Our pick
The best cruise, honestly
All fifteen sailings ranked by price, rating and review count, with the right pick for six different reasons to board.
Cruise guides: boats, prices, menus and piers
Straight answers to what people actually ask before booking a cruise in London, checked against the operators' own pages, the live listings and the piers themselves.
Choosing your cruise
Sightseeing
Sightseeing cruises compared
Circular or one-way, 40 minutes or a full day: the four daytime tickets set side by side on price, route and rating.
Dinner
Dinner cruises compared
Every dinner sailing on the river compared on price, menu, entertainment and dress code, plus the hour-by-hour shape of the evening.
Afternoon tea
The afternoon tea cruise
The 90-minute tea sailing from Tower Pier: what is on the stand, when it boards, and the honest cost for two.
Lunch
The lunch cruise
Two courses over 105 minutes from Tower Pier, for less than half what an evening sitting costs.
After dark
Evening cruises compared
Sunset times by month, the bridges worth staying on deck for, and which of the five after-dark sailings suits your evening.
The boats and the fast ones
Most searched
The London Eye cruise
Forty minutes, £15.50 and the highest rating of any central sightseeing boat: what the wheel's own cruise covers, and where it stops short.
The classic
Westminster to Greenwich
The most-booked hour on the river, taken apart stretch by stretch, with the one-way against day-pass maths and what to do at the Greenwich end.
Speedboats
Speedboats and RIBs
The five fast boats compared: route, minutes at speed, price per minute, age rules and which run suits which group.
River pass
The 24-hour river pass
The four-pier day ticket explained: a worked itinerary, the value maths against singles, family fares and the arrivals it does not suit.
Decide
Uber Boat vs a cruise
The commuter river bus against the tour boats: fares, piers, frequency, child rules and the situations where each one is the wrong ticket.
Private
Private boat hire
Whole-boat charter, party boats and upriver self-drive compared, with the group maths against simply buying twelve seats.
Prices, piers and planning
Prices
What every cruise costs
The full ladder from £14 to £109, what actually moves a fare, the family maths and whether the online price really beats the pier.
Beyond London
Cruises beyond London
Windsor, Henley, Oxford, Marlow and Hampton Court: who sails, when, what it costs, and how the non-tidal river differs.