I've always preferred:

    map! <C-h> <esc>:bp<CR>
    map <C-h> :bp<CR>
    map! <C-l> <esc>:bn<CR>
    map <C-l> :bn<CR>

This lets me keep my fingers on home row. Combined with MiniBufExplorer [1], I find it provides a more convenient tab system than Vim's built-in tabs.

(edit) It also works in the terminal, which is a big plus for me. I like to have the same keybindings when editing remotely.

[1] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=159