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London
Bus Tours

Sixteen London bus routes, all narrated, for one price. Board any of them, put your headphones in, and every landmark gets narrated as you pass it.

Hear a sample narration · Route 11, Westminster
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline

One payment unlocks every route — all 16 buses, 199 narrations, about 60p a route. Not one ride. Yours to keep.

16 routes live 199 narrations 45–60 min per ride
Routes

Pick a bus. We'll narrate the ride.

11
Chelsea to Westminster

King's Road, Sloane Square, Victoria Station, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, Waterloo. London's most scenic bus ride.

16 narrations · Live now
15
Blackwall to Charing Cross

Tower of London, Monument, St Paul's Cathedral, Fleet Street, Royal Courts of Justice, Trafalgar Square.

13 narrations · Live now
9
Aldwych to Hammersmith

Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Harrods, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, the Design Museum.

13 narrations · Live now
24
Pimlico to Hampstead Heath

Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road, Camden Town, Hampstead.

14 narrations · Live now
74
Putney to Baker Street

The Thames at Putney, Earl's Court, Natural History Museum, Harrods, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Sherlock Holmes.

13 narrations · Live now
148
Camberwell to White City

Elephant & Castle, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Notting Hill, Holland Park.

14 narrations · Live now
188
Greenwich to Russell Square

Cutty Sark, Deptford, Bermondsey, the Old Vic, Waterloo Bridge, Aldwych, Drury Lane, the British Museum.

12 narrations · Live now
94
Acton Green to Piccadilly Circus

Shepherd's Bush, Notting Hill, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Selfridges, Oxford Circus, Regent Street.

12 narrations · Live now
88
Parliament Hill to Clapham

Hampstead Heath, Camden, Regent's Park, Great Portland Street, Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Tate Britain.

14 narrations · Live now
23
Westbourne Park to Aldwych

Portobello Road, Paddington Station, Marble Arch, Park Lane, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden.

10 narrations · Live now
22
Putney Common to Oxford Circus

Putney Bridge, Parsons Green, Chelsea, Sloane Square, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, Berkeley Square, Savile Row.

12 narrations · Live now
159
Streatham to Oxford Circus

Brixton, Kennington, Imperial War Museum, Westminster, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Regent Street.

12 narrations · Live now
139
Golders Green to Waterloo

West Hampstead, Lord's Cricket Ground, Baker Street, Selfridges, Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Somerset House.

12 narrations · Live now
16
Cricklewood to Paddington

Kilburn, Maida Vale, Little Venice, St John’s Wood, Abbey Road, Edgware Road, Paddington Station.

10 narrations · Live now
78
Shoreditch to Nunhead

Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Tower Hill, Tower Bridge, the Bermondsey Beer Mile, Old Kent Road, Peckham Rye.

12 narrations · Live now
109
Croydon to Brixton

Whitgift Centre, Norbury, Streatham Common, Streatham Hill, Lambeth Town Hall, Electric Avenue.

10 narrations · Live now
Compared

Under half the price. Four times the routes.

Typical hop-on hop-off
£32
average adult ticket · 24 hours
  • Around four routes, circling the centre
  • Roughly 40 stops
  • Expires at the end of the day
  • Bus fare included
Traviis
£10
once · yours to keep
  • 16 real bus routes, Chelsea to Brixton to Shoreditch
  • 199 narrated stops
  • Never expires — ride it again next year
  • You ride ordinary TfL buses (£5.25 daily cap)

Average of four London operators’ adult 24-hour fares, checked August 2026. With TfL’s £5.25 bus day cap added, a first day on Traviis comes to £15.25 — still under half. Ours is the narration, not the bus: you ride the same public routes Londoners do.

Highlights

Stories you'll hear from the top deck

The Clock That Stopped Parliament
Big Ben · Route 11

Big Ben's bell cracked in 1859, just two months after it started ringing. Rather than replace it, they rotated it a quarter turn and kept going. It's rung with that crack ever since.

The Cathedral That Took 35 Years
St Paul's · Route 15

Christopher Wren began St Paul's at 37 and finished at 78. He was hauled up in a basket to inspect the dome well into his seventies. His son placed the final stone.

London's Most Expensive Grocery Run
Harrods · Route 9

In 1917, Harrods sold a baby elephant to Ronald Reagan's godfather as a Christmas present. They used to have an exotic animal department on the second floor.

The Lost River Under Fleet Street
Fleet Street · Route 15

The River Fleet still flows beneath the street, emptying into the Thames at Blackfriars. In heavy rain you can hear it rushing through the storm drains. Once London's second river.

The Duke's Doorway Tax Dodge
Wellington Arch · Route 9

The Duke of Wellington lived at No. 1 London — literally the first address in the city. His house at Hyde Park Corner was so close to the arch that his servants used it as a shortcut.

Camden's Piano Man
Camden Town · Route 24

Before the market, Camden was where pianos were made. The Collard & Collard factory here built instruments for Chopin and Liszt. Now it's vintage leather jackets and street food.

The Address That Doesn't Exist
Baker Street · Route 74

221B Baker Street didn't exist when Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes — the street wasn't long enough. When it was extended, the Abbey National building at that address employed a secretary just to answer Holmes's fan mail.

The Elephant That Gave a Neighbourhood Its Name
Elephant & Castle · Route 148

Named after a coaching inn whose sign showed an elephant with a castle on its back — the crest of the Cutlers' Company, who traded in ivory. The elephant was real, the castle was heraldry.

The Ship That Raced the World
Greenwich · Route 188

The Cutty Sark was built to be the fastest tea clipper afloat. She once sailed from Sydney to London in 72 days. Now she sits in dry dock at Greenwich — the last of her kind.

How It Works

Board. Listen. Look out the window.

1
Open the tour

Open the tour and allow location access. The map shows every narration point across all 16 routes — ride any bus that passes near a landmark.

2
Board the bus

Get on the bus and put your headphones in. GPS tracks the bus along the route. The app knows where you are. Signal dropped, or underground? Tap any stop on the map to play it straight away — you never need GPS to hear a narration.

3
Listen as you ride

When the bus reaches a landmark, the narration plays automatically. History, architecture, stories — all timed to what's outside your window.

What You Get

A tour guide that rides with you

📍
GPS-Triggered

Narrations play automatically as the bus passes each landmark. No buttons, no looking at your phone. Just ride and listen.

🎤
Studio-Quality Voice

Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm, knowledgeable, like sitting next to someone who really knows London.

📚
Fact-Checked Twice

Every narration is researched, generated by AI, and passed through a second fact-checking pass. Names, dates, details — all verified.

🗺
Route on Map

See the full bus route drawn on the map with every stop and narration point. Track your progress in real time.

🚌
Real Bus Routes

These are real TfL bus routes you can ride for the price of an Oyster tap. No special tour bus. No booking.

🎧
Bonus Content

Stuck in traffic? Extra narrations fill the gaps with neighbourhood history and hidden stories about the streets around you.

Common Questions

How it works

What if I never use it, or never make it to London?

Full refund within 24 hours of purchase, as long as no narration has been triggered. After that — or once you have started listening — we look at each request individually, and we are reasonable about technical problems, buying the wrong city, and trips that get cancelled. Send requests within 30 days. Full detail in the refund policy.

There is no expiry to race, either — buy it now and ride it next year if the trip moves.

It’s not just GPS — what are the ways to trigger a narration?

Three ways, all built in:

  • GPS-triggered (default): narration starts as the bus reaches each place.
  • Tap any marker on the map: play any of the 199 narrations on demand — no riding required.
  • Queue controls: pause, skip or replay; the queue advances as the bus moves.

The map-tap option means you can listen at home before you travel, or catch a stop the bus already passed.

How do I make it work with no signal — and open it again later?

Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.

  1. Tap Download for offline above. It opens the guide.
  2. Put that page on your home screen — steps below.
  3. Open the guide from the new icon and download it there, on wi-fi. Keep the screen open until it finishes.

Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):

  1. Tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Tap Share.
  3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.

If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.

Do I need to pay for the bus separately?

Yes — these are ordinary TfL routes, not a tour bus, so you tap in as normal. London’s bus and tram fares are capped at £5.25 a day however many buses you take, and the Hopper fare gives you unlimited changes within an hour of tapping in.

That is the trade: a hop-on hop-off ticket bundles the ride, but runs about £32 and expires the same day.

Do I need cell service or data while I’m riding?

Use the “Download for offline” button before you go and the narrations play without any data connection. The map itself needs a signal — reliable across central zones, though tunnels and some basements may pause map updates.

How many routes do I get, and how long does it take?

All 16 routes, 199 narrated stops, in one £10 purchase — routes 9, 11, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24, 74, 78, 88, 94, 109, 139, 148, 159 and 188. Most riders do one or two routes in an afternoon. There is no schedule to keep: it is yours, so you can spread it across a whole trip.

Can I share with my partner or family?

Yes. At checkout you can choose how many copies you want (up to 5 in one payment), and there is a “Send a copy to” box for someone else’s email — they get their own link on their own phone.

Riding together? One phone and shared earbuds works fine; the audio is paced for it.

Next bus is yours
No app needed. All 16 routes included in one £10 purchase.
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline

Offline download caches the narrations to your device. The map itself needs a cell signal — London's coverage is reliable across central zones, but tube tunnels and some basements may pause map updates.

More tours by Traviis

GPS-triggered audio tours for Rome's ancient heart, Pompeii, and the Windsor Sculpture Park.

Rome → Pompeii → Windsor →
The App

Coming to iOS and Android

Offline tours, downloaded narration, the whole library in your pocket. Join the waitlist at traviis.ai.

Verified Sources

Where the facts come from

Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.

  1. 1

    Built from the record

    Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.

  2. 2

    Checked against the authority

    Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.

  3. 3

    Anything unsupported is cut

    Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.

  4. 4

    A person signs it off

    Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.

Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.