London Pass - Yes or No?

I recommend that you add up exactly which sites it covers that you want to visit and will have time to visit during your stay. It doesn't matter if it covers the wax museum and the aquarium if you don't have time to see them (and they're not destinations that I've bothered to see in several visits). Many of the major museums are free and could easily keep you busy.

I've found city passes sometimes helpful and sometimes frustrating. I tend to like them less in the very large cities where a substantial amount of time can be spent (i.e., wasted) as you zigzag around the city, trying to get to the most expensive sights covered by the card while it is valid, as opposed to developing a geographically logical sightseeing path that allows you to see more in the time you have. I also like the freedom to pick indoor vs. outdoor sights according to the weather (especially) and my mood.

However, I do not know what skip-the-line features, if any, the London Pass provides. That could be a worthwhile fringe benefit if you want to see sights where queues are lengthy.

the only major sight "skip the line" I see is for the Tower of London, but also includes a HOHO bus for one day.

The cons:
1) It's very expensive.
2) They dangle a lot of sights, but you only have 24 hours in a day. Furthermore, you can only see things when they're open.
3) Many of the sights may not be of interest to you.
4) Sights that you want to see may not be covered, or may be free.
5) You might be tempted to see things that are not worthwhile, just because they're included, thus taking time away from things you would enjoy more that aren't listed on your pass.

The pros:
1) The longer the pass, the lower cost per day, and the greater likelihood it will pay off.
2) If you're a busy sightseer, and if you are seeing a lot of covered things, you can save money.

So Laura is exactly right. Add up the cost of the things you are definitely doing and possibly doing, that are covered by the card. If it's cheaper to get the card, definitely get it. If it's close, get it, since it makes things easy, and you don't have to think about seeing "extra" things that are covered. If it's not a good deal for you, skip it.

I have used them twice, i did not find it a cost saver, rather not having to pay at venues that required admission, and for our next trip, we wont bother.
Tower of London is to get there early i mean 9;00 to avoid the lines.
Look at where you want to go first, add it up and then decide.
Regards

What Harold said.

I would take a good look at what is free around London.
That would include most of the museums.
If the only things you want to do besides museums would be the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey,
then pay for them at the time you go to them.

For example, the excellent British Museum is free.
You could spend three entire days there and still not see everything.

Free:
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)--terrific
The Museum of London--terrific
The Museum of Natural History
The Science Museum
The Tate Modern
The National Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery
just to name a few free museums; there are more.

You will also want to walk through some of London's parks (free).
Take several walks along the river to admire the sights (free).

The Tower of London is one of the iconic sights.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/visit-us/tickets-and-prices/#gs.=xjHNJ4
From their website:
Admission prices for tickets purchased on site, excluding the voluntary donation are: Adult £22.50; Child £10.50; Concession £17.50; Family with 1 adult £40.50; Family with 2 adults £57.00.

Admission prices for tickets purchased online, excluding the voluntary donation are: Adult £21.00; Child £9.50; Concession £16.00; Family with 1 adult £37.50; Family with 2 adults £52.10. (Please take your booking confirmation to the ticket office to collect your tickets for entry.)

This is far less than the cost of your London Pass.

Without the London Pass, if you visited nothing but free sights plus The Tower of London and Westminster Abbey (which you would pay entry), I think you would have a full and enjoyable trip to London. So, I would say "no" to the London Pass.

You will be better off without the London Pass, unless you are going to visit 4 to 5 sights every day which are on their list and are sights you would pay to get into. If you do choose to get the London Pass; On the days the London Pass is in effect, you would need to avoid sights that are free. You would need to pack your schedule with things covered by the London Pass in order to make it worthwhile.

Make your own personal list of "Must See" sights. Don't just go by what is included in the Pass.
I would do only the sights that were most important to me, individually without the Pass. Then do a lot of free stuff.
The (free) museums are some of the best things to do in London.

Also considering the London Pass for a visit that my daughter & I are making to the U.K. in September. There is also a Travelcard option on the London Pass ( for an add'l cost, of course) which allows you use of the tube, docklands light rail trains, buses, and other trains for the length of your pass. We were planning to purchase a 3-day London Pass with Travelcard. This seems like a great option for in-town transportation. We are renting a car for the full stay, but I assume there are parking costs at all of the sites we want to see, so I would leave the car for the trips out to Liverpool, Stratford Upon Avon, Stonehenge, and other sites that are outside of Central London to save on fuel and parking costs, not to mention the hassle of FINDING parking.

Given the Fastrack option for sites, and the Travelcard, would this be a good option for our 3 days in Central London? Seems like it could save a good bit of money. Has anyone used this option? Also, the price on-line is more than $100 per person, but I see that they have booths around town to purchase the passes. Are they cheaper on-site? I can order now and have them shipped to the hotel, but I would hate to do that, then arrive and see the passes available for much less as a walk-up buy. Thoughts??
Thanks so much!

As everyone has said, do the math for what you want to see. The London Pass is on sale until 5/31 for 10% off the 3 day price. That averages £30.30 per day. Most of the sites with admission charge around £20 for admission i.e Westminster Abbey £22, Churchill War Rooms £17, so if you are interested in particular sights, and / or the hop on Hop Off bus or Thames River Cruise, of which you get one for the day, see if it fits your plans. The Oyster card rate is not discounted because it is a different company, although you pay a bit less for the card itself (£3 vs £5).
We did the math and bought the card on sale for 3 days for 2 adults. We will be in London for 5 days, so can spread things out a bit.
There have been previous posts about this. If you have children, you may want to check those out about comments about their experiences.

Do remember that the "free" museums tend to rely on people giving donations to remain "free".

Marco is so right! Visitors to London are blessed with many 'free' museums however these institutions depend on the generosity of those visiting these world class museums. Please remember to give generously.

Opinions on the London Pass:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k7690019-o10-The_London_Pass_Not_a_good_idea-London_England.html

2 for 1 offers:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c195600/London:United-Kingdom:2.4.1.Travelcards.Step.By.Step.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c133479/London:United-Kingdom:Paper.And.Oyster.Travelcards.2.4.1.Offers.html

I once purchased 3-day London Passes and we actually got our money's worth out of them - but just barely. In order to get the pass to pay for its self, you need to keep up a pretty aggressive pace. This also means planning out your sightseeing itinerary to logically group sites geographically to minimize cross-town transportation.

Probably the biggest advantage in my mind is a little bit intangible - pre-paying admission before even leaving for the trip. It's a good budgeting tool and it decreases the amount of worry of "do I have enough cash?" while moving about.

I do not recommend the travel card option (if it is still offered) as it was only good for off-peak travel. This delays your sightseeing day and limits what you can pack in to each day. If you do get a London Pass, you'll need to be at the first venue of the day at their opening time in order to visit enough sites to make the pass pay for its self.

You don't say how old your children are but sometimes sightseeing is slower with kids. This may also limit the overall value of pass.

I think on the whole it is not worth it unless you are the kind of person that likes to pack your days with attractions that you don't actually take the time to see. You would probably be better off just choosing a couple of must see costly places and then checking out free or inexpensive attractions.

For our 4 days in London, we only paid entrance fee to three sites (Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace - where we got a 2 for 1 deal, and an old operating theater- which was fairly inexpensive). Otherwise we went to parks, walked by attractions and just took pictures (wouldn't have had time to really see them all anyway), and visited an open air market. So the pass would not have saved us money and would have just added pressure on us to arrange our trip to get the most out of the pass rather than the most out of our trip.

It all depends on your touring style and also some luck. If you run into weather or transportation issues it's going to make it that much harder to break even or save money.

We are also considering the London Pass for 3 days and doing free sights on the other days. For ~30GBP/day, I think it might be worth it for my family. We do pack a lot into a day anyway.

We have used a pass like it in both Paris and Philadelphia and it allowed us to stop in some places that we may not have because of the fees. If it was not to our liking or we just wanted a short visit, it was no big deal because it was included.

I also like not having to deal with a ticket window at each place I want to go.

I certainly don't think the 1-day pass would be worth it to us but if you plan to use it for 3 or more days, I think it is a pretty good deal!

Marco is right. Do remember to make a donation to the museums you visit. The donation box is usually in the front entrance hall or near the front information desk.

Also remember to visit the gift shops in those museums, as the profits there go toward the upkeep of the museum. Some great gifts for friends and family back home can be found there. Books, calendars, T-shirts, lovely scarves, tea towels, book bags, coffee cups and reproduction Tudor jewelry are just some of the items you can find there.