KV

Hi,<BR>I am visiting with my family to London from USA for 4 nights during the first week of October. I have read a lot about different passes available for LONDON which either gives you free access to lot os attractions or discount for the entrance. I want to know are they really USEFUL and WORTH BUYING ?? Do they really save you money and time and are convenient. I found the following passes about London from various websites:<BR>London Pass, Great Britain Heritage Pass, London For Less Pass, Tickets To Pass.<BR><BR>Please let me know if anyone has used these passes heard about them and how has been the experience.<BR><BR>Thanks in advance<BR><BR>KV

Suzy

You should understand that most of the famous museums in London are free; thanks to new tax laws, even more are free now than last year.<BR><BR>The London Pass is usually not a good value for most tourists: you'd have to want to visit LOTS of places that do charge a fee. The optional visitors travelcard is also not a good buy, compared to the regular passes that you can get at any tube station.<BR><BR>Great Britain Heritage Pass is good for only a few places IN London, but is a good value if you're gong to historic places all over Britain.<BR><BR>I have heard that the London for Less pass is now defunct, since many of the places that it gave discounts for are now free.<BR><BR>Never heard of "Tickets to Pass".<BR>

janis

Suzy pretty much covered it: The only one that is a good deal is the Great British Heritage Pass - but NOT if you are only going to be in the UK/London 4 days.<BR><BR>But if you are then going elsewhere in the country before or after London, the GBHP is a great money saver.

Alisa

Go to a bookstore and look for the London for less book. Before you buy it, check out the coupon and see if it covers some of the places you want to see. For a family of four-you may save some cash. Forget the restaurant coupons and stuff.

Lynn

We purchased the London Pass when we visited in March. We stayed one week and did not use the Pass enough to consider it a real deal. It was nice to bypass the lines at some of the attractions, but on a 4 day trip I don't think you would get your money's worth from the London Pass.

Nigel Doran

I would say no. However, if you are planning to use a lot of public transport (buses, Tubes, overland trains) then arm yourself with a relevant-length Travelcard when you get here. Even if you are here for 4 days, a weekly pass for Zones 1 and 1 (ample for tourists) is about $27 each (There are family cards/child prices..www.thetubec.com). Seeing that each Zone 1 tube trip costs about $2 and each bus journey $1.50 it will easily prove its worth. You can use it anytime, even before 0930, whereas daily travelcards costing about $7 don't start before 0930. Take your photos to any Tube ticket office. You can keep the photo part for when you return!

VM

Not worth it - most of the places listed on the pass have free admission anyway. Unless you realyl want to visit everywhere where you would have to pay, you will save more money by buying a travelcard for use on public transport and paying individual enterance fees.

Suzy

There are complaints one can reasonably make about the London Pass, but it is not true that they list places that are free. I used the pass last summer; we were in Britain for 3 weeks, so a week of focusing on the not-free places was a good deal for us, making us an exception to the rule.<BR><BR>I have the booklet right here, and it certainly doesn't list any places that are free. The only near-exception is a few places, like the British Museum, that are free EXCEPT for special exhibits, where the London Pass will get you in for free; we used ours last summer at the British Museum to see the special Cleopatra exhibit, which otherwise would have cost &pound;9 each. And the pages for those free places where they cover special things are marked with a special red circle that notes that basic entry is free.<BR><BR>The booklet is well-designed and very useful, buying and using the card was convenient and straightforward, we enjoyed the little bonuses like getting a free teddy bear at Hamley's when we spent &pound;5 there. The only problem is that the pass just isn't cost-effective for most tourists!

HR

There was something in the Q&A section of this past Sunday's NY Times on the London Pass. It says a 6-day pass is $171 U.S. with transportation (zones 1 to 6 and includes underground from Heathrow). It does say if you visited Kensington Palace, Tower of London and the London Dungeon, you would save about $19. It also says while many London Museums are free, most special exhibits are not.<BR><BR>So now I am even more confused if it is worthwhile!

HR

I meant to say it was in the Sunday NY Times Travel Section Q&A

laura

I think $171 is outrageously expensive. As stated previously, most museums and other attractions are free. I cannot imagine that you would have time in 4 days to get to enough of the paid attractions to come anywhere close to $171. Tower of London is about $17, Westminister Abbey is about $9. You can get all day travelcards for the tube for about $6, and family travel cards, too (buy at any tube station after you get there). Here is a chart showing adult tube fares (most everything you will want to see will be in zone 1): <BR>http://www.thetube.com/content/ticke...tfares2002.pdf

Suzy

I can't believe that this has come up yet again! The Times used the London Pass website and spokesperson as its sole source of information, which is very sloppy of them. Naturally, they will say it's a good deal!

HR

Suzy,<BR>You are absolutely right...it is sloppy of them, but thankfully this board exists to provide alternative points of view! Thanks for your input...

Pat

We bought the London for Less coupon book last year. It was only $19.95, so it didn't take much in the way of savings to pay for the book. We used it for a few attractions and that alone more than paid for it. We also used the tour discount for a day trip to Stonehenge/Bath with Frames Rickards. The savings on that was quite substantial, so it was well worth buying the book.