By Rowan Ellis · Updated · Affiliate links, explained in my disclosure
The London Eye - MEG
Thames River Cruise with Optional London Eye Ticket
4.5 (4,503) · from $21
A river cruise in London is the quickest way to see Parliament, St Paul’s and Tower Bridge from one seat, and the three I compared start at $18. They are all on the Thames and all sold by the ticket, not by the boat. For every kind of trip, including canals, dinner boats and self-drive hire, see my guide to boat tours in London. Prices are in US dollars, checked in October 2026, and the booking links are affiliate links, as I explain on my about page.
My pick is the Thames River Cruise with Optional London Eye Ticket at $21: about 40 minutes, rated 4.5 from 4,503 reviews. If you also want Greenwich, I’d take the Flexible One-Way Thames River Cruise Ticket at $18. I haven’t been on these boats, so I rely on the listings and review snippets.
Here are the three London river cruises side by side. The third is mostly a land tour, which is why its price is so much higher.
| Trip | Operator | Price | Duration | Boat type | Rating | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eye river cruise | The London Eye (MEG) | $21 | 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, loop about 40 minutes | Circular sightseeing boat, covered and open deck | 4.5 (4,503) | Free up to 24 hours |
| Flexible one-way ticket | Thames River Sightseeing | $18 | Valid 24 hours, cruises 25 minutes to 1 hour | Sightseeing boat with open decks, salons and bar | 4.4 (31) | Free up to 24 hours |
| Crown Jewels tour | Evan Evans Tours | $158 | 4 hours, 30-minute cruise | Coach plus river boat | 4.1 (59) | Free up to 24 hours |
The London Eye - MEG
My pick: My pick for a first river cruise: $21, about 40 minutes from the pier under the London Eye, 4.5 from 4,503 reviews.
The Eye cruise is the one I would hand to a visitor with an hour to spare. The listing describes live commentary, covered and sun-deck seating, and a circular route from the London Eye pier to Tower Bridge and back. It passes the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, Shakespeare’s Globe and Westminster, Millennium and Tower Bridges. Reviewers call it fun and informative.
If you want more than one hop, the Thames River Sightseeing ticket is a different kind of river cruise in London. It is a flexible one-way ticket valid for 24 hours, and you board or leave at Westminster Pier, Butler’s Wharf Pier or Greenwich Pier. There is no time to pre-select. The listing mentions live commentary about more than 40 landmarks, multilingual audio through an app, open decks and indoor salons, toilets, wheelchair access and a licensed bar. Tips, food and drinks are not included.
Thames River Sightseeing
My pick: Cheapest on the river: $18 for a one-way, 24-hour ticket between Westminster, Tower Bridge and Greenwich.
In a straight line Westminster Pier is 3.5 km from Butler’s Wharf Pier, which is the Tower Bridge stop on the south bank, and Butler’s Wharf is 5.0 km from Greenwich Pier. The whole line from Westminster to Greenwich is 8.1 km. With only 31 reviews the 4.4 rating is a modest sample, but one snippet from a party of 15 said everyone enjoyed it.
Not every river cruise in London is a boat tour first. The Crown Jewels Tour with River Cruise by Evan Evans Tours is a 4-hour coach and walking tour with a guide, and the river is the last 30 minutes. The itinerary is a coach ride of about 30 minutes, about 1 hour at St Paul’s Cathedral, another 30-minute coach ride, about 2 hours at the Tower of London, then the boat from Westminster Pier to Westminster Millennium Pier.
Evan Evans Tours
My pick: A guided Tower and St Paul's day that ends with a 30-minute cruise: $158, 4 hours, rated 4.1 from 59 reviews.
Admission to the Tower of London, admission to St Paul’s Cathedral from Monday to Saturday, a Blue Badge guide, the coach and a headset are all included. The meeting point is Evan Evans Tours on Vauxhall Bridge Road at 12:45pm. The guide gets the praise in two snippets, and one reviewer said they could not take the cruise part. The listing offers languages including English, Chinese, German, Japanese and Korean.
Because the cruise is short, I wouldn’t book this for the river. I’d book it if the Tower and St Paul’s are the plan and you want a guide, with the boat as a rest at the end.
Searches for a London river cruise with Eye tickets are served by the first listing. The Eye option is optional: the listing says the London Eye ticket is included only if you select it, while the river cruise is always part of the price. Check the option you pick before you pay, because the $21 figure is the one I cite for the cruise itself. The boat boards at London Eye Pier at County Hall, and the London Eye is 0.3 km from Westminster Pier and 3.1 km from Tower Bridge in a straight line.
Free cancellation runs up to 24 hours before the start, which makes it easy to move the day if the weather turns. Unaccompanied minors are excluded. Opening times for the wheel are on the London Eye website, and Google Maps showed 11 AM to 6 PM on my last check.
For other London River Thames boat trips, the lunch, tea and dinner cruises are a separate type. My dinner cruise page covers the City Cruises lunch ($70) and dinner ($105) and the Tea on the Thames cruise from $29. For a party instead of a view, I’d read the party boat page, and for a slower ride on water without tides, the canal cruise page. If you want to steer yourself, the boat rental page has GoBoat from $126.
Google Maps also lists speedboat operators such as Thames Rockets and Thames RIB Experience, but no tour from them was in my data, so I haven’t compared them.
A river cruise in London works differently for different travellers, so here is how I would sort the three. A first-time visitor with an hour to spare gets the most from the Eye loop: it starts where the crowds already are, under the wheel, and the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s and Tower Bridge come in one go. Someone staying near the Tower or Greenwich should look at the flexible ticket, because it turns a river cruise in London into a way of travelling between three piers and costs less than most single rides.
Families deserve a note. The Eye listing excludes unaccompanied minors and says nothing else about age, the flexible ticket lists toilets, wheelchair access and a licensed bar, and the Crown Jewels tour is 4 hours, with 3 of them at the two sights. A restless child will cope better with the 40-minute loop. Anyone with a mobility need should read the accessibility lines in each listing, since only the one-way ticket spells them out.
Timing matters as well. The listings I used do not publish fixed departure times, apart from the 12:45pm boarding for the coach tour, so check the date picker for the day you want. Because the cancellation window on all three is 24 hours, I would book a few days ahead and keep the weather in mind: the Eye boat has covered seating, the one-way boats have open decks and indoor salons, and the coach tour is mostly indoors until the final 30 minutes.
Finally, a word on value. The three prices are far apart because they sell different things. The $18 and $21 tickets sell the river itself. The $158 tour sells admission to two paid sights, a guide and transport, with a river cruise as a closing act. If you only want a London river cruise, the first two are the fair comparison, and the third is a sightseeing day you can also book without the boat.
Here are the river cruises in London as I’d choose them. For a first look at the sights, I’d book the Eye cruise at $21, because it is short and cheap and has 4,503 reviews behind it. For flexibility and Greenwich, the $18 ticket. For the Tower and St Paul’s with a guide, the Crown Jewels tour.
The Thames is tidal, and the Port of London Authority is the official source for navigation and safety on the river. For any other London river cruise, confirm the pier on your voucher, because Westminster, Tower and Butler’s Wharf are different stops. My full list of every London boat I compared is on the hub page, and the homepage has the other cities.
The three Thames sightseeing options I compared cost $18, $21 and $158 in US dollars. The $18 ticket is a flexible one-way ride between Westminster, Tower Bridge and Greenwich, the $21 cruise is a 40-minute loop from the London Eye, and the $158 trip is a guided Tower and St Paul's day with a 30-minute cruise at the end.
It depends on the ticket. The Eye loop takes about 40 minutes, the flexible one-way ticket lists cruise times of 25 minutes to 1 hour between piers, and the Crown Jewels tour has a 30-minute cruise inside a 4-hour day. Lunch, tea and dinner cruises last longer, from 90 minutes to 3 hours.
It boards at London Eye Pier at County Hall on Westminster Bridge Road, directly under the wheel, according to the listing. The loop goes as far as Tower Bridge and returns about 40 minutes later. In a straight line the pier is only 0.3 km from Westminster Pier, so the two are easy to mix up.
Yes, with the flexible one-way ticket from Thames River Sightseeing. It is valid for 24 hours and lets you board at Westminster Pier, Butler's Wharf Pier by Tower Bridge or Greenwich Pier. It is a one-way trip, so check the listing for how many boardings your ticket covers before you plan a full day around it.
I think so for a first visit. The Eye cruise is rated 4.5 from 4,503 reviews and gives you the main riverside landmarks in about 40 minutes for $21. If you only want to travel between Westminster and Greenwich, the $18 one-way ticket works as transport with commentary and a bar.
My full review of each one, in the order I rank them: