Thames River Cruise

Hop on board this Thames cruise for a first taste of London. This approximately one-hour trip with live narration is a perfect introduction to the city.

The cruise departs approximately every half hour from Westminster Pier, one of London's most popular piers, and on its way to Greenwich you'll get incredible views of the city's most iconic landmarks.

The City of London was named Londinium by the Romans, who founded it in the 1st century, and from the comfort of your seat you'll be able to take in its history. On both sides of the river you will approach the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben, and the famous London Eye, a 135-metre high Ferris wheel, one of the largest in the world.

You'll also pass cultural landmarks such as the Royal Festival Hall, built in 1951 and now home to many international concerts, and the Tate Modern art museum.

Admire St Paul's Cathedral, built after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and look across the river to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a replica of the original theatre, which was also lost in a fire in 1613.

A little further on you'll come across the HMS Belfast, a 9-deck World War II ship turned museum, and the Tower of London, a former medieval castle where several kings and queens were executed. From there you'll pass under Tower Bridge, a suspension and bascule bridge built in Victorian times at the end of the 19th century.

When you reach this point you will be approaching the end of the route, where another London landmark awaits you: the famous Cutty Sark, the only surviving tea-cutting vessel in the world, also used in Victorian times to bring tea from Asia.

Very close to this ship you can also admire the Old Royal Naval College, a baroque building whose first use was as a hospital for naval veterans, and the National Maritime Museum, the largest of its kind in the world.