The London
Pass
Saves money and simplifies your London
sightseeing
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If you're going to London,
you're of course going to be sightseeing around the city.
Costs for admissions can
add up very quickly, and the exchange rate between the Pound
and most other currencies makes these costs even worse for
the foreign visitor.
Good for unlimited
admission for 1, 2, 3 or 6 days, and optionally allowing
unlimited use of London's transportation as well, the London
Pass is a great way to affordably enjoy London.
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The London Pass gives you
credible discounts - potentially saving you 50% or more on the
cost of visiting many of London's most popular attractions.
Complete with 128 page
guide book, and with line-busting privileges in many cases,
the London Pass makes your London visit easier to plan, more fun
to carry out, and more affordable.
If you're planning to include a
reasonable amount of sightseeing during your time in London, you
should buy
The London Pass as a way to save you money.
Some Attractions in London are
Free
The London Pass gives you
free entrance fees at many places - 55 at present count, but there
are of course many other places than 'just' these 55 to go visit
in London.
The good news is that not
all museums and other visitor attractions charge an entrance
fee. A few are completely free, including such notable
places as the
British Museum, the
Imperial War
Museum, the
National Maritime Museum (in Greenwich), the
National Gallery and the
Tate.
It is possible to see and do
a great deal in London without paying any admission at all.
But once you progress to places with paid admission, the London
Pass becomes a very valuable way to keep your costs down.
How Much Can You Save?
The more places you visit,
the more you save. If your sightseeing style is
leisurely, and you only visit one or two places a day, and if
there are places you also want to visit that aren't on the Pass
program, you'll find it difficult to make big savings.
But if you're able to plan
your sightseeing around the various places featured in the Pass,
and if you're thinking of fitting two or three (or more)
activities into every day, the savings can be huge.
Maximum possible savings limit
Each card has a maximum
value set on it, being the maximum amount of free entries you
can get during your card usage. These maximums are not
really an issue for most people, and if you do reach the
maximum, well, you should be delighted at having saved so much.
This table compares the cost
and the maximum potential value of the card, and clearly shows
how you can save a great deal more than the card's up-front
cost.
Days |
Card
Cost |
Max Value |
Max Savings |
1 |
£46 |
£80 |
£34 |
2 |
£61 |
£160 |
£99 |
3 |
£74 |
£240 |
£166 |
6 |
£99 |
£480 |
£381 |
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An example of potential
savings with the Pass
Here is a one day itinerary
around one small part of London, which results in a full three
day pass being paid for out of the first day of savings.
This was created to make
best use of the Pass,
but is still a valid example and sensible day's itinerary.
Start the day by
visiting the Tower of London (regular admission is £18).
After going to the Tower,
you might then go to the Tower Bridge Exhibition (admission =
£8.00), making a total savings now £26.00.
Next, on the other side of
the river and facing the Tower is HMS Belfast (admission =
£12.25). After these three visits alone, you've almost
completely saved the
cost of a one day pass (£38.25).
But don't stop there.
You probably still have some spare time, so go on to the nearby
Globe Theatre, which charges £12.50 for entrance to their
Exhibition and Tour to non-Pass holders.
Lastly, what better way to
end up your day than by enjoying a cruise on the Thames.
That will add another £13.50 to the value you're getting from
your card.
So here's a full day of
sightseeing, which would normally cost you £64.25, but on a
London Pass, it will be no more than £46 (if buying a one day
Pass) and as little as £16.50 (if buying a six day Pass).
That single day of
sightseeing saves you more than the cost of a two day
Pass. Your next day of sightseeing will be entirely
free.
So you truly can save
substantial amounts of money if using your Pass strategically.
London Pass estimates there is over £500 worth of direct
savings in admission fees, plus more savings from the various
discounts and other special offers. Of course no-one is
going to visit everywhere in the course of a single six day
period, but it seems most of us can at least get our money back
from a three day Pass and perhaps from a six day Pass too.
Using the Pass to Plan a London
Holiday
One of the problems many of
us have when going back to London, yet again, is trying to
choose
new interesting places to see and visit. Once you've
visited the handful of the best known attractions, you are then
confronted with tens and even hundreds of less well known
attractions, and it is hard to know how to pick and choose from
them all.
So here's an idea. Use
the Pass as a way to plan your time in London. Work
through their lists of the 55 different attractions offering you
free admission, and include some of the other 42 special offers
as well. Create an interesting fun filled time in London
that costs you no more than the price of the Pass, and get to
see some places you probably never even knew existed.
For
example, how about the
Chislehurst Caves - over 20 miles of underground passageways
dating back up to 8000 years - free
admission when using your London Pass. Or, closer in to
the city center, why not spend a day visiting Hampton Court
Palace and Kew Gardens, or right in central London itself, go
inside the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner and then cross
over to visit 'Number 1, London'.
Perhaps visit Eton College
and Windsor Castle plus enjoy a 20% discount off a Thames River
cruise.
The possibilities for
creating interesting days built around the Pass are almost endless.
Go to the Front of the Line
Here's a major benefit of
the Pass. Chances are you don't want to spend your London
vacation standing in long lines to buy tickets, especially if
you're traveling during the peak summer months.
Many of the places featured
in the Pass program have special priority lanes for people with
London Passes. You can go straight to the head of the line
and won't waste any of your valuable vacation queuing to buy
tickets at full price.
Daily cost of a London Pass
The London Pass of course
costs more when adding extra days of validity to the Pass, but
each additional day of validity represents a lower cost per extra day
you are adding.
So, for example, if you are
considering 'should I buy a two or a three day pass', note from
the table below that the extra cost of that third day is only
£9. If you think you'll get more than £9 of benefit from
the third day of validity, you should of course then choose the
three day pass over the two day pass (and, conversely, if you
think by the time the third day comes around you'll be wanting a
break, perhaps it is better to settle for a two day pass).
Days |
Total
Cost |
Cost per
Day |
Cost per
Extra Day |
1 |
£46.00 |
£46.00 |
n/a |
2 |
£61.00 |
£30.50 |
£15.00 |
3 |
£74.00 |
£24.67 |
£13.00 |
6 |
£99.00 |
£16.50 |
£8.33
(£25 for three days) |
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What Length London Pass Should
You Buy
As you can see from the
table above, the cost per day of a London Pass drops as the number
of days (and total price) increases.
But clearly it makes no
sense to buy a London Pass for longer than your total stay in
London, with two possible exceptions - if you are planning on
using a pass for four or five days. In the case of needing
five days of pass, it probably makes sense to buy a six day pass
and just forget about the unused day.
But if you are needing four
days of pass, you might be better advised to visit the most
expensive places, using the pass, on the first three days, and
then on the fourth day, you have £25 that you saved (by buying a
three rather than six day pass) which you can use to buy
admissions as needed to places.
Most people will probably
choose three or six day passes. If you're choosing a three
day pass, you'll probably choose the option that includes the
Travelcard too (see the next section immediately below).
Note that the multi-day
London Passes must be used on consecutive days. For
example, if you get a three day pass, you could not use it on
Monday, Tuesday, and then again on Thursday - if the pass starts
on (eg) the Monday it will run continuously through until the
end of Wednesday, whether you use it each day or not.
The London Pass compared to the
Great British Heritage Pass
There was formerly a similar
product called the Greate British Heritage Pass, but this was
discontinued on January 1, 2012.
Should you buy the London Pass
with or without the included travel option
The London Pass can
optionally include a London Travelcard good for unlimited
off-peak travel (ie all day after 9.30am) for the same number of
days as the Travelcard itself is valid for, in all zones (1 -
6).
The extra charged by London
Pass to include the Travelcard is almost exactly the same as
you'd pay for a Travelcard by itself - see table below.
But - for most people - you don't need a Travelcard that covers
all six zones - if you're traveling around central
London, a simple Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard is all you need,
and this is a little less expensive if purchased separately.
Here's a table comparing the
alternate ways to arrange your travel around London. For a
much more complete discussion on the best value way to travel
around London, see our page on
how to find the best
transport ticket pricing in London.
Days |
Cost
with
London Pass |
Travelcard
Zones 1 - 6 |
Travelcard
Zones 1 - 2 |
1 |
£8.00 |
£8.50 |
£7.00 |
2 |
£18.00 |
£17.00 |
£14.00 |
3 |
£25.00 |
£25.50 |
£21.00 |
6 |
£50.00 |
£51.00 |
£42.00 |
6 |
£50.00 |
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£54.40
for a 7 day Travelcard |
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If you're buying a one, two
or three day London Pass, and/or if you think you might travel
to further away points than just central London, you should
probably buy the inclusive London Pass, complete with Travelcard.
This saves you the bother and hassle of having to buy
Travelcards every day while in London.
But if you're choosing a six
day London Pass and are reasonably sure you won't be needing to
travel outside of central London, then buy the London Pass
without the included Travelcard option and buy your Travelcards
as you need them in London.
Note the included Travelcard is only good for travel after 9.30am. If you're
going to be starting your touring earlier in the morning, you'll
need to buy extra tickets until 9.30am when the Travelcard can
start to be used.
Reference Book Included
Each Pass comes complete
with a 128 page guide book giving you an excellent resource to plan
your London stay.
The soft-covered book measures approx 4"
x 6" and features helpful information about every attraction the
Pass includes, plus some general London touring information,
suggested itineraries, and of course a copy of the inevitable
London Underground map.
I found the book to be very
helpful in better understanding whether some of the less well
known attractions would actually be of interest to me or not.
Plus each featured venue has a small map showing you how to get
there, which is very helpful.
This guidebook is published
twice each year (the most recent edition coming out in early
June) so has up to date information to help you.
Delivering the London Pass
You can choose whether you
want to collect the London Pass from the main Visitor
Information Center in London, just 50 yards from Piccadilly
Circus on Regent St (on the right hand side while walking from
Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square) or you can have the
Passes mailed to you, at a cost of £5.95 for regular mail that
takes about ten days to get to you.
The Visitor Information
Center is open seven days a week, and we always visit it anyway
as one of the first things we do in London, so you might choose
this option; on the other hand, if you have plenty of advance
time before your travels and want to have everything received
before you start your travels, getting the passes and book(s)
mailed to you might be a good idea.
Which Pass to Buy and Where
Most people will not use
their London Pass every day of their time in London, so normally
you'd choose a shorter duration Pass than the length of your
stay in London.
We expect most people will
probably choose the three day Pass with included Travelcard.
If your stay in London is longer than five or six days, you
might want to consider the six day Pass, but without the
included Travelcards, which you'd buy, as needed, in London
itself.
Note that the one day Pass
is more expensive, in terms of the cost per day, than the longer
duration Passes. You'd want to check, before buying a one
day Pass, that you would be able to use it sufficiently on that
one day to get good value from it (but see the example above
that shows how dramatic the savings can
be, even on a one day Pass).
Buying The London Pass is
simple. Simply visit the website (click the link
immediately preceding), choose your Pass options, and either
have them mailed to you before your travel starts or collect
them when you get to London.
Note that reduced rate Child
Passes are also offered on their website.
Summary
Chances are a London Pass will
save you more than it costs you, and chances also
are that the London Pass will help you choose some interesting
places to see while in London.
With a choice of 1,2,3 or 6
day validities, there's a Pass to suit most people.
The pass can be
conveniently purchased from their website.
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Originally published
9 June 2006, last update
30 May 2021
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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