We tried out an open top bus tour and also enjoyed a trip along the River Thames

If you’ve ever been to London, or indeed any other tourist hot spot around the globe, you can’t fail to have spotted those open top buses promising views of the sights.

Sightseeing tours have steadily grown in popularity in recent decades, taking all the stress out of planning your way around a big city.

If you’ve got limited time in a place and want to tick off all the tourist attractions, an open top bus is very much the way to do it.

London is of course awash with operators offering the hop-on, hop-off tours.

But the orignal and best is, not suprisingly, called The Original Tour.

First taking to the streets of the capital in 1951, the firm - with a fleet of buses decked out in red white and blue - is celebrating 75 years this year.

And to mark the occasion, we were invited to jump aboard one of the company’s double deckers, hit the top deck and take in all that London has to offer.

Now, obviously myself and my wife Giulia are no strangers to the Smoke. We’ve enjoyed plenty of trips to London over the years - and we’ve used every which way to get around it - on foot, the Tube, London’s network of red buses as well as taxis.

But we’d never actually climbed aboard a tour bus before - and a later trip down the Thames on a river cruise was a first for Giulia.

Our tickets checked, we jumped aboard at Victoria station.

There are a number of options to choose from - different colour routes that take you to different parts of the city - but each studded with all the usual tourist attractions, ready for you to grab those camera moments.

A little run down of the routes on offer then - all of which are multilingual, of course, with easy to follow instructions and headphones for the various langauges on offer.

The Red and Blue routes are the biggies.

And here’s what you can see on them.

Red

Trafalagar Square, Whitehall, Westminster, the London Eye, Waterloo, Covent Garden, St Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch.

Blue

Buckingham Plaace, Lambeth Palace, Westminster, the House of Parliament, Horse Guards, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Hyde Park, Harrods, Kensington Palace, Notting Hill and Paddington.

There’s also green, pink and black shuttle routes, which are much shorter. You can find complete details of all the routes and stops at www.theoriginaltour.com

Anyway, we opted for the Blue route and once aboard, headed upstairs for the best views.

Because London traffic moves so slowly, its dead easy to spot all the landmarks - and you’ll have enough time to grab a pic without them being blurred too!

Of course, if you want to explore a particular destination further, you can simply hop off and then jump on again later.

As it was a warm and sunny day in London, it was a delight to just sit there and soak up all the sights as the bus did the hard work. No more standing around on a street corner trying to make sense of a map or heading off in the wrong direction on foot.

Obviously, with prior knowledge of London, we’ve seen the majority of the main sights before - but even we were treated to a few “Oh, I’ve not seen that before!” and a few hidden gems moments.

The joy of an open top bus tour is that you can simply let the world drift by as you gaze around in all directions taking in what our wonderful capital has to offer.

We were able to spend a good couple of hours being chauffeured around the capital - before leaping off into China Town for a spot of lunch.

After a succulent Chinese meal we continued our tour and it was back on the bus to Tower Pier near to Tower Bridge for the second part of our excursion.

And that was a boat trip along the River Thames.

And again, it was absolutely the perfect way to see London on a sun-soaked summer’s day.

Setting off from alongside the Tower Of London, our witty guide kept us informed all the way to the Houses of Parliament, making sure we didn’t miss a thing as we chugged gently along the River.

Jokes, quips, historical facts and essential information were all delivered with a big dose of humour as we took in The Shard, St Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Tate Modern.

The packed boat was yet another way of seeing London and all its delights - and once more, it was a delight not to have to worry about following a map or heading into the tunnels of the London Underground to get to the next stop.

Open top bus tours are suitable for all - if you’re elderly or have mobility issues, it’s a great way to make sure you don’t miss any of the landmarks.

And if you’ve got hot and bothered kids yelling the school holiday mantra of “I’m bored!” its the perfect way to get them sat down and enjoying London’s history without the stresses and strains of perusing the capital on foot.

By the time we disembarked into the tourist throngs at Westminster and the crowds buzzing around Big Ben, we could happily make sure everything on our London to do list was well and truly ticked off.

if you’ve never tried an open top bus tour before, give it a go.

And with The Original Tour, you certainly won’t be disappointed.

Full details of routes, times, prices and tickets are available at www. theoriginaltour.com