London Pass

I got one once, when British Airways had a promotion where they gave me one for free. In the two days that the pass covered, I managed to save just enough in ticket prices and restaurant discounts to equal what I would have paid for the pass. It did have the benefit of letting me skip the lines (which would have been an issue at Windsor Castle and the Tower of London).

Keep in mind that many of the best museums in London are free (British Museum, British Library, National Gallery, V&A...), some of the rest are not covered by the pass (looks like St. Paul's Cathedral isn't covered anymore), and many of the rest are so geographically spread out that it's hard to see more than one or two of them in a day.

Here is my math on the pass and the places we would plan on using the pass. I did find a discount online so the pass list price of 129 pounds, we would end up paying less. With the below it offers a savings of 89 pounds per pass prior to any pass discount. I will have 6 days to use it.

London Pass # = fast pass numbers are pounds, 2016 admission rates

Place Cost per person London pass
Tower of London # 22.5 free
Hampton Court # 19 free
Windsor Castle # 20 free
Train to Windsor 14 free
Shakespeare globe 15 free
hop on/off Bus tour 22 free (in lieu of tube transport for a day)
river boat transport 17 free
Westminster Abby 20 free
tower bridge experience # 9 free
Churchill war museum 17.5 free
bike ride (tour or alone) 10 free
Kew Gardens # 15 free
Kensington Palace Palace 17 free
total = 218 (regular price)

Maybe hit the Beefeater Gin tour, 12 pounds (free with pass) and a free drink!

Do you think you will actually do all those attractions?

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k7690019-o10-The_London_Pass_Not_a_good_idea-London_England.html

Jason,

I got the London Pass a couple years ago for a 3-day sightseeing blitz and I feel I got my money's worth out of it. But... Unless you are truly going to blitz the tourist sights, it may not be financially sound. I created a spreadsheet of my sightseeing itinerary and the cost of admission to each venue. After adding up the where and how much, it made sense for us.

The following intangible aspects of the card that help convince me to purchase it were:

• Prepaid admission meant less cash needed in the pockets each day
• That money was budgeted and paid-for before we even left home (see above)
• Almost every venue allowed us to skip the lengthy ticket queue!

I would skip the off-peak travel card. Even if you stay in Zone 1, a off-peak tube ticket means you probably won't get your first sight BEFORE it opens and the entry queue gets lengthy. Even though London area residents and workers will probably want to throttle me, I would go with an Oyster Card (or an anytime Travelcard) and leave for my morning sight during the peak travel period (just be prepared to stand on the tube or bus).

After using Travelcards my last couple of visits, and having problems with them losing their magnetic coding, I'll probably switch to Oyster cards for subsequent visits...

"hop on/off Bus tour 22 free (in lieu of tube transport for a day) "

That will be a very frustrating day. While there's nothing wrong with taking a spin on a tour bus to get oriented and see a lot of things in one go, the traffic means that it is a very slow way to get around for a whole day.

The other posts are correct as well. While the London Pass dangles a huge list of covered attractions, how many do you think you can see in the time you have, and still have time for sleeping and eating, as well as energy to enjoy what you do see? Of course, if you do the math and it comes out close, get one; but, for most people of normal stamina, it's not a good deal.

I used the London Pass several years ago and it did save money. I had priced out my "I am for sure going there" places and was able to find savings. One unexpected side effect of the pass that I didn't expect was that it made me willing to see some places that I might not have gone to otherwise. I had a few great travel surprises.

There can be specials or groupons. If you are thinking that you would like to use the pass, I would search diligently for one of the discounted options.

We bought 3-day passes in March for 89.00 GBP (they were running a special) each and saved 32.50 GBP each. In those three days we managed to see

• Tower of London
• Tower Bridge
• HMS Belfast
• Westminster Abbey
• Cabinet War Rooms
• The Thames Cruise to Greenwich
• The Cutty Sark
• Royal Observatory

We were busy but not overly rushed. Plenty of time to enjoy, stop for a good lunch, etc.

Last December we bought 6-day passes and barely broke even as we were there for Christmas and the closures hampered our seeing some sights. But we did break even!