We will be in London June 2-9. We have lots planned but not sure which venues we should buy tickets for ahead of our arrival. We have our oyster cards, by the way. Here are some sites I am particularly interested in whether advance tickets are necessary. Thanks for suggestions.
London Eye/Thames cruise
British Museum
Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster)
Churchill War Rooms
I'd suggest you go to those websites and attempt a "dummy" booking. See if there are tickets for this week available. If not, work ahead, and see when tickets are available. Since Covid, so many sites have adopted timed entries. You have some really great sites you are interested in.
Have a great time. Safe travels!
We had reservations for tour of House of Parliament and for Churchill War Rooms. It is essential for House of Parliament because tours are only available on Saturday and they sell out. There is also an option for head sets, if tours are not available.
It was much faster to get into Churchill War Rooms with a reservation.
We did a London Walks tour of the British Museum which hit the highlights. I would recommend.
You definitely don't need to book ahead for a Thames cruise- you can just turn up and go. For the British Museum, the permanent collection is free to enter. You can book a time slot online which can slightly speed up your entrance but it's not necessary. If you are visiting one of the temporary exhibitions, which does cost money, then again booking online means you get slightly faster entry. For the rest I would book online (and for Houses of Parliament you definitely have to).
There are no tours of Parliament available in your dates.
If there is a particular special exhibition that you want to see at any museum or gallery you may very well need to book in advance. For example the Cartier exhibition at the V&A is booked solid until 16th June.
Don’t book the London Eye in advance as you want to be sure that the weather on the day will give you views.
I have found an advance booking for the Churchill War Rooms is very beneficial and helps you get in quicker. Definitely the Houses of Parliament needs to be booked in advance - I did the tour in early January and it was really informative and interesting.
I did the evening tour of the British Museum with London Walks and really enjoyed it. But if you just go on your own, you don't need an advance booking which will give you flexibility.
Thank you all very much for your responses. Very helpful.
