How to Use London Pass

The London Pass is a wise purchase for anyone planning to visit London, England and see some of the many tourist sites. If you buy the London Pass, you get into many of the popular sites in London for free. This is a great way to save money in London, especially with the falling rate of the dollar's value against the euro, which already makes a trip to England more expensive for an American. If you would like to find out more about the London Pass and how to make the most of it, read on.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Map of London and surrounding area
• Map of subway and bus routes in London
• Idea of places you wish to visit in London and nearby London and tentative itinerary

1. 
    
   Visit Windsor Castle with London Pass

   Visit the website for the London Pass, listed in the Resources section below. Look around the site to see what types of attractions you can visit with the London Pass. For example, the pass will get you in free to see the London Zoo, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and Kensington Palace.

2. Know that it could still pay to buy the pass even if you plan to only be in London for one day and will visit only three attractions, it could still pay to buy the pass. If it costs a total of 36 euros to buy the pass, and the three attractions individually would have cost 40 euro, you have saved more than eight dollars.

3. Purchase the pass online for anywhere between one and six days. These will be consecutive, even if you skip using the pass one or two days.

4. 
    
   Driving the streets of London during rush hour

   Add "with travel" to the pass. This means you will be able to ride the London underground trains, overground trains and buses in zones one to six in London as well as reach Windsor Castle (which is outside of London). It only costs a few dollars extra and is worth not having the hassle of trying to drive through the crowded streets of London.

5. Determine how long you will be visiting London and how many days you will want to use the pass consecutively. When you purchase, purchase only the amount of days in which you will be doing your sightseeing of London attractions.

6. Purchase the pass online. You will put on the date you first plan to use it as the start date on the card. Then, wait to receive the pass in the mail with a pocket-sized guidebook and map.

Use the Pass

7. Look over everything that came with the pass, such as the guidebook and maps. Familiarize yourself with what the London pass gets you into and where some of the places are.

8. Determine where you would like to visit and how many days you have on your pass. If you have six days, divide your attractions into six sections. If you have two days, divide your attractions into two sections on the map.

9. 
    
   Tower Bridge in London at Night

   Develop an itinerary by using the map and bus/train routes to figure out where to start and where to go next, etc. Have an itinerary for each day. Planning and mapping out your route ahead of time is a key to ensuring you make it to all of the attractions.

10. Once you arrive in London, get a sense of your surroundings and how to use the trains. Ask for more information at your hotel the day before you start to use the pass. No use comes out of spending the first two hours of your pass trying to figure out how to get to the subway station.

11. Enjoy using the pass and saving money.

Tips & Warnings

• When purchasing the pass, it's a good idea to plan to use the pass only on days when you have a full day. If you only have a couple of hours, you probably won't make it to enough places to make the pass worthwhile.
• Know the hours that each attraction is open. If you are planning to visit Kensington Palace and see the guards, you will need to be there from about 10 am to 12 pm, for example. And, if you're going there in the offseason, the guards only come out every other day so you'll need the schedule.
• Take the London Pass local phone number with you, 0870 242 9988, in case you have any problem using the pass at any of the attractions.
• It is very difficult to drive the streets of London with a rental car. Buy the 'with travel' on your pass, and ride the buses and subway. It's much easier and more effective to get around quickly and easily.
• If you feel you must drive, be careful not to go on a road that is reserved for buses during certain times. They will get your tag number and send the rental car a ticket you must pay (which for us ended up being about $130 plus the $30 charged by the rental car company!)
• When developing your itinerary, make sure you give yourself time to see each site. Don't think that you're going to be able to visit a site in an hour if this is unreasonable

Resources

• London Pass website