London Pass Card

[PERSonalTime]

Has anyone ever used the London pass card? I've seen it on Expedia for sale and it says you can go to 60+ attractions on one card. Is this true? If you've used it, please describe how it works and the pros and cons of using it. I think it's available on Expedia for about $73. Thanks.


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[Closet_Gamer]

We just did a London/Paris trip. We a pass for Paris and it was worth it. If memory serves, the London pass doesn't include the Tower of London or the London Eye which we wanted to do (both great). British Museum is free anyways.

 

[BigNick]

It does include the Tower, but not the London Eye.

The official site is here, with lots of info and a "How It Works" section: https://www.londonpass.com/

My initial thought is that you would have trouble saving money with the one-day pass. Even the three-day version would require some intense touristing to justify it. If you plan to spend only an hour at each location so you can say "Yeah, we did the Tower and the Globe and Westminster Abbey and HMS Belfast and and and" then it would be fine. But I may be biased as I just like walking around cities and soaking up the atmosphere, rather than visiting ticketed "exit through the gift shop" attractions.

If you don't get the London Pass and want a boat trip on the Thames, go to the Embankment boat station and get the trip to Canary Wharf. If you pay for this with your Oyster card it will cost about $7 for a half-hour trip. You'll see many of the major sights and there's even a bar on board.

 

[DrRoy]

These city passes are a very good deal. Just check the cost of the individual things that you would like to do that are covered on the pass and you will see.

 

[BigNick]

Here is a review of the London pass (at 2013 prices), with comments as to who will win and who might be best to skip it: London Pass Review — Is the London Pass Worth It

 

[braumeister]

If you don't get the London Pass and want a boat trip on the Thames, go to the Embankment boat station and get the trip to Canary Wharf.

Or if you're doing touristy stuff, the boat ride to Greenwich is a favorite of mine.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We did the London Pass about a decade ago. We've also done a couple of other city passes in the past but have stopped as we'd rather just piece together our visits ourselves.

My general impression is that you have to visit a lot of "B" level attractions to make the pass really worth it. And that's kind of what it's supposed to do: get some folks over to the lesser know attractions. It's really hit or miss if you're going to appreciate going to these attractions that you might not normally include in your itinerary. We kind of felt obligated a bit to make the most out of the pass so we visited a number of attractions that we were pretty much in and out but also a few that we really enjoyed. The 3 day pass did get us moving about around the city though, seeing different neighbourhoods.

I'd recommend reviewing the attractions that the pass covers and see if it has enough attractions that would make it appealing. But also factor in time for attractions that the pass doesn't cover.

 

[pullmyfinger]

Yes, we did use the 3 day London Passes for our trip to London in April. We were traveling with 2 kids and 4 adults. For us, since we wanted to see a ton of sights with the kids it was worthwhile. We were there for 7 days so on the non London pass days we saw the free sights. If memory serves me right, here is what we saw with the 3 day London pass:

Double decker hop on hop off bus - don't bother unless you do it early Sunday morning, because otherwise you just sit in traffic
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Kensington Palace
Westminster Abbey
Boat ride down the Thames
Churchill War Rooms
Arsenal stadium tour - request of the 12 year old boy, don't bother if you are not a soccer fan
Tea and scone at the Victoria and Albert - surprisingly lovely experience

So, in order to make it worthwhile, you have to pack in several sights each day. If you'd like a more leisurely trip, this wouldn't work. If I was traveling on my own, I probably wouldn't have bought one, but the math did work in this situation. My favorite sights were actually free - the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and most of all Sir John Soanes house in Holborn. And best of all I just like walking around through Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Westminister area, Hyde Park, Marylebone and St. Johns Wood. My favorite sight that charged admission was St. Paul's Cathedral which isn't on the London pass, but you can get two for one tickets if you are able to use railpasses and meet the very picky criteria for that.

If you do decide to get a London Pass, buy it ahead of time when they are on sale and pick it up in London at Leicester Square. Feel free to PM me any questions.