Great Britian Heritage Pass
 

My Husband & I will be in England & Scotland next summer for a wedding and vacation. I have seen postings about the London Pass - but what about British Heritage Pass? Is this better?

As with the London Pass, it depends on how many of the included properties you will be visiting. Few of them are in London, but if you are traveling through the countryside, it might be worthwhle for you.

The Great British Heritage pass has the perfect name - it is GREAT. For anyone who is spending more than a few days outside of London it is the single best money saver you will find (apart from a great air fare)<BR><BR>The main advantage is that it covers all English Heritage, Historic Scotland, National Trust sites and MOST privately owned properties.<BR><BR>Just going to four properties most tourists visit - Windsor, Hampton Court Palace, Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle - will more than pay for a 7 day GBHP. The 7 day pass is &pound;36 and these 4 sites would cost &pound;40.50. So as you can see everything else would be gravy. In Scotland there are many places - three on the Royal Mile alone (Castle, Gladstones land and Holyrood.<BR><BR>About 400 sites are covered - everything from the Roman Baths to Chatsworth to Castle Howard to Sissinghurst to Glen Coe to Crathes Castle to Glamis castle.<BR><BR>It is not a huge bargain in London so for a 3 week visit with the first week in London I might get a 15 day pass.

Everything Janis said is correct. The Great Britian Heritage pass is wonderful. I used the 7 day pass while touring Kent in May and saved a ton of money.

Where can this pass be bought? Can you buy it from the US before you leave for GB?<BR>Thanks,

It is only available to non-UK residents. You should buy it in the States - from BritRail or even via your travel agent. You CAN buy it in the UK but only at limited sites - LHR, Manchester or Glasgow Airports or a few of the larger covered properties.<BR><BR>The main advantage of getting it before hand is you receive the 35 page catalog that lists details of every covered site plus maps. So it is a great planning tool - find one of your "must see's" and the look for othet properties nearby.

I bought the Great British Heritage Pass for our trip in a few weeks this morning on ticketsto.com<BR><BR>You can also get the Travelcards on there as well as some other passes - probably most of which aren't necessary. <BR><BR>The website was easy to use.

The Visitor Travel Cards for the London tube/bus are definitely not necessary. You can get a better variety of options, and better prices, at any tube station.

Actually Jen, I am not sure that is so true for all the travelcards, at least not for the 7 day central travelcards. The price on ticketsto.com for a zone 1 and 2 7 day adult pass was $30. The price I saw for a 7 day pass you buy once you are in London (and need a photo for, which you don't for the travelcard) for zones 1 and 2 was 19.6 pounds - which is roughly $29.40 - so it saves you a whole 60 cents. I'd rather have it paid for ahead of time and not mess with the photo - you do get a few useful coupons with the travel card too.

Hmmm, does the $30 include shipping?

Excellent point - no, but I was getting the Great British Heritage Passes anyway, so it was an add-on for me to the order, so my incremental cost was zero. S&H for all orders (flat rate)is $12 on ticketsto.com, so one would have to figure whether that was worth it, when spread over all the tickets bought - obviously would not be worth it if you were just getting one or two travel cards.

Yes, that does sound like a tossup.<BR><BR>Families with children under 16 should know that the daily Family Travelcards, available only in London, are a great buy -- IIRC, an all-day card is &pound;2.80 per adult and 80p per kid; up to 2 kids per adult or 2 adults per kid.

Family situations with children are definitely different - as far as travel passes go. I think it just drives home the point to do research, research, research on all the options available.

I have left it too late to get a pass but my understanding is that I can buy it from any of the locations that the pass can be used at..however, janis (who I respect) made it sound like there are only a very few places you can buy it.<BR>I also thoiught I saw on their website that it costs about 13 pounds, not 39..so is that site no updated?????

The GBHP costs &pound;35 (7 days), &pound;46 (15 days) and &pound;60 (30 days). In fact I just received the 2002 brochure yesterday.<BR><BR>According to the Official information it is available at LHR, Manchester, GLA and Edinburgh Airports, 3 tourist Info centers in London (Vic and Liverpool St Stations and lower Regent st.), 3 motorway service areas, and 18 city offices throughout the country.<BR><BR>So if you arrive at LHR (LGW does not sell it) just stop at the Tourist office there.

jared: your comment about &pound;13 made me curious so I just looked at the BTA website and it lists &pound;35,45 and 60. So I don't know what pass you were looking at. <BR><BR>A little history: The GBHP won't have been as little as &pound;13 for about 15 or 20 years.<BR><BR>Back in the mid 70's the Open to View (fore-runner of the GBHP) was &pound;7. That is when average admission charges were 50p or &pound;1 and the Biggies were &pound;2.50.<BR><BR>So the cost is actually about the same now in "real" terms as it was 30 years ago and it covers many more places.