One of the things we wondered prior to visiting was whether the London Pass was a worthy purchase. Our parents had purchased one on their visit and recommended it to us. The London Pass can be considered a “bulk” purchase of admissions to many of London’s most famous attractions. The physical part of the purchase takes the form of a “debit card” that you carry with you and scan at the entrance to each attraction. The idea is that if you use it well, you will save money on visiting all the attractions on your list. Here, we will outline our usage of the London Pass and how effective it was for our itinerary.

First of all, the London pass comes in several varieties based on the duration it lasts. These types are 1, 2, 3, 6, and 10 day passes. The time period starts the first day you use your pass at an attraction and goes continuously for the next amount of days until meeting your quota of days. It CANNOT be used on intermittent days. For instance, for a 2 day pass, you can not use it on day 1, not use it on day 2 and then use it on day 3. We spent 5 days in London so we decided to purchase a 3 day pass, thinking that we could concentrate on sightseeing during these 3 days.

The key to getting value out of the pass is visiting attractions that use the pass on the days you decide to use the pass, visiting at least several attractions in one day, and using your other days for free attractions. The 3 day pass cost us 112 pounds each (about $145 US dollars). Taking this into account, we would need to visit $146 dollars worth of paid attractions to make our London Pass worth it and create savings. Below is the list of attractions covered by the London Pass that we visited and each of their respective costs. We have included both online advanced ticket and door ticket prices as of 2019 to determine whether London Pass exceeds regular advanced visiting planning in addition to last minute planning (buying at the door). O = online and D = at the door. Prices are for normal adults and in British pounds.

Tower Bridge – D = 8.60, O = 8.60

Tower of London – D = 27.20, O = 24.70

St. Paul’s Cathedral – D = 20.00, O = 17.00

Westminster Abbey – D = 23.00, O = 21.00

Wimbledon Grounds Museum and Tour – D = 32.50, O = 32.50

The View from the Shard – D = 32.00, O = 32.00

Kensington Palace – D = 19.30, O = 17.50

Hop on Hop Off Big Bus Tour – D = 39.00, O= 35.10

HMS Belfast – D = 16.35, O = 16.35

As you can see, if we had bought tickets at the door for these attractions it would have come to 218 pounds, or if we had done it all online in advance it would have been 205 pounds approximately. This means that we saved about 90-100 pounds on these attractions compared to if we had not used the London Pass. Sounds good right?

Well, while we did save money there is a caveat to our savings in that had we not had the London Pass, we likely would NOT have visited Kensington Palace (not that cool) or HMS Belfast (seems like just another battleship?) nor taken a Hop on Hop off Bus Tour (just use the tube! and walk). Factoring this into the equation, if we had only done things we initially wanted to do, we would have saved about 20 pounds or so on the London Pass. However, this also assumes that we only wanted to do the things on the list above.

Which brings us to the next point. We did want to use our London Pass for more sites, however, based on site locations we ran out of time. We could not pack anything more into our 3 days without suffering from FOMO induced fatigue. Thus, we missed out on several nice attractions included in the pass, such as the following:

Windsor Castle

Greenwich Observatory

The Globe Theater Tour (we skipped this because we were already going to a play here)

So, all in all, it’s safe to say that we did not make killer savings by getting the London Pass. But we also did not come out for the worse. In looking at the prices for the various London Passes, the longer passes (especially the 6 and 10 day pass) appear to be the best value. As you can see, in about 3 days you can visit enough attractions to make the cost of the 6 and 10 day passes worth it.

Of note, there are many other attractions included in the London Pass, most of which do not stand out as much as the ones we have listed above. But certainly you could find some hidden value in these lesser known items.

The London Pass offers discounts at a number of restaurants and gift shops that can ultimately be factored into your total savings if utilized.

Lastly, see below for a list of FREE London attractions that we visited to factor into your trip and decide if the London Pass is worth it. As well as some PAID attractions NOT covered by the London Pass.

British Museum (FREE)

National Gallery (FREE)

Victoria and Albert Museum (FREE)

London Eye (PAID, 30 pounds per ticket)

Globe Theater Play (PAID 5 pounds per ticket)

And for more ideas of free things to do in London, check out this post!