to think some London tourist attractions are a complete rip off?

[glasg0wmum]

Taking the kids to London for a few days in the holidays. 3 kids aged between 8 and 14, 2 adults. Family ticket to the Tower of London which I estimate would take about 3 hours to go round = £52. Family ticket to Harry Potter thing at Watford which is at least 6 hours = £120.

Family ticket to London Eye, which takes 30 minutes = £96. REALLY????

Tesco vouchers is the way to go. If paying the tower of london is worth every penny and takes most of the day.

For a free view from the clouds over London book in for the sky garden.

Tried to book the sky garden, unfortunately all the slots are sold out for the whole time we're in London.

London Eye, Madame Tussaud's, and the sea life centre all disappoint at full price, imo. 2 for 1 with a train ticket helps with a lot of attractions, like the zoo, etc, so always worth a look at what's on the list.

If you have any interest in the history, then the Tower tour is worthwhile. The beefeaters are entertaining storytellers so it doesn't feel like a history lesson.

Harry Potter studio tour is excellent! There are some walking tours for more Potter stuff in actual London. The queue for platform 9 3/4 can get hideous but I know many an 8-14 year old who were giddy every moment of the wait.

If the sky garden didn't work, try the restaurants at the shard? Just below the viewing deck but you just pay for your food and drink rather the ticket price a few yards higher up. A lot of people go to Aqua Shard in the afternoon for just coffee, and I have seen families there before, so unless they have changed their rules that could be possible.

But there is excellent free stuff! Sometimes I pay my rent then have to go recover by wandering around the V&A.

The Sky Garden looks great.

The London Eye was HOW MUCH? I've taken the kids a few times and sure it was never that pricey. Think it was about a tenner a ticket when it first opened?

We went to the Museum of London on Friday and it was brill (and free). Science and Natural History museums are also great. If you take a packed lunch you can have a wonderful day out in London and only pay for trains/buses, it's great. I'm always amazed that certain attractions can get away with charging so much when there's so much else to do for nothing.

london eye is a bit shit

but not as bad as Madam tussauds

Wouldnt bother with the London eye. I thought the Tower was expensive, but lots to see and I like history, so it was worth it.
We were in the Tower most of the day. Id like to go back, and to Westminster Abbey.

I agree about the Museum of London, although may not appeal to young children.

I took my boys (8 and 11) on a guided walk done by London Walks. It was something like "Ghosts of the City" and was at dusk. They really enjoyed it.

The London Eye, Madame Tussaud's and sea life centre are all owned by Merlin Entertainments. There seems to be a common theme regarding their value for money!

For younger children the museum of childhood in Bethnal Green is excellent and free.

The Merlin Annual Passes are good value though if you live in the South East as they include Lego and Chessington. We don't live close enough to make it worthwhile and we're only in London for 5 days.

I don't mind spending money when I think I'm getting value - Tower of London is less than Edinburgh Castle, for example. Similarly the Harry Potter thing is pricey but we're all very much looking forward to it and intend being there all day. Love the free museums and because we're not there for long we'll be popping in, seeing the highlights and moving on.

Can't see how the eye justifies their prices though - but there must be people prepared to pay the prices or they would go out of business.

I really liked the eye but if money tight wouldn't do it. Its an attraction in the heart of one of the most expensive cities in the world!

Tower is great and also harry potter, you will def get good day out of it.

If you want to go Up a Thing Id do the monument rather than the eye

It's cheap as chips, dead historical (they've all done the great fire in school I think) and a bit of a hairy climb being for dainty Stuart folk (one time I had to take my birkenstocks off and do it barefoot brrhhhhh) but it's a lot less passive than the Eye

Dunno aboit now but you used to get a cerstificate at the end as well

People saying museums are free..... Not quite true any more.

There are now staff members or prominent boxes advising a "voluntary contribution" to the running of the museum.
I voluntarily contributed £5 to the Science Museum last time we were there (1 adult 2 children) and the guy looked as if I'd offered him a used handkerchief! If you wanted to brazen it out and contribute nothing I bet he'd have shamed you half way through the museum...

I refuse to go to the paying part of the Tower of London. I'd love to see (a replica of) the Crown Jewels, but I'm not prepared to pay a king's ransom to do so!

Camden Market, a walk from Westminster to St Pauls, a picnic in St James's Park. Do all the free things & maybe only pay for 1 or 2 rip off attractions

They are free. The clues in the word 'voluntary '. Different for example to the Met in New York where a suggested donation of $20 is signed everywhere in the entrance.

There's an argument that UK museums might do better adopting a Russian approach whereby UK nationals pay nominal amounts / nothing and overseas tourists pay a higher fee.

The Crown Jewels are real by the way.

Some are v expensive and not worth it but I came on here to tell you we went to the new Shrek Adventure this weekend and it was AMAZING - totally worth the money!

Crown jewels were a bit disappointing tbh - the beefeater tour was good though.

Haha yes the staff who stand over your voluntary contribution really know how to make you feel awful. At Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery you just pop your coins/notes into a box and walk in. They're dotted around the building. With the Science Museum how much I voluntarily contribute will be based in how much I liked the attraction, what I think is value for money and I won't know that until I've been in the attraction.

DD7 enjoyed Shrek and we had discount tickets so it worked out as really good value. She really wants to go to the Dungeons but I think she might be too young.

The contribution thing really changed over the last few years. We went on one trip and didn't have any issue - we visited the science museum and put in a voluntary contribution on our way out - 18 months later we were back and on the last day we had about 40 minutes time to kill before our train so were just popping in for a quick look about and to use the toilets etc and really got put under pressure - which we avoided and made a smaller contribution than we may otherwise have done on our way out so it was counterproductive in our case.

The worst "contribution" thing I saw was at the rail museum at York - they make you queue up to get in, funnel you through to reception desks where you are forced to speak to someone regarding your "contribution" before you get into the museum. It is very hard-sell and nastily done.

And the kids hated the museum.

I think the prices go up in school holidays, partly just to manage demand. Tried going to the Sea Life in London last summer and if you hadn't booked in advance, there were 3-hour queues! We had ice creams while MrNC went to buy 2 for 1 tickets and went in at 6pm - which was quite civilised in the end.

Similarly Legoland wasn't too costly with 2 for 1 but I'd have preferred to pay more and have fewer people in it.

Never been shamed at any London museums for not paying voluntary fees (unlike NYC...) as most people put in some coins on their way out.