Is the London Pass worth it?
This is one of those questions that comes up again and again when you’re planning a trip to London. It’s also one of those questions that gets completely opposite answers: some travelers say it’s a must, while others insist it’s never worth it.
We have a pretty clear opinion, and it’s not because we crunched the numbers on paper. We’ve actually used it.
On our last trip to London, we decided to use the London Pass for three days of a five-day trip. The idea was simple: pack the main paid attractions into those three days and save the other two for enjoying some of the many free places the city has to offer.
And the result was much better than we expected.
We visited some of London’s top attractions, added several more that weren’t originally on our must-see list and, after running the numbers, we worked out that we saved around 80 euros per person.
So if you ask me straight out whether the London Pass is worth it, my answer is yes. But there’s an important caveat: it has to fit your travel style and, above all, the itinerary you have in mind.
We made this video in collaboration with Civitatis. It’s a sponsored collaboration, but the experience we share is real: we used the London Pass during our trip, and in this article we share our own conclusions.
Indice:
What is the London Pass and how does it work?
The London Pass is a Go City tourist pass that gives you access to a wide range of attractions and experiences in London for the validity period you choose.
The idea is different from buying individual tickets.
Instead of deciding “today I’ll buy a ticket for this monument and tomorrow another one for that one,” you buy a pass that you can use for a set number of days and, during that period, you visit the attractions that are included.
And here’s the key to understanding whether the London Pass is worth it: it’s not simply about having a card that gets you into certain places for free.
The real advantage comes when you have several paid attractions you want to visit and manage to fit them into the days the pass is valid.
That’s exactly what we did.
We didn’t try to use it for all five days of the trip. In our case, a three-day pass made much more sense: we could devote those three days to paid visits and leave other parts of the trip for strolling, visiting free museums, exploring neighborhoods, wandering through parks or simply enjoying London without rushing from one attraction to the next.
In fact, I find this way of using it much more worthwhile than trying to squeeze the pass into as many days as possible.
Because London has one feature we sometimes forget when we do the math: many of the most interesting things you can do in the city are free.
So it wouldn’t make much sense to fill five days with paid attractions just because we bought a pass.
The right question isn’t “How many things can I fit into the London Pass?” but rather:
“How many of the things I really want to see can I fit into the days the pass is valid?”
And when the answer is several major attractions, the numbers start to make a lot of sense.
How many attractions do you need to visit for the London Pass to be worth it?
This is where I think there’s quite a lot of confusion.
I’ve read reviews from travelers who say that to get your money’s worth out of a tourist pass, you have to rush from place to place, visit six or seven sights a day and end up exhausted.
And honestly, I think that has more to do with poor trip planning than with the London Pass.
We used the pass for three days and never felt like we were racing against the clock.
In fact, there’s a very simple rule of thumb you can use: three major attractions a day for three days can already make the pass well worth it.
And I’m not talking about popping into just any place only so you can say you used the pass.
I’m talking about visits you were probably planning to make anyway.
In our case, the six big visits we considered must-sees were:
- Tower of London.
- Tower Bridge.
- St Paul’s Cathedral.
- Westminster Abbey.
- London Eye.
- Boat trip on the Thames.
They’re all included in the London Pass, under the conditions we checked during our trip.
So if those six attractions are part of your itinerary, you already have a very solid reason to consider the pass.
And here’s another important point: you don’t have to do all six in a single day.
You can spread them out logically, grouping visits by area and leaving time to walk, eat, take photos or simply enjoy London.
That, for me, is the secret.
The London Pass works much better when you plan your trip first and then use the pass to save on the visits you already wanted to make, not the other way around.
Our experiment: the London Pass for 3 days on a 5-day trip
We traveled for five days and decided to use the London Pass for only three of them.
Why?
Because we wanted to do something I think is really important: avoid turning the whole trip into a race to get our money’s worth out of the pass.
London has a huge number of free places. There are fantastic museums, parks, neighborhoods worth exploring on foot, markets, viewpoints and countless areas where simply strolling around is part of the experience.
So it seemed much more sensible to concentrate the paid attractions into three days and leave two more days free.
It also turns the pass into a tool for organizing your trip rather than an obligation.
During those three days we visited the attractions we wanted to see and kept adding other included experiences that caught our interest.
And here comes my favorite part of the experience.
We didn’t have to do eight visits a day for it to pay off.
With around three major attractions a day, you’re already making pretty reasonable use of the pass, and you can see that the London Pass is worth it.
In fact, I think a lot of the criticism claiming the London Pass forces you to rush comes from trying to cram too many things into a single day.
We did exactly the opposite: we grouped visits by area and took advantage of the fact that some of them are relatively close to one another.
This is especially important in London, because getting around can eat up a huge amount of time if you don’t plan your route well.
That’s why my advice would be not to start by buying the pass and then try to fill up the days.
First, think about what you want to see. Then organize your visits by area. And finally, check whether the London Pass will save you money.
In our case, it worked.
The 6 attractions that, for us, justify a large part of the pass
Obviously, this list is personal. London has so many attractions that it would be impossible to say these six are essential for absolutely everyone.
But for us, especially on a first trip, they make a very appealing combination.
Tower of London
The Tower of London was one of our priorities.
It’s one of those places where you’re not just going to see a beautiful building; you’re stepping straight into a fundamental part of the city’s history.
It’s also a visit worth spending time on, so it doesn’t make much sense to try to squeeze it in between five other activities.
That’s exactly why we think it’s one of those ideal attractions to include in a day planned around the London Pass.
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is another must-see.
And here you have an added advantage: you can combine it with other visits in the area.
This is exactly what we mean when we talk about getting organized.
It’s not about arriving in London thinking, “I have to do three attractions because I have a pass.”
It’s about looking at the map and saying, “Today I’m going to be in this area, so I’ll take the opportunity to visit these nearby attractions.”
St Paul’s Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral is another of the big visits we’d include on a first trip.
Because of its architecture, its history, and because it’s one of those visits you’d hardly swap for a free alternative.
The same logic applies here too: if you already know you want to go in, it makes much more sense for that ticket to be part of your calculation of whether the London Pass pays off.
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey was another of our must-sees.
Something similar happens here.
It’s a visit many people want to make on their first trip to London and, since it was part of the pass’s lineup under the conditions we found during our trip, it can go a long way toward making the numbers work.
London Eye
The London Eye is probably the most debatable attraction on our list.
I don’t think it’s a must for everyone. If you’re short on time or would rather spend your money on other experiences, London has some great free viewpoints.
But if it’s your first time in the city, the weather is good and you fancy a different panoramic view, it can be a really lovely experience.
In our case, we used the London Pass.
One thing to keep in mind: to use the pass at the London Eye, you need to book in advance. Bookings are managed through the Go City app and, since it’s a very popular attraction, it’s best not to leave it until the last minute.
Boat trip on the Thames
And the sixth experience we consider a must is taking a boat trip along the Thames.
I especially like it because it completely changes your perspective of London.
After walking around the city for hours, getting on a boat and seeing some of its buildings from the river is a completely different experience.
And once again, if you were already planning to do it, having it included in the pass makes the pass make even more sense.
What other attractions can you make the most of with the London Pass?
This is where, in our case, we started to see the real savings.
The six attractions above were basically our foundation.
But once you have the pass, lots of other possibilities open up.
Among others, we visited:
- Kensington Palace.
- Madame Tussauds.
- The Shard
- And a few more attractions.
And here’s the interesting part: everything we did after our main visits was a bonus.
We didn’t buy the pass thinking, “I have to visit absolutely everything that’s included.”
We simply took advantage of a few opportunities that fit our itinerary and our interests.
For football fans, for example, the London Pass can have extra appeal because it includes tours of several stadiums, including Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Wembley, Stamford Bridge and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as well as other sports experiences that may be available depending on current conditions.
There are also attractions like Kensington Palace, The Shard and Madame Tussauds that can help round out your days if they suit your interests. In the example we used for our own calculation, adding just one extra attraction per day meant the combined value of the visits far exceeded what we had paid for the pass.
And to me, this is much more important than trying to tick off an endless list of attractions.
You don’t need to be interested in all of them.
You just need several of the ones you want to visit to be included.
Have you seen our day-by-day itinerary for planning your visit to London?
Do you need to book London Pass attractions?
This is probably one of the most important tips I can give you.
Yes, check the conditions for each attraction before planning your day.
They don’t all work exactly the same way.
At some, you can just turn up, show your pass and go in. At others, you need to book in advance.
And this can change over time, so I don’t recommend saving an old list from the internet and assuming it will still work the same way when your trip comes around.
We used the Go City app and found it very easy to manage our bookings.
For example, booking ahead is especially important for some high-demand attractions. The London Eye is one of the cases we checked firsthand.
My advice is very simple:
once you’ve settled on your itinerary, check one by one whether the attractions you want to visit are included.
That way you’ll know which ones need a booking and which don’t.
And, above all, you can schedule your bookings around the rest of your route.
Because there’s no point booking an attraction for ten in the morning if you’ve planned all your visits that day on the other side of London.
Planning is still the key.
The London Pass credit limit: can you actually run out?
There’s another point worth knowing that isn’t always explained when someone asks whether the London Pass is unlimited.
The pass has a credit limit, or cap on attraction value, tied to the duration you buy.
In other words, you shouldn’t take “access to lots of attractions” to mean you can rack up an unlimited number of entries during those days.
That said, in our experience, with a three-day pass it’s very hard for a typical traveler to actually hit that limit.
London Pass vs Explorer Pass: which one is right for you?
Here we have an alternative that I find especially appealing for people who travel at a more relaxed pace.
The Explorer Pass works differently.
Instead of buying a number of consecutive days of use, you choose a number of attractions and get a much longer window to use them.
This option currently lets you choose between different numbers of attractions, from 2 to 7, and once you use the pass for the first time you have 30 days to use your credits.
This completely changes the strategy.
Imagine you’re going to London for five days but don’t want to spend three full days doing attractions.
Maybe you only have six specific visits in mind and would rather spread them out at a relaxed pace over the trip.
In that case, the Explorer Pass may make much more sense.
We checked that our six must-sees were included in the Explorer Pass when we were putting this content together, although this is something you should always double-check because the lineup can change.
So here’s how I’d sum it up:
London Pass: best if you want to pack lots of attractions into just a few days.
Explorer Pass: best if you want to do a specific number of attractions and spread them out at your own pace.
And this is especially appealing for people who like to travel slow.
If that’s how you travel, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on a tourist pass.
It may simply be that a different type of pass is a better fit for you.
When wouldn’t I buy the London Pass?
Although our experience was very good and we’d buy it again, I don’t think the London Pass is a must for every trip to London.
I wouldn’t buy it if your itinerary is mainly based on free activities.
London has world-class free museums, incredible parks, neighborhoods to explore on foot and loads of experiences that don’t require a ticket.
Nor would I buy it just because “everyone says you have to have it.”
First, I’d make a list of the things I really want to visit.
Then I’d check which ones are included.
And finally, I’d see whether I can fit them into the days the pass is valid.
If not, it may make more sense to buy tickets individually or look into the Explorer Pass.
I’d also think about something else: your travel pace.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to improvise absolutely everything, a pass that relies on concentrating visits into specific days might not be the most convenient option.
But even then, the Explorer Pass can be an interesting alternative.
That’s why I don’t like to simply answer, “Yes, buy it.”
The right answer is:
Yes, it can be well worth it if your plans fit with it.
So, is the London Pass worth it?
Having used it, we would definitely buy the London Pass again.
In our case, the strategy was very simple: we used it for three days of a five-day trip.
We packed the paid attractions into those three days and left the other two to enjoy London in a different way.
We visited the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye, and took a boat trip on the Thames, as well as adding other experiences such as Kensington Palace, Madame Tussauds and the viewing platform at The Shard.
And by our estimate, we managed to save around 80 euros over those days.
But even more important than the savings was that we never felt we had to rush.
We did roughly three major attractions a day and planned our route so it made sense.
That’s why I don’t agree with the idea that, for the London Pass to pay off, you have to turn your trip into a race.
You don’t need to rush. You need to plan.
If you’re taking a five-day trip, a strategy like ours—three days of attractions and two free days—can work especially well.
And if you’re someone who prefers to travel slowly, focus on just a few visits and have up to 30 days to use them, then I’d take a serious look at the Explorer Pass.
All in all, for us the London Pass is definitely worth it.
Not because you have to visit everything it includes.
Not because you have to cram in a crazy number of attractions every day.
And not because it’s always the cheapest option, either.
It’s worth it because, when your plans match the included attractions and you organize your itinerary well, you can save money without sacrificing the enjoyment of your trip.
And that, for us, is exactly what happened.
Frequently asked questions about the London Pass
How many days of the London Pass should you buy?
It depends entirely on your itinerary. There are options from one to ten days, and your pace, your interests and your itinerary will determine which one is right for you.
Does the London Pass include the London Eye?
Yes, under the conditions we checked during our trip. However, to use the pass at the London Eye you had to book in advance, which we did through the Go City app.
Do you need to book London Pass attractions?
Not all of them. At some you can go straight in by showing your pass, while others require a booking. That’s why it’s essential to check the conditions for each attraction before planning your itinerary.
Does the London Pass include public transport in London?
The tourist pass and public transport are separate things. You shouldn’t buy the London Pass thinking it automatically replaces London’s transport system. You’ll need to sort out transport separately to get around the city. That said, the 3-day pass does include two days on the hop-on hop-off bus.
Is the London Pass or the Explorer Pass better?
If you want to pack lots of attractions into a few days, I’d choose the London Pass. If you’d rather visit a specific number of attractions and spread them out at a relaxed pace over your trip, the Explorer Pass may be a better fit.
Is the London Pass worth it for a five-day trip?
It can be a great combination. We used the pass for three days of a five-day trip and left the other two for free activities and exploring London at a more relaxed pace.
Do you have to visit lots of attractions a day to get your money’s worth?
Not necessarily. In our case, with around three major attractions a day over the three days, we already got a lot of value out of the pass. The key is choosing attractions you really want to visit and planning your route by area.
Would we buy the London Pass again?
Yes. Having used it, we would buy it again. The experience was good, we managed to save money and we never felt we had to rush to make the most of it.
Our final advice: before buying it, make a list of the attractions you really want to visit, check that they’re included under the current conditions and see whether you can fit them into the days the pass is valid. If the answer is yes, the London Pass can be a very good investment for your trip to London.
NOTE: The information in this article is based on our own experience and is completely objective. This article contains affiliate links.
