Tours around london

Sightseeing bus tours are run by several rival companies, their open-top
double-deckers setting off every thirty minutes from Victoria station, Trafalgar Square,
Piccadilly, and other tourist spots. Tours take roughly ninety minutes (though you can
hop on and off as often as you like) and cost around £12. Alternatively, you can hop
aboard one of the bright yellow World War II amphibious vehicles used by Frog Tours
(tel 20/7928 3132; www.frogtours.com) for a combined bus and boat tour . After fifty
minutes driving round the usual sights, you plunge into the river and go on a half-hour
cruise. Tours set off every half-hour from behind County Hall, from 10am to dusk, with
tickets costing £13. Another money-saving option is to skip the commentary by
hopping on a real London bus - the #11 from Victoria will take you past Westminster
Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, up Whitehall, round Trafalgar Square, along the
Strand and on to St Paul's Cathedral.

Walking tours are infinitely more appealing, mixing solid historical facts with juicy
anecdotes in the company of a local specialist. Walks on offer range from a literary
pub crawl round Bloomsbury to a tour of places associated with the Beatles. Tours
tend to cost £4-5 and usually take two hours. To find out what's on offer for the week,
check in the "Around Town" section of Time Out. The widest range of walks on offer are
run by Original London (tel 020/7624 3978).

If the London Eye hasn't given you enough of a lift, you can go even higher, to over
500ft (weather permitting) in the hot-air balloon situated behind Vauxhall tube station
in Spring Gardens. Though the Skyview Balloon (daily 10am-dusk; £9.95;
www.skyviewballooning.com) is the largest tethered helium balloon in the world, it
remains to be seen whether it can withstand the competition from the wheel