The Christmas Day Sightseeing Cruise is a one-hour circular cruise on the River Thames on 25 December 2026, leaving from Westminster Pier (Victoria Embankment, SW1A 2JH) at 9:45am, 10:15am, 11:00am, 11:30am, 12:15pm, 12:45pm, 1:30pm, 2:00pm and 2:45pm. Boarding opens 20 minutes before departure. Live commentary is given in English by the captain, with a free multilingual app for other languages, and there is a bar on board. From £30 per adult, £20 per child and free for under-5s.
The cheapest way to be somewhere on Christmas Day
Everything is shut. The Underground is not running, the buses are in their depots, the museums and the shops are closed, and most people staying in London on 25 December discover this at about ten in the morning. An hour on the river costs £30 and solves the whole problem.
It is the least expensive product in our entire Christmas range, and the only one you can book on the morning itself and still make. There is no meal, no coach and no full-day commitment: you board at Westminster, the boat makes a circuit past the Houses of Parliament, the South Bank, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, and an hour later you are back where you started.
Nine departures, and no reason to rush
With nine sailings between 9:45am and 2:45pm, this is the one Christmas Day activity you can fit around lunch rather than build a day around. Boarding opens 20 minutes before each departure. The decks are heated and the boat has a licensed bar; photo identification is required to be served alcohol.
Commentary is delivered live in English by the captain. If English is not your language, a free app provides the commentary in several others — it needs to be downloaded before you board, so do it before you leave.
Every age, which is rarer than it sounds
This cruise has no minimum age, and children under 5 travel free. Among the Christmas Day products that is unusual: the Lunch Cruise and Guided Tour does not admit under-5s at all. If you are in London on 25 December with a small child and everything else is either shut or closed to you, this is the answer.
If you want lunch as well
One other boat sails on Christmas Day with a meal on board. The Christmas Day Lunch Cruise and Guided Tour adds a morning coach tour of the empty city, from £228, and is free to cancel until 20 December. This one is the hour-long, all-ages, thirty-pound version.
