We will be in London this summer and I was interested in hearing if a private tour guide would be useful.
We have 3 days planned for London
Day 1:
Tower of London
Big Ben
Day 2:
Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey
Day 3:
British Museum
Assume cost isn't an issue, would you hire a private guide for any of those days? Thanks in advance!
No. Easy to do independently.
No I would not hire a guide for any of those sites.
Advice from someone who has visited and stayed in London for over 50 years.
1.) Visit Tower of London when it opens and head immediately to the Crown Jewels.
2.) Big Ben is the bell. Elizabeth’s tower is where it is housed. Now restored it chimes on the hour.
3.) Research a tour of Parliament: https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/
4.) British Museum can get very crowded. Might consider researching London Walks. www.walks.com
I believe they do a tour.https://www.walks.com/our-walks/the-british-museum-tour/
No point at all for the Tower of London.
It is possible now to ascend the Elizabeth Tower on a tour but you have to be very quick in booking the limited number of places as soon as they are released (which would usually be in the middle of the night US time).
You can only tour Buckingham Palace as part of a group and only at very restricted dates in the year. What are your dates? In any event hiring a private tour guide would be a waste of money.
The British Museum - maybe if you have particular interests and are willing to hire a specialist for that purpose.
I agree with the others and would suggest you bundle seeing Big Ben with Westminster Abbey as it’s very close by.
Do download the app for Westminster Abbey and have your ear buds with you so you can listen to the audio tour.
I have taken neither, but people on this forum have often praised the Beefeater's Tour at the Tower of London and the Yeoman Warder's Tour [this should be the Verger's Tour] at Westminster Abbey. I'm not absolutely positive, but I think you sign up for those tours after you arrive at the Tower and Abbey.
Oh gosh, I entirely spaced the Yeoman Warder tours at the Tower of London. Thanks for the reminder! Going on one of these is the only way you can enter the chapel where Anne Boleyn is buried (except for attending a service).
They are free.
At the Tower the Yeomen Warder and the Beefeater are different names for the same people.
At Westminster Abbey you want the Vergers Tours.
I second the recommendation of [London Walks](http://.www.walks.com).
I ditto doing the free Yeoman Warders tour at the Tower of London (I think it is about 45 minutes or so). I also ditto doing a walk with London Walks - we did one on a Friday evening that went south of the river and covered history and architecture between stops at three pubs :) We are doing another London Walks in June when we are in town on a Wednesday evening. They have a varied schedule with different types of tours, so definitely take a look and see if any fancy your interest.
I also agree with pairing seeing Big Ben when you are at Westminster Abbey. On Day 1 after the Tower of London, you could walk over Tower Bridge and walk back along the river, cross the Milennium Bridge and see St Pauls (I know it wasn't on your list in the original post). Just an idea.
I took my niece to London last summer, and even though I've been there several times, I didn't want to be her guide when it came to visiting the British Museum. So I followed Rick Steves' advice and found one through the Blue Badge website. It was well worth it! I hired Gavin Webb and he took us on his "highlights tour" which lasted about three hours. I highly recommend him as he is personable, engaging and very knowledgeable: https://www.tourguideoflondon.co.uk/gavin-webb/
Happy travels!
As I said previously, if you want to visit Big Ben by climbing up the Elizabeth Tower you must book in advance. Tickets go on sale on the second Wednesday of every month at 10am for 3 months ahead. So the next sale will be on 8th May at 10am for dates in August and so on. They cost £30 and sell out quickly. So, if you’re based in the US it will require you to be up in the middle of the night from 5am east coast to 2am west coast.
If you can’t get or don’t want to get tickets then all you can do is look at the outside which will take minutes to do.
For Westminster Abbey, I enjoyed the Verger tour, which requires the Abbey entry price plus £10. You can purchase the general admittance tickets to the Abbey in advance online but a verger tour can only be booked when you arrive at the Abbey.
I booked an early Abbey admission, then booked the Verger tour once I entered for the earliest time available. After the Verger tour, I could tour the rest on my own. The vergers are quite knowledgeable, and the one who led my tour was an outstanding guide, both informative and amusing.
All the best,
Raymond
For the British Museum, I’ve taken a tour through London Walks as well as tours offered by the museum. On the museum website you can find tours offered by the museum:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/visit/tours-and-talks.
For Westminster Abbey, I’d suggest either taking the Verger tour or the London Walks tour. I took the tour offered by London Walks. https://www.walks.com/our-walks/westminster-abbey-tour/
