The London Pass: London´s best-known sightseeing pass

The London Pass is London’s best-known sightseeing pass and offers great savings if you’re planning on visiting a number of London attractions during a trip to London. This sightseeing pass also gives you fast-track entry to selected attractions, allowing you to skip the queues by simply showing your pass at the entrance. With no need to queue up at every attraction, you will save valuable time which can be better spent exploring even more of London.

In this article we will explain how this sightseeing pass works and whether it’s worth buying it. We will also discuss how to get the most out of it when visiting London. We even have a promo code for you to use to save 10% when you buy a London Pass.

What is The London Pass?

The London Pass is a sightseeing pass that gives you free entry to more than 80 attractions in London. This includes famous attractions, guided tours, paid museums and other places of interest in London. You can buy a London Sightseeing Pass for 1, 2, 3, 6 or 10 days. It’s possible to buy an actual card to carry with you, or you can choose to download a digital version to use with your mobile phone.

The actual card works like a bank card with a data chip inside. You’ll normally receive a lanyard and a plastic wallet which you can wear around your neck, so you have the card easily to hand at each of the attractions. You will probably spot a lot of tourists walking around in London wearing them.

Alternatively, there is an app you can download onto your mobile phone, enabling you to use a digital version instead. Once you have purchased the pass online, you will be emailed a reference number which enables you to download the pass onto your phone. You’ll just need to show the pass on your phone at the entrance to each attraction. It’s possible to add multiple passes on one app on the same phone, ideal for families and groups, so you don’t all have to carry a phone with the app.

Attractions included in the London Pass in 2023

This sightseeing pass gives you free entry to more than 80 attractions in London. Some of the most-famous attractions included with the London Pass are:

• Tower of London
• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• The View from The Shard
• HMS Belfast
• London Transport Museum
• London Zoo
• Thames River boat cruise
• Tower Bridge Exhibition
• Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
• Westminster Abbey

  

• Kensington Palace
• Windsor Castle
• Hampton Court Palace
• Kew Gardens
• Greenwich Observatory
• Cutty Sark
• Royal Mews
• Wembley Stadium
• Arensal FC stadium tour

  

• Chelsea FC stadium tour
• Hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus tour
• Churchill War Rooms
• Tower Bridge Exhibition
• Charles Dicken’s Museum
• The Guard’s Museum

Attractions not included in the London Pass

There are a couple of attractions that are not included in the pass. You will need to buy tickets separately for these:

• The London Eye
• Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The pass includes entry to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum during the winter months. Check the official website to see if it’s included.

Fast-Track entry to Top London Attractions with the London Pass

One of the best things about this sightseeing pass is that you can get fast-track entry to some of the attractions. You will therefore save valuable time not having to queue up at every attraction you want to visit. All you need to do, is show your card or app version at the attraction entrance.  This is a great benefit of having the London Pass as the queues for attractions can get pretty long and with so much to see in London, your time is precious.

London Sightseeing Pass + Travel Option

When you buy the sightseeing pass on their website, there is the option to purchase a London Pass on its own or ‘with Travel’. The travel inclusive option provides you with a London Pass (the sightseeing pass, which includes entrance to the attractions) PLUS an Oyster Travelcard which you will be to use to pay for traveling in London when you use London’s public transport.

The website says that an “Oyster Travelcard” is included when you choose this option. But I think this can be a bit confusing, as in London you can use an Oyster Card or a Travelcard to get around using public transport. So I would like to clarify that what you actually get is a Visitor Oyster Card with a pre-loaded set daily amount (according to the number of days you are buying the London Pass for).

An Oyster Card is what we would normally recommend you use when visiting London to use to travel by public transport. It can be used across the travel network in London on trains, buses, DLR, and the underground. A visitor oyster card works the same as an Oyster Card, but it also has some benefits for tourists.

⇒ Check out how Oyster Cards and Visitor Oyster Cards work here: Oyster Card.

Choosing the London Sightseeing Pass with or without travel: Advice and examples

If you choose to buy the ‘London Pass with travel’ option, it’s worth knowing that the London Pass and the Oyster Card are totally separate and they can be used separately. The visitor Oyster Card comes pre-loaded with a set balance which depends on the number of days you have chosen.

The balance on the oyster card can be used on other days, not just the days that you will be using the sightseeing pass. If you use up all the balance you will be able to top up your credit on the Oyster Card at any London Underground station. Exactly the same as if you had bought a normal oyster card.

You will be able to use the visitor Oyster Card provided for the entire time you’re staying in London, regardless of how many days you bought the sightseeing pass for.

For Example:

• Let´s say that you are visiting London for 5 days
• And that you have bought The London Pass + Travel Option for 3 days

In this case, you can still use the Oyster Card for the 2 days that you are in London but not actually using the sightseeing pass, either before or after you activate or use the London Pass.

However, do bear in mind that whilst it’s convenient to buy both together, you will pay additional management fees doing it through London Pass and you might not need the entire value of the balance that comes pre-loaded.

Balance included on the Visitor Oyster Card when bought with The London Pass

• 1 Day Sigthseeing Pass + Travel = balance of £10
• 2 Day Sigthseeing Pass + Travel = balance of £15
• 3 Day Sigthseeing Pass + Travel = balance of £25
• 6 Day Sigthseeing Pass + Travel = balance of £40
• 10 Day Sigthseeing Pass + Travel = balance of £50

An example: Comparing prices with Travel Option added to a London Pass

A 3 Day London Pass for 2023 costs £125 on its own and £155 if bought with the travel option. Therefore, the cost of the Oyster Card is £30, which is £25 travel balance (see above) + a £5 administration fee.

If you are going to be in London for more than 3 days and you still have balance remaining on your card, you can use it for getting around London for the entire length of your stay, as well as topping up the same card with additional balance when needed.

However, if you are only going to be in London for 3 days, look at it this way…

The daily cap on an Oyster Card for travel within London Travel Zones 1 & 2 is £6.50. This would be a total of £19.50 over 3 days (as long as you stay in travel zones 1 and 2). The deposit for a standard Oyster Card is £5. A normal oyster card can be returned if bought over 58 hours ago, so you could potentially get a refund for the deposit, whereas you won’t be able to get a refund for the visitor oyster card acquired with the sightseeing pass. So, if you buy a Visitor Oyster Card at the same time as the sightseeing pass, you will actually be paying an additional £10.

Conclusion

If you are buying the sightseeing pass online, the possibility of including an oyster card at the same time can be very convenient as you will be able to receive both the sightseeing pass and the Oyster Card at home by post before you travel to London. This saves you having to worry about buying an oyster card when you get to London.

However, there is no real difference and you are not actually saving money when you buy both together this way. So you can consider buying the sightseeing pass on its own before you travel and getting an Oyster Card (or a Travelcard if it suits you more) once you get to London.

⇒ Check out our guide: Choosing between an Oyster Card or a Travelcard when visiting London

London Pass Prices 2023

The sightseeing pass is valid for 12 months from the date that you purchase it, so it’s possible to buy the pass well in advance. The pass will be activated the first time you use it at an attraction and will be valid in consecutive days for the duration that you have chosen.

London Pass Promo Code – save 10%

We are delighted to be able to offer you a 10% discount on 3 and 6-day London Sigthseeing Passes, with or without travel. (The discount is only applied to the pass and isn’t valid on the Oyster Card cost).

To obtain your discount, go to the official website, and choose the days you want and the number of passes. On page 4 of the checkout (Additional Products), it will allow you to add a promo code. Add our promo code which is QVERLONDRES, and your discount will be applied automatically.

Is the London pass worth it?

One of the things we get asked the most is whether this sightseeing pass is actually worth the money. Our answer is that to get the most out of this sightseeing pass, you really have to plan your day well to make sure that you visit as many attractions as possible.

When planning your sightseeing itinerary, it’s important to take into account the distance between the attractions, and how many attractions you can realistically visit in a day. Since many of the attractions in London are located quite close to one other, it is possible to see several in the same day.

We recommend making a list of the London attractions that you know you want to visit, calculating the entrance cost for each of the attractions separately, and then comparing the total with the price of the Sightseeing Pass.

Ways to get the most out of the London Pass

To make this easier for you, we have prepared some suggested itineraries to get the most out of this London Sightseeing Pass. We have designed sightseeing routes for 1, 2 and 3 days which include the most important attractions in London and we have also highlighted the must-see attractions if you have a pass for 6 or 10 days. We designed these when planning a week-long visit for our friends, so that they could make the most of their time on the days that we had to work.

⇒ For more information check out the official website: London Pass official website.