Hello,
Visiting in a few months and came across the evening Illuminated River tour. Unfortunately they only run on Saturdays and don't think I will be there on a Saturday evening. Without having to spend an arm and a leg on a dinner or champagne evening cruise, are there any other options for an evening boat ride on the the Thames? Will be in London in June.
Thank you!!!
There are some simple river cruises that have departure times as late as 5 or 6 pm. But a challenge in London if you want to see buildings lit up in June is that it doesn't get dark until pretty late. Sunset is after 9 pm that month. You could however have a similar view across the river from South Bank and that is easy to walk quite a long ways. And it is quite lively that after dark is still nice. Here is a good description of it. https://www.itsalltriptome.com/london-south-bank-walk/
You can also ride one of the regular Uber (Thames Clipper) commuter boats. They run until almost midnight through the main part of London.
See the routes and schedules here:
https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/route-map
https://www.thamesclippers.com/media/m1rf5cne/ubtc-timetable-12-october-2024.pdf
These are part of the regular TFL services and you can use an Oyster Card or tap and pay with your credit card. It is not expensive like a river cruise.
Those tours are run by Uber Boats/Thames Clippers.
Their normal scheduled river boats run on the same route (and as far east as Barking, Woolwich and Greenwich) until about 9 pm.
In June it'll be light until about 10pm or so anyway, so the last scheduled service would be the one you want at 9.34pm from Woolwich, 9.54pm from Greenwich, terminating at the London Eye at 10.49pm (if joining at North Greenwich, precede the boat trip with the London Cable Car).
There is also a 9.44pm from the Embankment to Putney, which connects with a service from Barking/Woolwich/Greenwich then take the bus #14, 22 or 74 back from Putney to Central London. At any time of year that is an interesting round trip to see London by night.
Sit outside on the aft open deck (it'll be warm enough for that), you'll probably get a better view and experience than on the tour boat which will be using the same type of vessel.
