Highlights & Hidden Gems With Locals: Best Of London Private Tour

Tom was phenomenal! He has a "standard" pace & route but will cater to your group's interests and pacing requests. He is full of interesting stories about various locations and has familial roots that help make stories more personal to hear. We also got a little taste of a music tour mixed in because my husband & Tom nerded out constantly about 60s/70s rock. :D It was adorable. Highly recommend this tour. Bring your best walking shoes and get ready to learn about London!

My wife and I spent 3 great hours with Chris on the local history tour that began at St Paul's Cathedral. This man is a wealth of information about all things historical in London. We learned things that are not written in the history books and can only be explained in detail in person. This tour was worth the time amd money !!

Tom was the tour guide from heaven. He knew all the right things to say to make sure we had a great day and tour and we got to see everything we asked for. It was a great time and he is great company! He even took pictures of our family and sent them all to us so we could just enjoy the moments. Thank you!

David was an excellent guide for us on this sunny, but cold November day. Although some of us had been to London numerous times,everything we saw and learned about was new to us. David has an impressive knowledge of architecture and history, and also with regards to the history related to popular culture over the decades. Not at least, he did it with humor and wit, and conveyed some hilarious anecdotes along the way! We were truly impressed, and felt extremely lucky we got such a great guide. We highly recommend David!

We had an amazing three-hour tour with Chris through the City of London. Chris kept us moving (we had just flown in) and brought Roman, Restoration, and modern history alive. The little-known history of London’s guilds was particularly fascinating. We recommend Chris whole heartedly.

Let me start with I find huge value in walking tours and docents. This tour was not what we hoped for, and that’s generous as we were disappointed. The guide was nice enough and knowledge … that said it was a day of facts and useless minutiae while standing in tunnels or in front of statues. We wanted to go into these sights and he used up the entire day such that all the venues were closing. The tour was supposed to be 2-2.5 hours it became 5! We didn’t know you couldn’t enter these sites after 3:30 but I’m sure our guide did. He kept saying you look tired we just need 30 more minutes. I expect he thought he’d get a tip, he didn’t. You might think we should have managed the time better… I expect the tour guide you’ve paid to do this, they are the expert on the location. Clearly it was not a match on any level. My recommendation is take the hop on off bus, take the site tours, and take the free umbrella tours where you tip based on value. We only had the one day. This event was the most disappointing of our month long trip. I cannot recommend this company.

This was one of my favorite things we did on the trip. Our guide was Maria Clara and I really enjoyed our tour with her. First, she was very kind enough to accommodate a time change so we could attend a football game. She was very knowledgeable, and pleasant and taught us so much during our time together. We honestly saw and did so much I really appreciated all the effort she put into it and had a great itinerary and walk planned. One of my favorite things, was that she pointed out on the Millenium Bridge that the gum stuck to the floor had art painted on top of it! We looked down and saw so many different little pictures and that was really fun for me. I really loved our afternoon with her and she was kind enough to give us ample recommendations to pubs, rooftop bars, restaurants and even places in Burrough Market. Thank you Maria Clara!!

Anthony has a wealth of knowledge about London and is very passionate in sharing it as he guides you. He is also super flexible and easy to work with !! Very glad we booked two tours with him !!

Anthony was remarkably informed and very fun. He led us around town and provided historical and helpful information. We had a great time!

I had the pleasure of doing a 3 hour walking tour with David over the weekend and it was the highlight of my trip to London! David was extremely easy to talk to & showed me all around London while explaining the city’s history in a way that was easy to understand and retain (as an American my knowledge was very limited.) The tour felt personalized and easy-going. He also gave me suggestions for other things to do over the weekend since I was in town by myself. I would recommend a tour with David to anyone visiting London for the first time or anyone in London who wants a deeper understanding of the city’s history.

David gave an excellent overview of the historic and modern political landscape of England with the backdrop of Big Ben, Westminster, Buckingham Palace and more. He tailored the tour to our interests and we learned so much about England's history in our time with him. David offered to meet us at our hotel lobby which was a great help as we had arrived to London from the US only hours before and didn’t know our way around very well yet. After taking his tour we were able to tie together many of the pieces we learned to the other sights we encountered in London and throughout England on our visit. His story about Oliver Cromwell and his eventual demise was particularly interesting when we ended up staying in a 17th century Hotel where Cromwell had also spent time immediately before leading his army to take over the government!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Anthony. He was extremely knowledgeable, entertaining, and personable. He took us to sites along the River Thames. He pointed out places where we needed to take photographs which he took for us! While there was a planned list of sites to show us, he listened to us and tailored his tour to our interests. Great, first day tour in London.

Chris was a wonderful guide. He was able to tailor the tour to meet our needs and showed us places we would never have seen on a general tour. 5 stars!!

Tom did such an amazing job highlighting the sights and sounds of London. I was with my 18 year old son who is a musician. Tom shared so many little known stories about the musical greats who have called London home over the years. He also was able to show us many of the places where they would hang out, record music, etc. all the while, incorporating some of the more traditional London gems along the way. We were short on time but with Tom’s help we had a magical visit.

Chris was a stellar guide with deep knowledge about the history of Fleet street and London generally. We had a super pleasant tour.

London can be a very crowded city with many things to see. Andreea did a wonderful job of making sure we saw the best of the sights and at the same time avoided many of the crowds. When we travel abroad we like to explore cities at a slower to moderate pace. During our time with Andreea she adjusted and we walked and used the Tube to maximize our coverage of the city's sights. She has a wealth of knowledge to share and we recommend Andreea for your visit to London.

We are a family of 5 with 3 young adults/teenagers which were visiting first time in London. The tour with Tom was a great introduction to London, its history and culture. Tom is very knowledgeable and is indeed a great storyteller. He adds interesting anecdotes and fun facts and keep his audience engaged. We highly recommend the tour with Tom!

We had the pleasure of going on a private tour of London with Tom. The depth and wealth of his knowledge about this wonderful city is matched only by his enthusiasm in telling it! You can’t go wrong with hiring Tom as your guide. He will customize the tour to your specific interests and you won’t be disappointed!

Tom was very knowledgeable and a great tour guide. He knows his history! He even brought along his iPad to show us pictures of what some of these buildings use to look like which really added to our experience. We learned a lot that day. He also made our tour fun with pop culture history of the areas we visited. Overall very fun learning and walking. Had a blast!

Anthony was wonderful! I was on a short timeline as I was on an 8 hr layover in between flights. Anthony helped me with advice on navigating to the city from the airport. Once there we crammed in a LOT in a short amount of time as we explored the sites. He’s a wealth of knowledge, takes great pictures, knows the best food spots and was fun to hang out with. Great experience and highly recommended!

Great walking tour with lots of information!! I highly recommend doing on the first day of your visit this way youll have an idea on what to do next!!

A rich and entertaining learning experience with Tom on a tour of hidden gems in London center. Warmest recommendation. #thelondonstoryteller

We had a great time with Anthony. He is very knowledgeable, and went out of his way to make sure that we got great pictures. He had special sites and places we went that were off the beaten track, which is exactly what we were looking for- we could never have gotten this experience without him to guide us.

Our guide never showed up. We weren’t able to reach anyone at any of the numbers we were given. Very disappointing.

the highlights are so much more amazing when seen in person. also enjoyed the little nuggets that were shown. andreea rocked

Excellent experience with Anthony! We could not have asked for a more knowledgeable and personable guide. He gave us several recommendations on where to go and what to eat. All of which were great!

A great walking tour of London focused on the City of London proper. Our guide, Chris, was a Canadian by birth who studied British history. Chris was very knowledgeable about London present as well as London past. I highly recommend the tour.

Absolutely amazing and informative! The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. We hit some great highlights and picture ops and he went out of his way to take me to the right place for future exploration at the end. The tour ran over, but he didn’t make anything feel rushed or pressured. I definitely recommend going on this tour for a private experience that is actually quite reasonable!

My daughter, son and I had a perfect first day in London touring with a Luciana!! We had just arrived in London at 10 AM from the US and had booked a 4 o'clock tour. She took great care of us and showed us lots of sights and gave us just the right amount of information on each of the sights we were seeing. She showed us lots of hidden gems and areas to get away from the crowds and enjoy some beautiful gardens and peace and quiet. She answered all of our questions and even gave us some great recommendations for things to do over the next several days that we were in the city. You can tell from her enthusiasm that she loves the city of London :-). I would recommend her walking tour to anyone that wants to get a great feel for the city!

Maria Clara was great! In a few hours, we walked through Central London and visited all the major tourist musts with excellent company. We had a tea sample in Borough Market and a 1/2 pint at a pub towards the end.

What an incredible experience! Tom is a limitless depth of knowledge - and not just the standard historical landmarks and events, but of little-known historical facts and insights. My husband and I had a blast and made some memories which will stay with us always. Tom is also very easy to chat and connect with and made it feel like we were spending a few hours exploring with a friend. Additionally, without even asking, he acted as our personal photographer and took so many awesome pictures of us together in amazing spots all over the city. We can’t wait to come back and do another tour with Tom!

A fabulous tour for first timers to London! Sophie was out of this world! She showed our group all the great spots in London and even got us some tasty treats along the tour! 10/10 experience!

Antonie was outstanding! A wealth of knowledge and very engaging- he had so many historical nuggets of information that are not in the travel guides. He knew where to take the best pictures, and had many personal recommendations for our stay. Highly recommend this tour!

The operator showed me some Great many sites and I love to walk. He was very knowledgeable and gave me the detail I needed on the history. This helped me appreciate what I was experiencing at a much higher level.

WITHLOCALS was the missing part of our London trip. It provided a complete different experience. Tom is an amazing guide - he arranged a tour following our preferences and showed us the ongoing transition of the city with a mixture of history and modern art. 2,5hrs full of exciting stories and insights made it even impressive for a teenager. Thanks so much, Tom! Best regards Nick & Oliver

Lovely time in the City of London. Every twist and turn unveiled new interesting views of the city and it's history. Highly recommended!

Our tour guide David was excellent. Very knowledgeable and passionate about the history of London. My friend and I found it fascinating. We saw sights we had seen before, but didn’t know the history behind them. The three hours walking whizzed by, walking down smaller roads to keep off the busy streets when we could. This tour was designed around where we were before (Tower) and what we had and hadn’t seen before. I have already recommended this tour to a couple of people. Highly recommended and David is very easy to be with.

Great tour with our guide Tom. Lots of tidbits of information woven through the history of the sites. Well worth it!

I’m so glad we were able to do this tour, and that we picked Anthony to tour with. He was so wonderful that I wish we’d had time to take a 2nd tour with him! He knew London backwards and forwards, and when we got lost on the way to the meeting point, he quickly and graciously met up with us right where we were. He’s interesting, kind, friendly, and intelligent. He was good with our teenagers and our 8-year-old, as well. I’m pretty sure Anthony can do it all. The places he took us on this tour were must-sees, and we were able to see them all a lot faster than if we’d tried to navigate it all on our own, and the added benefit of all of his knowledge and explanations was invaluable. I highly recommend him for whatever London tour you may need.

Hidden gems is a fitting title for this tour. Our guide Chris was more than a tour guide, you could tell he lived and breathed london history. His expertise in the history of London most importantly liveries and guilds was eye opening. He tailored the tour to our interests starting with a breathtaking rooftop view of london skyline and st. Paul's cathedral. Dont miss! Bring your walking shoes, curiosity, and a great camera.

We saw so much of London! Rode the double decker bus to get us started then headed off to see Big Ben. We then walked around West Minster Church, and down to see the changing of the guard. We walked through two parks, and into the soho area. We were given recommendations on shopping areas and food! Our tour guide took photos as well. We enjoyed the day!

This tour is the best. We were only us four with the guide Tom who was great. He presented London to us from his perspective and took us to see things that we wouldn't have seen if he had not presented them to us. He changed his itinerary to accommodate us. He answered all of our questions. I greatly recommend this tour.

Horrible, do not, hire Flora for a guide. I paid for a tour on our layover in London, we travelled an hour across London to meet her, and she never showed. We called and texted her multiple times with not even the curtesy of a response. She should loose her tour guide license. DO NOT HIRE FLORA!!! We want a refund and our taxi fare reimbursed immediately!!

Tom was a sweetheart! Knew his stuff and gave you your money’s worth! Was very patient with my group taking in to consideration we just had landed from NY. Really knows how to read the room!

We had a great time with Luciana. She was an excellent guide and we were able to see things we likely never would have seen on our own.

Luciana was great. The fact that the tour was private made the experience way more appealing. My wife and I were jet-lagged but wanted the most out of our first afternoon in London. Luciana tailored the experience to what we wanted to do and was very knowledgeable! Thanks!

This was a great 3-hour tour of the city - hit all the highlights and was exactly what I was looking for. It was my wife and son's first time to London, and this tour gave them the opportunity to see many of the main attractions as well as some hidden spots that we certainly went back to later in the week. Luciana was wonderful - super insightful and followed up with an email with other resources for us. Certainly don't expect to dive deep into any one thing on this tour but it is perfect for a first-day understanding of the city and where and when to go places. Luciana made it a great experience.

We had a fantastic tour of London with Tom! Tom was enthusiastic, friendly, and extremely knowledgeable about the city and history. We also enjoyed getting to talk with Tom about current culture and life in London. We felt like we got to see a lot of cool sights on the tour, and he even customized the itinerary to fit our needs. This was one of the highlights of our trip--would highly recommend it!

We booked this trip on Feb 18 for a tour on May 23. The morning of the event, we received an email for "Susy the Happiness Manager" saying that due to personal reasons, our tour guide needed to cancel, but we were offered a later time on the same day. we replied as instructed, but received no response. We then got another email from Susy saying they had tried to reach us by phone, but it went to voicemeail. How, I dont know. Our phone was with us 24/7 and no voicemail was left. We were given a number to call to reschedule, but when we called it went to VM. We left a message but no one had the courtesy to return our call. We got another email cancelling the tour all together. This left us with an empty vacation day. At the last minute, we were unable to book any other tours or events. How does a company cancel last minute, then make themselves unavailable by phone during the business day, and not return VMs? The unreliability of this company and lack of professionalism will keep us away permanently.