I realize that traffic in London can be very heavy. If I want to take a bus just to ride around, akin to a hop on hop off bus, is traffic lighter on the weekend? Are there specific bus routes that are better to take to get a general overview of London?
Posted by
Virginia, USA
6310 posts
The TFL site has some suggested routes:
https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/experience-london/bus-leisure-routes
Posted by
London and Chester
122 posts
Weekends will be a bit lighter at the weekend but I’m not sure it makes that much difference. The time of day will be more important. Avoid the rush hours when many buses will be standing room only. In the centre of town rush hours are approximately 8-10am 5-7pm.
None of the buses are particularly fast but that gives you time to really enjoy the sites out of the window. If it gets too slow, stops are every few 100 metres so it’s easy to hop on and off.
Posted by
Surrey, UK
605 posts
The No 15 takes in a lot of the main sights.
Having spent the day in London today (Saturday) I'd say the traffic is worse!
Posted by
Buckinghamshire
416 posts
No 26 between Liverpool St and Victoria covers many of the main tourist spots
Buses don’t go very fast but they do get to use dedicated bus lanes so faster than a lot of other traffic including HOHo buses
Posted by
London, England
314 posts
Also nowadays your Oyster or contactless card payment on a bus gives you unlimited free transfers between routes for an hour after you first scan in.
Posted by
3301 posts
We took buses all over London because of where our air Bnb was located. I was pleasantly surprised. They travel in a dedicated lane. Many are double deckers so we often sat upstairs.
We actually enjoyed them a lot and found them quite efficient for travel.
Posted by
London
2060 posts
I like London buses, but don't have a lot to add. Everyone's info pretty much answers your question.
Yes, I wouldn't worry about it being too slow during the week outside of rush hour. Buses do tend to keep moving quite well generally.
Sunday is a quiet day in London. Traffic does to be lighter. I find that it can be absolutely dead (relatively speaking) before midday on a Sunday sometimes.
There's a protest march of some size almost every Saturday in London these days. Some of the bus routes that run up Whitehall and around Parliament may be diverted or slow because of this. I'm not sure how much effect this actually has in practice.
I used to take an 88 bus fairly regularly from Pimlico, sometimes going up as far north as Camden. It's a pleasant route that goes through central London past some of the well-known sights.