Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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1 February 2010

Take the London Insider Tube Tour

Your author was treated to a free tour on the London Underground recently by the good people at Insider London, and it was very pleasant. Their two hour tour takes participants through 150 years of tube history, teaching them about various aspects of the construction and development of the world's first underground railway.


The downside, however, is that at £34.50 the cost is steep and your author isn't sure it is worth that much, even though you do get to learn some interesting titbits along the way, and even get the chance of spotting a 'ghost station' or two along the route.

For the money, the tours are also private, held in small groups, and they run whenever you want, beginning at Farringdon and ending at Westminster. For real enthusiasts there is also a six hour option which costs £79.50, and doesn't include lunch because they 'like to let guests choose exactly what they would like'. In truth these tours are both prohibitively priced for anyone but the most ardent cash-rich underground fan, and your author suggests you might be better off buying a book and doing it yourself.

For more on the tour, see http://insider-trends.com/london-underground-tours/ or to book email contact@insider-london.co.uk.

^Picture by Axel Rouvin^

6 comments:

  1. Nice but as long as it's free, 34.50 is far too expensive!

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  2. My sentiments exactly. What a shame.

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  3. Real shame about the price. Sounds interesting, but it should be under a tenner, like other London walks. You'd have to be a pretty ardent trainspotter to pay £30+.

    Love your blog btw. Keep it up!

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  4. Thanks for the feedback, all! It's very enlightening and always genuinely useful to read people's opinions, both positive and negative. We had to carefully consider the price – it's important to us to offer our private tours at a reasonable price. Although London Walks are great, these are often large group tours of 30 people or more. Our tours are private, often run for couples, and a quick Google search will show that our prices are extremely competitive for tours of this type. The London Underground Tour is also the only tour of this type in the city.

    The fee includes a £6 Travelcard for all attendees and the guide (we happily lower the price by £6 per head if customers have a monthly Travelcard, however sadly the Tube's systems mean pay-as-you-go Oyster cards can't be used on the system. We're in discussions with TfL regarding this as we speak).

    We have found a number of people happy to pay the price we need to charge to make this a viable endeavour, however, and have received some excellent feedback on the tour, from both journalists and customers. You can read some of this on the London Underground Tour page on our site.

    Again, thanks for the feedback - it's good to learn what customers and non-customers think - we will definitely bear your thoughts in mind when developing and evolving our services.

    Best regards,

    Cate Trotter


    Founder
    Insider London
    www.insider-london.co.uk

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  5. Hi Cate,

    Thanks for your comment. As I said in my email to Lisa when she contacted me I really enjoyed the tour, and had been planning to write about it for some time, but when I looked at the cost I was rather staggered.

    I hope you will understand that I try to give a balanced view on such things.

    I think London Walks are brilliant in spite of the numbers.

    As far as I am concerned they are one of the best in the business and the tours are always very personal.

    Also, I don't understand your comments about the Tube's systems meaning pay-as-you-go Oyster cards can't be used. Is this to do with the length of time spent underground?

    I'm delighted that you have found a number of people happy to pay the price you charge and have received some excellent feedback on the tour, from both journalists and customers.

    This sort of thing is certainly worthwhile, it's just not really for me at that price. Perhaps maybe I will earn enough one day that it won't matter.

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