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The allure and free availability of foreign travel these days has tended to cloud the attractions of destinations closer to home. Turning our eyes away from the distant west for once we recently spent a delightful week in London on a City break holiday. Even though it was April, the weather was cold and windy but dry and we filled our time with a variety of activities. I had no problem finding accommodation in the heart of the city (we booked an apartment two minutes away from Trafalgar Square; two minutes walk from Embankment Station with a view of the London Eye from the front room!). We also braved the vagaries of rail travel and found quite exceptional value travelling Weekend First from the North East.
Despite planning, reading guide books and asking friends and travel agents it is often a problem navigating the transport system and choosing from the list of sights to see and things to do – especially in an area the size of Greater London. I had some experience of a City Pass on a visit to Amsterdam last year and my investigations on the internet found a similar scheme – “The London Pass”.
The scheme is run by the Leisure Pass Group and ordering can be done from their
website (http://www.londonpass.com). It is available in 1-, 2-, 3- and 6-day versions - with or without transport – and there is a cheaper rate for children. The pack consists of a Guide Book (three languages – English French and German), a Smart Card and a transport ticket. Together this provides travel on the City’s transport system (buses, all six regions of the Underground and certain of the ordinary rail network), admission to a wide range of attractions and vouchers giving discounts at other sites and restaurants.
The Smart Card is the central part of the package, initialised when you present it at your first port of call and then gaining you free admission thereafter. The 2- and 3- day travel tickets are valid for the appropriate number of consecutive days. The 6- day pass comes with a seven-day travel ticket. Usefully it can be used straight from your point of entry including Heathrow. The one day travel ticket is valid from 9am on the day of issue. The other varieties are valid for the full 24 hours.
ADMISSION FREE
The Guide Book contains descriptions of all the places on offer and these are divided up into sections (Places of Interest, Historic Buildings, Museums, Galleries). Within each section the items are subdivided by district. Each entry has a short description of the attraction with a guide map and travelling instructions.
The current edition covers 2002/2003 – maybe not a concern in itself but many of the “extra special” features do relate to the Queen’s Jubilee Year celebrations. Consequently many have already passed. A good example of this was the offer of free tickets to the tour of Buckingham Palace between August 5th and September 29th 2002 to 2-, 3- and 6-day pass holders. There is no evidence that the offer will be available again in 2003. Similarly there was a display of the Royal Wedding Dresses at Kensington Palace which the booklet advertises to April 1st 2003. We were fortunate that the facility had been extended for a further month.
The list of places of interest include the London Aquarium, HMS Belfast, Wimbledon Tennis Museum and Kew Gardens. There are a further nine venues in this section. The historic buildings include the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, The Royal Mews and St Paul’s Cathedral (plus thirteen others). The British, The Guards, The Jewish and London’s Transport (and ten more) make up the Museum list. There are six galleries including the Bankside and the National.
It is perhaps worthy of note some of the sites that are NOT included in the package. These include the Victoria and Albert Museum, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye.
There is a fifty minute courtesy narrated catamaran tour from the South Bank pier along the river to Tower Bridge and back. There is an alternative cruise on a narrow boat along Regent’s Canal from Little Venice to Camden Lock. There are also a number of escorted walking tours in the heart of London.
Many of the sites also offer free cakes with coffee, entry into additional exhibition, free loan of tape guides or discounts in the souvenir store.
10% OFF
The London Pass offers a discount on certain full price theatre tickets (bought on the day of the show). The current range includes “Les Miserables”, “My Fair Lady” and “Phantom of the Opera”.
There is free afternoon admission to the Curzon cinemas (Mayfair and Soho) and Richmond Film House. Sessions are available at a bowl, skating rink, go-kart track or Namco Station interactive entertainment complex.
Discounts are available on tickets for the river bus, Catamaran Thames dinner cruises and bicycle and roller blade hire.
Hamley’s toy shop offer a souvenir teddy bear with purchases of £20 or more.
Discounts on food are also offered at Planet Hollywood, Bagelmania and The Sea Shell fish and chip restaurant.
VALUE FOR MONEY
Our six day Pass cost us £104 each. The other prices are proportional - with and without travel. I would suggest you have a look at the web site for full details. It has to be said that many of the places in the guide (especially the museums and galleries) have some free admissions anyway but there are supplementary areas which also become free to pass holders. Many accept the Pass instead of a ticket at the main gate which obviates the need to join long queues.
We kept a close eye on the admission prices of the places that we visited (these ranged from £6.50 to £12). We probably did not make much of a profit over the whole week but we were rapidly aware of the simplicity and saving of having a multi-day travel pass (a single zone journey on the Underground is about £1.80; a cheap day return by rail to Hampton Court is £4.90). The Guide Book promises a possible total saving of about £350 (unrealistic of course as you would not be able to visit everything in the time available) but it also introduced us to places that we might never otherwise have discovered and we saw several places that we would have missed. There was also a feeling that we could ‘dip in and out’ – not lingering at places of lesser interest just because we had paid at the door.
Overall - quite a good package so long as you do your research before setting off. It has it's good points and some that could be tightened up for next time. Not quite as good value as the Amsterdam Pass - but then again the area concerned is smaller, the range of attractions mostly unfamiliar and the travel facilities more closely integrated.
[POSTSCRIPT: The Leisure Pass Group also offer similar packages to New York, Bath and York]
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I take a lot of London for granted now that I live there. I'm promising myself I'll take some time out to do some sightseeing ... before the stress of it all pushes me out of the city!
nfp2 18.04.2003 01:11
Cogent, clear, helpful. Nicely done.
nick
Schmutzie 16.04.2003 23:31
Excellent opinion. Great deal for people who mean to do as much as possible.
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Advantages: A wide range of transport available for getting around in LONDON!, Travel card cheapest way to travel... Disadvantages: Can get busy, tacky buses/trains, can get hot....
Advantages: A wide range of transport available for getting around in LONDON!, Travel card cheapest way to travel... Disadvantages: Can get busy, tacky buses/trains, can get hot....
Advantages: Buses and trains come evry 15 minutes and taxis r found evrywhere. Disadvantages: The buses and trains are very dirty and some have broken seats.
very helpful by (100%):
