The London Pass

The London Pass is generally regarded as bad value for money for most visitors. It offers a lot of attractions but many are not the obvious sights that you would want to see. It also ignores any of the outstanding museums and galleries that are free to enter for their standard exhibitions. Assuming you will want to see at least one or two of these that greatly reduces what you can see that the Pass covers. Finally the Pass usually includes a HOHO ticket, which again is usually thought of as poor value as the buses get stuck in traffic, cannot use bus lanes and can be difficult to re-board if you get off.
Some people can make the Pass work but they are in a minority.

Thank you, Johnew52. I appreciate your insight.

a little web time gets you advance timed tickets to many attractions. These get you past the ticket office, same as with the pass. So far, these free or box office tickets make you even with the pass, probably for less money.

How many of the many places you've never heard of with the pass would you go to if you had time? How many of those would you have gone to if you had to pay?

Make sure the places you want to visit are open that week. London shuts down a lot of places between Christmas and New Year.

Don't spend that money unless you are certain you will be able to use it and save money on the things you want to see.

Don't let the minor attractions or tourist traps distract you from the rally good stuff.

Nigel, again, good advice. You’re right. We shouldn’t be tempted by some of the lesser attractions on the London Pass.

This is a subject where many people, often those who have never used the London Pass, come in with strong opinions. There are pros and cons.

I've used the London Pass on three different trips and saved quite a bit of money. That isn't the case for everyone, however, so you really need to price it out for your particular itinerary. Generally, the more days on the pass, the greater value it is. A 2 or 3 day pass is unlikely to provide the same savings that a 5 day pass would bring.

Pick out your list of "definitely going to" locations. Check the price for admission. Then compare with the price of the London Pass. That is the only way to truly know if it is going to be a value proposition for you.

Here is one of my favorite daily itineraries when bringing people new to London sightseeing.
Tower of London 35.80 GBP
Uber Boat to Greenwich (day pass) 33.98 GBP
Royal Observatory 24 GBP
Painted Hall 17.50 GBP
Cutty Sark 22.00 GBP
Total 133.28 GBP or approx $175

Although London does have many free sights, those that charge can add up quickly. I think the value proposition for really getting your money's work out of the London Pass starts at the 4 day pass ( 204 GBP)and just increases as the number of days increase without any significant rise in price.

When there is so much to see and take in for free, using the pass on short trips might make you rush things to get your money's worth.

I'm hoping to return to London for at least a couple of weeks in 2027. The 10 day pass is good value, but the issue for me, as it is with most of these types of passes, is that that they have to be used on consecutive days. I recently spent a couple of weeks on Bodensee, and the one week pass there could be used on any days during the calendar year; this is a much more practical option.

I guess it depends on your interests, but I think most of the best London attractions are actually free such as British Museum, National Gallery, V&A Museum, Tate Britain, St James's Park, Wallace Collection, Hyde Park, etc. I’ve bought museum passes before (not this one) and I think with the pass you tend to go to museums you normally wouldn’t go to just to make the pass worth it. I would go to the free ones that interest you and then pick and choose some of the paid ones, but no museum pass.

Once again, thank you to all posters who responded to my inquiry. I love the people on this forum. You can always depend on getting good advice here. After considering this information we will not be getting the London Pass. Now our biggest task is to finalize accommodations. Taking this trip was a late decision and we are looking into hotels and Air B’Bs. At this point availability is getting limited. I’m curious about one thing. Many of the sites list double rooms and not queens or twins. I don’t remember this being an issue on my previous trips to London, but this would not be comfortable for two good sized teenaged boys. Are twin accommodations hard to find?