Is London Pass worth it?

It is worth it with some caveats.

1. Can you buy it at a discount? We got 20% off when we bought ours and that helped a lot.
2. Can you plan your days so you squeeze the included sites into the consecutive days the pass is valid?
3. Check their website carefully for sites where you “skip the line.” Not all sites are included.

I actually listed out the sites we wanted to see with full prices, grouped them into logical geographic itineraries, and the pass made sense. On one trip we broke even, on another actually saved a few ££. But you do lose flexibility.

I'll start with Oyster Cards. Wait until you get there and buy your Oyster card at any Underground Station. There are Kiosks where you can buy them and it takes just a couple of minutes to purchase. You can charge it to your credit card. You can also easily check the balance on the cards and top up if needed. There's a daily cap (not including the river) of charges that will be levied. Use that as a guide to know how much to add to the card. It never expires. We kept our cards from a prior trip and used them, including the balance on the card, when we returned last May.

We used the Tube map app on our phones to plan our trips. It works great. It lets you choose the best route and tells you how long your trip will take. It also has notifications. I actually got a notification from the app during the recent attack informing me there had been an incident and the London Bridge station was closed and trains would not stop.

When we were in London in May, I bought a London Pass for my grandson and I. We didn't do everything together. I think I broke even, but we lost money on my grandson's pass.

For your trip length, I don't recommend you get them. They only make sense if you are there a week or more. You really need to see 2-3 of the attractions a day that take the London Pass. There's so much that is free and also a number of attractions that aren't on the London Pass list.

We did take advantage of skip the line at the Churchill Museum. That was nice. We also went through skip the line at the Tower of London, but since we arrived at the opening, we saved a most a minute or two over the regular line.

Look very carefully at what is offered compared to what you want to see. Determine if you will end up planning your trip around the London Pass or if you see what you want, including the myriad of free museums, etc. You will probably find if you include just a few of the free sites, the cost of the pass doesn't make sense.

Read the London Pass website information very carefully. It includes "skip the line" admission to a few sites, but by no means all of them.

If you decide that it will work for you, I have read that you can get a good deal on them at Costco right now, provided you are a member.

I doubt that you'll save money if you just plan to visit "several sights". My usual warning about such passes for large cities definitely applies in London: Trying to squeeze covered sights into the few days your pass is valid may lead you to zip back and forth across the city rather than plotting your sightseeing purely geographically. Is it worth wasting (possibly) hours of your limited sightseeing time in order to (maybe, not guaranteed) save a very few pounds per person? Setting up an efficient sightseeing path is a challenge if some of the places you want to see are closed one day a week; adding pass coverage into the mix complicates things, and the savings are highly unlikely to be worthwhile.

It generally doesn’t save money for a short time period not does it cover all the main sights. Most of the museums are free, for example. The London Pass usually works the best for a solo traveller buying at a discount over a longer time frame.

With 4 people, you’re only going to be travelling as fast as the slowest person. If there’s kids involved, they’re probably going to want a break to do kids stuff.

I’d make a list of what you want to see. By just paying as you go, you can maximize flexibility based on weather and anyone’s crankiness level.

And there’s still only a certain number of hours in the day with most sights open from 10-5. Some museums do have late hours.

Public transport is closed on Christmas Day. It is limited but running on Dec 26 ( Boxing Day ).

"So I am only considering London Pass to save on entrance fees to the main attractions."

Which of the "main attractions" are you seeing? Some of them are free, and some that are on the London Pass may not interest you or your family. Furthermore, as said above, you only have 24 hours in a day, and can only see things when they're open. To make a London Pass pay off, you have to do 2-3 covered things a day, every day of the pass validity.

On the other hand, the London Pass covers some bus and boat tours. If you're doing these, it's much easier to make the pass pay off.

As with any such pass, the only way to determine if it's a good deal is to do the math. Add up the cost of all the sights you're definitely seeing and possibly seeing, and compare it with the cost of the pass. Note that MANY sights in London now have discounts for online advance booking, which the London Pass website does not reflect. So, look directly at the attractions' own websites to see the current prices.

A trick I figured out is that for anything not requiring advance timed tickets, the morning of the visit is far enough "in advance" to buy an online discounted ticket - particularly if you've already created an account on that website. That way, you can enter all your data on your computer (much easier than entering it on your phone!), then just log in and buy the tickets that morning if you decide to visit.

Thank you all for taking the time to provide me with such detailed and excellent advice. I learn so much each time I read this forum. Which in turn helps to travel with confidence.

Hi,
I always first check what sights we would like to see. Then I calculate the entrances fee and compare to any card that might be cheaper. Always check the small print!!
Then you can make the right decision!

I recently purchased on sale at Costco. I added up the entry fee what I wanted to see and it exceeded the price for the 4 day pass. I find sometimes when I have a pass (museum pass usually) I find myself going into to less popular places that normally I wouldn’t spend the admission on and they end up being some of my favorites.