London runs a river bus, not a cruise fleet, and that changes what you should book. A one-way Uber Boat from Westminster costs €12 and goes exactly where a sightseeing cruise goes, which is why the plain sightseeing tickets from €12 are the value end of this catalogue and the €129 dinner cruises are not. Eighteen boats are compared here with a €49 median, and the highest-rated of them at 4.96 from four thousand reviews is not a cruise at all: it is a fifty-minute speedboat that turns round below Tower Bridge.
18 Thames river cruises compared from €12 refreshed August 30, 2026
The order comes from one score, the review-weighted rating, and nothing on this page is a paid placement. At most four boats of one kind are seated. It is a small catalogue, so a boat needs 250 reviews to enter the ranking at all, and the ones that clear it are the ones people actually book.
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Free cancellation
Free cancellationLikely to sell out
Free cancellation
Free cancellationLikely to sell out
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Free cancellation
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13 of 18 Thames river cruises on sale in London make the list: products with fewer than 250 reviews are held back until enough travellers have rated them, and no kind of experience takes more than 4 rows. For the city's full picture, see every tour and ticket in London.
4 compared from €42 typically 3h 4.09 average
The expensive end and the weakest ratings, from €42 to €129 with a €103 median. Afternoon tea between Westminster and Greenwich rates best of them at around 4.15; the three-hour dinner cruises sit lower and the reviews name the food, as they do on every river in Europe. Two hours on a boat with a set menu is a long time on a river this narrow. Book tea rather than dinner if you want the format.
3 compared from €18 typically 45 min 4.54 average
Forty minutes from the pier under the wheel, from €18, and it rates 4.78 from nearly two thousand reviews, which makes it the best short cruise in the city. Median €55 once a wheel ticket is bundled in. The route runs down to Tower Bridge and back with a live commentary. If you are riding the Eye anyway, the combined ticket saves a queue as well as money.
5 compared from €38 typically 1h10 4.05 average
The speedboat is the outlier of this catalogue: fifty minutes, a soundtrack, and a rating of 4.96 from more than four thousand reviews, the highest of any boat on this page, at €38 and above. The bus-and-boat combinations at a €74 median rate far lower and carry the most reviews of anything here, which is a useful warning about what volume means. Buy the boat and the bus separately if you want both.
6 compared from €12 typically 1h 4.38 average
The honest option, from €12 with a €20 median. An hour downstream past the South Bank, the Tower and Wapping to Greenwich, with a guide on the better boats and a scheduled river-bus service on the cheapest. Ratings run 4.25 to 4.78 and the difference is whether anyone is talking. Go downstream to Greenwich and take the DLR back; the return leg on the water shows you nothing new.
€49 median price, from €12
A €49 median overstates what most people pay, because the meal cruises pull it upwards. A cruise of an hour or less has a €29 median and starts at €12 for a single river-bus journey. Sightseeing tickets run €12 to €20, the London Eye cruise from €18, the speedboat from €38. Dinner, jazz and tea cruises start at €42 and reach €129. Around three-quarters of the catalogue offers free cancellation, the lowest share of any cruise city on this site.
1h typical duration · 78% with free cancellation
An hour is the median and it is the length of the Westminster to Greenwich run, which is the only route that matters. Forty to fifty minutes covers the central stretch between the Eye and Tower Bridge. Dinner cruises take three. Boats run from ten in the morning to around nine at night in summer and stop earlier in winter. The river is tidal and the light is best on an afternoon ebb, when the boat sits low enough to see under the bridges.
Practical answers on prices, neighbourhoods and booking windows, written against the same data the ranking uses.
From €12 for a single river-bus journey, with a €49 median across the eighteen boats compared here. Guided sightseeing cruises start at €12, the London Eye river cruise at €18, the speedboat at €38 and dinner cruises at €42. Prices come from the latest data refresh.
By traveller rating, the high-speed speedboat at 4.96 from more than four thousand reviews, which is fifty minutes and not a sightseeing trip in any conventional sense. For an actual cruise, the London Eye river cruise and the Westminster to Greenwich run rate highest, both from under €18 to €20. The bus-and-boat combination tickets rate lowest despite selling the most.
Yes, and it follows the same water. A single journey costs €12 and runs between Westminster, Bankside, Tower and Greenwich on a scheduled timetable. What you lose is the commentary and the outside seating priority. If you want to know what you are looking at, pay the extra for a guided sightseeing cruise from €12.
The ratings say no more often than yes. Dinner cruises from €42 sit at the bottom of this page and the reviews consistently name the food rather than the river. The afternoon tea cruises at around €103 rate better and cost less. If the evening on the water is the point, book a one-hour sightseeing cruise after sunset and eat on land.
Westminster Pier next to Big Ben, the London Eye Pier on the South Bank, Tower Pier below Tower Bridge and Greenwich Pier at the far end. Most services run between them in both directions. Check which pier your ticket starts from before comparing two prices: a boat from Westminster and a boat from Tower show the same route in opposite orders, and only one of them ends where you want to be.
Full-day excursions from the city centre, with transport, entry tickets and guide included in one price.
from €46 77 activities · 4.59 average
Timed-entry tickets and guided visits for the most-booked museums, ranked by verified traveller reviews.
from €11 53 activities · 4.23 average
