London/Help
 

I will be in London for a week. I need help with a great itenerary! I have the London Pass for two days! I need to make good use of the attractions on these two days. April 7th Tuesday and April 8th Wednesday. I also have a one day Big Bus Pass to use/ and I have an Oyster card. Any suggestions?

I will go to Kensington to see the Museums on my free time. NO PASS NEEDED.

Thank You,

djl

Suggestions? Yeah: see if you can get refunds for your London Pass and Big Bus Pass and use the money you wasted more wisely. There are DOZENS of attractions in London that have no entry fee and most of those that charge for entry have a discount available somewhere.

There are innumerable threads, resources, itineraries, event calendars, etc. for London. Use them. They include Fodors.com, Fr-----s.com (a competitor company, thus I won't name it on this board), Timeout.com, londontown.com and more.

And itineraries from others are useless without input from you on your likes and dislikes.

If they are not refundable -- then you just need to make the best of a less than great situation. First of all -- you will likely have no interest/time to visit 80% or 90% of the sites covered by the LP.

On the Tues/Wed you'll want to dash -- Tower Of London very first thing in the AM, then maybe St Paul's (not covered), across the river to the Globe, and finally the Eye. That would get you 3 covered and one uncovered sites on one very busy day/linear route.

The second day decide if you want to use the Pass for Westminster Abbey or Hampton Court Palace. That will determine what else you can use it for that day.

Re the H-o-H-o bus tour -- just jump on any place it stops (all over the city) and ride til you get to a site you want to see up close/visit, hop off . . . hop back on and repeat. It is not an efficient way to get around but since you already bought it think of it as a glorified bus trip.

I think you have to let your interests guide you - lots of choices. IMO the Tower of London and the Globe are quintessential London sights, then maybe Hampton Palace? I probably would not get the London Pass but if you can't get a refund, look at a map and do a blitz of sights that are close together.

I'm interested in knowing why people don't think the London Pass is worth buying. I've never bought it, I was just wondering.

It isn't worth it for most people. One reason -- sure it covers a boatload of sites. But MANY are second or third tier that most people would never visit on the typical 5-7 day London Stay. They sort of overwhelm one w/ this looooooooong list of sites but in 'Real Life' one can really only get to two major sites a day. So w/ a 2-day LP one <i>might</i> get to 4 biggies and one or two minor/smaller sites. But a two day LP costs more than just paying for those 4 major sites.

In order to get value for money you'd have to go at a dead run and hit as may sites as possible.

One of the biggest reasons (as long as there are at least two traveling together) is -- the Days Out 2for1 discounts save a TON of money.

<<I'm interested in knowing why people don't think the London Pass is worth buying. I've never bought it, I was just wondering.>>

You don't have enough time for a full explanation.

Look: there are DOZENS of major (and minor) museums in London that charge zero admission. The list includes:

British Museum
British Library
Imperial War Museum
Museum of London
National Maritime Museum
National Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Victoria & Albert Museum

Just above are 10 museums more notable than 99% of the world's offerings (this is not an exaggeration - there are more than 30,000 museums in the US). Your combined cost for entry is NOTHING. Already the question arises - why do you need the London Pass?

Sites that do charge (Westminster Abbey, the Eye, Churchill War Rooms, Tower, Hampton Court Palace, Windsor Castle, St. Paul's) often have available discounts or are full day trips or both (Windsor is a full day trip, HCP is a day trip and has discounts available). Even going to them a la carte and buying your own travelcard (e.g., St. Paul's and the Abbey) would cost less than as part of a two-day London Pass.

Transport is easily purchased for far less than the included travelcard (or whatever it is) on the London Pass. And if there are two or more visitors, you have the 2for1 offers available on the Days Out Guide website.

This is just a summary. Bloody rip off.

Don't you need a National Rail train ticket to use the Days Out 2for1? I'm not defending the London Pass, I'm just doing research. For those coming to London from outside the UK, how do you get around the train ticket requirement?

>>Don't you need a National Rail train ticket to use the Days Out 2for1? I'm not defending the London Pass, I'm just doing research. For those coming to London from outside the UK, how do you get around the train ticket requirement?<<

If you read any one of the maybe 1,000 threads about this issue (only a slight exaggeration) , you'll learn that a paper travel card bought at any London train station qualifies for the 2-for-1 deals. And can be used for travel around London instead of using an Oyster.

"how do you get around the train ticket requirement?"

Eh?

Practically no-one can exist in London without a public transport pass. The cost and convenience of a Travelcard bought from a National Rail ticket office is scarcely distinguishable from an Oystercard, unless you're as obsessive about minutiae as a daily commuter would be.

That's the point.If there are two of you visiting London, most important things to see are free: practically everything else is half-price

the London Pass has "a free 100% refund on all passes bought online" according to the official site - why not refund it and save a lot of money.

Shame on London tourist authorities for allowing such a rip-off to be sold - sounds criminal to me (though if you did use all the things covered it would be a good deal - IF!

I would look at a guidebook or on the destinations information on this website and decide what sights/museums etc. appeal most to you. We can then offer suggestions based on your preferences.

We used the hoho once.. horrible.. round about routes.. hard to switch routes.. we waited and waited for buses.. hate it.

We also bought one day travel cards,,, loved them.. and yes. we were able to use it for a two for one admission to the Tower of London.. excellent site.

Every other thing we have done other then Hampton Court.. have been free.. and that's over 5 visits now..

My favorite free sites are :

Imperial War Museum ( this is top because it really was so interesting.. loved the new WW section, and the section on Holocaust and How the British lived during the war.

Victoria and Albert Museum ( my second fave)

British Museum

Natural History Museum

Portrait Museum .. I know its sounds boring.. but with the audio guide ( think that was a few pounds to rent.. but worth it) it really made it interesting..

Tate Museum

We also enjoyed wandering through Hyde Park.. free and well worth a few hours..


We have also enjoyed some daytrips ( train tickets of course not free,, but bought in advance can be cheap) ..

Bath, Canterbury and Brighton..

Did one bus tour to Stonehenge,and Salsibury. probably my least favorite outlay of money.

"Shame on London tourist authorities for allowing such a rip-off to be sold - sounds criminal to me (though if you did use all the things covered it would be a good deal - IF!"

If they can make money from people who have "lack of knowledge" then they will, I think train fares are based on the same system, just my personal opinion of course.

trust me on this one, get the Fodor's 25 best LONDON ( what to see, where to go, what to do) Guide. It is fabulous! I have it too. I purchased the same when I went to Paris and it was my bible. Easy to carry and it has an awesome map inside that is laminated so it will stand the weather and handle of it.
Happy travels
Viri

I think for folks in London for a longer period could do worse than initially taking the Hop on Hop off buses as a way to orient yourself to London and get commentary en route - I too found it tediously slow at times due to London's horrendous traffic snarls but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

>>let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.<<

Let's do . . .

Well janis I disagree - such a tour is, like your Rabbies tours in Scotland, what some folks want - a running description of sights the bus passes by - seen from the open-top deck of a double-decker bus - I said for folks with several days in London IMO a good way to orient yourself.

Please try to put yourself in the shoes of a first-time novice traveler.

I am not anti HOHO .. I have taken a few in different places and enjoyed them very much.. but the one in London.. different creature.

A H-o-H-o in London crawls along and IMO is not a great way to see much of anything.