THE BUS THAT BROKE ME
By Danni Levy
Right, let's get one thing straight before we go anywhere: I hate buses. Properly hate them. Stuffy, slow, full of strangers' elbows. So when I tell you I got on an open-top bus with my three-year-old and my husband yesterday and came away buzzing, you know something's gone seriously right.
We took The Original Tour's Kids' Tour, the one that's been trundling round London since 1951, now celebrating its 75th anniversary and, fair play, still going strong as the outfit that basically invented the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus. Not a bad innings.
I know London. I mean I really know London, I went to school in Barbican. But I wanted my Spanish husband and my son to see it properly, and by the end of 45 minutes I felt like I was seeing it for the first time too. That's the trick of the open top deck: everything's more impressive from up there. Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, St Paul's. You've walked past them a hundred times at pavement level, but stick them ten metres higher with the wind in your hair and suddenly they're showing off again.
Now, the real miracle. My son does not sit still for 45 minutes of anything. He gets bored on car journeys shorter than this. But the commentary on the Kids' Tour is aimed squarely at little ones. There's proper storytelling, not just fact-reeling, and he was hooked the entire way round. Even the red traffic lights felt like part of the show. That never happens. I'm not exaggerating when I say I don't think he blinked. Kids get a little activity book and the host doesn't ramble unnecessarily. Because when I say I hate buses, I also (usually) hate tour guides. Not this one!
The timing couldn't have been better. This summer's a big one for The Original Tour, marking 75 years and their return to that historic name with a proper London send-off: lookalikes of David Beckham, King Charles III, Ed Sheeran, Joanna Lumley, Gordon Ramsay and Mr Bean rode one of the open-top buses through the centre of town. Unmistakably, ridiculously British. Sums the whole thing up, really.
The bit you actually want: Kids' Tours run about 45 minutes on a classic open-top double-decker, with kid-friendly live commentary and guaranteed top-deck seating, plus the Thames cruise included. Prices flex depending on what you book and when, with under-5s travelling free and discounted fares for kids 5–15 — so it's worth checking theoriginaltour.com directly for the current rates and to bag any online deals before you go, rather than turning up on spec.
Sun was out, kid was entertained, husband was captivated, and I, a woman who will cross a city on foot rather than get a bus, actually enjoyed public transport for 45 whole minutes. If that's not a five-star review I don't know what is.
If you think you've seen London, you haven't. Not from up there. Get the family on it this summer before the school holidays swallow you whole.
The Original Tour — theoriginaltour.com