Sarah
Did you know that you can go on an afternoon tea bus tour in London? Well, the moment we found out that we can actually combine sightseeing with the probably “most-iconic-tourists-have-to-do activity” in London, we were sold! 🙂
So once we knew that it is possible to have an afternoon tea with a view, we researched our options and decided to go on an afternoon tea bus tour with Bustronome London. Their glass roof top also gave us the option to snap a few new Instagram shots in London!
And of course we collected all the information here so that you can decide if this is something for you as well!
Table of Contents
Pin this for later!
Bustronome London - the concept
Bustronome London is basically a restaurant on wheels. And it’s not just “a” restaurant – it’s a fine-dining gourmet restaurant with a panoramic glass roof top! If you are looking for an afternoon tea with a view, Bustronome London will certainly not disappoint you!
Bustronome has tours in London and Paris and operates multiple tours a day. (We need that one in Berlin too!!!) In London, Bustronome offers a lunch tour, an afternoon tea bus tour and a dinner tour.
All their tours include food and drinks as well as an innovative “sightseeing commentary system” – but we’ll get to that later!
The Bustronome London Bus
Bustronome London uses a very distinctive, matte-black double-decker bus for their gourmet food bus tours.
Don’t worry, everyone sits on the top floor though! The lower floor of the bus is where you will find the driver, the kitchen and the toilet.
All tables are located at the top floor of the bus. There are tables for four people at one side of the bus and tables for two at the other side.
If your group is larger, you can try booking tables at the front and end where two groups with four people can sit next to each other. This way, you can enjoy your afternoon tea with a view together 🙂
The tables (and why you won’t spill your drink)
Markus first question (before we even entered the bus) was “how do we make sure not to spill our drinks???”. Knowing that I am really good at spilling drinks and/or food, I was worried too.
Once we got on the bus, we saw the clever solution that Bustronome London uses: They use a kind of customized plexiglass plate with holes that safely hold your glass while you are on the road!
The sightseeing commentary onboard Bustronome London
If you are worried that some sound system will blare audio commentary into your ear during the whole experience, don’t worry! Bustronome London actually has a pretty convenient “audio guide system”:
Basically, you get a map and a kind of pencil with little loudspeakers. And whenever you feel like listening to an attraction, you point the pen at the sight on the map and the pen will start playing the appropriate audio file. You then put the loudspeaker of the pen next to your ear and simply listen to it.
The system did work well – although, since we produced an app with an audio guide for German cities ourselves, we would have preferred a more modern approach (and headphones) personally. But hey, we mainly came for the afternoon tea with a view anyway!
Our experience - an afternoon tea with a view
So now that we have explained you about the general concept of Bustronome London, let’s have a look at our personal experience with their afternoon tea bus London!
We were told to arrive 15 minutes earlier than our tour begin (3pm). Being the typical german punctuality cliché, we arrived at 2:45pm at their tour start at Victoria Embarkment.
Unfortunately, the preparations seemed to take a little longer and thus, we weren’t able to board the bus before 3:10 pm. It wasn’t a major issue, but it would have been nice if someone had informed us how much longer we have to wait.
But at least that gave us the time to do some people watching – and yeah, that bus attracts a lot of views! Pretty much everybody walking past it looked at the sleek black bus 😀
We were then welcomed and shown to our table by a super friendly and professional waiter.
The afternoon tea bus tour was half empty and thus, the other guests were quickly seated as well.
Our waiter explained the audio system and offered us some water (still and sparkling) as well as a glass of Champagne.
We then quickly started our tour eastwards and passed the Royal Courts of Justice first.
As we didn’t have lunch this day, we were famished and were eagerly awaiting the food. And (Spoiler Alert!) the food is one of the main reasons why we warmly recommend this afternoon tea with a view to you!
The food during our Afternoon Tea Bus Tour
During your Afternoon Tea Bus London Tour you will be served three individual courses – a savory one, a sweet one and then some scones.
When our first course (the savory one) arrived, our waiter took the time to explain each of the sandwiches and dishes on our plate to us.
By the way: you can also order a vegetarian or vegan afternoon tea when booking your experience. Please check Bustronome’s website for their current menues!
And I swear, I absolutely LOVED every of these little dishes! Even the one with salmon – and I usually don’t eat any fish! My favorite was the cheese mushroom sandwich with truffle oil though (and again, I usually do not eat mushroom either!) – it was heaven!
Next up was the sweet plate – which was served after our waiter had asked us for our hot beverage choice (we took the white and dark hot chocolate – the dark one is reeeeeaaaally good!)
My favorite dish here was without doubt the macaron. And I’ll give it my highest award for macarons now: I pronounce it officially better than the macarons by Laduree in France!
Markus favorite was the mini chocolate “fondue” (although it is cold) as this one was really rich in chocolate and not too sweet. You could clearly taste that they used high quality ingredients.
The only piece that I found rather bland was the madeleine – but I might be biased by the amazing ones that my mum makes. 🙂
After having finishes two courses, a hot chocolate and a glass of Champagne we weren’t hungry at all anymore when the third plate was served. It consistent of two scones with butter and jam.
We are not really big fans of scones (and Markus hates raisins) so we only tried these. I think they were really good for scones – but the first two dishes were definitely my favorites!
London by night onboard Bustronome London
As we boarded Bustronome London’s Afternoon Tea Bus Tour around 3 pm, it was obviously still daylight time. But since we traveled beginning of November, the sun was setting pretty early. That meant, we even got to see some of London during sunset and at night time (Picadilly Circus!).
Depending on the time of the year that you travel, it might be wise to take the dinner tour if you want to see London by night though!
Route and Sights of Bustronome London
Depending on whether you book a lunch bus tour, an afternoon bus tour or a dinner bus tour, your route will be a bit different.
Starting point: Embankment
All Bustronome London tours start at Victoria Embankment.
The closest underground station is “Embankment” which is served by Central Line, District Line, Bakerloo Line and Northern Line. You can also walk here from Westminister Abbey/Big Ben/Parliament or from Coca Cola London Eye within 5-10 minutes.
The Afternoon Tea Bus London route
The Afternoon Tea Bus London route is identical with the lunch route and takes you to most major tourist attractions in central London.
The tour will take you along the river Thames and to major London attractions. From along the bus tour you can see:
- Royal Courts of Justice
- St. Pauls Cathedral
- The Shard
- City Hall
- Tower Bridge (and yes, you cross it!)
- The Tower of London
- Shakespear’s globe (although from far)
- Westminster palace
- Big Ben
- London Eye
- Trafalgar Square
- Picadilly Circus
The (Longer) Dinner Bus Tour Route
The dinner tour of Bustronome London serves a full six-course dinner and thus, takes longer. First, you will start with the same route as the afternoon tea bus London.
And then, Bustronome London will use the extra time on their dinner tour to show you some more famous London sights:
- Westminster Abbey
- Buckingham Palace
- Hyde Park Corner
- Harrods
- Victoria Alber Museum
- Natural History Museum
- Royal Albert Hall
- Marble Arch
- Cambridge house
Bustronome London - Prices
London is a really expensive city – both for people who live there as well as for tourists. And we already realized that afternoon teas (especially an afternoon tea with a view…) are not exactly cheap either.
So we were surprised to see that prices for the afternoon tea bus tour London with Bustronome London were not astronomical. This is certainly not a budget experience – but given the food quality and the superior service we think that Bustronome London is certainly worth their prices!
Prices for Bustronome London:
- Lunch Bus Tour: 65£ (85£ with wine pairing)
- Afternoon Tea Bus Tour: 60£ (72£ with champagne)
- Dinner Bus Tour: 105£ (135£ with wine pairing)
How to book your Afternoon Tea with a view
For some reason, you can only book the Lunch Tour and the Dinner Tour with Get Your Guide (you know that I am a big fan of Get Your Guide…!) and NOT the Afternoon Tea Bus Tour London.
For the afternoon tour, your easiest choice is booking with Bustronome directly on their website.
Where to stay in London and what else to do
Our recent trip to London in November with our afternoon tea with a view was actually already our second trip to the city in 2019!
The first time, we stayed at Hilton Hyde Park which we love for its location next to the Kensington Palace and to the highly instagrammable area of Notting Hill.
Since our itinerary took us more to central London this time, we chose to stay at the Mad Hatter Hotel in Southwark. It’s a beautiful boutique hotel – and the mini bar was included!
You literally can’t go wrong with any of these two hotels – and there are a few more awesome luxury and/or boutique hotels in London. 😉
Both times, we took the chance to wander around London and see some of its amazing sights. If you want, you can follow our exact itinerary along the top photo spots in London too! And don’t forget to use some of the best London hashtags when sharing your experience with the world 🙂
How did you like this post?
How did you like this article? Let us know in the comments below! Have you done another afternoon tea in London that was amazing?
And if you have not yet subscribed to our newsletter – how about doing this now?
We promise that we won’t spam you – but you will always be the first to know about our next destination guides. Or our Instagram, Blogging and Social Media tips if you are interested in these topics.
Plus, you will get access to our exclusive and free tribe area! That’s where we share lots of invaluable additional content with you – like our hashtag list for Instagram or a packing list for world travelers!
This looks pretty amazing, Thanks for sharing this 🙂