Hello All, I will be going to London in late March, and I am so excited and overwhelm with all the sites to see! We are making London our home base and traveling to Edinburgh and Paris in between our time there. I was looking into getting a City Pass, but since out time in London is not consecutive days, it doesn't really help, or is it worth it for one day? Also is there is a way to tour Buckingham Palace in March? I see on the website for Buckingham Palace they are only offering the summer tours. I saw an offer on 365tickets for the Palace for March, but I wasn't sure if this is a good website to order tickets from or not?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23642 posts
The Palace is only open during the time the Queen takes her summer vacation in Scotland. It is only a couple of months in the summer or early fall.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you are a VERY VERY busy sight-seer, you may be able to make a 1 day London Pass pay off. But you cannot have more than 24 hours in that day, and you cannot be in more than one place at one time, and you can only see things when they're open. So, it's very hard for a 1 day pass to be a good deal. The longer passes are cheaper per day, so they can work, but again, only if you're seeing enough covered sights on the days of the pass's validity.
The transit option on London Passes is a bad deal, because you're paying for all zones, but unless you're taking the tube to Heathrow, or have a very unusual sightseeing itinerary for a first time visitor, you will only use zones 1 and 2.
Since you say "we," are there by chance an even number of you? If so, you will probably do much better with the 2 for 1 offers from Days Out. More here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g186338-c195600/London:United-Kingdom:2.4.1.Travelcards.Step.By.Step.html
Posted by
2599 posts
Be sure to pre-book a specific train from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh (& back) about 11 weeks in advance. Most people would split the journey in York and spend 1 night in this city.
Trains > www.nationalrail.co.uk (Check the fares at various times/dates and you will see how the prices change for the SAME trains).
For trains to/from Paris - check out the Eurostar website. Again - pre-book or it can get expensive.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Edinburgh and Paris are in opposite directions from London (sorry for stating the obvious). Doing London - Edinburgh - London - Paris - London (or vice-versa) splits your London stay into 3-bits. I would suggest you do: London - Edinburgh (fly) - Paris - London (or vice-versa). It would save time.
Option 2 is an "open-jaw" flight: Home - (fly) Edinburgh - (train) London - (train) Paris - (fly) home.
London - Edinburgh is 4½ hours by train, London - Paris is 2½ hours.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
I’m sorry, I should have stated everything for travel is already booked and arranged. Due to this we only have three full days in London, which is just great since it allows us to see the most we can. The we, is my husband and I. We plan on walking a ton and have used the routes from Rick Steves to help with some planning . I just was trying to see about tours. Is it necessary to book ahead of time? Thank you for everyone who replied I was just looking last night into passes and tours and was getting overwhelmed!
Posted by
Mission Viejo, Calif., USA
1010 posts
We suggest you do day trips maybe using Evans Evans day tours. They do a good job of visiting a number of sites. We visited Buckingham Palace in August, 2016. I have never heard of the Palace being opened other than when the Queen is vacationing.