Discover London with the London Pass (3 day London itinerary challenge)

Unlock the secrets of London with our latest adventure, where we promise you'll discover how to explore the best of the city without emptying your wallet. Join us as we navigate through a three-day itinerary masterfully designed by Daryl Bennett from GoCity, revealing not just the famous landmarks like the London Eye and St. Paul's Cathedral but also hidden treasures such as the immersive art of Frameless and the historical gems of the Florence Nightingale Museum.

In our previous conversation with Daryl (UK Travel Planning Podcast Episode #106), we uncovered strategies for maximizing the London Pass to make your journey enjoyable and cost-effective. In this episode, we test it out! 

Experience the ease and flexibility of the London Pass app, from the modern art delights of the Moco Museum to the historical depths of Apsley House and the majestic views from the Greenwich Meridian - Daryl's itinerary offers something for every traveller. 

Whether a scenic Thames ride to Greenwich or an insightful Yeoman Warder tour at the Tower of London, our episode guarantees a comprehensive guide to making the most of your time in London with the London Pass.

Don't forget to use our discount code at checkout - UKLP5 - for 5% discount when you purchase a London Pass. 

🇬🇧 Feeling overwhelmed planning your UK itinerary? Book a personalised consultation with Tracy and Doug Collins! Get tailored advice, refine your itinerary, and have your travel questions answered.

We’ll help you make the most of your UK adventure with expert insights and practical tips. Spots are limited—book now!

Chapters

• 0:04 Exploring London With the London Pass
• 13:08 London Sightseeing With London Pass
• 19:46 Maximizing Value With London Pass

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Hi and welcome to episode 126 of the UK Travel Planet podcast. So this week I'm here to chat all about the London Pass itinerary challenge, which I did in October, which was given to me by Daryl Bennett of the London Pass. Now Daryl Bennett is from GoCity and he is the Senior Regional Director for London and Dublin, so he's basically in charge of the London Pass. Now, if you go back and listen to episode 106, which I have to say is an extremely popular episode Daryl was fabulous to chat to. He will give you all the background information that you need to know about the London Pass. So he talks about what it is, how to get it, how to use it, what you can use it on, and shares lots of tips. Obviously, he is the expert on the London Pass.

Speaker 2: 1:39

But what I wanted to do after I chatted to Daryl and realized that was such a popular episode and just chatting to people in our Facebook group as well is I suggested to GoCity and the London Pass that they give me a London Pass for three days and an itinerary designed by Daryl and I go and do it when I was in London and then I could share that on my Facebook group. We could share that on social media, on Instagram stories, which is what I did last week. So if you're a member of our Facebook group and if you aren't, please pop over and join. If you're on Facebook, that's UK Travel Planning, and we also have a London Travel Planning Facebook group, and Doug will not forgive me if I don't mention that we also have a UK Travel Tips group as well. So I shared what was happening and what I did in real time.

Speaker 2: 2:24

But I also felt this would be a great opportunity to chat through on a podcast episode. So I asked Doug to read me the questions, because I thought you don't want to just listen to me chat about my experiences. It's actually better to do it in a more structured way with questions. So Doug's here this week to ask more questions, aren't you?

Speaker 3: 2:44

I'm here, hello. Ok, so Darrell provided you with an itinerary for three days. Can you give an overview, please, of each day?

Speaker 2: 2:55

OK. So I'm going to just say quickly that there are there are 96 at the moment 96 experiences, destinations, attractions that you can book through the London Pass. So obviously Darrell had a huge amount to choose from. But what I did ask him to do was obviously include some of the big hitters that everybody wants to go and see, but also maybe some of the lesser known attractions and newer things as well that had come up on the London Pass. So that's exactly what he did. So, to give you a kind of brief overview, we included each of the days included at least one of the big hitters. So I know what you're thinking. You're kind of thinking well, that's got to be. Yeah, charles London. Yes, westminster Abbey. Yes, st Paul's Cathedral. Yes, the London.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Eye yes, but we also included and incorporated some of the kind of lesser known, potentially lesser known places that you might not have considered visiting but are actually 100% worth going to see. So what Daryl did is he actually gave me four days and he gave me a choice for day three, which was one was Greenwich and one was a Royal focused day. So I did ask in the Facebook group, in both groups actually, and we had a tie One group wanted me to do the Royal day, one group wanted me to do the Royal Day and one group wanted me to do the Greenwich Day, and because the weather was absolutely beautiful that week, I had to go to Greenwich. So I chose to go to Greenwich, which was fantastic. So basically, on each day there was at least four or five attractions included.

Speaker 2: 4:22

So, as I said, we did the big hitters, like St Paul's, westminster Abbey, tower of London, but we also included Frameless, the Florence Nightingale Museum, apsley House, the Greenwich Meridian, lots of other places as well. So that's kind of a brief overview. I will go into more detail about what I did, but it was designed very well by Daryl, which you would expect, and also did include some transportation as well, which made it easy to get between places because obviously he tried to group attractions by area.

Speaker 3: 4:56

Oh, thank you. So did those days have to be done in that order?

Speaker 2: 5:00

No, no. When I got the itinerary from Daryl, daryl was like just do it in whichever order you want to do it in. So obviously I looked at the weather because for Greenwich I really wanted, because you're outdoors a lot in Greenwich you've got to walk up the hill to the um observatory. You know, it was just better to have a nice day, um, and I was lucky actually that every single day was beautiful weather, so it didn't really matter which order I did it in. So I actually ended up doing it in each day as Daryl had designed it, but, as he said, it could be flexible.

Speaker 3: 5:31

Oh, perfect. So did you have to book any of those places before the actual day?

Speaker 2: 5:36

Yes, the one that I did book was the London Eye, so I had to choose a time for that slot. But that was really really easy, because when you get the London Pass, you just add the app on your phone and then, when you access that, you have a QR code which basically is what you use when you go to each of the attractions. But you also have the apps Excellent. Honestly, it's really really good way to organize your itinerary. You can go through to information about each of the different attractions and it had a link to the London Eye. So then I just chose the slot that I wanted. So I chose 1.30, because I decided to do that on day one, so I chose 1.30. So I had to think carefully about what I was doing before that and after so that I could make sure that everything could fit in, and actually it worked out perfectly.

Speaker 3: 6:24

Okay, that's cool. So can you elaborate a bit more so and go through each day in more detail? So on day one, the first day you activated the pass, what did you do? How did you do that?

Speaker 2: 6:37

okay. So I had a three-day pass. So once I activated the pass, so as in use the pass of the first attraction, which happened to be St Paul's Cathedral, then it is activated from that point. So it's really important on day one that you start the day as early as possible. So don't start it. I mean, if you started at four, go to your first attraction of four, then that is your day one over with. So you really need to plan, like Daryl did for me, an early start.

Speaker 2: 7:06

So the first start on that day was at St Paul's Cathedral, which opens at 8.30am. So that lent basically plenty of time to explore St Paul's. And then from St Paul's it was a walk across the bridge to the Globe Theatre. So I walked across the Millennium Bridge. So I had a few hours in St Paul's Cathedral, which is wonderful. It's absolutely worth going to. Highly recommend it.

Speaker 2: 7:33

I actually did join a free tour that was on at St Paul's as well, so got a bit more information about that. There's an audio guide you could use as well, but to me it's always you can't beat talking to a real person. So I did that and then afterwards walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Globe Theatre, which I had not been to before, and I have to say I absolutely loved it. It was so interesting, it was honestly, it really opened my eyes just what it was like in, you know, have the theatre in the 1600s, in Shakespeare's day, and yeah, what an interesting place to visit, really interesting place to visit and yeah, so I really enjoyed that. That was a really good show. I think the show was about 45 minutes, so that's. I think the times of that are between 10 and 12, so I reckon I got there about half past 11. Now what? It's also part of the time as well, because there's a show on at the minute that the actors can come in and start warming up, so that was quite interesting to see. So, um, you're not allowed to take photos at that point, but before that you can, which is great. So I had a look around there. You thoroughly enjoyed that. I really really highly recommend that.

Speaker 2: 8:43

And then I walked from the Globe Theatre down to the London Eye. So again, it was a lovely day, so that is a gorgeous stroll along the Thames and got to the London Eye in plenty of time, showed them my pass, so I'm going to say as well, once you've got the pass. It's really easy. You just, when you go into any of the attractions, just show them your QR code and you'll notice that the people at the entrance who are sorting out tickets they have two little scanners and one is specifically for the London Pass, so you'll see them kind of go get the London Pass one. So they're all 100% aware of it. You just have to say I have a London Pass. It was so easy, so, so easy. So yeah, on the London Eye I had maybe a 10 minute wait in the queue, but that's kind of normal for the London Eye.

Speaker 2: 9:29

I enjoy the London Eye. I know there are some some influencers and and youtubers and whatever who kind of don't like the London Eye. I just say you know it's, it's too, I don't know, touristy or whatever, but you know what? You get a fantastic view of Big Ben and the House of Parliament all the way down the Thames. So to me it's just I always love going on the London Eye. So, yes, you can go on some free things like Sky Garden, which is great to go on, but you get a different view. So it depends what you want, but I thoroughly enjoyed that. Then, after that, I went to and this is one for you, doug, because I know you would really enjoy this but I went to the Florence Nightingale Museum and learned a whole load.

Speaker 2: 11:24

Yeah, and I know the Florence Nightingale Museum has come and had a good hour at least, actually, I think, where they're really exploring and having a look at learning about Florence Nightingale. So that was the first day, which sounds, you know there was four activities there, but that was a full day, that was absolutely a full day and I think I did 14,000 steps, 14,500 steps that day. So obviously I kind of had worked out that I could have lunch between or just after the Globe Theatre and the London Eye. I think that's when I kind of grabbed a sandwich, so. So that worked really well.

Speaker 2: 12:09

So that was day one yeah, yeah, day two again was an early start. I went to Westminster Abbey for for 10, when it opens 10am, and I've been to Westminster Abbey. I have to say that I've done many of these big hitters many, many times, but I always enjoy going in. Honestly, they're just fabulous, fabulous places to visit. Westminster Abbey was good.

Speaker 2: 12:30

I did meet a lovely lady called Geraldine so massive shout out, geraldine who tried desperately to get me in to do the Virgil Virgator but unfortunately that the numbers were a bit too high that day. I actually, if you're going to do the Virgator, I recommend that you get there as early as possible. I didn't get there till 10 30, so that was probably my mistake. And you put your name down as you go in. On the right hand side there's a desk. Put your name down because they only allow 20 in at the Berger tour and unfortunately there's no wiggle room. With that there was no flexibility. But thank you so much to Geraldine for for trying to get me in on that tour. I really appreciated it.

Speaker 2: 13:08

Um, from so then Westminster Abbey, I took the tube. Actually, I went to Marble Arch and to see Frameless, which is an immersive art gallery experience and it's wonderful, and I know Daryl talked about it in episode 106 and he was there an hour and a bit and I think I was there a good hour and a half. So you've got five different rooms and it really is immersive. You're immersed in art. The music is fantastic, it's just a wonderful place to just go and literally immerse yourself in the art, and I don't know how to describe it in any other way, but you're in this room and you're just surrounded by it, the art's on the walls, it's a moving kind of show exhibition experience. Um, so that was really good. And then from there I went next door to the Moko Museum, which is modern art, which was interesting. I'm not I'm not big modern art fan, but it was still good to go and see. There was some stuff by Tracey Emin, there was some art by Banksy, there was lots of art by artists that I didn't know or hadn't heard of, which I'm sure are hugely famous, but that was really interesting. It's just next door to Frameless, so that seemed like a great, great addition. So thanks very much to Daryl for including those two, because again getting something different, having a different experience.

Speaker 2: 14:25

And then from there I went to Apsley House, which is the house that the Duke of Wellington lived in and again, this was a place that Daryl had recommended in podcast 106, and it was great. Again, I think this is one that you'd really enjoy, doug, and learning a little bit more about the Duke of Wellington, his background, the history around you know, the Battle of Waterloo, and just it was actually amazing to see his collection of gifts that he received from all these countries across Europe. He's got a whole he had a whole room and that room's still there. I think they moved it after his death into a different room in the house, but there's just this room which is just full of all this porcelain and all these gifts that are received from different countries in Europe. So that was really good.

Speaker 2: 15:13

So I was there quite a while and then I ended the day, went over to the Wellington Arch to get views, which is really good. You can get a while and then I ended the day, went over to the Wellington Arch to get views, which is really good you can get a lift up. I was a bit concerned. I walked in and the guy who was there he was so lovely I wish I'd got his name because he was so, so friendly and so lovely. And he said oh, there's a lift, don't worry. So I got the lift up to, I think, well, the top of the Wellington Arch and then you get great views. So I just enjoyed the views, um yeah, and so that was really good and that was a nice end to the day. And then I came down and he was actually there, was a bit of a wine tasting going on, so I was trying out some different wines, but you know, and that day again I ended up near a tube, so it was easy to get home.

Speaker 2: 15:52

So that again was a full day. Okay, I'd started a little bit later, at 10, 30 instead of 10, and I would recommend, you know, to do at 10. But I've been doing a lot of days in London, so I kind of was a little bit a little bit later for Westminster Abbey and also I knew I probably wasn't going to be spending the amount of time in that you potentially would be, because I've been there quite a few times before. So that was day two. And then day three was Greenwichwich, but I started out at the tower of london, again, got there for 10 am for when it opened. I've been at the tower of london I don't know how many times I literally can't count the number of times with the tower of london. I did join in for a bit of time on the free yeoman water beefy deter, which is good just a lot of people just be aware.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Also, it was, I have to say, a school holiday week in the UK last week, so, or one of the weeks, because this week's also a holiday week because I'm recording this at the end of October. Yeah, so it was more busy than it would be potentially at that time of year. So you have to consider, if you're visiting kind of, you know, school holiday time, even if it's kind of shoulder low season, that it's still busy for things like the Yeoman Water Tour. So I was there for a little while, went and had a nice cup of tea in their cafe, had a look around and then I jumped on the Uber boat down to Greenwich.

Speaker 2: 17:10

So, which again, was really easy because I was thinking right, I've got to use the London Pass. How is this going to work on the Uber boat? But again, they are 100%, they know exactly what they're doing. You just say to them I've got a London pass, you actually have a day, hop on, hop off on the Uber boat, which is great, honestly, 100% recommend that you get on the Thames. You go on a ride on the Thames when you are in London because you do get a different view of the city. So we zoomed off down to Greenwich, got off at Greenwich and then I had a look around the Cootie Sark, which is a tea clipper which I've been to again. I had been to before, but then I had another look around the Cootie Sark and then had some lunch there. Then I went to the Royal Naval College, the Painted Hall, which I absolutely love. I know it's a place that you enjoy. Also going to Dubb it's really good.

Speaker 2: 17:57

It's fantastic yeah yeah, and then I walked up the hill to the greenwich meridian. So I went to the observatory which is at the top of the hill. Beautiful day, blue sky, not a cloud in the sky went up, stood on the meridian line, of course, because you have to do that and I know that's a popular choice with a lot of um people want to talk to you guys about you want to go and stand on the Meridian Line, you want to go into, you want to go to Greenwich. So do go to Greenwich, 100% go to Greenwich and you know, if you know me, you'll know it's one of my favorite destinations in London. I didn't go to the Queen's House, but you can. I could have fitted that in if I wanted to for the Tulip staircase.

Speaker 2: 18:35

If you're not sure what that is, check out our website. We've got a whole itinerary for Greenwich for a day. And then I jumped onto the Uber boat so it was probably about four o'clock by this time jumped onto the Uber boat and took the Uber boat all the way back down to Westminster, because I was jumping on the tube down there and at this point it was sunset. It was lovely. It was a really lovely journey down the Thames and just a lovely end to the day. So I had got three full days out of the London Pass thanks to Daryl and his itinerary, and it was great.

Speaker 3: 19:09

Yeah, it sounds like an absolutely fantastic time you had, so how easy did you find using the Pass itself?

Speaker 2: 19:16

are honestly really really easy. You just have to show the qr code. You know, when you go into an attraction or, uh, you know whichever place that you're going to, you just show and they're all totally away. You just say I've got a london pass, show it. They scan your qr code.

Speaker 2: 19:31

It's really really easy you know, yeah, as I say, even the uber boat, which I was a bit, I was a bit oh, how is this going to work on the uber boat? They're like totally 100%. They just have a different scanner for that QR code for the London.

Speaker 3: 19:44

Pass Very smooth, sounds very smooth. So what was your favorite part of having the Pass?

Speaker 2: 19:50

Oh, I just think it's so easy. You know, you know what your itinerary. I knew kind of what the itinerary was, obviously because Daryl gave it to me. But was obviously because daryl gave it to me, but I just didn't have to think about it. You don't have to. If you're budgeting for london, it's a great way as well, but because you're not paying anything extra out, you know you've got those attractions and they're covered and paid for through the pass, so you don't have to even think about it and it was just really easy. Just make sure this I'm going to say this make sure that if you are using your phone, that you have enough charge on your phone. So have a spare battery. I always carry a spare battery, uh, with me because you don't want your phone to conk out because you need your qr code that makes sense.

Speaker 3: 20:27

Yeah, so is there any sort of tips you can offer anybody considering getting a london pass?

Speaker 2: 20:33

well, I think the main thing is you know, work out the value. So you need to make sure that you know you, you plan your itinerary or at least have an idea of what you're going to do on each day. You know you can have some flexibility in it. You know if you look on the app you can find out what other attractions are close to where you are that are included in the pass. So you can have some flexibility. But plan, plan those big hitters. So if you want to go up the Shard, for example, make sure you plan that into your day. Look, for example, make sure you plan that into your day. Look at what else is around on that day. I mean, there's so many options for itineraries. You just have to think what is it that you're interested in doing? Have a look on the app. They've got 96 at the moment, probably more common, different attractions that you can choose from. So just try and keep them in the same area. And then you just do need to check that.

Speaker 2: 21:20

If any of the attractions have any particular, what days are open, for example, do you need to book before you go? If they're something like the London Eye, you'll have to do the shard, but again, it's really straightforward and really easy. Just make sure that you're getting maximum benefit out of it. So you know you have to do a little bit of work. Just add what what it would have cost um, if you you know, these are the things that I definitely want to see when I'm in london and then add up how much it would cost versus how much it would cost for you to have a london pass. But yeah, I mean just, I think it's easy to use. It really is very easy to use. You just have to work out for you what you want to do and see and then what the value will be for you that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 22:04

So, knowing you how I do, I would guess that you actually know how much the savings were well, daryl did give me a breakdown actually of that, and I'm trying to find out where I wrote that down. One more tip I am going to say, though, and I already have said it, but it's really important that on day one, you start early, because you don't want to start your day one later on in the day, because that's your whole day gone. So make sure your first day, like Daryl did for me, he organized St Paul's, which was open to 8.30. So that's an early start for that day and you can fit a lot of things in. So, yeah, I think you've got the sheet with actual savings on.

Speaker 3: 22:46

Yeah you have. I've got it here. So without the London Pass, the total cost would have been a whopping £347.20 to £360.20, but the three-day pass costs £184 or less.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Yes, and I'm going to say as well that often if you go onto the website, there's offers on, so just always have to check just to see if they have got something on. But we do have a code, which is UKLP5, which will give you 5% off your london pass. Um, so we recommend it. That's will be in the show notes, uh, which will be at uktravelplanningcom forward slash, episode 126. So do use the link, but definitely use the code, so uklp5 will give you five percent off the london pass. So I think that kind of just about rounds it up, doesn't it? Um, honestly, I really enjoyed using it. Thank you so much to GoCity. Thank you so much to Daryl for taking the time.

Speaker 2: 23:51

Uh, I actually met up with Daryl and Emma from the from GoCity, who deal with the London pass. Um met up with them a few days before Darrell emailed me the itinerary. It was just such a joy to do. I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 24:07

And you know, as we say, and people will often say to us in the Facebook group, you know, we don't just talk the talk, we walk the walk. So we try out the things that we recommend. We, you know I meet all of our um, our partners. We book things through them, we deal with you know we we do genuinely make sure that we are there to give you the best value and the best time that you can have during your trip to london, uk. So yeah, so it was really good.

Speaker 2: 24:35

So thanks again to daryl and go city for passing on the london pass to the to me for this challenge and also I'm just going to say again that you can find information and that code in the show notes of this episode, which are uktravelplanetcom forward slash one, two, six. So thanks, doug, so much for coming on this episode and asking me the questions. All right, until next week. We'll both say from us happy UK travel planning. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favorite podcast app? We love to hear from you and, you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week happy UK travel planning.