The London guidebook and other sources say you can buy tickets in advance and can be used up to 7 days after the date you select.
However, the ticket website www.hrp.org.uk states the tickets are only good for the date you select. I got a reply to my email and the rep confirmed that.
Is there another website or method to get the 7 day allowance?
There is no point in buying ahead as what you get by email is not a ticket, just a voucher to be redeemed at the Tower ticket office when you get there. The Tower ticket offie opens at the same time as the Tower opens. We waited in line just as long to get our vouchers as those who bought tickets on site.
Thanks Sharon. We're going in July.
Yep, definitely looks like a change from their previous policy. For my December 2016 trip, I pre-ordered my tickets online, they were good for seven days from whatever date I specified, and I received the actual tickets by royal mail before my trip.
Thanks for posting about this change. In the guidebook feedback section of Rick’s website, you can submit a correction.
Edit: here’s the link to do that
https://www.ricksteves.com/forms/guidebook-feedback-form
The other thing that's changed is that if you buy tickets online, you print them, so this would save time. And, it also saves money. Right now, single adult admission is £22.70 online, but £26.80 in person.
I found that many London sights now have a discount for online advance booking. Here are some others, from my non-comprehensive research:
Churchill War Rooms £18.90 online / £21 in person
St. Paul's Cathedral £16 online / £18 in person
Royal Observatory Greenwich & Cutty Sark £15.65 online / £20 in person
Westminster Abbey £20 online / £22 in person
London Transport Museum £16 online / £17.50 in person
Kew Gardens £16 online / £17 in person
At the current rate of roughly 1.40 USD to 1 GBP, these discounts add up!
I was just at the Tower of London last week and had bought the tickets online. They were only good that day, but we were able to print them out ahead of time and proceed straight to the line to go in when we got there, skipping the ticket line. We were there 15 mins before opening and it worked well.
Well it sounds like it has changed since last summer... So happy I saw this as we have friends travelling this summer.
I have the same experience as Karen. We skipped the office queue and went directly to the entrance queue.
Following, because we're be there in July for the first time. Do you need to actually print the tickets out, or can you just bring the code on your phone? Won't have access to a printer while we're in the UK, and would like to play things day by day rather than buying time-sensitive tickets for each day.
Dani, you raise a very important point. A few websites explicitly say you can scan a code off your phone; a few explicitly say you can't, but must have a print out; and many are moot on the subject (at least before you've paid). With more and more things requiring advance tickets (so people aren't shut out) or having financial incentives to get them, and with more people using phones rather than computers to buy these advance tickets, what happens when you can't print them?
I foresee this changing, with more things having the ability to be scanned off the phone, but for now it's a transition time.
If you go to the Tower's ticketing page (the same one as for all the royal palaces), it says the following:
At present we do not accept tickets on mobile devices. If you choose to ‘Collect on site’ (not available for Kensington Palace general admission), the credit/debit card you pay with and confirmation email/voucher will need to be shown when collecting tickets from the Ticket Office before going to the gate.
So if you won't have a printer, it looks like you can book in advance and save the money, but can't save the time of waiting in line.
