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Black Cab London Tours › What a Black Cab Tour of London Costs, and What Moves the PriceUpdated 2026-09-08

What a Black Cab Tour of London Costs, and What Moves the Price

Hours, prices and access verified by the Black Cab London Tours team — last checked 2026-09-08.

A black cab drawn up at the gates of Buckingham Palace

A London black cab tour looks expensive and often is not, and the reason is one line of small print almost nobody reads: the fare hires the vehicle, not the seat. This guide does the arithmetic, sets out what is inside the price, and explains why a pair of tours that look alike can be $200 apart.

The one fact that changes every price here

On all but one of the tours listed here, the price you see is what the whole party pays between them. Six travellers pay what two travellers pay. That is the opposite of nearly every other tour you will book in London, and it is why comparing a cab fare with a bus ticket head to head is meaningless.

The single exception is the Cotswolds day tour, which is quoted per person. Check the basis before you compare, every time.

What does a black cab tour of London cost?

Between From $304 and $1,286, and the spread is mostly hours rather than quality.

BlockFare rangeWhat it is
2 hoursFrom $304The landmark loop, hotel pickup, six stops
2.5-3 hours$420-$490The full sightseeing run, or a Christmas lights tour
3-4 hours$480-$716A theme, or the landmarks plus the side streets
4-6 hours$606-$937A blank route, or Windsor and back
9 hours$657-$1,286The Cotswolds, with about four hours of driving

The arithmetic by party size

This is the table that decides whether the format is for you. Take the three-hour sightseeing run at $430:

TravellersCost eachCompare with
1$430Take a bus ticket instead
2$215About the price of two good theatre seats
3$143The tipping point against a bus day
4$108Less than a walking tour each, with no walking
5$86About what four bus tickets cost
6$72The cheapest guided anything in London

Do the same sum with the tour you are looking at before you decide it is too much. Then read cab against bus, which does it against the obvious alternative.

What is inside the fare

On most of these tours, all of the following, at no extra charge:

  • The cab and its driver-guide for the whole booked block.
  • Live commentary throughout, and photo stops with the cab waiting.
  • Pickup and drop-off inside the central London zone.
  • Bottled water, on about half of them; one adds snacks.
  • Fuel, parking fees and tolls, on several — which matters, because it means the driver has no reason to avoid an awkward stop.

The three things never inside it

Admission anywhere. Not one tour here includes entry to the Tower, St Paul's, Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle. One puts it in its own exclusions block: external sightseeing.

Food and drink, beyond the water. The Cotswolds day sets aside an hour at a village pub and does not include the meal.

Gratuities. Excluded on almost every listing, and one adds that a tip is always at your discretion.

Why two similar tours are $200 apart

Four reasons, in the order they usually apply.

Length. Most of the gap is hours. A four-hour tour against a three-hour one is a third more driver time and it is priced that way.

What is in the fare. A tour including fuel, parking and tolls prices those in. One that does not is cheaper on the page and the same in practice.

The vehicle. An electric cab with a panoramic glass roof is not the same asset as a diesel one, and the listing that sells it says so.

Where it goes. Anything leaving London is paying for four hours of motorway before it does anything else, which is why the day trips start where the city tours end.

Is a black cab tour worth it?

For one or two people on a budget, no, and the honest recommendation is a bus ticket. For three or more, or for anybody whose time is short or whose walking is limited, it is the cheapest guided anything in London once you have divided the fare.

The second half of the answer is what the reviews say. The recurring praise is the driver — the same first names, year after year, and travellers asking for them by name. The recurring complaint is traffic against a fixed clock. Both are on the reviews page, unedited.

Why is one tour $1,286 when another is $304?

Because they are not the same product in different sizes. The $304 tour is two hours in central London. The $1,286 one is nine hours, two of them driving each way to the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, with a private cab held for the whole day and entry to a working farm inside the fare.

Per hour, the difference almost disappears: about $152 an hour against about $143. What you are buying at the top of the range is a day rather than a tour, and the price reflects the driver's whole working day being committed to your party. The same is true of the six-hour Windsor run at $937, which is a day trip with an admission you buy yourself.

The useful comparison is therefore never between the cheapest and the dearest. It is between a pair of the same length, where the gap comes down to what is inside the fare and what the vehicle is. Those are on the day trips page and the sightseeing page respectively.

Where the extra costs actually appear

  • A pickup outside the zone. Two operators add a supplement, and one names Heathrow and Gatwick specifically.
  • Admissions you decide to buy. Windsor Castle is the big one, and it needs booking ahead.
  • Lunch on a long day. Budget for it on any six- or nine-hour booking.
  • A tip, if you want to leave one. Not expected, and mentioned in most of the warmest reviews anyway.

What a fare does not tell you

Three things worth checking on the listing itself, because none of them shows in the price. The passenger cap, which is five on a handful of these tours and six on most, and which decides whether the arithmetic above applies to your party at all. The pickup rule, because a supplement for an address outside the zone can move a fare by more than the difference between a pair of them. And the confirmation time: one operator confirms within 48 hours rather than instantly.

None of those is hidden. They are all on the booking page, and they are all on the cards here. They are simply the fields nobody reads when a price is the thing being compared.

How to spend less without booking less

Fill the cab. The single biggest lever is the number of people in the back, and it costs nothing to bring them.

Take the morning slot. Traffic is the thing that eats a fixed block, so an early start buys more London for the same money.

And book the length you need rather than the length you want. Two hours on the first morning followed by a themed tour later in the week beats six hours in one sitting, and usually costs less. Which length is which is set out in which tour to book.

Booking early, and what it is actually worth

Nothing on the fare, and a great deal on the slot. These prices do not rise as a date approaches the way an airline seat does, so waiting costs you no money. What it costs is choice: the morning starts go first, and in December the evening slots on the lights runs go months ahead.

Since every tour here cancels free at 24 hours, the sensible move is to book the slot you want as soon as your dates are fixed and let it go if the trip changes shape. One operator confirms within 48 hours rather than instantly, which is the one case where leaving it late genuinely risks the booking.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a black cab tour of London cost?
Fares start at $304 for a two-hour run and reach $1,286 for a nine-hour day out in the Cotswolds. Most of the three- and four-hour tours sit between $420 and $700. Those are prices for the whole cab, not per person, on every listing here except one.
Is the price per person or for the whole cab?
For the whole cab, on all but one of the tours listed here. A fare of $430 divided between five travellers is $86 each, which is the arithmetic that makes this format work for families and groups and makes it expensive for a solo traveller. The Cotswolds day tour is the exception and is quoted per person.
Are there hidden extras?
Not on the fare itself, but plan for three things that are never included: entry to anything you go inside, food and drink, and gratuities. Two of these tours add a surcharge for pickup outside central London, and one names Heathrow and Gatwick in particular. Fuel and parking are inside the fare on several of them, which is worth checking when you compare two similar tours.
Do I need to tip the driver?
It is not included and it is not expected. Gratuities are excluded on almost every tour here, and one of them adds that a tip is always at your discretion. If your driver has rearranged the route twice and taken your photographs, most travellers round the fare up.
Is there a minimum number of passengers?
No. Because the fare hires the cab rather than a seat, one traveller can book any of these tours — it simply costs the same as it would for six. If you are travelling alone and want the price to make sense, the two-hour run is the one to look at.

What the fare buys on the day is on the planning page, and every fare here is listed with its hours and its cap on Black Cab London Tours.

Tours where the arithmetic works hardest