London Attraction Passes

[msled]

We will be in London for a couple of days before and a couple of days after our cruise.  I have multiple attractions I would like to buy advance passes to.  I have checked and we are not visiting enough places for the London Pass or others like that to benefit us.   But, I'm wondering if I should buy our tickets for each attraction individually from their official website or does anyone recommend a website to buy from that may have some other benefit or price difference?   visitBritian.com and getyourguide.com are a couple I've seen but I don't know if there is any drawback or benefit.

Thanks

[GlennaRoseGoes]

I prefer to buy direct....other consolidator sites ( can’t speak for the specific ones you mention, but this is often the case) tend to not give you a ticket but rather a voucher that must be exchanged somewhere for a ticket. Why try to find that window and wait in line? To me, I buy online in advance not to save a few bucks but to save time by not waiting in the ticket window line. 

[Blondilu]

9 hours ago, GlennaRoseGoes said:

I prefer to buy direct....other consolidator sites ( can’t speak for the specific ones you mention, but this is often the case) tend to not give you a ticket but rather a voucher that must be exchanged somewhere for a ticket. Why try to find that window and wait in line? To me, I buy online in advance not to save a few bucks but to save time by not waiting in the ticket window line. 

Same here.  With few exceptions the lines at the ticket window are long.  So I will buy my tickets from the individual websites for all those things I know we will visiting on specific days.  I'll wing it and stand in line only if we're not sure whether or not we will actually end up visiting a place on a given day.

[msled]

Good advice.  Thank you!

I got stuck right off looking at a ticket for the Tower of London.  Specifically, the one on tripadvisor was £7 more but said 'skip the long lines'.  Didn't know if that was something worth it or just the same skip by not going to the ticket window.  Misleading I think

[Bob++]

At the T of L  The unbooked visitor faces a long, sometimes very long queue at the ticket windows followed by another queue to actually get into the castle. 

 

If you buy a ticket in advance and make your visit early, you can walk past the first queues and the second should be fairly short.

 

It's not just getting in either. At busy times the queue for the Crown Jewels is horrendous and even getting up to the Bloody Tower is difficult.

 

Buy in advance and be there at opening time is my advice.

[OfcSupport]

Can you purchase your ticket online and then use your mobile phone for entrance at these places?

[GlennaRoseGoes]

22 minutes ago, OfcSupport said:

Can you purchase your ticket online and then use your mobile phone for entrance at these places?

Sometimes. Some places (like T of L) very clearly state you must print out your ticket and bring it with you. 

[FSU Girl]

We bought our Tower of London ticket when we got there and didn’t wait long, but it was a crowded day. If you do buy day of I recommend trying to get there early, we arrived when they opened. Crowds definitely increased as the day went on. I bought most tickets online in advance, but had issues buying tickets for the historical sites it wouldn’t charge my card online. 

[cft8]

We considered the London Pass, but ultimately decided to just book things on our own, since we were going to be out of London for a full day at Highclere Castle and also taking a full day to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. 

 

We were going to Kensington Palace, the Tower of London, and Hampton Court Palace, so I purchased a membership to Historic Royal Palaces. The membership for two was cheaper than admission for two to those three places and we also got a 10% discount in shops and restaurants at those places (although I forgot to use it at Kensington Palace). 

 

We also purchased our tickets to Westminster Abbey from the Abbey website - this is the only way you get to skip the entrance line - immediately after security you are directed in to the Abbey. Also you save £2 pounds per person. 

 

We were there in August, so both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House were open, and I booked those directly as well. Our Clarence House tickets never came, but they were able to look up our booking and reprint them. 

 

Oh, and we booked the London Eye direct. 

Edited June 3, 2019 by cft8