Grab your map, umbrella, and Wellies, and you’re set to tour in London!
One of the things we love about travel is jumping right into the thick of things and getting our bearings. The Internet plays a large part in this as we do our research to understand what there is to see and do in an area, as well as options for getting around to see the sights. We drive our decisions based upon a combination of cost and quality. Here are some approaches we consider:
Hop on, Hop off tours can provide you with a good “scratch-and-sniff” view of the city. We have used them before in New York, Boston, and in Germany. They can provide you with a means to get around the city – get an overview and then when you’re ready to dig deeper you can return to the sights you want to see. Tickets are generally good for 24 hours. In London, for a family of 4 to take a hop-on/off bus it would cost approximately £72, or about $140 Canadian! Out of budget for us…
Walking tours are another great way to see a city. There are usually options for both free and paid walking tours. While in London, we took Sandeman’s New Europe London free walking tour (as well as a paid tour), and did another tour with London Walks (more on this in an upcoming post…keep your eyes open!)
Nothing is free, right? Well, sort of. The free walking tours work on the philosophy that you should only pay what you think the tour is worth. If the guide is good, you tip her or him well. If not…well, the guide usually does not last long. The free tours also give you a taste of what you could experience on some of the other paid tours offered by the company. We have done the walking tours with Sandeman’s in Dublin, Munich, Prague, and New York. In fact, this is our second time taking the walk in London as Katina and I toured here without the girls a couple of years ago on a brief weekend to London. Generally the guides have been great at providing additional “off the beaten track” information and tips to save money. For instance, here in London we learned that the best rate for foreign exchange is at the Post Office, which we wouldn’t necessarily have thought to do.
The free tour was pretty comprehensive…as the photos tell!
We Passed on the London Pass
There is a tourist card in London called the London Pass, which gives free access to many paid attractions with “fast track” access for some, meaning you can jump to the front of the line. The London Pass comes in a variety of number of days and has the option to include full transit use as well.
There are over 60 attractions you can visit, and if you are able to see many of them within the time period, then this pass might be a good value for you.
We went back and forth a few times on whether to get a London Pass or not, and almost purchased a one-day pass. We had to consider the pace of touring with kids and the opportunity to maximize the learning. In the end, we figured that we could not do much more than two paid attractions in one day, so instead we opted to find the best online deal we could, and simply paid for tickets directly. This worked out best for us.
A bit of research can go a long way to help you figure out what to see and do at a reasonable cost. In a city as large as London, doing the planning up front has really paid off for us. We have developed a daily budget and work hard to keep our costs down. We have figured out what we want to see, and we plan out those field trips in detail in order to get the most out of them from a growth and learning perspective.
The pace that the girls can manage is a serious consideration for us as well…rushing to see sights just for the sake of doing so is not fun for anyone. Good planning also helps to save time, money, and frustration by knowing where we need to go, what we “should” see, and how much it will cost. Being prepared it makes it more enjoyable for everyone. I can say from experience that one of the outings I planned was not as thorough as it could have been and resulted in us taking longer to get organized at the museum site, resulting in a £40 parking ticket – not in budget! – as I was late getting back to pump coins into the meter (another reason to take the tube!).