My wife and I are spending 3 1/2 days in London on our way to Italy this September. We plan on visit the attractions below and I was wondering if the London Pass was worth buying for this stay. Also, on the pass website I can buy discounted oyster travelcard at a discounted rate. Thanks in advance for the input,
Joe
Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Churchill War Room
British Museum
Hi Joe
You will likely only save money with the London Pass if you intend on seeing special exhibits. The British Museum is free to enter and you only pay for the special exhibits. If you just want to see the museums, skip the Pass and just buy the tickets individually. If you can book online you'll probably save a couple quid each.
As for the Oyster card, you can't really get it at a discounted rate. First you have to get the Oyster card which costs £3 then you load credit on to it, or you load a Travelcard on to it. For only 3 1/2 days you won't need a travel card so you'll just need to top up your credit.
That's an ambitious itinerary for only 3 1/2 days but I hope you enjoy your stay!
Liz
London
I wouldn't bother with the pass unless you intend to see more.
If you haven't paid for your accommodation yet; one thing that can help you see more in London is staying in central London, near transit. We just stayed in an area that technically is close to transit, but because it was on the DLR line we had to go through the huge Bank Station nearly every time and it made for lots and lots of walking just to come and go to our apartment. Take a good look at the transit map available online (travel for london is good) and find a place that has the fewest changes and the simplest stations to where you want to go. Also, Googlemaps often does a great job at routing, but once we had things figured out it seemed like it chose more complicated or longer routes. Ask the helpful staff that are in every station. One fellow saved us about twenty minutes off a trip that Googlemaps said would take 50 minutes. (Maybe Googlemaps WAS the problem all the time and we just didn't know it??)
Citymapper app is far better than GM. Aim to stay in Zone 1 ideally (within the Circle Line), the DLR is great, but having to use it, will take time away from fun stuff.
London Pass seems like a good idea, but i think you have to hit multiple paid attractions per day to make it pay.
And dont get the London Pass Oyster or a travelcard for 3 days.
Just get an Oyster and load say £20 on it.
Have a look at this site for reduced admission charges to some of the London sites.
https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london
Also this TA guide/FAQs to see how best to obtain the above offers
The British Museum is free, so you won't have to worry about that attraction.
I personally didn't see the use of the London Pass, but I don't normally see all the major sites. I would compare the prices of each attraction you want to visit with the price of the London Pass and see if it matches. If you plan on going to a lot of major sites, I would say that it's worth it.
Joe,
There were several useful answers in this thread a couple of weeks ago. We found the London Pass to be most worthwhile, as was the Oyster Card.
