Hotel pickup from most central London addresses, so the tour starts at your door rather than at a meeting point.
Six stops, not a drive-past reel
Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's and the Tower.
One fare for up to six
The price hires the whole cab, so a family of five pays what a couple pays.
A driver who has passed the Knowledge
Every licensed London taxi driver has, which is why the route can change while you are in it.
Free cancellation at 24 hours
Hold the slot now and let it go later if the trip changes shape.
The cheapest fare here
And the most-reviewed: more than a thousand travellers have rated it.
Why a first morning in London should be this one
Two hours is not long, and that is the point. This is the tour you take before you have
worked out where anything is, so that the rest of the week makes sense. The cab collects
you at your hotel, runs a loop through the royal quarter, Westminster, the City and the
Tower, and puts you back down in the middle of town.
What makes it work is the vehicle. A licensed London taxi can use bus lanes and roads
closed to most traffic, so the distance from Buckingham Palace to the Tower of London
becomes twenty minutes with something to look at rather than two changes on the
Underground. At each stop the cab waits, which is the difference between six landmarks and
three.
Three of the landmarks on this route are marked as pass-bys rather than stops: Big Ben,
Trafalgar Square and Tower Bridge. That is a driver deciding that parking costs ten minutes
and buys a photograph you can take through the window. If one of them matters to you, say
so — the itinerary depends on where you are collected, what the traffic is doing and
what you ask for.
The reviews are the most numerous of any tour here by a distance, and they say the same
thing repeatedly: the driver made it. Names recur across months, travellers ask for them by
name, and the ones who booked it on their first morning almost all mention using it to plan
the rest of the trip.
The loop, in the order the cab drives it
Hotel pickup in central London
Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace
Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament
Past Big Ben and Trafalgar Square
St Paul's Cathedral
Tower of London and Tower Bridge
Drop-off back in central London
Pickup — At your hotel or another central London address you agree in advance. The clock starts here.
Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace — Fifteen minutes at the first and five at the second, on the published route.
Past Horse Guards to Westminster — Horse Guards Parade is a pass-by on this route; the Abbey gets ten minutes.
The Houses of Parliament — Ten minutes, with Big Ben passed rather than parked at.
Through Trafalgar Square — A pass-by on this itinerary, and the shortest way east at most times of day.
St Paul's Cathedral — Five minutes on the published route, and longer if the traffic has been kind.
The Tower of London and Tower Bridge — Ten minutes at the Tower, and across the bridge on the way back.
Drop-off — Back in central London, at your hotel or somewhere else you name.
Who this suits, and who should book longer
This one is for you if your time in London is short and you want the landmarks placed
before you spend any of it. It suits first-time visitors, families with young children who
will not last four hours, and anybody arriving jet-lagged who wants the city explained
without walking through it. At five or six people the fare divides to less than a
theatre ticket each.
It is not the tour for you if you want to be out of the cab for long stretches. Two
hours means short stops and no time west of Westminster, so Kensington, the Royal Albert
Hall and the Bank of England Museum are all out of reach. If that is what you want, take
the four-to-six
hour private tour instead, which leaves the route blank and has time to fill it.
It is also not the tour if you want a theme. There is no Beatles content and no film
locations on this route — those are separate products with their own three- and
four-hour routes, and
the film-location tour
is the one families book most.
What the fare covers, and what it does not
In the fare
A personalized private tour (2 hours)
Transport by private London Black Taxi
Hotel pickup and drop off (selected hotels only)
Local guide
Not in the fare
Gratuities
Food and drinks, unless specified
Where the cab collects you, and where it will not
At your hotel, on most central London addresses. This operator collects from most
central London locations on request, and the exact address is agreed when they contact you
after booking. Say then if you would rather be picked up somewhere other than your hotel
— a station, a restaurant, a friend's flat.
One firm limit, and it is worth reading before you book: this tour does not
collect at any London airport. That is stated in capitals on the booking page. If your day starts at a terminal, the tour you want is on
the pickup and routes page, which sets out the one that
does.
Know before you go
The clock starts at the agreed time. Not when the traffic clears. A morning slot buys noticeably more of London than a mid-afternoon one.
The driver waits, but not indefinitely. Message the operator if you are running late rather than hoping; they make contact before the day for exactly this.
No admission is included. Not the Tower, not St Paul's, not the Abbey. Buy those tickets yourself and ask to be dropped at the door.
Infants travel on a lap. There are no booster seats in a London taxi, and the law does not require them in a licensed hackney carriage.
The cab is wheelchair accessible. Every licensed London taxi is, by Transport for London requirement. Say so when you book so the ramp is ready.
Two hours is two hours. If you want the Changing of the Guard inside it, take an early start and say so; the roads close before eleven.
What travellers said about the two-hour run
★★★★★
Booked the two-hour run on their first day with a ten-year-old, wanting something smaller than a coach. Their guide pitched it for adults and made it fun for the child at the same time, and she got to sit in the driver's seat. They used it to work out what to go back to later in the week.
Katherine J. · Family · July 2026
★★★★★
Every major site with a quick drop-off for photographs in the right places. Their driver took the history back as far as Roman Londinium and had a view on the architecture along the way. All of it delivered with warmth and a sense of humour.
Priscilla M. · Family · July 2026
★★★★★
Had to change the pickup point and the company made no difficulty of it. The driver arrived on time and covered the main sights inside the two hours. They called it the right way to see the city in a short window.
For the landmarks, yes. The published route reaches six of them and passes three more, which is more than a walking tour manages in a day. What it does not buy is time inside anything, or anywhere west of Westminster.
Is the price per person?
No. The fare hires the whole cab for up to six people, so the figure you see is what the party pays between them. That is why this works out cheapest for families and dearest for a solo traveller.
Can I choose the route?
Yes. The itinerary depends on where you are collected, what the traffic is doing and what you ask for, and the driver settles it with you when they arrive. Come with two stops you care about and the rest arranges itself.
What if I want to go inside the Tower of London?
Buy the ticket yourself, in advance, and ask the driver to finish the tour at the gate. No fare here includes admission anywhere, and the Tower's timed entry sells out.
Is there a longer version of this tour?
Not from this operator. The same idea at four to six hours is the four-to-six hour private tour, which leaves the whole route open. It also puts fuel, parking and bottled water inside the fare, which this one does not.
Can it collect us at Heathrow?
Not this one: it does not pick up from any London airport, and the booking page says so in capitals. One tour listed here does serve the airports, and the pickup and routes page names it. If you want the same landmarks at greater length instead, the four-to-six hour private tour runs four to six hours.
Other black cab tours of London
If this is not quite your day, these two cover the city differently, and the full list
of guided black cab tours of London sits on the homepage.
