Has anyone bought the "London Pass"?

[KaDarr]

We will have one day and overnight day on our Viking British Isles Explorer cruise plus a two day extension in London. I was wondering if the London Pass that I can buy through Viator is a good way to see the city. The reviews swing from horrible to excellent.

[markeb]

Hard question to answer, but probably not. The passes generally have their greatest value if you're planning to visit a large number of attractions that the pass covers. But in the time you're talking about, you probably don't have time to make it worthwhile. 

 

Look at the attractions you want to visit in your two days (I'm pretty sure the passes are consecutive days; is this 3 1/2 consecutive days or is your time split?). Look at their admission costs. Look at free attractions (no cost to walk around Buckingham Palace, visit Horse Guards, etc.). Divide the number of attractions you were originally considering by 2, then add up the costs and compare to the cost of the pass. And realize you probably want to experience London rather than simply rack up time in various attractions. 

 

If you look at the example on the London Pass web page, you would not stop in order to save that GBP 82. HOHO busses are horrible means of transportation so using them to get to the Tower would be a major waste of time. Nor would you see Buckingham Palace, walk along the Strand or the South Bank or visit Hyde Park, etc. You might be able to crowd in a West End show, if you can stay awake. The pass doesn't include the London Eye, for instance. The view from the Shard probably replaces that.

 

I've done passes in Amsterdam when we were there for over a week, and got my money's worth from them. But I'm harder pressed to do that in London.

[KaDarr]

Also looking at the Oyster Card for London. We will be there for three days (one still as guests on the ship, one day where we will check into our hotel, and the next day a full day in London on our own). I see that you have to load a chosen amount of pounds sterling onto your card to pay for transportation as you go. What would be a good amount of money to load onto card per day or for three days?

 

[fruitmachine]

39 minutes ago, KaDarr said:

Also looking at the Oyster Card for London. We will be there for three days (one still as guests on the ship, one day where we will check into our hotel, and the next day a full day in London on our own). I see that you have to load a chosen amount of pounds sterling onto your card to pay for transportation as you go. What would be a good amount of money to load onto card per day or for three days?

 

If you have a contactless credit or debit card each (or Apple or Google pay), then just use that.  It caps out the fares just like an Oyster card.  There are a few restrictions on which cards work, though you'll know instantly if there is a problems, in which case just buy the Oyster card.  Full details here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay-and-where-to-buy-tickets-and-oyster/pay-as-you-go/contactless-and-mobile-pay-as-you-go

[phabric]

I purchased the London Pass with Oyster card my first visit to London.  They list many, many places to visit.  You can only visit so many places in a day.  I felt we did not get our money worth buying the London Pass.
 

Check the attractions listed and see what you want to visit. Go to the attractions website and calculate the entrance price and see if it is worth it purchasing the London Pass.

 

I found we did save time having the London Pass at the Tower of London as there was a long line to purchase tickets.

 

On our next visits, I used the London Pass to find places we wanted to visit.  I would go to the website of the place we wanted to visit and pre purchase their tickets online.

 

I did purchase the Oyster card for each of us, maybe £20 each.  I had enough leftover for our part of my next visit.  When it was low,  I added more £ to it at a store.

Edited January 19, 2023 by phabric

[Turtles06]

41 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

If you have a contactless credit or debit card each (or Apple or Google pay), then just use that.  It caps out the fares just like an Oyster card. 

 

There is of course a certain convenience to that, but, as a traveler, I would not want to have a credit or debit card as readily accessible in public (especially crowded public places) as it would need to be for this purpose (touching in and out on each trip).  And that's not even considering foreign conversion fees, though I hope anyone traveling internationally has a credit card that does not charge such fees.

 

1 hour ago, KaDarr said:

Also looking at the Oyster Card for London. We will be there for three days (one still as guests on the ship, one day where we will check into our hotel, and the next day a full day in London on our own). I see that you have to load a chosen amount of pounds sterling onto your card to pay for transportation as you go. What would be a good amount of money to load onto card per day or for three days?

 

My wife and I have found the Oyster Card to be a good choice for several days in London. We generally load it with £20, and can also add more if need be. Also, if you wind up with money left on the card at the end of your visit, and don't think you'll ever be returning to London, you can get a refund of up to £10.  (If you think you'll be back, keep the card, it doesn't expire.  🙂)

 

https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/oyster-faqs/how-to-get-a-refund

 

Have a great trip!

 

[gnome12]

There are 2 kinds of Oyster cards; the ones the locals use and a visitor one.

 

The visitor one costs £5 plus whatever you put on it. You can get a refund of unused credit, although only up to £10 from a tube station ticket machine. You can also get a refund at a visitor centre; not clear if you can get more than £10 back there. You will NOT get back your £5. The visitor oyster card also comes with some discounts which may or may not be of use to you.

 

The regular Oyster card costs £7, but if you cash in the balance you get the cost back, in addition to the credit on your card. (I used my card to get from my hotel to Heathrow, and stopped at a ticket window on the way out to turn in my card and collect my refund.) On arrival in London, I picked my card up at the ticket window of the first tube station that I entered; they are available everywhere.

 

Both the visitor and regular oyster card have a daily cap of £7.70.

 

Like @Turtles06 I would never use a credit card for this purpose; if you lose an oyster card your loss is limited to the amount on the card. Losing your credit card can be much more of a problem.

[MeHeartCruising]

What I did was to leverage the current technology of a smart phone.  In my case, my iPhone.  As mentioned above, The London Tube supports contactless credit cards.  The iPhone supports registering that card into its wallet app.  In the iPhone settings, You then designate that card as your primary transit card. I use a Capital One card with zero international fees. 
 

Then you simply tap your phone on the contactless sensors as you enter/exit the trains — just like you would do with an Oyster card.  Easy peasy.  Your card will be charged for that particular journey. 
 

You can find full details on this on the London transit website.  Many cities now support this functionality.  I had this all set up in advance of my trip.  I exited immigration and went directly to a train at Heathrow, tapped my phone, and got on a train into London. 
 

Subsequent Tube journeys worked fine as well.  I never had to guess in advance how much I needed to load on to my card. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[markeb]

@MeHeartCruising Don't want to confuse the OP, but you were able to use your iPhone (locked) as a primary transit card on TFL? That's a feature not all transit systems offer (tried it in Singapore last summer and it was a royal pain; had to unlock the phone and select the card). We "should" still have two Oysters around the house, but I've only seen one of them...

 

If I can set a card for transit use, that's a great bonus!

[MeHeartCruising]

9 hours ago, markeb said:

@MeHeartCruising Don't want to confuse the OP, but you were able to use your iPhone (locked) as a primary transit card on TFL? That's a feature not all transit systems offer (tried it in Singapore last summer and it was a royal pain; had to unlock the phone and select the card). We "should" still have two Oysters around the house, but I've only seen one of them...

 

If I can set a card for transit use, that's a great bonus!

 

Yes.  Here's how it should work.  Specifically, the transit agency needs to support "Express Transit Mode".  Transport for London (the agency behind The Tube) supports this.  I believe if they don't support Express Transit Mode, then you have to unlock the phone and select a card first.  The FAQ at the bottom of the page lists agencies that support the mode.  Although, it doesn't appear to be an exhaustive list since I also used it on the Chicago L trains and they don't seem to be on the FAQ list.

 

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-pay/transport/

 

Here is the TfL site that discusses it, but it doesn't go into details as to how the phone works.  They point you to the Apple site above.

 

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay-and-where-to-buy-tickets-and-oyster/pay-as-you-go/contactless-and-mobile-pay-as-you-go

 

Also, note that you must specify one of your cards for Express Transit Mode inside the iOS Wallet settings.  If you didn't do that prior to trying in Singapore, that could also explain why it didn't work for you.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[markeb]

Thanks. It turned out the MRT in Singapore wasn't a participating transit system, at least at that time. It was the first time I'd tried it, and my only contactless credit card was an AMEX which MRT wouldn't accept. Worked fine, but I had to unlock the phone (mandatory mask use at the time). Good to know that TFL participates!

[Island2Dweller]

"The regular Oyster card costs £7, but if you cash in the balance you get the cost back"

This is no longer true - rules have changed - you will not get that cost back if you try to cash it in.  If you keep the card, after a year (but not before) the £7 converts to usable credit.

 

Oyster was revolutionary when it was introduced two decades ago but it is now considered "old tech".  It still works but the majority of fares in London are now paid by contactless card or phone.  You can travel to more places around London using card/phone than you can with oyster.

[Island2Dweller]

"I was wondering if the London Pass that I can buy through Viator is a good way to see the city."

Not value for most people.  Many major attractions (museums etc) are free.  Of the paid attractions, you would need to rush from venue to venue to get "value".  And for the transport element, it's easier/cheaper to just use your contactless card or phone - you never actually hold a physical travel ticket

[nini]

You really are not there long enough. We were in London for 3 days and it would have not been worth it.

[Joanne G.]

On 1/19/2023 at 11:17 AM, Turtles06 said:

 

There is of course a certain convenience to that, but, as a traveler, I would not want to have a credit or debit card as readily accessible in public (especially crowded public places) as it would need to be for this purpose (touching in and out on each trip).  And that's not even considering foreign conversion fees, though I hope anyone traveling internationally has a credit card that does not charge such fees.

 

 

My wife and I have found the Oyster Card to be a good choice for several days in London. We generally load it with £20, and can also add more if need be. Also, if you wind up with money left on the card at the end of your visit, and don't think you'll ever be returning to London, you can get a refund of up to £10.  (If you think you'll be back, keep the card, it doesn't expire.  🙂)

 

https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/oyster-faqs/how-to-get-a-refund

 

Have a great trip!

 

My feelings exactly.   And for the same reason, I wouldn't want to use my phone, either.   I used an Oyster every day on a London vacation last summer and found it very convenient, while my credit cards and phone stayed safely in my purse.  It was easy to monitor the balance as remaining funds were displayed with every tap.   I kept it for my short pre- and post-cruise visits next summer. 

 

As for the London Pass, I agree with others who say you probably wouldn't get your money's worth for just a few days, and typically those days have to be consecutive.   Decide which sites you most want to see and see plan accordingly.   Usually, you can buy timed tickets in advance (Westminster Abbey, the Tower, Buckingham Palace if it's open, London Eye) in order to avoid standing in lines.  

[Turtles06]

48 minutes ago, Joanne G. said:

Decide which sites you most want to see and see plan accordingly.   Usually, you can buy timed tickets in advance (Westminster Abbey, the Tower, Buckingham Palace if it's open, London Eye) in order to avoid standing in lines.  

 

Exactly.   And I want to strongly recommend to the OP @KaDarr  something that doesn't get discussed much: the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.  This is the 700-year-old nightly locking up of the Tower (from 9:30pm till about 10pm) by the Yeoman Warders. Only 50 tickets are made available to the public each night (nominal fee of £5.00 per ticket) and they are snapped up quickly when released (generally on the first working day of the month for the entire following month, i.e., in May for June).  See link below.

 

We saw the Ceremony this fall and it was a fantastic experience.  Incredible simply to be in the Tower at night with no one else there, and then Ceremony on top of that.  All that history.  Kind of made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

 

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.ntgrni

[nadeki]

I would not recommend the London Pass. I bought it for six people for five days last June. We did not come close to getting our moneys worth. I struggled to find what was included and ended up purchasing passes to places that wold have been free. At the Shard we ended up paying more to get the VIP pass to go up thirty minutes earlier as they are time entrances and there was no exception for a pass holder.

 

It was too much to try and plan times etc and pack more into one day.

 

We have used the Oyster card in the past. This time we used taxis everywhere. It was not cheap but not as bad as US prices.

 

 

[KaDarr]

Thank you everyone for your help. I think we're going to forego the London Pass. We'll purchase Oyster Cards before we go. I don't really like the thought of having to whip out my credit or debit card several times a day. I can be really forgetful and wouldn't trust myself not to lose it. 

[Island2Dweller]

We'll purchase Oyster Cards before we go

Suggest you don't.  Buying these and having them shipped costs far more than buying on arrival, and the visitor version has less features than the regular one that you buy on arrival.  You can buy at any tube station, really easy.

Your reluctance to use a bank card is noted but if it reassures you, using card or phone is now the dominate payment method.  Oyster still works but it is now "old tech" and costs you an extra £7 that you don't need to pay if you just use a bank card.

[gnome12]

42 minutes ago, Island2Dweller said:

Your reluctance to use a bank card is noted but if it reassures you, using card or phone is now the dominate payment method.

The difference is if something happens to the card while away, it is not very easy to get it replaced quickly. I have only one credit card that doesn't charge foreign exchange fees; losing it would be a major inconvenience on vacation.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Island2Dweller said:

Your reluctance to use a bank card is noted but if it reassures you, using card or phone is now the dominate payment method.  Oyster still works but it is now "old tech" and costs you an extra £7 that you don't need to pay if you just use a bank card.

 

1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

The difference is if something happens to the card while away, it is not very easy to get it replaced quickly. I have only one credit card that doesn't charge foreign exchange fees; losing it would be a major inconvenience on vacation.

Exactly. It would be bad enough to have a bank card stolen or lost in your own community, but it would be a whole extra hassle when you are traveling. 

[MeHeartCruising]

I'm not going to say the next paragraph with the intention of changing anyone's mind about using their credit card or phone for the Tube payment.  I get it and I respect you decision.  Separately from that...

 

I would like to suggest that anyone traveling abroad take at least 1 backup credit card and perhaps 2 in case there is a loss, damage, malfunction, etc. to your primary payment card.  I travel with 3 credit cards.  Two are in my wallet.  The third I hide somewhere in my luggage/backpack in case it's needed.  You never know.  All 3 of my cards are ones that have no international travel fees on transactions.  2 of these 3 cards are never used except for international travel.  

 

I also carry 2 debit cards for the same reason.  ATM's have been known to eat debit cards and I don't want to be left without a backup.

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, MeHeartCruising said:

I would like to suggest that anyone traveling abroad take at least 1 backup credit card and perhaps 2 in case there is a loss, damage, malfunction, etc. to your primary payment card.  I travel with 3 credit cards.  Two are in my wallet.  The third I hide somewhere in my luggage/backpack in case it's needed.  You never know.  All 3 of my cards are ones that have no international travel fees on transactions.  2 of these 3 cards are never used except for international travel. 

Unfortunately, here in Canada, there are not very many credit cards that don't have foreign exchange fees, which is why I have only one. (The banks make a lot of money off foreign exchange fees, and don't want to give up that lucrative area.) I always bring another card with me, but my intention is to only use the travel one.

[cyntil8ing]

If you are an advance planner and aren't set on certain sites that may not be included (like the London Eye), the London Pass can be cost-effective and it's certainly easy to use.

 

We got three day passes for our four days in London this past summer. Months before, our family of four each reviewed the huge list of included attractions, picking some must sees and some would be nice to sees. Then I planned it out logistically to hit three or four attractions each day. It was a lot of advance work, but our days were full and we got to see a lot of stuff. We did some things that we never would have without the pass, specifically the World Rugby Museum and Stadium Tour. My daughter is a college rugby player and I think it was her favorite stop. My husband's was a James Bond Walking Tour where we saw many of the locations from Bond movies.

 

We also had Oyster cards shipped with our passes. They came in less than a week.

 

I'd not likely do it again. It was a lot of work to make everything run smoothly. I can definitely see it not being worth it if you just want to wing it. But in our case, the planning was a big part of the anticipation for the trip. It got everyone involved and invested, which can be tough to do with teens.

[lynncarol]

As noted, the museums are free.  I did buy a one-day London Pass card when we were in London for 5 days this past fall.  The pass also gives you free rides on the Uber boat on the Thames River.  We took the underground to Tower of London where we skipped big admission lines with the pass, then hopped onto the Uber boat to go to the the Millenium Bridge, got off and walked across on the bridge to see St. Paul's Cathedral, got back on the boat and off to Westminster Cathedral stop.  All Very convenient with the London Pass.  Also, I agree with others: you do not need an Oyster Pass.  The contactless credit card worked perfectly and we never felt that  i was tempting theft while using it. However, my husband and I each used a different credit card as our Capital One card always gets suspicious if duplicate charges occur within a few minutes.