Bus rides in London

[superbagpuss]

Hi all

Despite living near and working in London I have never really taken the bus around London as have always walked or taken the tube.

However my DS (4) wants to go on a red bus in London and I have an oyster card so I guess I can do this.

Any suggestions of nice bus routes. Do they still have double deckers as I'm guessing thats exciting for little boys?

Also any other advice about taking young children on public transport in London when they are not used to it?

Thanks for your advice lovely ladies

No one?

where abouts are you north south east west?

tfl.gov.uk to plan

24 goes past westminster etc
11 is good route

number 9 has old routemasters on it central london to kensingon musuems and then thru to aldwych

etc

thanks, we plan to got to westminister to see houses of parliment, wheel and to walk along the southbank.

I tried to look at the tfl webpage but it presupposes you have a route in mind whereas we are pretty open to where it goes.

I guess if we could end up at covent garden that would be useful but it really doesnt matter

Just had a thought, if its rainy we could take them to the trocedero - thats an idea?

If you go to the Bus Maps page on the tfl website, you can put in a place name and you can then click on the routes from there. If you put Westminster in it shows the routes you could take - 11 will take you past St Pauls and into the City (good for cranes and big buildings!); 24 will take you up Charing Cross Road towards Tottenham Court Road

If you do the tourist buses, you can hop on and off all day long and see the sights, book online before you go and it's cheaper. I did this with my two boys last summer over two days (2 day ticket).

trocadero is soulless unless you going to pay for ripleys . take an umbrella and head for free museums if raining like tate modern,
take bus 9 to kensington museums science museum etc go up to third floor launchpad www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/launchpad.aspx
east london museum of childhood has nice cafe good food

go to covent garden walk around see free street theatre (and transport museum)
somerset house fountains near trafalgar square
yes to southbank walking along
print out central london bus map from the tfl page

thanks everyone

I was thinking science museum but my dh is a big gaming fan so we will see who wins!

thanks for the advice re bus routes. we will do the sight seeing bus one day but right now they want to do a bus so I will do cheapest option. they get to ride the tube into London as well and, if I can be bothered, we can do the DLR

15 is a good route - Traf Sq to the Tower, past St Paul's. And they still have the old double decker routemasters on it (mixed in with more modern buses, so you might need to wait a bit for one).

"Driving" the DLR is guaranteed to please a little boy!