Black cab Beatles tours run through the addresses rather than the landmarks: Abbey Road, 3 Savile Row, the London Palladium and Carnaby Street, joined up by a cab because nothing else joins them up on foot.
Three hours across more than thirty Beatles addresses, meeting at Sloane Square Underground station rather than your hotel — which is the trade for the lower fare of the two.
From $578 per group, up to 5
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Four or five hours built on four addresses with real time at each: thirty minutes at Abbey Road, an hour on Carnaby Street, an hour at the London Palladium and half an hour outside 3 Savile Row.
From $633 per group, up to 6
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A route through the addresses rather than a route through the landmarks. The Beatles worked in a London that is scattered across the map: a studio in St John's Wood, a tailor's shop on Savile Row, a theatre on Argyll Street, a street in Soho. Nothing joins them up on foot and nothing joins them up on one Underground line.
Both tours here run three to five hours and both are private, so the cab is yours. What separates them is where the day starts and how long you get at each address, and that is the whole decision.
Abbey Road is in NW8. Carnaby Street is in W1. Savile Row is a fifteen-minute walk from that and the London Palladium is round the corner from it. Doing this on foot is most of a day and a lot of it is spent underground.
The zebra crossing outside the studio carries a live bus route, and the photograph everybody wants involves standing in it. A driver who does this every week knows when to send you and when to wait, and several reviews describe exactly that.
Abbey Road Studios is a working recording studio and visitors do not go in. Knowing that before you arrive is the difference between a good stop and a disappointment, and it is why the stop is thirty minutes rather than two hours.
The reviews on both tours name people rather than firms, and they describe photo books, historical pictures held up at the address they belong to, and traffic stopped for a crossing. One traveller put it plainly: a Beatles tour has to be a driving tour, or you will never cover enough ground.
| The three-hour route | The four-to-five-hour route | |
|---|---|---|
| Fare | $578 | $633 |
| Starts | Sloane Square Underground station | Any central London postcode |
| Length | 3 hours | 4 to 5 hours |
| Cab seats | 5 | 6 |
| Published stops | More than thirty addresses | Four, with real time at each |
| In the fare | Commentary and a local guide | Water, fuel, parking and a private guide |
| Suits | Fans who want breadth and a lower fare | Fans who want to stand about at each address |
The shorter one covers more ground; the longer one gives you time in it. If you have been to London before and know the geography, take the three-hour route. If this is your first visit and you want the day to feel unhurried, take the longer one.
Against an open sightseeing run, both trade breadth for depth. A three-hour general tour reaches fourteen landmarks and none of the music; a three-hour Beatles route reaches thirty addresses and shows you Westminster through a window on the way. If you have only one booking in you, take the sightseeing run first.
Pick your date and see which addresses each fare covers.
Check AvailabilityYou get a private cab, a driver-guide who knows the material, photo stops at every address, and on the longer route bottled water, fuel and parking inside the fare. Both are wheelchair accessible, as every licensed London taxi is.
You don't get entry to Abbey Road Studios, because it is not open to visitors. You also do not get hotel pickup on the three-hour route, which meets at Sloane Square instead, and gratuities are outside the fare on both.
Price band. $578 to $633, for the cab rather than the seat. At four travellers that is about $145 each.
Best time. Mornings and weekends, because the crossing is quieter and the traffic through Soho is lighter. Abbey Road at four on a Friday is a long wait for one photograph.
Bring. A camera you like using, and the album you want the picture to echo. Several drivers carry the original photographs so you can line the shot up properly.
The minimum age on the shorter route is three, and it seats five rather than six, so check both against your party before you book.
Anybody who is not a fan. This is three to five hours of one subject, and the landmarks appear through a window on the way between studios. A first-time visitor to London should take an open sightseeing run first and the music second.
A party of six looking at the shorter route. It caps at five. The longer one takes six.
Anybody hoping to go inside the studio. It is a working building and it is not open. What the tour buys is the doorway, the crossing and the story.
The guided black cab tours of London and everything else are listed with their hours on Black Cab London Tours.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on both Beatles routes listed here.
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