London Pass - with or without travel

Everything I've seen about the London Pass seems to say it is NOT a good value in any form. Many museums in London are free. If you want dicounted admission to somewhere like the Tower of London, get a paper travel card purchased at a National Rail Station. This will get you 2-for-1 admission to many places. If you don't need that, just load a travel card onto a Oyster card, along with a bit of pay-as-you-go money to cover any journey outside the zones covered on your travel card or for any extra days.

It is possible for a motivated, energetic person to save money with the London Pass. 2 for 1 discounts available from Days Out are a more reliable money saver for two people traveling together. Make a list of the attractions you want to visit in London and then decide whether the London Pass saves you money. This spreadsheet will help you evaluate savings: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApAT6ZYPYl1ndFVwOUxpMVl5NHZITHI1NFJyQlBNSHc&hl=en#gid=0 It is also possible to have a great visit to London without paying any admission. Scroll down to line 194 on the spreadsheet to see some of the many free attractions. The transport option on the London Pass, which includes zones 1-6, is a money loser for most visitors who need only a zone 1-2 travelcard.

We found the pass to be cost efficient and much more convenient than the 2for1 deals. I thought it was a good value, but only you can decide that for yourself. You also get discounts with it beyond entry fees. It's a matter of doing the math. Where do you want to go and then compare to the cost of London Pass taking into account the 2for1 deals (http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/faq.aspx#10). If you go for the 2for1 deals, make sure your paper rail pass is good for the duration of your stay so you can use it over and over again (i.e., buy round-trip for your first day to end on your last day). If you do get the London Pass, purchase it in London. No need to get it here. Also, skip the travel option as that is never a good deal. A pay-as-you-go Oyster card worked best for us.

I'm looking into the 2 for 1 London (unfortunately, there are 3 adults in our party :-( When registering on their site, it asks for "closest station." Obviously, I chose "other," but then it asks me to type it in! What in the world does that mean? (I'm probably revealing my ignorance here, but I've got to learn somehow.)

Just put "United States" in the box below. Same thing for when it asks for County. Put "other", and put "United States" in the next box.

Catherine - I just struggled with that exact issue. Having done a lot of research on this site and others, I was ready to conclude that the London Pass was not a good deal. However, I was intrigued by the simplicity of it, so I looked a little further. I did, in the end, buy the passes because they made sense for our particular traveling group. The three key things that made me go for the Pass were that 1) it now includes Westminster Abbey, 2) it includes the two palaces I hope to see (Windsor and Hampton Court) and 3) (this is a key consideration) our focus is NOT the museums, which are free to all. Our focus is buildings, architecture and the zoo, if we can work it in. A little quick addition made it clear that the Pass is a really good option for us, but if your focus in more museum-based, I would think about it a bit.

Catherine - I should clarify on the museums and their entrance fees. There are plenty of museums that charge an entrance fee, but the focus for a lot of readers here seems to be the art museums, which seem to be mostly free. Aside from the British Museum, we are not seeing any of the free museums and the fact that most of our destinations charged admission made the London Pass very attractive. We did not go for the Travel option, as we are simply buying Oyster cards.

You don't need to purchase a round-trip rail pass to use the 2-4-1 vouchers. If you prefer using a pay-as-you-go Oyster card as many people do, you can simply purchase a one-day rail pass to use on those days you plan to use the vouchers. It is good on the buses, tube, and DLR.

We're just back from a 3 week trip to Scotland and England and I thought I'd drop in my .02 worth. Because of our length of stay and amount of bopping around we were doing on the tubes and buses, the travel card was a money saver for us. We only needed zones 1 and 2 for the most part and we purchased the tickets from a National Rail Station to optimize savings by enabling us to use the 2 for 1 offers. However, please check the 2 for 1 offers thoroughly before you go. You may find that many of the places you want to see are no longer being offered on the program. For example, when we went to London in 2009 we had 2 for 1 for Westminster Abbey, this year, WA was not included and their price had increased. In 2009 no 2 for 1 existed for The London Eye, but this year we had 2 for 1 as long as we rode after 4pm...which turned out to give us some beautiful photographs. Many venues have increased their prices so again, check in advance if you're really watching your pennies. I have to agree with Valerie. Depending on what and where you want to visit, the London Pass can be a money saving plan but it's not for everyone. One last note, prior to leaving on January 12, we were advised that we would need to purchase an Oyster Card and then have our Travel Card loaded onto that. Fortunately, that was not the case when we arrived. We purchased the travel cards at Victoria station upon our arrival from Edinburgh without any need for an Oyster Card or the 5.00 deposit. Happy travels!