We’re looking at getting a London Pass. It make good financial sense for our situation. However, with the pass you cannot make reservations for many places (Tower of London, Westminster, etc.).
Our trip is the first week of August, how crucial is it to have reservations? The London Pass website suggests showing up early afternoon. Perhaps because those with reservations schedule earlier in the day?
I’d appreciate any insight folks may have.
In looking at the value of the pass to you, have you considered that London has a number of large, fabulous museums that are free/donation-requested? Any time you spend at the British Museum, National Gallery, Imperial War Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern (and others) will be time not available to use the London Pass.
I haven't been to the Tower of London recently, or to Westminster (Abbey?) at all, so I don't know how critical it is to have timed-entry reservations. I know they are often needed at the Churchill War Rooms. August is very high season in London.
The Churchill War Rooms and the Harry Potter Studio Tour are the only major attractions that require booking in advance, the latter many months in advance. Other exceptions would be any special exhibitions at galleries and museums which generally are chargeable and some can be hugely popular.
It is pretty unusual that a London Pass makes economic sense especially for couples. Don’t be sucked into thinking a HoHo bus tour is a sensible option - it isn’t in London.
a problem with something like the London Pass is that like a cereal box when you shake it, it is full of air and less cereal than you expect.
In order for them to be able to advertise that they cover so many things you MUST be saving money, they pack them with fluff and air - most things are third or fourth or worse tier places that you would ordinarily not consider, at the expense of doing the really important stuff, most of which as mentioned are free anyway.
They can still list places that are otherwise free because they do some little thing for you, like a keyring or a skip the line facility that isn't needed, to entice you to buy the product.
The very fact that you have to rush around to make it "pay" means that you miss the real jewels in the crown.
Now you said that it makes good financial sense for your situation so you must have already done the arithmetic and considered all the above. There is a very small number of folks for whom the London Pass actually makes sense - I am glad that you are in that state.
If you go to the Tower of London in mid afternoon you will be there at peak time and may have to wait in a long queue, maybe over an hour, in the sun on Broad Walk to get into the Crown Jewels.. If you listen to our advice here you can probably walk straight in.
You say "we". How many is we? An even number? There are ways that you can genuinely save money without needing to spend lots of money on a pass.
This is very good information. Thank you all!
You will regret not having timed tickets to Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Churchill War Rooms, Shakespeare's Globe, British Museum (free but still need a ticket). We went in July last year and we had pre-paid timed tickets for all these places and I'm so glad we did! The lines were crazy long for those that didn't have timed tickets. They can only let so many people in at time and we just walked right in past all these people standing there! It does take a lot of logistics planning but here's what we did which keeps the sites in the same area for each day: Day one: Westminster and Churchill War Rooms; Day Two: British Museum and British Library (no tickets needed for the library but I highly recommend it). Day Three: St Paul's, Shakespeares Globe and Tower of London. We took the Thames river cruise back from Tower of London to Westminster. I highly recommend that and we had timed tickets for that too. Summer is crowded in London. We did not get a London Pass just because of not being able to make reservations ahead of time. You may be spending more but you will save time and it's totally worth it.
So good to know. Thank you!
Additionally, if you want to visit the Natural History Museum, get a timed ticket for their website. I went one morning about 11am thinking that it would be as it was pre-pandemic where you just queued to get in. You need a free ticket and they had no more left for that day.
