Buckingham Palace

There are about 18,000 reviews on TripAdvisor for Buckingham Palace. You could probably find a plethora of information there.

I understand that Buckingham Palace gardens are not open to visitors, except by invitation. A 32 GBP combo ticket covers the State Rooms, Queen's Gallery, and Royal Mews/Stables. See https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/.

And I don't think you mean Kensington Palace, since that's not the same ticket price (gardens included).

Thank you for the website. Yes, I looked at the web site and it appears you can buy a combined ticket to see the palace rooms and the gardens. Maybe this is a new thing. Looking forward to going, just wondering if anyone else bought this combo ticket? If this is new, then I will buy my ticket and see how it is.

OK, I think that I finally found the page you meant. Sorry for the confusion. It's all a somewhat rare opportunity, so I'd say, "go for it."

I took the "State Rooms and Garden Highlights" combined tour last September, and I'd recommend it. Most of the time you're in the palace itself, following a path (with many others) through the amazing rooms used mostly for ceremonial purposes. You get an audio guide with very good info, and there are friendly and helpful docents in each room to answer questions. My favorite place was the White Drawing Room, where the Queen meets with the Prime Minister and others. Specifically a corner whose paneling conceals a door connecting to the private part of the palace, so she can come and go without going through any other room in the "public" area. The audio guide explains this and notes that the wall, cabinet, and candlesticks on top of it, are all attached and move together when the door opens or closes.

The garden tour is led by a docent and goes past the side of the building occupied by the family, then along a path to the far corner of the gardens (Hyde Park Corner on the other side of the wall), then to a little gate that lets you out onto Grosvenor Place. Or, instead of exiting there, you can walk back past the lake to the palace and leave near where you entered on Buckingham Gate. I spent a couple of hours in the palace at my own pace, and the garden tour took about 45 minutes. On the terrace behind the palace there's a tent with tea, sandwiches, scones, and such. It was a nice break between the two tours.

The Queen's Gallery is part of her art collection -- I skipped it because I wasn't that interested in last year's exhibition. And the Royal Mews is a lot of coaches, which don't interest me that much either. But there are ticket combinations covering those as well.

The best part of the timed ticket is telling your friends beforehand that you have an appointment at Buckingham Palace on Monday morning or whenever! Highly recommended.

Thank you Dick, that was extremely helpful. I appreciate you telling me of your experience! I look forward to seeing the palace!

Lucky you! We only got to tour the palace and walk through the gardens on the way out. We loved it. We viewed the Mews as well, and enjoyed talking with the fellows who work and live there. It wasn't crowded. However, we were not a big fan of that year's exhibit in the Queen's Gallery, so at least check to see if the exhibit is one you're interested in.

One note, they stick to the schedule for timed entry. They were going to refuse us entry because we were 10 minutes late. We got caught in the crowds gathering for the changing of the guard, so just be aware of that.