Organized Sightseeing Tours

You should consider some of the London Walks.

https://www.walks.com/

Over the years have enjoyed each one I’ve taken.

Often individual sights offer tours of their own. Those might cover the entire sight (not necessarily in great detail), or they might focus on limited aspects of the sight. I'd think tours like that would be potentially more cost-effective than a broad sightseeing tour in a sight-rih city like London, because you wouldn't be paying for the guide's time to travel between the sights. Tours offered by museums and historic sights often have extra fees, but they are typically modest. Group sizes are usually limited.

(The London Walks tours are excellent, but most of the ones I've taken have been neighborhood-focused or thematic.)

Although I haven't taken them, I know both the sights you mentioned do offer their own tours. The Verger Tours at Westminster Abbey and the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) Tours at the Tower of London are frequently recommended here.

Some other sights have good audioguides that you might find useful. One place with a good audioguide is the Churchill War Rooms. The Imperial War Museum also has a good audioguide, but it heavily duplicates the (excellent) information posted throughout the museum, so the visitor can choose whether he prefers to read or listen to the information.

This sort of information is covered in detail in Rick's guidebooks. He's very good about giving his opinion as to whether an extra tour oran audioguide is really worthwhile rather than simply reporting that it exists (or not mentioning it at all). He usually will also advise the reader as to whether a tour is so popular it needs to be booked in advance.

I am signed up for 8 Tours thru Walks in the 10 days prior to a 1 week RS event. If I don't like them I can cancel or find more to add on. By saying you are not "the best organize traveler" do you mean you can't make an appointment? If so, skip it or maybe start now. Start a list of must see's check the Walks schedule for times and days. Mark them on a calender and fill in the holes. Save a lot of time and money being organized. Leave free time for spontaneous stuff. Lots of "stuff" does not need a tour but planning and homework is good.

I like to be spontaneous, being able to not have a set schedule where at this time I'm doing this and that. At the same time have a rough plan of what I'm doing helps me stay on task.

I have always thought of spontaneous as another word for disorganized. But spontaneous means different things to different people. Personally think that you can be very spontaneous within an organized structure. I cringe when I read posting of schedules that have every 15 minutes scheduled. I like well organized sightseeing tours especially of the larger buildings like the W Abby. I listen closely, follow the group, maybe make a note or two, and ask questions. Then the next day or that afternoon I can return and spend extra time seeing the things that are most interesting to me. The tour gave me a good orientation, so I know where I am going and where I want to linger. Plus we never plan more than three or four days in a row so that next day is totally free to see what we missed or wish to return to or wash socks. Being spontaneous does not mean not having a plan.

I quite liked the London Walk tours of Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. You get reduced admission so it somewhat offsets the cost of a guide.

In particular, my Tower of London guide was excellent, Blue Badge and knew everything. Before the tour started, she asked what we wanted to learn most. I mentioned William the Conqueror and someone else mentioned the Ravens so we got a lot of early Tower history along with the wonderful Ravens.

Westminster Abbey: As soon as you get to the door, sign up for a verger’s tour. These are operated by the Abbey’s lay staff and are excellent. You get access to parts of the Abbey with the vergers that you don’t get with other tours.

Tower of London: Go when it opens. Go straight to the Crown Jewels and see them. Then sign up for a free Beefeaters tour. The exhibits at the Tower of London are well signed and lots of information available. For a unique experience, get tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys online in advance. There are docents throughout the Tower of London.

I guess that I think of signing up for Tours as sort of like putting stakes in the ground. I am old enough to remember a lot of "wish I would of" or "wish I had known". On the Walks I have signed up for some are neighborhoods, some are music, some are pubs. All could be skipped. In the middle I have 4 days with nothing planned yet. I think I have learned to always do some version of guided in museum's if they are important. Otherwise two hours in you have seen something close to nothing. Guided be they recorded or live person get you to the important stuff. If you haven't checked it out RS has plenty of walking tours. 4*'s some of the Walks Tours get you in for cheaper to places that charge.