A couple of years ago, I decided something needed to change. I had visited London at least 60 times, and yet I had never done any of the big tourist attractions. I’d never been into the Tower Of London, nor ridden on the London Eye. I hadn’t been into St Paul’s or Westminster Abbey. I had smaller attractions on my list like riding the Mail Rail in the Postal Museum, and gazing at the ceiling in the Painted Hall in Greenwich.

Slowly, I’ve been trying to get to at least one of these on each recent trip to London, so I’ve now done both of those smaller attractions, but the big-ticket attractions are quite frankly astronomical. I remember in 2006 I refused to pay £18 for the Tower Of London; it’s now virtually double that. It’s the main reason I haven’t been into most of the attractions, to be honest.

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Luckily, there’s a more affordable way to do it. I looked into buying one of the London city passes, which gets you into all of the main attractions for free. Obviously it’s not really free, as the pass is quite expensive, but there happened to be a big sale on them shortly after I’d decided this would be the best way to do it.

It took almost two years, but we have FINALLY used the passes! Read on to find out if it was actually worth it.

Now, it’s worth noting that, firstly, we had bought Go City passes on sale. At the moment (December 2025), a 1 day pass is £109 and a 2 day pass is £154. We bought a 2 day pass for £90 each, which is a HUGE saving versus today’s prices. Secondly, because we took so long to use them, all the attractions will have gone up in price, adding significant savings for us when we did use them.

The other thing to note is that the passes have changed a little. You can now get a cheaper “All Inclusive” pass (£79 for 1 day or £114 for 2 days) which covers everything except for the Shard, the London Eye, and Madame Tussauds. Personally? I’d go for that over the new “All Inclusive Pass Plus” which does include those three attractions.

Use this link before 2nd March 2026 for 10% off – use code WINTER
(Code is valid 13th-16th Feb, 20th-22nd Feb, and 26th Feb – 2nd March. No idea why.)

On that note, I think it’s great that they last for two years! Gives you loads of time to use them – even if we did leave ours until the final few weeks… naturally!

Arriving in London on the Friday night meant that we could hit the ground running on Saturday morning and make as full uses of the passes as we possibly could in a weekend.

So here we go… everything we managed to do on our two day GoCity pass in London!

Day 1

Tower Of London – £34.50

We decided to visit the Tower Of London first, as one of London’s biggest and busiest attractions. Getting there 15 minutes before opening meant we were straight in the door and one of the first people at the Crown Jewels. Then we could just explore the rest at our leisure.

I absolutely loved the ravens. I loved the village quarters within the walls. I loved the armoury. The Crown Jewels are bananas. Now that I’ve written that, I’m giggling at the idea that the jewels are literal bananas.

I have to say I was really impressed by the Tower Of London, and I was surprised by just how much there is to see there. In fact, we ended up skipping one or two of the exhibitions purely because there was so much (not because we were rushed, I might add!), and we felt like all the exhibits we did go into covered what we were interested in.

I must admit I’m not sure if I would ever have got around to paying full price, but there is so much to see and do that I think it’s just about worth the entrance fee. However it’s definitely the highest value attraction on the Go City London pass, so worth considering if you’re planning to visit the Tower Of London.

St Paul’s Cathedral – £25

Out of everything we wanted to do in London, St Paul’s was by far the highest on our list.

And honestly, it exceeded every expectation we had. Of all the big-ticket attractions, this is my favourite. It’s already one of my favourite buildings in London from the outside; now it is from the inside too. It’s just stunning.

As well as the main part of the cathedral, there’s also the crypt where you can see the tombs of people such as Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, which actually felt quite mindblowing in person. There’s also a room dedicated to people who worked on the cathedral, which I thought was a really nice touch – even painters and decorators are given recognition.

Upstairs, there are some incredible views over the cathedral, and then above that some of the best views over London.

This is probably also the only one that we would pay to go back to.

In fact, I had to laugh as I went up to the top for the view and got chatting to the staff up there. I mentioned that I’d never been in before and had never really done any London attractions, and one of the guys said he’s not surprised as everything is so expensive! I told him we had the pass and he said that’s the best way to do it.

Lunch in St Paul’s crypt

A bonus of visiting St Paul’s is that you can eat lunch in the crypt! I have to admit this wasn’t nearly as cool as it sounded as it didn’t feel like a proper café, but we got some sandwiches from the little kiosk and sat down before we moved on. It made for a quick and reasonably priced lunch.

Westminster Abbey – £29 (at time of visit – now £30)

Unfortunately, we really messed up, and when we arrived at Westminster Abbey, it had closed early for the day!! We had no idea about this! Obviously if we’d have known, we would have done this first and gone to St Paul’s in the afternoon. I was furious!

SO, learn from our mistake and plan accordingly. It’s normally open until 3pm on Saturdays, and Google listed the same opening hours, so we had no idea it would randomly close at 1.30pm! It’s also closed on Sundays, which meant we wouldn’t have a chance to do it the next day either, otherwise we might have headed to the Transport Museum and saved a slot to come back the next day.

The Shard – £32.50 *YOU NEED TO BOOK!*

The Shard is the one place on this list that I would never have paid full price for in the first place. You can get deals on it, but for me it’s definitely not worth such a high price tag.

That’s why it was brilliant being able to do it on the pass. You do need to pre-book it through a specific Go City link, which takes the price down to zero. You can also only use the pass until around 5pm, so if you’re looking for an evening or sunset visit, it’s best to go as late as you can and budget some time to stay up there. However this depends on the time of year you go, so in the winter it’s easy to plan it around sunset – but equally, you’d be cutting into precious daytime hours that could be used elsewhere. In the summer, you’d have to stay for hours.

Anyway, there’s no denying that the views are amazing, especially down over Tower Bridge and across to Canary Wharf. I’m really glad we got to do this.

Note that the Shard is now only available on the “All Inclusive Pass Plus” Go City pass, so choose wisely. If you’re not too fussed about the Shard, the London Eye, or Madame Tussauds, it may be more worthwhile going for the cheaper “All Inclusive” pass.

Taking the Uber clipper boat

One great thing about the Go City London pass is that clipper boats are included, which not only gets you out on the Thames, but also saves you money rather than travelling on the Tube. I have to admit we did use the underground a bit, but you can get between all of the attractions we went to on day one using the boat.

Technically, the pass includes a 24 hour “rover” pass for the clipper boats, so it’s not included for a full two days, although they also include City Cruises, so you could activate one for one day and the other for the second day. That also means the actual value is far greater than you might use – the day pass is a whopping £22, but obviously if you only use it a couple of times then it’s not actually worth that much.

Want a less touristy trip to London? I’ve got a post for that too, don’t worry!
Off-Beat London: A Quirky Weekend In The Capital

Day 2

Tower Bridge – £15

This is one of the lower value attractions on the list, but it’s one we really wanted to do! Because it’s one they recommend booking, we decided to book it for when it opens. We did only book it the day before, but I’m very glad we did, because when we turned up, most of the morning slots were full and people were being turned away. So I definitely recommend booking this!

The Tower Bridge Experience is so cool! Not only do you get to learn about the bridge itself, from the design to the construction, but there’s a glass walkway between the two towers. You start in one tower and end by walking down the other one, with exhibitions in both.

Even better, once you leave, that’s not the end of it. You can use your ticket to get into the engine rooms at the end of the bridge, which is a huge highlight.

There’s another museum in here, with the engines and also the history of the people who worked there. There’s a little interactive game where you’re in charge of lifting the bridge for boats while keeping London moving – Ash failed as it got INTENSE. So you do get to truly appreciate the logistics behind it and all the work that went into keeping it running. Fascinating place!

Transport Museum – £24.50

The Transport Museum has been on our list for a while, so when I found out it’s a whopping £25, it became the main reason we went for a two day pass rather than one.

I’ve got to be honest – I don’t think it’s worth £25. It’s not even as good as the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, which is free and probably the best transport museum I’ve ever been to – plus so many of the world’s best museums are in London and also free. So again, I was glad to be doing it on the pass.

That said, it IS a great museum! There are lots of awesome displays, including old underground carriages you can walk through, and lots of old buses and trams from a pioneering age of transport.

One thing I did really like was the temporary photography exhibition on the Ukraine war, which focused on the people sheltering in underground stations in Kyiv and compared their experience to the Blitz in London. It was poignant and beautifully done.

We didn’t spend as long here as we thought we would, especially for the price. Considering you can literally spend a full day in the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum (both free), I was quite surprised by the cost of this. I think we spent about two hours in there.

Needless to say, DEFINITELY worth doing on the pass!

Cocktail & food at Monopoly Lifesized – £10 + 20% off food

This might seem like a really random one, so bear with me!

In reality it would have been better value-wise to do something like the London Eye.

However, as we weren’t sure how long we’d spend in the Transport Museum and didn’t want to book anything for afterwards just in case, this was a last-minute addition to our itinerary, and definitely not a must-do. That said, it’s a really unique restaurant to check out as it’s part of the Monopoly Lifesized attraction so it is, of course, all Monopoly themed. I hadn’t even heard of it! The attraction itself (not included) does look fun.

Anyway, we were meeting a friend, and we needed to eat, so it was a good excuse to take advantage of a free cocktail (in London!) which was served in a giant Monopoly piece, as well as get some lunch with 20% off the entire bill, not just for the two of us with the pass. This created a pretty good saving overall!

It’s also walking distance from the Transport Museum, taking you through Covent Garden and up across Shaftesbury Avenue to Tottenham Court Road, so a great area to wander in London.

Tip: If you end up going this way, make sure you check out Outernet, a huge art installation on an immersive screen opposite Tottenham Court Road station. It’s SO COOL, and best of all it’s completely free!

Anyway, you know what I’m like when it comes to places with novelty value. So this was actually worth it for us.

(Plus, I am actually not bothered about the London Eye at all!)

So, is the Go City London pass worth it?

Altogether, we should have got, technically, around £200 of value out of a £90 pass. In reality, because of our cock up at Westminster Abbey, it was more like £160 (plus the saving on food, plus the Uber clipper boat). Even at the full price of £144, we would still have saved money.

On day 1, we would have got £122 value out of the pass including Westminster Abbey (as per today’s prices), so we would still have saved on a one day pass as well.

And personally, if we had left later on the Sunday, we could easily have done something else like the Postal Museum* (£18) or even the London Eye (£34). We also weren’t sure how long we’d spend in the Transport Museum, so we were hesitant to try and fit in anything else and especially something we’d need to book. We only went to Monopoly Lifesized because we were meeting a friend, and so we might as well go somewhere that we’ll get a discount, right? A bonus that it was somewhere unique!

*The Postal Museum is bloody brilliant!! We had done it before, though. I really recommend it; you get to ride on a little underground mail rail and it’s actually one of my favourite tourist attractions in London!

But it really depends on what you want to do. I think anyone who says it isn’t worth it didn’t plan on visiting many of the attractions in the first place. If you’re like us and strategically try to visit all the big-ticket attractions in one weekend, it’s definitely worth it!

It’s important to be strategic, too. Some places you have to book (The Shard, Tower Bridge Experience, London Eye); others are best to get there EARLY. And ALWAYS check the opening times for the day you want to go, as we learned the hard way with Westminster Abbey!

There are also lots of things on the pass that aren’t high value, like themed tours and smaller museums. I wouldn’t bother using it for anything under £15.

Click here to buy a Go City London pass!

Based on our experience, this is what I’d recommend if you have two full days in London:

Day 1
Morning:
Tower Of London
St Paul’s (or Westminster Abbey)
Afternoon:
Westminster Abbey (or St Paul’s)
The Shard
Total value: £122
+ Uber clipper 1 day pass which is £22, so technically a whopping £144 value!

Day 2
Morning:
Tower Bridge Experience
Postal Museum (book a time for the Mail Rail)
Afternoon:
Transport Museum
London Eye
Total value: £86.50

OR

Alternatively, you could spend a chunk of day 2 in Greenwich. There is SO much to do here and it’s all included on the pass so it could work out great value. I highly recommend the Painted Hall.
Day 2 alternative
Morning:
Painted Hall
Royal Observatory
(Lunch at Greenwich Market, which I love!)
Afternoon:
Cutty Sark
Total value: £56.50
+ something else back in the city centre to bulk out your value, especially if it’s something like The Shard or London Eye. If you do this, it’ll be over £90 value!

Overall, I’m really glad we did this as it was a great way to finally experience all these London attractions in one fell swoop. Bear in mind that we know London really well and so we were happy to flit between the places. If you’re in London for the first time, you might want to take things a little more slowly, or at the very least I wouldn’t recommend doing it on day one of your trip! Acclimatise to the city first.

If you’re thinking of getting the Go City London pass, or you’ve always been put off doing the big attractions because of the price, hopefully this will help you decide if it’s worth doing!

Want some more England content? I have a few posts!
⭐ Off-Beat London: A Quirky Weekend In The Capital
⭐ Seeking Out New Places In London & Accidentally Seeing All Of The Landmarks
⭐ Meres, Tarns & Waters: A Short Stint In The Lake District
⭐ What To Do In Liverpool On A Monday
⭐ A Day Driving Through The Yorkshire Dales: Highlights Of A One Day Road Trip