Go City Pass

I had never heard of it but it seems to be the same as the London Pass, which has been around for a long time. iT is possible to make savings if you have a particular itinerary in mind that fits but my understanding is that it does not deliver for the majority of visitors. You need to bear in mind that the main collections in most of London's museums and galleries are free to enter, so are not included on the pass. assuming you want to visit some, such as the British Museum, The V&A the Tate museums etc (and you should) then it will be almost impossible to make savings with the pass.

the pass also gives you savings on places that most would not choose to see. For example the View from the Shard is very expensive, but not really any better than the view from the Sky Garden, which is free to visit as long as you book in advance.

Many of those wonderful, free/donation-requested museums are also quite large. Taking advantage of some of those would really eat into the time you'd have available to go to sights covered by the pass. I am very, very skeptical but haven't tried to use a pass in London.

Been visiting London for over 50 years Never heard of this pass.

What attractions are you interested in seeing?

https://gocity.com/en/london

I think this may be the pass the OP is referencing.

The sample itinwrary for Day 3 of the three day pass includes Westminster Abbey, Kensington Palacde and Tower of London...

All those in ONE day - really?

This pass is usually referred to as the London Pass. I've used it a few times and it was convenient and a money saver. That doesn't mean it will be a money saver for you, however. What you need to do is price out the main sites that you plan to see that are covered with the London Pass and see is there is a price savings. Each person really needs to price this out for themselves in order to know if it is a good deal.

My experience is that you are likely to hit two, at the most three, major sites a day. The longer you have the London Pass for, say 5 days vs 2 days, the better bargain it is. The two day pass is unlikely to save money.

Advantages: Can be a money saver, often skip lines to buy tickets (but not always), convenient-just show the pass, allows for some sites you might not have paid to go in otherwise but find a pleasant surprise.
Disadvantages: Some people feel that in order to "get their moneys worth: they have to see as many things as possible covered by the pass. This is not a good approach. Price for the sites that are important to you and go from there.

Go City does offer a choice. Their All-inclusive Pass - visit as many attraction as you like ea. day - or their Explore Pass - pick the number of attractions you want to visit.

I'm not the sort that considers passes. The math doesn't work for me and I'm not interested in racing from one site to another. But, look at both options and see if they work out for you.

You already know this part, azabala217, but for the others, the Go City company has sightseeing passes for many cities around the world, and for London, it’s called the London Pass.

We were in London for an extended trip in April 2024 (gee, has it been two years already?), and got a 10-day London Pass. Even just seeing a couple of attractions per day, we more than got our money’s worth, but a pass for only three days or less would’ve required cramming in lots of sights per day, not staying very long at any particular place, and moving quickly. The Pass is definitely cheaper per day, the longer you have it.

London has so many fabulous places that are free (donations gladly accepted), like the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Britain and Tate Modern Museums, and the Imperial War Museum. If you’re a fan of history and fine art, those alone could fill a week’s itinerary.

Other very popular sights, including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral (with the opportunity to climb WAY up to the top of its lead dome for views), the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge, and the tour of the recreated Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, are fairly expensive, and are covered by the Pass. Some (like the Tower and St. Paul’s) even have express lanes for Pass holders. Westminster Abbey, on the other hand, sent us to the end of the line (in the drizzling rain) with everybody else who’d gotten there ahead of us. Probably 90% of them didn’t have a Pass, so they had to pay once they got to the ticket window at the front of the line, and we got buzzed right in once we got to the window, but it took a very long time to reach it. The Abbey does offer pre-reservation tickets, and those people were admitted in a separate door when they showed up with their printed reservation, but the London Pass wasn’t part of that, and you’d have to pay separately. Some sights on the Pass require booking a reservation, but most are walk-up.

You get a Pass QR code on your phone, and simply show it at the sight, really easy and user-friendly. Some really expensive things, like the View from the Shard, London’s tallest skyscraper, we wouldn’t have done if it hadn’t been on the Pass. The London Eye is another really pricey attraction, but we didn’t go on it. Same with the Big Bus hop-on hop-off bus - too slow because of traffic, and a map in Rick Steves’ guidebook, plus getting around on foot, cheap double-decker public bus, or the Tube Underground (or taxi cab) is the way to get around.

One way the Pass is a deal for a day, is Greenwich, if you were interested. The Pass covers the Thames Clipper boat to get between downtown London and Greenwich, plus sights like the Cutty Sark, the Royal Observatory (ask them about “Keeping your eye on The Ball”), the Queen’s House, the Royal Naval College (and its Painted Hall), and even a Fan Museum, which is only open certain Days. There are also other covered sights in Greenwich, and you can straddle the Greenwich Meridian Line, from where all longitudes are based.

As mentioned above, you’d have to determine what you want to see, and figure out how to group sights together for the most efficient itinerary schedule. Lingering at any attraction means you have less time in the day to squeeze in many more attractions. Some sights we didn’t know about until we saw they were on the Pass, included the Jewel Tower (by the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, also on the Pass), as well as the Florence Nightingale Museum and the Garden Museum. We loved them, but they would’ve been only about $10 apiece without the Pass, so to have the Pass pay for itself, you need see a lot of sights, or have a Pass for a lot of days.

You may have noticed that the Pass is on sale a lot. Get on the e-mail list, and they’ll send you offers for discounts on top of the sale price. I’m glad we did it in 2024, but have been back twice more since then for a few days, and did not get a Pass again.

Biggest frustration is that they don’t have a map showing where the covered sights are, so you can’t immediately figure out what’s close to other places covered by the Pass.

You also have to be careful to reconfirm what days places are open (the Ben Franklin House, for example), and with what hours.

We ran out of Days on our Passes before we ran out of sights. Places like Windsor Castle (afternoons only with the Pass) were so far outside of London that we didn’t try to see them; too much time to get there when there were so many other places close by, right in Central London.

"There are also other covered sights in Greenwich, and you can straddle the International Date Line and be in two time zones at once."
The International Date Line is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's the Greenwich Meridian that's in Greenwich. And there are definitely not two time zones in Greenwich, which would be a touch impractical.

Thameslink is the Cross London train service, the boat to Greenwich is the Thames Clipper. That boat costs £11.40 each way (contactless/online) £16.90 at the pier.
Or a 24 hour hop on hop off ticket to all piers (Putney to Barking) is £27.90, 48 hour £46.50 (25% less bought at least 7 days ahead on line).
So to Greenwich the trick for the boat return is to buy a 24 hour ticket a week ahead of time.

That’s what happens when you post a long message in the middle of the night. Right - meridian line (marked by brass strips set into walls and sidewalks in places. You can straddle it, for what it’s worth.

And the boats are in the Thames, and are “Thames Clippers,” not “Thameslink.” I’ve taken both, and mixed up the name. Interesting that what the modern river shuttle “Clipper” boats aren’t quite like the Clipper sailing boats from long ago, like the Cutty Sark, which is now displayed out of the water at Greenwich.

Both errors now corrected, thanks to help from Brits who live closer to London than I. Wonder how many British have used a London Pass?

Wonder how many British have used a London Pass?

If you live somewhere then you aren't likely to be visiting a number of attractions in a week or so, but rather over a period of time and/or you might get reductions for locals only.

One example is Seattle. I would guess that for a local a Seattle Pass is a waste of money. They will will be doing the odd attraction as and when on the whole. Or, if you are like me in the English Lake District have never been to some places which are visitor must do's due to the manana principle and not wanting to be in visitor crowds.

At least in the off season (possibly not in the summer) as a visitor I've priced the Seattle Pass out. Even for someone like me, who has a deeply eclectic schedule (meaning many places way off the general radar), it works. I would never be there in summer anyway so it's a moot point.

I've just googled Denver Pass. And am surprised to see there is one. Having been to Denver I honestly didn't know there was so much I (or rather my tour) had "missed" but that's by the by. The tour had very different objectives in CO and points west. If you live in Colorado then the pass likely won't work, as you will visit the places covered over time. But just as a quick look if I was to fly in tomorrow for a few days it appears to work. The devil may be in the detail of course,

Thank you everyone for the input. I am working on the itinerary of what we want to see so we will figure out if the pass is a good idea or not. My main concern was ease of use and actually being able to get in with no problem on the places listed. Then input definitely helps!