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Compare
the main
London passes for content and sample prices
(but read the information following this price comparison
table too )
What
is included.. |
Turbopass
London
City Pass
|
Go City
London
Explorer |
London
Sightseeing Pass
|
Website |
London
City Pass |
London
Explorer |
London sightseeing. |
General
assessment ► |
BEST
CHOICE OF
ATTRACTIONS |
VALUE
from GOOD to POOR depending on
choice of attractions |
DIFFERENT.
Only good for
TOURS, not for visitor attractions |
Free
museums and art galleries |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Buckingham
Palace |
NO |
NO |
No |
The
Shard |
NO |
Optional |
No |
London
Eye |
Option |
NO |
No |
Tower
of London |
Yes |
Optional
|
Paid option |
Madame
Tussauds |
NO |
NO |
No |
London
Dungeon |
Option |
NO |
no |
London
Aquarium |
NO |
Optional |
No |
Thames
cruise |
Yes |
Optional |
Yes |
HMS
Belfast |
NO |
NO |
No |
Hop-on
hop-off tour bus |
Yes |
Optional |
Night tour |
Cutty
Sark |
Yes |
Optional |
No |
Westminster
Abbey |
NO |
Optional |
No |
Shakespeare's
Globe |
NO |
Optional |
No |
London
Zoo |
YES |
Optional |
No |
St
Paul's Cathedral |
NO |
Optional |
No |
Other
paid sites..... in and around London |
About
20 more |
About
20 more |
Bike
tours, walking tours, themed tours, theater ticket. |
2023 sample rates
Prices
- 2 Days |
Adult:
£ 109.90
Child (5 -15)
:
£ 69.90
|
Adult £90.40 |
Prices
- 3 Days |
Adult:
£ 129.90
Child (5 -15)
:
£ 79.90 |
Adult
: £ 119.00
Child under 16 : £79.00 |
|
Prices
- 6 Days |
Adult:
£199.90
Child (5 -15) :
£109.90 |
Adult
: £ 159.00
Child under 16 : £109.00 |
|
Also
available |
From
1 day to 7 days |
|
|
|
Info
and buy |
London City
Pass
Buy online in advance
|
London
Explorer
|
London
sightseeing. |
Note: the
most popular pass durations are for periods of 2 days, 3 days, or 4 days
IMPORTANT: Remember that entrance
to most major art galleries and museums is free
Tourist
passes for London? The pros and the cons
Many
tourists visiting London buy a pass to gain fast entry into major
tourist sites. But
before buying a pass,
it is useful, if not
essential, to compare the different London tourist passes and choose
the one that corresponds to your needs. Some visitors may find a
tourist pass useful; others may not. Basically it depends on what you
want to see and do during your days in London.
If a pass seems like the best solution, you need to make
sure that you get
the
best pass for your needs, as this will
depend on what you plan to do and see. Different passes cover different
attractions and sights.
To simplify your trip to London, buy your pass online. Most passes can
now be downloaded to your smartphone, but are also available as paper
passes or print-your-own.
London
tourist passes are not essential, but they are
very valuable
You
will
want a pass if....
If you are only visiting London for a few days, and you value your time
and don't want to waste too much
time standing in queues or lines, then a pass may well be the best
option for you.
With a London visitor pass in your pocket, you can "skip the lines",
i.e. avoid most of the queues that form outside the entrance
to monuments and museums... and that can mean litterally
saving
several hours of queueing if you visit London during a popular period.
To find the pass that's best for your needs
►: Jump
straight to
the
Pass
Comparer
If you take the public transport option
as well, you can save the bother of buying a travel card or an oyster
card for the days when your tourist pass is valid.
You
will not
need a pass if...
Time is no object for you. Nor will you need a tourist pass if you want
to spend most of your time visiting the main public museums and art
galleries, such as the National Gallery, the Tate or the Wallace
collections. The list of free London museums also includes the fabulous
Science Museum, the V&A, and the Natural History museum, and
indeed there are over twenty free museums and art galleries in London,
including some of the world's greatest. Art lovers and museum lovers
could easily spend two weeks just visiting free galleries and museums,
and still not see all that there is to see.
If you're intending to stay in London
for three days or more, it makes sense to plan your visits carefully,
taking in the free attractions on certain days, and the paid entry
attractions that feature on London visitor passes on other
days.
For example, a visitor spending four days in London might
want to take just a two-day visitor pass, visiting paid-entry
attractions on those days, and visiting the free museums and other
inexpensive or free attractions on the other days.
Ticket queues and security queues
Even if you have a pass, you may need to queue to get past security...
or just to show the pass. But you won't need to waste time standing in
a line to buy a
ticket for each visit you make .
Compare the main
different London Passes:
2022
- London
City Pass
: From Turbopass. This pass includes many but not all
major
attractions (check list below), travel and
sightseeing. Sample adult price: 2 days without travel option -
£ 99.90. Travel card can be included as an optional
extra
Check
out or buy
- Travelcard:
Travel only - just a London public transport pass. Or use a contactless
credit card. Note that anyone can now use a contactless credit card or
debit card on London transport, but that each traveller need a personal
card. There is a maximum charge of £10.10 in a single day.
More
info here
- London
explorer pass : Select 3, 5 or 7 London
attractions that you want to visit. Card valid 60 days, but only for
these attractions. No travel option. More
info here Check
it out
- London
sightseeing pass. Choose from 1 to 5 days, then
do as much as you want.. or can. Check
it out. Note: this pass does not
include attractions but does include a lot of different themed
tours, and also (some) theater tickets. But take care;
"premium" shows are not included, or only available for a surcharge,
and there is no
list of the shows / plays that are available . The
website is not clear , so About-Britain.com does not recommend this
pass.
The passes in more detail....
- London
City Pass
Visit an unlimited number of attractions during a limited number of
consecutive days. These passes include a hop-on-hop-off tour
bus,
a Thames
river trip, the Tower of London, and all the free museums (of course),
as well as the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, and the London
Dungeon and lots more. You could visit them all if you had time
-
The London Explorer pass:
Visit a limited number of attractions (up to 7) on the days you choose,
not necessarily consecutive, during a 60-day period. The London
Explorer card o card lets you choose either 3 or 5 or 7 paid
attractions to visit, and see these over a period of up to 60 days.
Although there are over 50 attractions to choose from (some of them not
very well-known), you only get
access to the 3, 5 or 7 you have chosen.
This card is therefore the best option for people
staying for more than a week in London, but wanting to visit a limited
number of paid attractions during this period.
Other
passes:
- Hop-on
hop-off sightseeing bus pass
Various companies operate hop-on-hop-off bus services in
London. Tickets are available for one or more days, and prices start at
about £32 for a one-day classic tour. It is easiest
to book a
ticket online in advance, however with the Original tour you
can buy your ticket on the bus, though you have to pay in cash and the
ticket will be slightly more expensive.
Note that a hop-on-hop-off pass is included with
the main London
tourist passes,
so if you buy one of the tourist passes, don't buy a hop-on-hop-off bus
tour too.
If you just want to visit London from the top of a
double-decker bus, and are not in need of a commentary, then it is much
cheaper to use normal red London double-decker buses, and to pay using
contactless card payment, for which there is a charging cap of
£10.10
for a single day (2019 rate). But note that each traveller must have
their own contactless credit or debit card.
- The
London Sightseeing pass This pass is rather
different pass from the others. Apart from the Tower of
London and a river trip, it does not include many of the standard
popular attractions, but it does offer a large range of themed
sightseeing tours around London, including a Harry Potter bus tour,
James Bond bus tour, hidden London walking tour, Rock 'n' Roll tour and
several others. Note that some tours cannot be combined with
a single pass. This pass also includes the option of theatre tickets -
though some popular shows may incur
an extra charge and may not be available on the day you want.
BOOKING ATTRACTIONS
DIRECTLY -
Not everyone wants the constraints of a pass. For full freedom, buy
tickets à la carte. Most major London attraction tickets can be bought
individually on the
Tiqets
UK website.
PASSES are
often the easiest solution, but not necessarily the cheapest
way to visit London ...
►
Choosing which
pass is best for you, or whether you actually need a pass at all, will
depend untimately on what you want to see, what you want to
do
in London, and how long you are staying. London
has hundreds of different tourist sights (see
London tourist
attractions),
including museums, monuments, views, places to walk, tours, concert
halls, cabarets, restaurants and cafés. No-one has time to
see
everything. In fact, most tourists, in the space of a short trip to
London, can do no more than scratch the surface.
So before choosing a pass, or no pass, ask yourself the
following questions.
- Do
you want to take in at least three paid entry attractions a day
(between monuments, museums, river cruise...) . If so, a pass
might be the best solution.
- Do you want primarily to visit London's great free museums,
such as the National Gallery, the Science Museum, or the Tate, rather
than other attractions? If so, you probably don't need to buy a
pass at all, as most public museums and art galleries are
free.
- Do you want to pack in as much as possible in a short space
of time, including the main sights ? If so, buying a pass
will allow you to skip the queues or the lines outside some of the more
popular paid entry sites, as well as offering you a better rate than
you would get by buying separate tickets for each location.