Taking a fast boat down the Thames

Taking a boat trip on the River Thames is something that every visitor to London should do and there’s a host of large boats cruising up and down the river that you could hop on. If you’re looking for something a little different you might like London Rib Voyages, a river cruise on small, fast boats that look like large inflatables but have a solid hull, RIB stands for Rigid Inflatable Boats.

The boats seat a maximum of 12 and have a two man crew of a skipper and a guide. They run trips every day from February to November and have two cruises, the Thames Sightseeing Cruise that goes from the Houses of Parliament to Canary Wharf and lasts around 50 minutes, and the Thames Barrier Cruise which takes place very Saturday at 9.30am and goes further down river to the Thames Barrier, this one last about 1.5 hours.

Life jackets are issued to all passengers and sailing jackets to keep out the wind chill are available to anyone who wants one. Tickets for one of the Rib Voyages cost £26 for adults and £16 for under 12s, if you want to charter the boat for yourself its £279 per hour. One of the larger cruise boats will be around £7 for a trip between Westminster and the Tower of London, so there’s a large price difference but this should be a more exciting ride and get you a better feel of the river.

London RIB Voyages is based underneath the London Eye and their ticket office is at the entrance to the Waterloo millenium pier. Because of the small number of seats available you’re advised to book ahead to guarantee the time you want.