General convenience of the London Pass

Whether the London Pass is a good deal for you or not is a very individual matter. First, determine which places that are covered by the London Pass that are on your "must see" list. Then determine the cost of those admissions bought separately. Which is more expensive? If you are traveling with someone else, there are often 2 for 1 savings available for some of the same sights when paired with a train trip.

I traveled solo in April and it was a good deal for me. The admissions were less with the London Pass (I bought a 4 day pass for the price of 3 through Costco Travel) and I appreciated the flexibility I had as far as scheduling went. I visited a few spots that I wouldn't have paid to visit without them already being covered by the pass.

I had planned on visiting the Tower of London and was pleased that I just walked up to the gate, showed them my pass, and went right in. I stopped nearby for lunch afterwards and realized I was still feeling a little tired from my flights. It was a simple matter to just walk to end of the pier at the Tower and take a covered cruise on the Thames to Greenwich. I enjoyed the view and it fit my energy level. At Greenwich, I spotted the Cutty Sark, noticed it was covered by the London Pass, and thought "why not?" I enjoyed touring it and this is something I probably would have bypassed otherwise. This sort of flexibility worked well for me. I also visited the Shard, which I would never have paid extra to do and enjoyed the view. The bonus for me was seeing a few things I would not have gone to otherwise, but still enjoyed.

I did stand in line with others at Westminster Abbey, but it was a quick moving line. I did not have to wait at the Churchill War Rooms either, but walked right in. Now, I can't guarantee that this will always be the case, especially in summer. Hampton Court Palace was quite a bit quicker than those in line to buy tickets. Again, it was show the pass and go in.

I think that the key factors to look at are: What sights are you definitely going to and what would admission cost? Are there other cost saving methods that might work? Do you like flexibility or would you prefer to know what time you will be going to specific places?

I don't know that the London Pass is for everyone. It is a decision that you should make based on your particular travel plans. There are some on this forum that write it off automatically and that is too bad. On the other hand, you need to do the math and determine if it is what you think it will be in terms of cost savings.

Carol posted while I was writing this. She makes very good points.

My experience with the London Pass was nearly 10 years ago. In my case it was a waste of money. To get my money's worth I would have had to rush around to visit many more venues than I ended up seeing. I'm sure there are people who do get their money's worth from it. I'm just a more leisurely tourist than that. What some people consider a full day of sight-seeing, cramming in as many things as possible, I'm likely to think of as a forced march. As they say, different strokes for different folks.

A caution about bypassing lines. From the London Pass website, here's the complete list of the six venues where you get to "jump" the queue (line) with the pass:

Tower Bridge Exhibition (this is not the Tower of London)
St. Paul's Cathedral
Hampton Court Palace
London Zoo
London Bridge Experience
Kew Gardens

And of course the London Pass doesn't make any difference to security lines where they exist - you have to go through them like everyone else.

If you can get a LP on sale, or through Costco [Carol posted the details while I was writing this, lol], it might be worth it if you're likely to visit enough of the covered venues. One thing I've heard people say is that they ended up visiting some less "famous" venues with the LP because they were listed in their LP materials and they decided to see them since they were covered by the LP. So there's that benefit to it.

This question is raised almost weekly and the responses are all the same - you need to work out what you want to see (not what is available on the Pass) and price this out. It will differ depending on what you want to see. I haven’t been anywhere in Europe where such a pass has worked for me. But that’s me and you may want to see different things.

Many museums and galleries are free.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for help on whether to buy it, I already have mine. I'm more looking at impressions of what people thought of it. I'm simply curious about people's impressions of it while using it. They liked it, they found it helpful, they got in quicker than they were expecting at certain places, etc...

Okay, I did like using it. I thought it was convenient and I just used the smart phone ap and didn't need to worry about keeping track of any paper items. I also liked the flexibility, cost savings, and bonus sites.

Good value for what you paid and what you got?

With this question, you can understand why we thought you were in the market instead of having already bought it.

I don't know which pass you bought and how many more days, if any, you have in London.

If you want to get the most out of the London Pass, then look at the site and make a list of what you want to see. Plan on 1/2 day for each activity. Then, go to Google Maps and group your choices geographically to save travel time.

If you want to see free sites, like the British Museum or the Victoria and Albert, save them for extra days either before you activate your pass or after it expires.

It did save time at the War Museum, St. Paul's and the Tower of London. Some places you show the pass and they issue a ticket. At the Tower of London, you bypass the ticket booth and go straight to the entrance.

There are some places where you cannot make online reservations so you can be assured you can get in when you want. The Shard is one, you just have to show up and hope for the best.

For us, it might have gotten us a few skip the line opportunities, but I don't think we saved any money. You've got to have a plan and go hard at it to save.

Thanx folks

We were happy with the pass and found we got exactly as much value from it as we'd hoped- not super deals, but just enough to make it a seamless and easy experience. One of the benefits when we got the pass a couple of years ago was that we bought it when the pound was at a very weak point, and it had rallied by the time we took our trip, so we had the benefit of a bit of currency arbitrage. It was also nice to have pre-paid for the major sights we wanted to see, so good for budgeting purposes.

Here's how we structured our 3-day pass use to get what felt like a reasonable benefit from it ("we" being 2 adults and young child):
Day 1: Platform 9 3/4 (no pass), Zoo (pass, skip line), British Museum (no pass, free)
Day 2: Tower of London (pass, skip line), Thames Cruise (pass), Westminster Abbey (pass, wait in line), night at theater (no pass)
Day 3: Hop On Hop Off bus (pass), London Walks walking tour (minor discount with pass), Natural History Museum (no pass, free), Kensington Gardens (free)

I spent 5 days in London and had the London Pass. The package I bought included the Oyster card so I was able to take the train from Heathrow into London very easily.

The Pass was a great value for me. I planned my visit geographically in that I was able to walk to all the sites on any given day, in one general location. And you do bypass the lines in most instances. For me, it was all about not having to worry about the cost of admission at each and every venue.

And with the Pass, I was able to get small discounts to enter sites that weren't included.

We thought it was worth it -- mainly for the line skipping privileges, even though some places didn't have lines when we showed up. It's always the risk when you buy these, but we've never thought it wasn't worth it in the end. It also allowed us to do things we might not have paid for, like taking the Thames river boat to get from the Tower of London back over to Westminster. It was really convenient, a nice change of scenery, and I probably would've taken the Tube, had it not already been covered in the Pass. Or, seeing the Royal Mews as we were waiting for our Buckhingham tour to start.

At least from March 2019 you can just show your pass to get in at Tower of London. Things change, and in this case for the better.

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