mgwest

My wife and I are planning a week in London in early October 2010. We are experienced travellers and would like to see many of the historic/famous sites in London (first visit) as well as experience the city by living in an apartment and doing a fair amount of walking/exploring. I came accross the "London Pass with travel" for 6 days (7 with the free day) that covers the entry fees fo many attractions as well as travel (tube, trams, buses, trains) in zones 1-6 (help!). (cost 133 pounds). This seems attractive........................feedback would be appreciated. Our plans will be firmed up in about 1 month at which time I will be looking for 1 br accommodation preferrably reasonably close to many of the attractions in central London. Suggestions as to areas to consider would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

mg

alanRow

Definitely not

The London Pass by itself is barely worth it unless you are throughly sick of the major FREE attractions in London and can't be bothered to stand in a queue to redeem your daysoutguide 2-4-1 vouchers

BUT the travel option is a waste of money. It covers all of London when most people never go outside zones 1-2 except to travel to Heathrow.

The difference in price for a week long Travelcard is £22.

Suggest you read the following

http://www.londontoolkit.com/briefin...ard_oyster.htm
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/faq.aspx#3

Iowa_Redhead

The London Pass only works out to be a good deal for very, very few people. It costs so much per day that you have to run from attraction to attraction to possibly get that much back out of it.

You don't need a travel pass for zones 1-6, most of the main attractions are in zone 1 with some in zone 2.

Sorry I can't offer great lodging advice, I stayed in a hotel once and a studio apartment in zone 2 once. Neither of which are what you want.

mgwest

alanRow.............thanks for the feedback and the sites.

mg

janisj

The LP w/ transport is such a rip off it should be illegal (only a <i>slight</i> exaggeration).

The Pass itself is usually a bad deal -- but the transport piece is horrible.

"<i>will be looking for 1 br accommodation preferrably reasonably close to many of the attractions in central London. Suggestions as to areas to consider would also be appreciated</i>"

No single location is close to more than a handful of attractions. Central London is very large and the main sites are spread from the Tower of London/Tower Bridge in the east to Kensington Gardens in the west. The British Library to the north and the London Eye and Imperial War museum to the south. Not to mention places like Kew and Hampton Court Palace in the western suburbs. No matter where you stay in central London you will be w/i easy public transport of anyplace.

What is your budget?

mgwest

janisj

Firstly thanks for your feedback. Since most of the attractions we would want to see are in Zone 1 the travel part of the London Pass doesn't make sense. However, I don't fully understand why the basic pass isn't a good deal. Just looking at the entrance fees for 10 popular attractions the pass would be 50 pounds cheaper. So, I think I'm missing something...like lots of coupons for attractions????

For acommodation we haven't set a specific budget,as we know London is expensive, but I think we can get something decent for around 500 pounds a week. Reasonable??? (Sorry about no pound symbol...Canadian working on a bilingual laptop keyboard ...I'll try to keep the accents out of my posts!).

mg

Kathdb

mg I am going to London in May and was umming and arghing about the London Pass also as I know tourist gimmicks can rip people off- I did a excel spreadsheet and compared all the individual prices against the london Pass and agree it saves heaps of money- don't have to que and mine is being sent to me as we speak, so I will have guidebook, map and card before we go to help make the most of the card. I bought a 3 day card and it is worrying me because the 2nd day we will be at RItz high teaing and then Chelsea FLower show so won't really be using it on 2nd day, but even taking that into account it worked out to be 19.50pound per day (30pound if spread over 2 days)but the main sites we want to see are 15-20pound per entrance. I decided to go the Oyster card as we are staying in zone 3 so it is capped and you can use on any transport I beleive. I was a bit a the same as you I am missing something with the London Pass as Janisj gave me the same advice (waste of money etc)I guess it is too late for me as I have bought it so I will have to see for myself and make sure I make the most of it.
kb

ElendilPickle

So many wonderful things in London are free - the British Library, British Museum, National Gallery, etc. - that I'm not sure you need this pass.

We just used some of the two-for-one deals from the Days Out website that alanRow linked for you.

Lee Ann

janisj

"<i>Just looking at the entrance fees for 10 popular attractions the pass would be 50 pounds cheaper.</i>

The LP overwhelms one w/ all that potential "savings'. They give you a massive list of what's covered. Sure, you could save money going to all those sites. But in practical terms it is usually a rip off. Unless you go at a dead run, you simply can't cram in enough major/expensive sites in the few days of your Pass to make it worthwhile. When you figure the distances, commute times, stopping to eat something, spending enough time inside places like the Tower (an absolute minimum of 3 hours, most spend 4 hours or more), St Paul's (2 hours if you climb the dome), Westminster Abbey - 2 hours -- you can see the problem.

A good rule of thumb is 2 major or major-ish sites a day. Plus maybe some smaller places if they are close by. So now - look at the Pass and see what is actually possible in its 3 day validity.

janisj

Oh - meant to add, when you factor in using 2 for 1's from the Days out Guide, the LP is an even harder sell. W/ the 2-for-1's you can visit sites on any day, not just the short period of a London Pass.

PatrickLondon

It boils down to which attractions you want to see and which you don't. The major public art galleries and museums are free. A lot of those that charge are commercial ventures,m whose attractiveness (or not) is a matter of taste. I'd start with what you want to see in the time available to you and then work out what sort of saving you might make on the Pass - my guess is not enough to justify the overall expense, but that's up to you.

see_the_world7

As I understand it, the 2for1 coupons can only be used if you use the train or buy a travelcard from a rail station (like Victoria Station). They cannot be used by themselves or with the Oyster Card. Is that correct? We are headed to London for a week starting Saturday and plan to buy a week long zone 1-2 travelcard for my husband and myself from Victoria Station and the kids (ages 8 and 9) should be free on the tube anyway.

Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding this correctly and to make sure the OP knows there are restrictions on the 2for1 discounts. I've printed off several of the 2for1 coupons for use during the week we are there.

jamikins

You cannot use oyster for 2for1. You can use the 7 day zone 1-2 paper travel card bought at the train stations (they are on orange paper and have 2 red arrows (national rail symbol) on them. You cannot in general buy these at underground stations - you generally need to go to the train station (may have both at the station you are at i.e. Victoria) Just be sure to get a 7 day PAPER travel card and you should be fine.

jamikins

Oh - and the prices should be the same

mgwest

Thank you everyone for the info/sites on the London Pass and some other travel & attraction options. We will be in London for a week so I'll do the planning re attractions considering distances and decide closer to our departure dates. I know I'm going to need help with accommodations later on and hope to hear from some of you at that time.

Regards,

mg

Kathdb....I'd be interested in your feedback after using the London Pass in May.

Kathdb

we have just returned from London and you requested a reply on what I thought about the London Pass. Also we stayed in an apartment in Paddington called Royal Court Apartments in Gloucester Terrace it was only 228 pounds for 3 nights (booking on line, dearer direct). The room we had had been renovated and very clean, big bedroom and then seperate lounge and kitchen area with microwave and stove top, fridge and all the crockery etc. We were in room 109, the lift was against our wall and was very noisy so if you haven't found somewhere and this interests you ask for a room away from the lift. It also has free WIFI and nice lounge and bar area next to the reception. This hotel is a 10min (max) walk to the train station (we could carry our bags to station) and is very very close to Kensngton Gardens and Hyde Park again 10 min walk.

We purchased an oyster card and topped up when we needed to and used the tube the whole time (didn't attempt the buses, trains took us to everywhere we wanted to go)not sure what difference is between travel card and Oyster card.

I personnally think the London Pass isn't really worth it, it depends on how much you want to see in a day. If you break the money down to a daily price we definatley covered that the first day and just on the 2nd day, but not on the third day, we didn't quite get what we paid for when I broke down individual entry costs etc but the difference it made to not having to line up to get tickets etc made up for that, if you have the pass you go through seperate entrances and get in first. Day 1 we did thames cruise to TOwer of London and spent 3 hours there, we then went and had 2-4-1 lunch at the Prohibition which is in walking distance from tower and in a beautiful little dock area called Katherine docks. We then walked along the tower bridge and went to that exhibition-make sure you walk along right side of bridge or you have to walk whole bridge turn around and come back on other side. We finished all of this by about 4.30pm- St Pauls close but closed at 5pm and stop entrance at 4.30pm, so we hopped back on Thames cruise and went onto Greenwich and stayed on boat for return cruise to Westminster. So as you can see we covered our costs here.
The main problem is that most things close at 5pm by the time you get to each place and spend a bit of time looking around the day goes very quickly- as per a previous post, you really have to run to get your moneys worth.
You also have to check the attractions as we went to St ALbert hall and it was the only day it was closed, spoke to someone else with pass and they went to Windsor castle and again it was closed for something, so that takes time out of your day to then go to next attraction. Also fitting in the free things like a visit to Harrods/Hyde Park/museums etc also takes time.
We went to a movie one night and had another 2-4-1 meal to make the card worth it's money.
If you are there for 5 days maybe get a 3 day pass and really do the things you want to see first and then try and fit other attractions in to make the money up, some entrance fees are quite cheap it is mainly the dearer ones we went to to make the card worth it- ie the London Bridge exp is 21pound each but more not for the faint hearted and more like a themed scare activity than an historical site to visit.
We went to places that we probably wouldn't normally visit because they were on the pass,
We only had 3 days so had to try and fit freebies in with the pass things. Did find out later that Harrods was open till 8pm so could have done that later in the day.
I had hoped to see WIndsor castle and Hampton court Palace as well as Kew gardens but we just totally ran out of time. If you do get pass i recommend the Jason Canal boat you can get off at some markets - you will have never seen anything like them.
SOrry it is so long but when I start I can't stop

tuscanlifeedit

Kathidb: just for the future, I thought I would share this with you. When I do an Excel spreadsheet, I put in opening days and hours of attractions.

Thanks for your report.

alanRow

Comparison of 2-4-1 against London Pass - don't forget the world class stuff that is FREE

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop...n_England.html

valtor

We just returned from our vacation ; London was our last destination. We had Oyster cards and loaded them with Travelcard for 7 days zone 1-2 plus the fare from airport to London and back (I think it was 25.8 + 4.40 GBP).
We can use Oyster card for tube and for buses and we had a discount on the cruise to Greenwich.

alanRow

But using an Oystercard means you don't get any of the offers on Daysoutguide.com