I love a good city pass when I’m sightseeing. I’ve found that if my goal is to hit the top tourist sites, this is often the most economical way to do it. I’ve used them in the pat in Montreal, New York City, Oahu, Vienna, Prague, and Dublin.

But the first time I ever used a City Pass was in London. In 2005. Celebrating graduating from college with a girls trip to England. And clearly I was won over (I suppose to both the City Pass products and – in the long run – this country).

Last year my best friend came to visit over the summer and England had been her dream vacation for years. So of course we had to hit all the big sites and immediately I thought of the London City Pass. Would it still be as good?

Yes. Yes it was.

Some of the really top tourist attractions in London are really pricey to check out. The Tower of London is £33.60. the Hop On Hop Off Bus is £37. Westminster Abbey is £27. That’s £97.60.

When the BFF was here, we did a 2 day pass and crammed those days with activities. A 2 day pass is currently £119. While she was visiting we planned to hit the activities below:

• Tower of London £33.60
• Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour £37
• The View from the Shard £37.00
• Westminster Abbey £27.00
• London Bridge Experience £31.95
• Tower Bridge £12.30
• Kensington Palace £25.40
• Brit Movie Tour £15.00
• Paul’s Cathedral £23.00

So that would’ve been £242.25

This is literally a no brainer.

There were also a few additional things that didn’t quite pan out but with a little more foresight could’ve. For instance, we didn’t utilize the 1 day River Roamers for the Uber Boat because I didn’t really understand the Uber boats yet. But I live in Woolwich and a one way ticket from Woolwich Pier to Central London is almost £10 alone. That would’ve been a really fun way to start the day – if not the most expedient way to get from attraction to attraction during the day (which, FYI, is probably walking. Bring very comfortable shoes).

Your Pass also comes with two Solve a Mystery games you can play that are worth £32 each. Those are packets that take you on London walking tour where you solve the mystery but you just stop by their location and pick up the packet. You can play it anytime – as in, on a day when you aren’t paying for your City Pass. One is based around Trafalgar Square locations and the other is around Buckingham Palace.

• Uber Boat by Thames Clippers 1-day River Roamer – £23
• Solve a Mystery: Murder at Trafalgar Square – £32
• Solve a Mystery: Murder at Buckingham Palace – £32

That would’ve been an additional £87, taking our activity total up to £329.25 for only £119.

In retrospect, I also would’ve skipped Kensington Palace. It’s quite far away from everything else and we felt very rushed going out there and then heading back to Zone 1 (London is divided into Zones and most attractions are in Central London – Zone 1). I think it would’ve been better to just go on a different day and pay the ticket price for it on that day.

Something that we could’ve replaced Kensington Palace with that were close to all the other things was Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Tour (£24).

The London Bridge Experience was also not nearly as good as The London Dungeon so if wildly cheesy horror experiences are your thing, you might want to pay a little more and go to the Dungeon instead.

I also would skip the Brit Movie Tour – we went on the Harry Potter one as hardcore Harry Potter fans and it was pretty lousy. I’d consider most tours pretty carefully because they can be quite long and eat into your time with Pass, as a long of places start to close around 6 PM. A few of the places that seem like they’d be open later may have time restrictions where your Pass was only good during certain hours, so definitely read The Essentials section of each activity. For instance, after a day full of many walking steps, we decided to use our London City Passes to sit for a bit and catch a move at the Curzon Soho in the evening only to learn it was only good to catch a show before 5 PM on the weekends. Some activities also required making a reservation in advance – this will also be mentioned in The Essentials section on the bottom of the Attraction page on the London City Pass website.

Some key things about the City Pass are:

• The more days you get one for, the easier it is to save.
• It’s worth switching to the map view to plan your days so you don’t spend tons of time walking back and forth across London. Also note that some of the activities like Windsor, Tottenham Stadium, or Eltham Palace are pretty far from Central London and probably only worth it is you’re buying like a week long City Pass.
• 2-3 Days is enough to catch most of big stops in London

Overall, I think the London City Pass is really one of the best of the bunch. I love a City Pass that lets you cram in as much as you can in a set timeframe rather than restricting you to a certain number of activities (like the New York City Pass).

The BFF is headed back later this summer and we’ll be looking more into what to do in London for free/on a budget, so if you like the London tourist updates, there will be another soon.

If you’re headed to any of these cities anytime soon, check out these reviews below:

• MontrealMTL
• New York City Pass
• GoOahu Card
• Vienna Pass
• Prague City Card