London Pass Review – 2024 London Travel Pass Discount and Prices

London Pass has changed its strategy once again in 2023 and the new version is MUCH cheaper and better in almost every way. They literally cut the pass prices in half on average and the only negative is that there is now a “max credit” amount that each visitor gets depending on the length of the pass they buy.

When I saw that I was first concerned that they would have the max credit value so low that saving money would be a challenge, but instead it’s a VERY generous amount of credits so it really shouldn’t be a constraint on almost anyone. For example, a 3-day London Pass now costs £138 for an adult and the “max credits” allowed are £385 during the 3 days. Since most of the included attractions cost between £30 and £40 each, you can still do 3 or 4 of them each day for three days and still have credit available.

We’ve previously reviewed the Paris Pass and reviewed the New York Pass, and the answer here is at least as complicated.

Short version: If you want to visit the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and Windsor Castle, then a London Pass is probably going to save you time and money. Better still, if you can get a London Pass at a discount, it’s obviously even easier to save money.

And if you will be in London for at least four days then getting a London Pass is an easy decision. It’s still better to start early and plan ahead, but now it’s such a bargain that anyone can save time and money with the thing.

• Get an ADDITIONAL 5% off all London Passes

Use promo code: GO5POT (Look for “promo code?” in Step 4 of checkout)

>>>Click this link and use code GO5POT to receive and ADDITIONAL 5% off all London Passes.

Note: The official site usually has its own discount, and if a larger discount is being offered, you’ll automatically get the best discount with the above link.

Free attractions

• British Museum*
• Tate Modern Museum* (plus about 20 other state-run museums)
• Speakers’ Corner
• Hyde Park
• The Changing of the Guards
• and many more

London attractions NOT included in the London Pass

• The London Eye (Ferris wheel)
• Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

The 80+ attractions that ARE included in the London Pass

• One-day hop-on, hop-off bus tour – £37
• View from the Shard (London’s new tallest building) Observation Deck – £37
• Uber Boat by Thames Clippers 1-day River Roamer – £23.50
• Tower of London – £33.60
• Windsor Castle – £33
• Westminster Abbey – £27
• St. Paul’s Cathedral – £23
• London Bridge Experience – £31.95
• Chelsea FC Stadium Tour – £28
• Arsenal Stadium Tour – £30
• Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Tour – £30
• Hampton Court Palace – £26.00
• London Zoo – £41.80

So look at the lists above. If you are on a backpacker budget it’s obvious that you can have a great time in London without buying the London Pass. Or, if you are only in London for a few days and you have your heart set on doing the London Eye and Madam Tussaud’s, then the London Pass might actually slow you down more than it helps.

However, if you look at the things the London Pass offers it’s a very impressive list. Many of us don’t like museums, or at least not for more than an hour or so at a time, and a great number of the more exciting attractions are included with the London Pass.

Introduced a few years ago, the London Pass company has introduced the London Explorer Pass as an alternative or complement to the London Pass. It provides prepaid entry to 3, 5, or 7 of the most expensive London attractions including the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, DreamWorks Tours Shrek’s Adventure, and the SEA LIFE London Aquarium. None of these is covered by the normal London Pass and if you want to visit those places you WILL save money with the London Explorer Pass.

>>>Read our full London Explorer Pass review

The standard all-inclusive London Pass now comes with a credits package based on the number of days you purchase. They drastically lowered the prices to implement this system, but in exchange they put a cap on the value of the attractions you can visit during your trip. Fortunately it’s a VERY generous credit package so nearly all visitors are better off with this system.

New London Pass system: Credit Packages based on days purchased

With the possible exception of a 1-Day Pass, the new London Pass system provides enough free credits to do just about anything you can imagine from the included attractions. The “max credit” amounts are below next to the prices and you can see that they provide amazing value, even for visitors who want to cram in as many attractions as possible.

• 1-Day Adult Pass: £90 (£180 max credit)
• 1-Day Child Pass: £55 (£145 max credit)

• 2-Day Adult Pass: £125 (£290 max credit)
• 2-Day Child Pass: £70 (£230 max credit)

• 3-Day Adult Pass: £138 (£385 max credit)
• 3-Day Child Pass: £80 (£290 max credit)

• 4-Day Adult Pass: £151 (£475 max credit)
• 4-Day Child Pass: £96 (£345 max credit)

• 5-Day Adult Pass: £166 (£585 max credit)
• 5-Day Child Pass: £101 (£410 max credit)

• 6-Day Adult Pass: £171 (£670 max credit)
• 6-Day Child Pass: £106 (£465 max credit)

• 7-Day Adult Pass: £182 (£785 max credit)
• 7-Day Child Pass: £112 (£515 max credit)

• 10-Day Adult Pass: £202 (£865 max credit)
• 10-Day Child Pass: £117 (£555 max credit)

Note: As of March 2024, an Oyster travel card is an option to add to any London Pass. You’ll be charged a £5 fee for each card plus the amount of travel credit based on the number of days in your London Pass ranging from £10 to £50. An Oyster travel Card allows for unlimited travel on the Underground and buses in the central London zones and is by far the cheapest and easiest way of getting between sights and around in general.

An OysterCard works as an unlimited travel card, but it is more flexible and doesn’t need to be used only in the days that your London Pass is valid. If you use it only in Zone 1 and Zone 2, which is where most hotels are located and almost all attractions, the maximum daily charge is £8.10 per person. If you only take one or two rides per day, they are charged at £2.80 per ride, so you might have credit left over. Even if you ride the underground and buses all day, it’ll only charge you the £8.10 per day, so most people will have more credit than they need.

Zone 3 starts quite a ways from the city center and it’s probably unwise to stay in a hotel in Zone 3 or higher. Not only will it cost you more for daily transportation, but it will take a long time going back and forth each day as well.

The short version: The Oyster Travel Card that comes with your London Pass will cover unlimited public transport for all of the days your London Pass is valid for, and you’ll have at least a bit more credit left to use on other days, or to get from Heathrow into the city as long as you have your London Pass delivered to your home.

>>>Strategies for using the London Pass

If you only have 3 or fewer sightseeing days in London, planning it with your London Pass (or without a London Pass) can be confusing. We are here to help so we have visited and reviewed everything, to help separate the lesser and more distant attractions from the absolute best of them that are easy to see on short visits.

>>>Best London Pass itineraries for 1-day, 2-day, or 3-day passes.

One of the best features of the London Pass used to be the helpful guidebook that comes along with the deal, but you’d have to wait until the pass was shipped to you (or you picked it up in London) in order to read it. London Pass allows you to download a free 160-page guidebook so you can start figuring out your schedule right away. Better still, you can also download their free iPhone or Android app for your phone or tablet, and you can get these before you even order. The app is helpful for finding your GPS location and which attractions are nearby.

As long as you are interested in visiting enough of the included attractions, the London Pass is definitely a good value. Unlike some other cities we’ve covered, this pass pays for itself very quickly. If you visit only 3 big attractions in one day you’ve already saved money, not to mention the fact that you can skip the notoriously long queues in the process.

If you opt for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 10-day option then you can take in as few as 2 attractions per day and still save money. In fact, once you get to about 5 days you can even take a day off during your visit and still do well. Honestly, this is the best-value city pass we’ve looked at, as long as you are actually interested in these attractions.

Once in a while I hear from someone who feels disappointed with their London Pass experience, and we can all learn from the mistakes that they invariably made. It requires a bit of work and planning to maximize your sightseeing and value with the London Pass.

1. Start early in the day (around 9am if possible)

Most of the top attractions don’t really get crowded until late in the morning, so if you can leave your hotel by around 9am you’ll have time to see two top attractions before lunch. You’ll then have the rest of the afternoon to see two or three more things, and the whole evening to have a leisurely dinner and spend time in a pub or attend the theatre. But if you can’t leave your hotel until close to noon, you’ll find that everything is quite crowded already and you’ll feel behind schedule the whole day.

2. Plan your sightseeing route before you go out of the day

The other mistake that some people make is they only plan one thing at a time, so they have to scramble when they leave to figure out where to go next. London is a huge city, and although many of the included attractions are close to each other, many others are not. The free smart phone app helpfully puts all the attractions on a map and lists the hours for each. With a bit of advanced planning before leaving your hotel, you’ll be able to get from attraction to attraction quickly and efficiently, and get great value out of your London Pass.

As mentioned above, this pass isn’t ideal for everyone, so look at your own circumstances to see if it’s right for you.

• Those who definitely want to visit many included attractions
• Families (skipping queues is invaluable with little ones)
• First-time visitors only in London for a few days
• Visitors who don’t love state-run museums

• Those on backpacker budgets
• People who prefer museums over exciting and unusual attractions
• Visitors staying more than one week in London, and prefer to see no more than one attraction per day

I lived in London not long ago for 6 months and I visited nearly every one of these attractions at least once so I could compare them and recommend the ones that are the best value on a short visit.

Here are the best London Pass attractions for visits of 3 days or less:

Hop-on, hop-off bus tour (£34)

If possible you should do the HOHO bus on your first full morning in London, as it’s the best and fastest way to get oriented. The full route takes 3.5 to 4.5 hours depending on traffic, and the first two hours are the best. If you start at Victoria Station you can get off at the Tower of London and you’ve done most of the best parts.

View from the Shard (£37)

Take the elevator up to the 68th floor to enjoy the view from Western Europe’s tallest building and observation deck. The Shard is just south of the Thames and it’s within walking distance of the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral, which are both also included and highly recommended.

Tower of London (£33.60)

This riverside castle is almost 1,000 years old and it’s the sort of thing that you really have to see in person once in your life. It might be a bit dry for the kids, but you can see the highlights in an hour or so, or take a free tour with the beefeater guards if you come at the right time.

Windsor Castle (£33.00)

If you want to see a historic and fancy castle, Windsor is the one you want. It’s located a bit north of London, but you can get there in less than 45 minutes from Paddington Station, and the trains are included with the London Pass. There is a good chance your hotel is close to Paddington Station, so this one is far faster and easier to reach than you might think. The London Pass now includes only “afternoon entry” which means you can enter anytime after 1 PM and the place closes around 5 PM each day. Most people go in the afternoon anyway and it can be a great way to end a sightseeing day.

Westminster Abbey (£27)

Even if you’ve seen your share of cathedrals in your lifetime, you haven’t seen one like this. Westminster Abbey is by far the most stunning and interesting church on the interior that you’ll ever see. It’s very central so you’ll pass by it no matter what, and you can do the free walking tour with the audio guide in about an hour once inside.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, or Wembley Stadium Tours (£26+)

All four of these stadium tours are very enjoyable and impressive. If you are a fan of Chelsea, Spurs, or Arsenal then your choice will be obvious. The tours are quite different from each other, and all are worthwhile. If you don’t care about Wembley then the Arsenal tour is the best of the three, and it’s the most central and easiest to reach.

London Bridge Experience (£31.95)

This “experience” is sort of an interactive comedy and history show for the first 30 minutes, and then a very professionally put together haunted house for the remaining 30 minutes. If you aren’t a haunted house fan then skip this. But if it sounds like fun then it’s a good use of an hour and it’s located near several other attractions.

Here at Price of Travel we are all about value, but it’s important to remember that the whole point of traveling to cities like London is to see the things that interest you there. Fans of the big museums can save a lot of money by skipping the London Pass and concentrating on the British Museum, Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert plus many more.

But if you want to see the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Windsor Castle or even the Chelsea Football Stadium Tour then you’ll be astonished by how expensive everything in London is and the London Pass is a great way to keep you from spending too much or skipping things because you are worried about going over budget. Also, if you haven’t reserved a room yet, check out our recommended London hotels for our expert choices.

• Get an ADDITIONAL 5% off all London Passes

Use promo code: GO5POT (Look for “promo code?” in Step 4 of checkout)

>>>Click this link and use code GO5POT to receive and ADDITIONAL 5% off all London Passes.

Note: The official site usually has its own discount, and if a larger discount is being offered, you’ll automatically get the best discount with the above link.