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New York City’s latest tourist attraction will be launched on Thursday (September 16th.)

‘The Ride’ will take visitors on a tour of the city in eight super-sized buses, offering a combination of sightseeing, technological wizardry and on-board performance. The engineers who worked on the buses say they’ve crammed an IMAX theatre’s worth of equipment inside them.

Guests board the vehicles at the New York Marriott Marquis luxury hotel in Times Square. That’s the starting point for a 4.2 mile journey in the tallest vehicles allowed under federal law, equipped with stadium-style seating and panoramic windows.

Along the route, the hosts entertain riders with comedic send-ups of common New York sites, created by a team of writers and producers whose credits include well-known American TV shows.

“The Ride is about experiencing the fabric of New York – honestly and unflinchingly – through the eyes of talented and truly funny people who love the city and its history and who have chosen to be life-long residents here,” said company founder Michael Counts.

Tickets for the attraction are priced from $59 (£37). www.experiencetheride.com

by Andy Moreton

If you’re going along for The Ride (and everything else the Big Apple has to offer), let Luxique help you book your luxury hotel in New York City.

The red bus is one of the most instantly recognisable sights for visitors to London, and the image appears on souvenir T-shirts, caps, bags, mouse-mats and postcards.

Many native Londoners look back with fondness at the double-decker variety known as Routemasters – hop-on, hop-off workhorses (with friendly conductors collecting fares) that served the capital for 50 years until they were scrapped in 2005.

Now, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has honoured his election pledge and unveiled his new generation of Routemasters to replace the much-maligned single-deckers nicknamed ‘bendy buses’.

The new Routemaster is bigger than the old one – people have got larger and there are rules about headroom and gangway widths, plus accessibility requirements. And there are two staircases, with the ‘open platform’ door at the back staying open or closed depending on whether there’s a conductor to collect fares and scan ticket swipe cards.

The Mayor is pretty pleased with his new bus, telling passengers to expect a ‘greener, light and airy’ service when the first of them is rolled out across London in 2012.

The London public, though, are divided. Some love the idea of an iconic favourite working the streets again; others think the £7.8 million ($11.2 million) for five buses could be better spent.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique’s Top Destination guide will help you get the best from your visit to the UK capital and we have a hand picked selection of the finest luxury London hotels.