steves London video, which has him saying this, then eating as he rides one of the boats on the Thames.

As usual, isn31c has the best information. Thank you! I was just thinking "Where would a typical tourist want to get off the boat going west from Tower Pier?" Westminster, usually.
Here's the route which shows some additional piers other than the ones already mentioned:
https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/route-map

If you have an Oyster card, you can tap in when you board the Uber Thames Clipper, and tap out when you get off the boat.
Likewise, you can tap in with a (contactless) credit card or various other payment devices.

Thanks everyone. We are staying in a lovely Airbnb near the Tower Bridge. We will arrive on a Wednesday AM and not get to our accommodation until noon I expect. We will leave the following Wednesday. Just trying to put the week in order. My thoughts are to do the hop on… (yes/no) upon arrival and explore our neighborhood, walk along the river, pick up provisions, etc. get some dinner. Then on Thurs begin our touring at Tower. Got tix for “Six” on Sunday matinee figuring we could do something before around there and then after maybe Chinatown. Appreciate any and all helpful suggestions.

Since no one else has answered since you asked for more information several hours ago, I will post. But I don't want to be posting so often it will seem I'm posting too much.

I would not do the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus on your day of arrival. Jet lag may be a factor for you and you might fall asleep on the bus. You will be better off walking around the neighborhood near your rental flat and over Tower Bridge to walk around that neighborhood.

If you will be visiting the Tower of London the next day, definitely get there when it opens. Buy your tickets online choosing the earliest time slot. The Tower will take several hours to see.
Break for lunch about 11:00 to 11:30 AM.
I would definitely go to the lunchroom Pam mentioned in her post; The Armouries Cafe. They have a good menu of salads, soups, plate lunches, sandwiches, desserts, coffee and tea. It's important to get there before the lunch crowd rolls in, as it gets very crowded.
Continue walking around the Tower, finishing any parts you didn't get to do before lunch.

As you exit the Tower, this would be a good time to take the Thames Clipper boat to Greenwich for a look around.
If you start another thread "What To Do In London?" or similar, you will get lots of answers.

good advice from Rebecca

You are all so kind. I’m taking Rebecca’s advice and using day one to get acclimated to the area. She’s spot on because I thought it would be a good idea in Paris and had an expensive nap on the bus. Here is my first dilemma. I learned that there is an e check at the airport for exiting. We will look for that. But I need to find the best underground line to get to Tower exit. I believe there will be a change but will it be a zone change? Do you exit to the ground level? Anyone that can help will be so appreciated. British Air uses Terminal 5. Simple steps please to get us to Tower Bridge exit, or if you know a better route, Aldgate is also an end for our air bnb.

Piccadilly Line to either Hammersmith or Barons Court.
At either get off the train, step across the platform and a District Line train will be along within a minute or two. Destination - Barking or Upminster, both of which are way out east.
That will take you to Tower Hill.
You start in Zone 6 and end in Zone 1.
Very easy, journey time just under the hour.

PS- I was pier hopping out West on the Thames Clipper this morning, at start of service at 6.30am.

isn31c wrote this in his first post, about the Thames Clipper:
"Occasional trips extend all the way to Gravesend and Tilbury."
These are two historic sights way off the beaten tourist path that have interested me for a long time.

Tilbury Fort was built by Henry VIII to keep a watch on the river for invading ships. In later years, it was the site of the speech by Elizabeth I on horseback to rally her troops to defeat the Spanish Armada which was approaching the English coast.
Today Tilbury is a port where large cargo and cruise ships come in, but Henry VIII's fort is still there.

Gravesend is the final resting place of a famous American, Pocahontas, at St. George's Church. Her married name was Rebecca Rolfe, as she married an English colonist, John Rolfe, originally from county Norfolk. She died on board a ship which was leaving London to return to Virginia, so they docked at Gravesend to bury her.

Tilbury is on the north side of the Thames River. Gravesend is on the south side of the Thames River. They are pretty much directly across from each other.

Judy, isn31c has given you the instructions you need.
If you exit at Tower Hill tube station, you walk up several stairs then out onto the sidewalk outside.

You wrote, "Simple steps please to get us to Tower Bridge exit, or if you know a better route, Aldgate is also an end for our air bnb."

Is Aldgate the neighborhood of your AirBnB?

Gravesend to Tilbury also has a passenger ferry - one on my list for maybe sometime.

The Gravesend to Tilbury ferry route dates back to at least the 16th century, maybe earlier.

Before the Dartford tunnel was built there were even car ferries on the service.

The ferry was used by Gunter Pluschow in his escape from UK captivity in WW1- the only successful escape of a German POW back to Germany in WW1.

At Tilbury it used to be rail connected until the Tilbury Docks branch was closed, although there is still a bus service operates from Tilbury Town station, free to rail passengers as it remains as a railway replacement bus.

Over the years several of the vessels have been named after Charles Dickens characters due to his association with Gravesend (having lived at Gad's Hill, Higham and mentioned Gravesend in a number of his books).

At Tilbury Cruise Terminal there is a small local museum, and the terminal is closely associated with the Windrush generation. Tilbury Fort is a wonderful place to visit pre-cruise, and there is a lovely old pub- the World's End Public House.

The next station down the line is East Tilbury. It is best known for the Bata Shoes old factory (Czech refugees), but with one of those difficult wartime histories- as BATA had a factory attached to the Auschwitz- Birkenau camp and there were accusations of Nazi sympathies. This is a complex subject.
But also at East Tilbury there is the interesting 13th century St Catherine's Church (still in use and recently sympathetically re-ordered) and the 19th century Coalhouse Fort. It is well worth getting in to that Fort on it's monthly openings, and the grounds are now a very attractive open space.
It replaced an earlier 15th century fort on the same site.

A lot of history in the area- I have only scratched the surface here. I lived in the area for 10 years.

"Here is my first dilemma. I learned that there is an e check at the airport for exiting. We will look for that."

I'll just make a comment on this. Do not worry about this. When you get to Border Control you'll follow the lanes for US passports. Here is a short youtube clip showing the signs to e-gates. It may be that a security officer channels you in another direction due to passenger load or staffing or whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rEnJq_9N8KI

I do recommend you make a comfort stop before you leave the airport, lol!!

Pam, love the video. You must have been the like 2:00 am. But the potty stop is a perfect reminder.

Haha...it's just a random youtube video but it showed what I was looking for. I did not check which terminal the guy was filming at so your arrival area may look a bit different.

And yes, no crowds so it looks like he either hit a seam with few planes landing or was in the middle of the night!