Stand at the front of the riverboat as it approaches the cluster of skyscrapers at Canary Wharf, and for a scant second you flash, Lower Manhattan on the Thames? This is London's new financial district, about four miles east of the city of London. The pencil-point roof in the center tops the tallest building in Britain, and, in fact, the sixth-highest in the European Union. At 50 stories and 774 feet, it doesn't come close to global skyscraper stats, but it is appropriately in scale with London's generally low skyline, and a fitting symbol of London's thriving new business district.

On weekdays, bankers and business people fill the streets, but on weekends, Canary Wharf turns into a waterside playground, especially along the interlocking quays that dot this historic Docklands area. For instance, a daily membership in The Docklands Sailing & Watersports Centre lets you sail, windsurf and kayak. For that favorite indoor sport, three linked malls house more than 200 shops that draw half a million shoppers a week. Restaurants? Everything from the high-end Italian Quadrato and Japanese Ubon by Nobu to Gordon Ramsay's new English pub, The Narrow, and numerous laid-back waterside cafes.

For a great central base, especially if you're traveling with children, consider Four Seasons Canary Wharf, right on the Thames. Yes, it's pricey (like all of London), but the good-value River Roamer Weekend package includes complementary tickets on the Thames Clipper — the river transport that covers central London docks virtually at the front door — and entree to the adjacent Virgin Active Health Club, with its 65-foot, glass-enclosed, riverside infinity-edge pool, tennis court and extensive gym facilities.

Stroll a few blocks to the West India Quay where superbly preserved red brick warehouses front one of the docking basins that made this port one of the busiest in the world during the 19th and 20th centuries. The corner one houses the Museum in Docklands, where artifacts, paintings and photographs chart the history of the area from London's first port under the Romans in 50 A.D., through its glory days of trade and shipbuilding, its near destruction in the bombings of World War II and subsequent demise when containerization closed the central London docks in 1980. Since then, vigorous development has transformed the derelict area into the city's second business district and revitalized travel along the river.

Meet the Thames Clipper, a catamaran transport and the most pleasant way of traveling through central London. Originally planned for commuter and local traffic, its dozen stops between Waterloo and the O2 (a popular arena resurrected in the ill-fated Millennium Dome) reach many of the city's major sights along both banks, making it a boon for savvy visitors. It's a scenic route that takes about 45 minutes, end to end. Boats run every 15 minutes during the day and less frequently early morning and evening. A one-day, hop-on, hop-off River Roamer ticket is about $16 for an adult and $35.50 for a family.

Make your first river stop the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich Pier), the repository for just about everything maritime in Britain. Actual ships and models, paintings, navigation and astronomy instruments, and photographs tell the story of Britain's explorations, trade, immigration, its vaunted naval power and their impact on the world. If you have kids in tow, such interactive installations as steering a ship into port will enthrall them.

No surprise that Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, looms large at the Maritime Museum. Secretly commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to raid Spanish settlements along the west coast of America, he left England in 1977 with five ships. By the time he reached the Pacific, he had lost four of them to treacherous weather and other maritime disasters. For the next three years on his flagship Pelican, he sacked Spanish settlements and disrupted merchant shipping, sailed the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to England laden with spices, jewels, gold and silver. Several months after his historic trip, Queen Elizabeth knighted him aboard his ship, renamed the Golden Hind midvoyage, as it lay at anchor near Greenwich.

Hop the Thames Clipper to the full-scale replica of the Golden Hinde, as it's now called, anchored at a wharf by Clink Street on the South Bank (London Bridge City Pier). It is actually a working ship, having itself sailed 140,000 miles and circumnavigated the globe, but its present mission is to show how a 120-foot, three-masted galleon with a crew of 80 functioned in the 16th century. In period dress, the crew takes you down to the hold, with its barrels of beef, water and beer; to the one stateroom for the captain; to the gun deck where kids eagerly volunteer to clean, load, and fire the cannons. No wonder the Golden Hinde delights every child with fantasies of being a pirate.

For a change of pace from the sedate Thames Clipper, the Flying Fish whips you by the river sights in a 12- or 20-person jet boat, a wild, spray-soaked adventure that's as thrilling as a James Bond chase (Blackfriars Pier weekdays, Blackfriars tube station other times). Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, National Theatre, Tate Modern and St Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and Tower of London whiz by in fast-forward mode. You'll race under Tower Bridge, past Canary Wharf, Greenwich, and the O2, and on through the Thames Barrier, the largest moveable flood barrier in the world.

It's a glorious sight. Twenty miles from the mouth of the Thames, nine gleaming stainless steel piers and 10 gates span the river, one-third of a mile wide from shore to shore. Opened in 1982, the barrier has been used 109 times to control the river, which is tidal through London. High tide is near 50 feet, and the piers are more than 65 feet high, but there is growing concern that the sea is rising faster than predicted.

Meanwhile, the Thames rolls on, revitalized by commercial, residential and cultural developments along its banks. It's an invigorating sight, especially from the water.

IF YOU GO

Museum in Docklands, West India Quay, 0870 4443855, www.museumindocklands.org.uk.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 20 8858 4422, www.nmm.ac.uk.

The Golden Hinde, Unit 1 and 2, Pickfords Wharf, Clink Street, 08700 11 8700, www.goldenhinde.org.

The Docklands Sailing & Watersport Centre, 235a Westferry Rd., Millwall Dock, 020 7537 2626, www.dswc.org.

Flying Fish Tours, Victoria Embankment, 08449 91 50 50, book online at www.flyingfishtours.co.uk. Daily July to mid-September; Friday, Saturday and Sunday the rest of year.

Quadrato, Four Seasons Hotel, 46 Westferry Circus, 020 7510 1857.

Ubon by Nobu, 34 Westferry Circus, 020 7719 7800.

The Narrow, 44 Narrow St., 020 7592 7950.

Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf, 46 Westferry Circus, 011-44-(0)20 7510-1999, www.fourseasons.com/canarywharf. Weekend rates start at $345 for a double room and access to the Virgin Active Health Club. The River Roamer package family rate starts at $860 per night for two adults and two children in their own room, including VAT, River Roamer tickets, full English breakfast and complimentary access to Virgin Active Health Club. Both rates are good through 2008.

For more information, contact VisitBritain, 551 Fifth Ave., Ste 701, NY 10176-0799; 800-462-2748, www.visitbritain.org.

Joan Scobey is a freelance travel writer. To find out more about Joan Scobey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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