LONDON WEEKEND BREAKS - London walking tours

There are quite a number of companies who organise walking tours around London and they London walking tours cover a vast range of themes and districts within the city. If you are planning a weekend break, you need to bear in mind that these tours are very popular and it makes sense to reserve your place well in advance of your visit.

This is especially true for the more popular tours like those retracing the steps of Jack the Ripper, or one of the London pub walks.

The big advantage of a London walking tour is that it allows you to get a far more intimate feel for the city than a bus tour and you also get a more individual approach due to the personal guide element. These tour guides do have rough scripts, but they are very knowledgeable and that means that they often ad-lib. This leads most tour walkers to conclude that their guide is both informative and amusing.

Because of the size of London, no on-foot tour can do justice to the whole city, so most tours are cleverly themed around a subject, a famous or notorious individual, or a historical reference point. This makes these themed tours ideal for London weekend breaks because they only take up a part of a day, but in so doing they also bring you into the living history of the city.

Different London walking tours

There really are a lot of different London walking tours to choose from, but they generally fall into one of two categories. The first sees a particular theme being adopted, whilst the second looks at a famous character, or even a connection with literature.

Amongst the most popular London walking tours are those centred around Jack the Ripper and his victims. These tours trace Jack's steps around the old part of the city where he stalked and then murdered his victims. These tours have a macabre theme, but for many this just adds to their appeal. They often have titles like the Ripper tour, or the Jack the Ripper walk.

Walking tours that relate London to literary works by Charles Dickens are also popular and again, these tours take their followers back in time with lots of historical references. Many find that experiencing one of these tour gives a new insight into Dickens' works.

Ghost walks remain some of the most popular walking tour themes in London and these tours are at the greatest demand at night time when the atmosphere enhances the ghoulish tales. These walks also gain a greater popularity outside of the summer season, possibly because night falls earlier in the evening.

London pub walks are run by a number of companies and these tours can range from organised pub crawls, to interesting paths through the city with Public Houses acting as punctuation points. If this kind of walking tour interests you need to confirm which of the two options you want and which is on offer.

There are many more themed London walking tours to choose from and many centre around secret London, Shakespeares London, or some other catchy title. The only way to find out which one will suit you is to check out some walking tour companies and find something that you like.

Things to check

If you have decided to add a walking tour to you London weekend breaks itinerary, then it is usually a good idea to find out if the tours that you are considering have a limit to the maximum number of walkers allowed.

You do not want to find yourself on a tour with so many other participants that you struggle to hear the guide.

The best way to ensure that this does not happen is to avoid the “meet and walk” tours where you simply meet a guide at a regular meeting point and everyone who is there gets on the tour. If there are only a few of you this is fine, but if there are 50 of you it becomes rather silly.

The best quality tours, the best organised tours and the most professionally run tours normally require you to book in advance. We usually have links to some tour companies on this page, so you can use those.