London is a huge city, and there is LOADS to see and do. So, planning how to do sightseeing in London can be a headache, especially if you’ve never been before.

There are a number of different ways to enjoy the sights of London, with some costing just a few pounds, and others being a bit more of an outlay. How you plan your sightseeing might depend on a number of factors such as how much time you have, your budget, who you’re visiting with, and what you want to see.

As an ex-resident of London, and someone who worked in tourism information for a time as well, I do have some nifty hacks to max your London sightseeing.

With that out of the way, here’s the best ways to do sightseeing in London.

1. Tour Bus

The old favourite, the open top bus, is easily the easiest way to see all the sights in a day. You simply turn up at any of the multiple stops along the main routes, which are found at all the main touristic sites, and pay for your ticket.

There are several options too, with Big Bus probably the best known, and Original Sightseeing the other.

A tour bus is an especially good idea if you have kids in tow as you can jump off and on at the main locations, and you don’t need to navigate the tube or bus network.

The tour buses usually have a few different routes, but will also have the main sightseeing one. So if you want to tick off Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square in a couple of hours, definitely jump on a tour bus.

Be aware though that no tour buses pass by Buckingham Palace. You’ll need to jump off at Green Park or Hyde Park corner and walk there (only a 5 minute walk).

Save money on Big Bus London sightseeing by booking online.

2. Take the Red Bus

Don’t want to pay out for the tour bus? Well, you can also just use the standard London bus to do your sightseeing in London. The trick is knowing which ones to take…

Ah, well this is where the insider knowledge comes in.

The number 9 bus runs from Hammersmith along High Street Kensington, past Hyde Park/Royal Albert Hall and Harrods to Piccadilly Circus.

And the number 11 bus runs from Victoria Station, past Piccadilly Circus, along the Strand/St Paul’s Cathedral to Liverpool Street and the Tower of London (nearly).

You’ll pay substantially less but the view won’t be so good.

3. Use the bike hire stations

Cycling is one of the best ways to really enjoy sightseeing in London without paying out big bucks. It’s also not as scary as you might think, so long as you stick to the cycle lanes.

There are Santander Bikes (the current sponsor is Spanish banking giant Santander). Although the bikes are colloquially known as Boris Bikes after Boris Johnson who introduced them. You’ll pay £2 for an unlock code for 24 hours, for each bike, and you can then ride for free for half hour periods.

So long as you return your bike to a docking station within half an hour, you can ride around London for just £2 a day!

With one bank card you can also access up to 4 bikes, so you can get the whole family riding.

There is actually a pretty decent network of cycle lanes in London, and you can see all of the main sites without risk of being run over. There are also cycle docks all over the city, and you can get quite far in half an hour.

We recommend getting the CityMapper app as well to help you plan your cycle trip (and find docking stations).

4. Taxi Tours

Want a really cool way to do sightseeing in London? Taxi tours are private hire taxis rented out for around 3-4 hours with your own private guide in the form of a genuine London cabbie.

With room for up to six people, a private taxi tour means you can go where you want, stop off and get the insight from your private taxi guide. It can also be pretty cost effective if you have a taxi full, or if you just want to do sightseeing in London without the hassle of finding buses.

Visit London Taxi Tours offer a wide variety of tours including Harry Potter themed tours, layover tours and London Christmas lights tours.

Check out their site for all the details.

5. Walking

Although London is huge, you can actually cover the important bits on foot. Yes, it can be pretty tough on the shoe leather, but if you want to do free London sightseeing, this is the best option by far.

Walking the south bank from the London Eye/Westminster to Tower Bridge takes around 30 minutes (probably more with distractions). And it’ll take in Tate Modern, Borough Market and more.

Or walk around places like Soho, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Green Park to see many of the major landmarks.

If you are walking in London, we strongly recommend getting a paper map as well as your phone map, so you can familiarise yourself with where you are/where you’re going.

As a plus, if you do get lost, you can just jump on a bus or the tube.

If you want to do free sightseeing then check out the Free Tours By Foot website. They have a number of self guided tours, as well as options for paid tours too.

Don’t forget to check out our insiders guide to London too, which details ways to do free sightseeing.

Got time to explore the UK? Take a 48 hour trip to Bath or venture further into the UK with Gone Travelling…