Frequently asked questions about London Sightseeing Passes 2026

There are several providers for London. The two best-selling are from Go City: The London Pass® with unlimited visits per day and the Explorer Pass with freely selectable attractions. In addition, there are the Merlin Multi Attraction Tickets as fixed combination packages, the Turbopass and the Headout Pass. Headout is not a classic sightseeing pass, but rather a series of individual tickets.

Both providers are from Go City and access almost the same pool of attractions. The difference is the model: the London Pass® gives you unlimited visits per day, you pay by days from 1 to 10. Explorer Pass works the other way round - you choose between 2 and 7 attractions and have 30 days to redeem them. As a rule of thumb, with three or more attractions per day, the London Pass® beats the Explorer Pass.

Take the London Pass® if you want to see 5 or more attractions, are travelling for several days at a time, want to visit Windsor Castle or want to stay spontaneously. Take the Explorer Pass if you want to see exactly 2 to 4 selected attractions at a relaxed pace and need time flexibility. For families with just a few attractions per day, the Explorer Pass is usually the best choice.

Yes, each person can choose the best sightseeing pass for them individually. The tickets do not have to be identical. For example, one family member can use the London Pass® while another chooses the Explorer Pass with fewer attractions.

Not always. A sightseeing pass is worthwhile as soon as the sum of your individual tickets is higher than the price of the pass. If you are only planning to visit one attraction for a fee or are using London mainly for pubs, shopping and free highlights such as the British Museum and the Tate Modern, individual tickets are often cheaper. With three to four attractions per day, on the other hand, you save considerably with a sightseeing pass.

The price depends solely on the chosen period of validity. Adults pay £99 for 1 day, £179 for 3 days and £279 for 10 days. Children from 5 to 15 years get the reduced children's price between £79 and £199. With the discount code LONDONCP05LP you save an additional 5 per cent.

The price of the Explorer Pass depends on the number of attractions selected. Adults pay £64 for 2 attractions and £159 for 7 attractions. Children from 5 to 15 years pay between £49 and £109. The code also applies here LONDONCP05 for a 5 per cent discount on gocity.com.

Yes, children aged 5 to 15 get their own, significantly cheaper children's price - with the 3-day London Pass®, for example £119 instead of £179 for adults. Children under the age of 5 are completely free and do not need their own ticket. This applies to both the London Pass® and the Explorer Pass.

For a family of two adults and two children aged 5 to 15, a 3-day London Pass® costs £596 - that's twice £179 for adults plus twice £119 for children. Children under the age of 5 are free. As families usually visit many attractions, the savings compared to individual tickets are particularly high here.

You can find the London Pass® on gocity.com and on londonpass.com - both are official Go City sites with the same base price. The main differences are the discount codes that apply and the currency displayed. We link to the londonpass.com version because it offers a 5 per cent discount with the code LONDONCP05LP apply.

Yes, the London Pass® automatically includes a two-day hop-on hop-off bus tour and a 24-hour Thames boat trip in the price - together a single value of approx. £81. Tube, buses and trains are not included. For normal local transport you also need an Oyster Card or pay contactless with a bank card.

The amounts shown are the regular individual prices for adults as a reference, mainly according to Go City. Daily prices may vary slightly for individual attractions or other providers, and some values are rounded or estimated. The prices are for comparison purposes so that you can see how quickly a sightseeing pass pays for itself compared to individual tickets.

No. There is only one London Pass®, which is priced differently depending on the validity period of 1 to 10 days. There is no „Plus“ variant or premium level. If you read about a London Pass® Plus on older pages or in forums, this is outdated or incorrect information.

All Sightseeing Passes are only activated when you visit the attraction for the first time, not when you buy them. You can therefore buy in advance and only use the ticket once you are in London. The London Pass® is best activated on the first full sightseeing day in the morning, as consecutive calendar days run from then on. With the Explorer Pass, the timing is not critical - you have 30 days after that.

Yes, the validity days of the London Pass® are consecutive - they run on consecutive calendar days from the first activation. If you use the London Pass® for the first time on Monday and have a 3-day pass, it is valid until Wednesday at midnight. So plan your sightseeing days in one go. If you need flexible days with breaks, you are better off with the Explorer Pass, which is valid for 30 days.

From the day you visit the first attraction, you have 30 days to redeem all other selected experiences. The Explorer Pass is not active before your first visit - you even have two years to activate it after your purchase. Ideal if you want to plan flexibly.

When you buy the pass, you simply choose the number of attractions – from 2 to 7 – rather than the specific experiences. You can then choose flexibly on the day using the Go-City app from a selection of around 77 attractions. This means you can be spontaneous and don’t have to decide in advance.

The London Pass® is an all-inclusive sightseeing pass - you can visit as many attractions per day of validity as you can manage logistically. In practice, 3 to 4 top attractions per day are realistic; more is possible if you start early and plan your journey times cleverly. Although there is a formal credit limit, this practically never plays a role for normal sightseeing tours.

All you need is your smartphone. The London Pass® and Explorer Pass are digital passes accessed via the Go City app. After purchase, you load the sightseeing pass into the app and have the QR code scanned at the entrance to each attraction. There’s no need to print anything out – just download the app before your trip and log in.

Yes for some attractions. Windsor Castle, The View from The Shard and Westminster Abbey require a pre-booked time slot even with a valid Sightseeing Pass. Book these via the Go City app or the attraction page a few days in advance. You can visit most other attractions spontaneously with the digital Sightseeing Pass.

At many major attractions such as the London Eye or Madame Tussauds, there are separate fast-track entry queues for holders of a sightseeing pass. On busy days, we also recommend making a free advance reservation via the Go City app - then you have a fixed time slot and go straight past the entrance.

If you visit fewer attractions than selected within the 30-day validity period, the remaining attractions expire - there is no partial refund. So plan realistically: it's better to choose a Explorer Pass with fewer attractions and spontaneously buy a fourth or fifth on site if you have the time and inclination.

The Turbopass is activated on your first visit to the attraction. The Turbopass City is then valid for the selected number of calendar days, similar to the London Pass®. The Turbopass Flex is valid for 30 days from activation, similar to the Explorer Pass.

The Headout Pass is valid for 30 days from the first activation, i.e. from the first attraction visit. Within these 30 days, you can redeem the attractions associated with your chosen rate.

Yes, both the London Pass® and the Explorer Pass can be cancelled free of charge 90 days after purchase as long as they have not yet been activated. The validity only starts with the first visit to the attraction. You can therefore buy both sightseeing passes in advance without any risk in the event of flight cancellations or other changes of plan.

You can change your booking free of charge up to 24 hours before your arrival. You can even change the date for the London Eye up to three times free of charge. However, tickets are non-refundable, so rebooking is more flexible than cancelling.

The cancellation rules differ for the two Turbopass products. With the Turbopass City cancellation is only possible as long as the ticket has not yet been used, no tickets have been issued and no reservations have been made - a cancellation fee of 30 € per ticket. At the Turbopass Flex You will receive a full refund as long as you have not yet selected or booked any attractions; once attractions have been booked, only a pro-rata refund will be given. Cancellations made less than 24 hours before the start date are non-refundable. This means that the cancellation window for both Turbopass variants is significantly shorter than the free 90-day cancellation period offered with the London Pass® and Explorer Pass.

The Headout Pass offers free cancellation before the start, i.e. before you have visited the first attraction. Once the ticket has been used, cancellation is no longer possible.

The Explorer Pass is best suited to most families. With children, you plan fewer attractions per day and need flexibility in terms of time. The Explorer Pass lets you choose between 2 and 7 highlights and gives you 30 days to redeem them. Only very active families who want to see a lot of attractions in a few days and also want to see Windsor Castle are better off with the London Pass®.

Children under the age of 5 travel free on the London Pass® and Explorer Pass and do not need their own sightseeing pass. Children aged between 5 and 15 are eligible for a reduced child fare. On the Explorer Pass, which covers 4 attractions, a child pays, for example, £79 instead of £109 like an adult.

Toddlers love exercise, animals and water. A Thames boat trip, the hop-on hop-off bus tour in the open top deck, the London Eye and London Zoo are all good choices. The SEA LIFE London Aquarium is also very popular - but this is only available with a Merlin Multi Attraction Ticket, not the Explorer Pass or the London Pass®.

One or two highlights per day are realistic. Children need breaks, meal times and enough sleep, and travelling between attractions takes time. If you plan more, you risk overtired children and stressed parents. This is precisely why the Explorer Pass, with its relaxed pace, suits families so well.

No. These three attractions belong to Merlin Entertainments and are not included in Explorer Pass or London Pass®. If they are the centre of attention for your children, a Merlin Multi Attraction Ticket is the better choice. It combines several Merlin attractions such as the London Eye, Madame Tussauds and SEA LIFE into one package price.

Visitors under the age of 15 may only enter London Dungeon if accompanied by a parent or guardian aged 18 or over. The scary scenes can have a frightening effect on younger children, so this attraction is more suitable for older children and teenagers.

No. None of the London Sightseeing Passes include an Oyster Card or Tube and bus travel. The passes only cover entry to attractions. For local transport you will need your own solution, most commonly the Visitor Oyster Card or contactless payment by bank card.

Currently not. There used to be offers with an integrated Travelcard, but this combination has been discontinued. Today you pay for sightseeing and transport separately. In practice, this is usually cheaper because local transport has a daily price cap that is lower than the additional transport component of the sightseeing pass.

In terms of price, there is no difference between the two, as the daily price cap is identical. The Visitor Oyster Card offers additional partner discounts and is independent of your bank's foreign transaction fees, but costs a one-off card fee of £10,50. Contactless payment saves the fee and the pre-order, as long as your card does not charge foreign fees.

With Visitor Oyster Card or contactless, you never pay more than £8,90, no matter how often you travel. For bus and tram, the daily cap per day is £5,25, a single journey costs £1,75. A paper Day Travelcard, on the other hand, starts at £16,60 per day.

From Heathrow, you can reach the centre on the Elizabeth Line or the Piccadilly Line, both of which you can pay for with Visitor Oyster Card or contactless. You can also use the National Rail line from Gatwick. Fast connections such as Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express are not covered by the normal fare cap and cost extra.

Children under the age of 11 always travel free on buses and trams and on the Tube and train when accompanied by a paying adult, up to four children per adult. For children aged 11 to 15, a Young Visitor discount can be applied to the Visitor Oyster Card at most Tube stations, giving half the adult fare.

With the London Pass® yes: A 2-day hop-on hop-off bus and a 24-hour boat trip are automatically included without using up an attraction. With the Explorer Pass, the bus and boat trip each count as one of your chosen attractions. Make active use of the extras on the London Pass® - they combine the highlights and also save you money.

The London Pass® covers around 111 attractions – from the Tower of London and Windsor Castle to numerous city tours and boat trips. On the days you choose, you’ll have unlimited access to all the included attractions. On our attractions page, you can see each one listed with its standard price and availability.

In terms of scope, the London Pass® leads the way with around 111 attractions, well ahead of the Explorer Pass with around 77. The Headout Pass covers around 40 attractions, the Turbopass 19, and the Merlin combination tickets bundle together 6 major venues. If you want the widest choice, the London Pass® offers the most comprehensive coverage.

There are hardly any attractions left that are exclusive to the London Pass: the Guildhall Art Gallery is one of the few that is only included in the London Pass®. Windsor Castle and the Royal Mews – previously exclusive to the London Pass – have also been available as part of the Explorer Pass since July 2026. The more significant difference now lies in the number of attractions: around 111 in the London Pass® versus around 77 in the Explorer Pass.

Yes, since July 2026, Windsor Castle has been included in both Go-City passes – the London Pass® and the Explorer Pass. With the Explorer Pass, Windsor counts as one of your 2–7 chosen attractions. The individual price would be around £36.

Yes, the London Eye is included in the London Pass®, Explorer Pass and Headout Pass as a regular attraction. It is available as an optional upgrade on the Turbopass. The Merlin Multi Attraction Ticket also includes the London Eye in all combination packages.

With the London Pass® you can visit as many included attractions as you can manage on your chosen days. With the Explorer Pass, you decide in advance on 2 to 7 attractions that you will redeem within 30 days. Individual attractions are usually included once per Sightseeing Pass. For popular attractions, it is worth making a free advance reservation via the Go City app.

Merlin Multi Attraction Tickets are fixed combination packages from the provider Merlin Entertainments. They bundle two or three major London attractions such as the London Eye, Madame Tussauds and SEA LIFE at a discounted total price. It is not a sightseeing pass with a free choice, but a predetermined combination of Merlin attractions.

The tickets for the other attractions are valid for 90 days from the date of your visit to London Eye. So you don't have to see all the highlights on the same day, but have over three months to redeem them one after the other.

For the other attractions, we strongly recommend booking a time slot via the provider's reservation portal. This way you can secure your preferred date and avoid waiting times or a fully booked attraction on site. Admission is a one-off and is subject to availability.

Yes, both the London Pass® and the Explorer Pass are from Go City, and the 5 per cent discount applies to both. Just make sure the code and website match: LONDONCP05LP for londonpass.com and LONDONCP05 for gocity.com. You can also find the discount on our discount code page with a click to copy.

The standard voucher gives a 5 per cent discount on the regular price. With a 3-day London Pass® for £179 you save around £9 per person, correspondingly more for a family. The discount is only higher in the case of rare time-limited promotions.

You enter the voucher in the discount code field in the shopping basket on the official Go-City website before paying. The discount will appear immediately in the total before you pay. For londonpass.com use the code LONDONCP05LP. For gocity.com - where both sightseeing passes are available - use the code LONDONCP05.

No. Codes with 30, 40 or 50 per cent discount are almost always outdated or invented. Go City regularly discounts the London Pass® by 5 per cent. Those who promise more usually just want clicks. You can recognise a genuine code by the fact that the discount actually appears in the shopping basket.

Occasionally, Go City launches a limited-time promotion with a slightly higher discount around Black Friday or on seasonal occasions. If one is currently running, it will be at the top of our discount code page. Outside of these periods, the permanent voucher of 5 per cent applies.

Choose the attractions you really want to visit and add up the normal prices. If the total is significantly higher than the price of the sightseeing pass, you will save money. With three to four paid attractions per day, the saving is typically between 30 and 50 per cent. You can find a ready-made calculation with days and attractions on our Worth it page.

Turbopass offers two options, both of which include 19 attractions. The Turbopass City is an all-inclusive pass offering unlimited visits for the selected number of days, similar to the London Pass®. The Turbopass Flex, like the Explorer Pass, allows you to choose any 2 to 7 attractions. It also includes a number of discount partners.

The Turbopass includes a 24-hour hop-on hop-off bus tour and a 24-hour boat trip on the Thames, and may be suitable for some travellers. However, with 19 attractions, the selection is significantly smaller than that offered by the London Pass® (around 111) and the Explorer Pass (around 77). For most travellers, the London Pass® or the Explorer Pass are the more obvious choices.

Strictly speaking, the Headout Pass is not a classic sightseeing pass, but rather a series of individual tickets that are combined into a bundle. You select attractions from different levels. This can be practical, but does not replace the scope of a genuine all-inclusive pass such as the London Pass®.

The Headout Pass covers around 40 attractions. There are two models: ‘Essential’, which offers a fixed mix of premium and other attractions, and ‘Explore’, which allows you to choose freely from the entire catalogue. This places it between the Turbopass and the Go-City products.

For many families, yes. SEA LIFE, Madame Tussauds and Shrek's Adventure are particularly popular with children, but are expensive individually. With a combined ticket, you can save up to 54 per cent compared to the individual prices. Just pay attention to the age recommendation for London Dungeon and plan one or two attractions per day with children.