Boat tours on the Thames

Along river Thames you will find several tour boat operators, where you can buy tickets for a sightseeing tour on the river. I recommend you to join these tours, because you travel on the beautiful river Thames and see London and its beautiful buildings and sights from a completely different view. The tour guide (he also steers the boat) gives you loads of information about the buildings and views you pass.

We have travelled with two of these tour operators. Both are located at Westminster pier, at the opposite side of Big Ben. Here you will find tours to the London Tower, Greenwich and Hampton Court.

The first tour we joined went to the London Tower, a museum located at Tower Bridge. During this trip we passed several well-known bridges, like Blackfriars Bridge, London Bridge and Tower Bridge (the last one is also the end of the tour). We also saw several famous and/or beautiful buildings (for instance the Royal Festival Hall, Shakespeare’s globe which was used by him as a theatre, the oldest pub of London and last but not least the Tower of London), landmarks (like Cleopatra’s Needle and the Oxo tower) and wharves. Also we passed the HMS Belfast, a naval ship that is used as a museum nowadays. At Tower pier we got of the boat. Unfortunately we were too late to enter the Tower of London, but we had a nice walk around the area. I will certainly go back there to visit the Tower.

On the second tour we went to Hampton Court, which has been the Royal residence for centuries from the 16th century onwards. The route this boat sails is the same as the kings used to travel to Hampton Court. Again we passed several beautiful and/or famous buildings for instance Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Lambeth Palace. Next to that we passed several well known (some beautiful, some really ugly) bridges like Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge. During the trip we had to go through two locks, which is quite an experience in itself. You can see the water level, and thus (lucky for us :+) ) the boat, rise up to the water level behind the lock.

What I noticed during the last tour is that the further away we came from the centre of London, the more expensive the houses became. Also we saw more and more yachts which slowly became more expensive too. Around Kew and Richmond it seemed as if people living there had to show off towards their neighbours. Some of the yachts looked as if they were seaworthy, but I wonder if they ever saw the sea. :+)

What I really liked about this tour were the natural sceneries. Sometimes we even had the idea we were not in London anymore. There was nothing but peace and quietness around us and all we could hear was the pounding of the boat itself. However, between Teddington Lock and Hampton Court the traffic on the river became denser and I sometimes wondered how it was possible we did not collide with some of the other boats.

This brings me on the topic of health and safety of these tour boats. As far as I know, before the boat takes of certain safety rules have to be explained to the people travelling on the boat and the people should be told where the life jackets can be found. However, in practice not every tour operator seems to do so. Also, I heard there are regulations about the furniture on board of the ship, which should be fastened to the boat to prevent them from floating around and blocking exits in case the boat sinks. It seems that some of the tour operators do not comply with these regulations.

Because there are so many boats on river Thames, accidents have happened and still might happen. Go to the webpage of the Marchioness Disaster to find information about the sinking of this ship.