The London Pass by Go City is a convenient way of planning ahead and budgeting for your visit to London. This is the pass for you if you are going to be in London for a set number of days and want to visit one or more attractions each day. Additionally, you can now download the pass as an app to your phone.
Because you buy the pass for a consecutive number of days, you need to plan ahead and make sure you get your money’s worth by getting in as many attractions per day as you can! You can only visit each attraction once – but with over 90 to choose from there is plenty of choice.
You can buy a London Pass for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 day durations. As well as entry into over 90 London tourist attractions, you also get access for one day on a hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tour plus a river cruise on the River Thames which for many is a highlight of their trip.
If you are looking for a different kind of pass – one that offers you a number of London attractions, but spread out over a longer time period, then the Go City London Explorer Pass, with its 60 day validity period, might be the better choice for you.
Plus, purchase at selected periods and save up to 20% on London Pass. Sales run regularly through the year.
Flash sales
During the year (typically spring and autumn) there are occasionally flash sales offering up to 20% on the price of the pass.
Generally, the passes with the longest number of days offer the largest discounts.
These sales run fairly regularly. Like our Facebook page to keep yourself up to date on these flash sales. When a London Pass flash sale is running our Facebook page will direct you here, you then just need to use our London Pass link on this page to access the sale prices.
The more you visit, the more you save
You pay in advance and it’s the same standard price no matter how many attractions you visit in those days. You just show your card at the entrance or ticket office of any attraction included on the London Pass. The more attractions you visit under the scheme, the more money you save.
For a supplement, you can also opt to purchase your London Pass with Oyster Travelcard – a public transport pass, after which you travel for free on all London underground and bus services.
Which attractions do they cover?
Over 90 attractions included, and unlike many tourist passes that have lots of third tier attractions included you would not normally visit, the London Pass has includes most of the main attractions.
Top tier attractions include the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Chessington World of Adventures, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Bus hop on bus tour, Windsor Castle, London Zoo, The View from the Shard, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Gardens, The London Bridge Experience, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Tour, football stadium tours, and the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum.
You also get a 1-day Golden Tours or Big Bus Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour included, with audio guides in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Alongside this, the London Pass includes a Thames River Cruise – many people think it is one of the best ways to see London.
Explore the full list of attractions covered by London Pass.
New attractions including London Eye
The good news is the London Pass have recently gained some Merlin attractions to add to their list.
Popular family-friendly attractions now also include: the London Eye, Madame Tussauds and Chessington World of Adventures.
Museums not covered
A majority of London’s museums and art galleries are not covered by the pass as they have free entry. These include:
The British Museum
National Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Science Museum
Natural History Museum
Tate Modern
Victoria and Albert Museum
National Maritime Museum
Imperial War Museum
British Library
From time to time, the London Pass includes one of the aforementioned free attractions as part of its offerings. However, this typically pertains to extras like an audio guide or access to a special exhibition, rather than general admission.
Is the transport option worthwhile?
The standard Pass doesn’t provide any transport facility apart from the hop-on hop-off bus on the first day and a River Thames Cruise.
For a supplement you can purchase a travel extension to your London Pass (This can only be purchased online in advance, not from retailers.) The Travel option is a Oyster Travelcard that comes preloaded with money to cover fares. The longer the duration, the more money comes preloaded on the Oyster Travelcard.
Crudely speaking the Oyster Travelcard comes preloaded with enough cash to cover unlimited travel on public transport in the centre of London (zones 1 and 2) for the number of days you have purchased.
If you travel outside central London (zones 1 and 2), perhaps to Hampton Court or Heathrow Airport, you may have to top up the Oyster Card with more cash, which is very easy to do at any Underground Station. It may be cheaper to buy a standard Oyster Card on arrival in London separately to the London Pass. The Oyster Travelcard comes with a non-refundable administration fee (around £5); the standard Oyster has a deposit that is refundable.
If you are staying in London more than 5 days, normally it will be cheaper to load a 7 day Travelcard onto the Oyster – this is only possible on the standard Oyster, not the Oyster Travelcard that comes with the London Pass.
Full details are on our Oyster Card page.
Children’s travel in London
Children under 11 travel free on buses and the Underground in London without a ticket (but not on the train to Windsor or Hampton Court). Up to four under 11s can travel for free on public transport when travelling with an Adult holding a valid Oyster Travelcard.
Children (11- 15 year old) get a child off peak Travelcard with the London Pass transport package, not an Oyster, you can use the Travelcard on the same public transport as the Oyster. Off peak means you cannot travel before 9.30am Monday to Friday.
Hop-on hop-off bus tour ticket included with every London Pass
The London Pass comes with a ticket for a 1-day hop-on bus experience with either Golden Tours or Big Bus. Read more on our pages to discover which provider might be right for you.
Perhaps the finest way to get orientated with London and efficiently up to speed on where everything is in London are the hop-on hop-off sightseeing tour buses. From the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square, either of these fantastic bus tours will make sure you see everything in London you want to see, and you can hop-on and off just as you like.
It is very easy to board your bus: there are no entry fees on the day – all you’ve got to do is show your pass.
To make your experience as enjoyable as possible, audio guides are available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
So sit back and enjoy all the iconic landmarks and attractions of London at your own pace.
Uber Boat by Thames Clippers
With Uber Boat you get 23 stops to jump off at your leisure.
This River Bus service stops at world-famous London landmarks every 20 minutes making sightseeing super easy.
You can jump off to explore the Tower of London and the historic City of London from Tower Pier, then sail beneath London’s most iconic bridge on your way to visit Maritime Greenwich, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On the way, you’ll pass the glittering skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and even see the distinctive dome of the O2 Arena.
Other benefits of the London Pass including fast track entry
In the past attractions with fast-track have included Tower Bridge Exhibition, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hampton Court Palace, London Zoo, London Bridge Experience and Kew Gardens.
The bigger attractions have longer queues and have limited slots or capacity, so pre-booking a time-slot is recommended for smoother entry anyway.
Reservation details can be found on the individual attraction pages under ‘Know before you go’ using the banner above.
Guidebook
To help you plan your sightseeing adventure each pass comes with a full colour, informative, comprehensive 160-page guidebook. This guide is packed full of information about all of the participating attractions in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese. There are also special offers and discounts for a range of things in London. Every little helps.
Will I save money with the London Pass?
That’s the million dollar question, and there is no universal answer. For some it works financially, for others it doesn’t. You really have to set aside an evening and have a good idea what you want to visit and work it out yourself.
Greater savings with London Pass on longer length passes
The most savings to be made will be on the more expensive passes for the greater number of days. If you were to do 2 activities a day for ten days (using a 10-day pass) averaging £30 per attraction you would spend roughly £600 per person – a 10-day pass will cost you currently under £200 so technically big savings can be made.
3-day pass most popular pass
In reality the most popular pass is the 3-day pass, offering a nice balance between savings and number of days doing activities. Depending on your energy levels, doing 7 or 10 days of back to back activities might work out a little tiring.
Using the sample itinerary on the London Pass website for the 3-day pass, they estimate you can save around 51% against walk up prices if you do four activities in one day. For many people this may be too many to do in one day; if you only manage two in one day then expect to save more like 25% – still a substantial saving against regular walk up prices.
Buy during a sale for up to 20% discount on London Pass
London Pass offer regular sale periods throughout the year – typically towards the end of March – April before the summer season begins and again in later summer for the autumn season. It is worth checking their website to purchase at these times for even greater savings (typically up to 20% off).
Transport and attractions savings in London
The convenience of the London Pass combining transport and attractions in one convenient package with a known set cost in advance has great value to many visitors. The key aspect is planning. You obviously get more value for your money if you visit several attractions in a day. Many of the attractions have late opening. A visit to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court will take at least half a day each.
Decide what attractions you want to see in London
It is probably a good idea as a starting point to jot down what you want to see and for how long you anticipate visiting without looking whether the London Pass supports this – everyone is different. It’s a false economy after investing a lot of cash on travel and hotels to compromise your ideal itinerary just to fit in with what is covered by the London Pass.
The London Explorer Pass – an alternative sightseeing pass to the London Pass
The Go City London Explorer Pass is an app by the same people who made available the London Pass.
The main differences between the London Pass and the London Explorer Pass are:
- The London Pass has over 90 attractions available, the London Explorer Pass has around 80. Some attractions are available on both passes and some are only available on one or the other of the passes.
- The London Pass gives you entry to as many attractions as you can visit in a choice of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 days.
- The London Explorer Pass is valid for 60 days; you can choose to enter either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 attractions in that time.
- The London Pass has an optional transport option, a public transport pass (Visitor Oyster Card).
So if you are the type who likes to linger or prefer to spread your London sightseeing over many days then the London Explorer Pass may well be better suited than the London Pass.