Decisions, decisions… for the two days we are planning to stay in London, it came down to a matter of value.  Layovers are a great way to get a feel for a city, but figuring out where to stay; where to go; and how to leave can be very daunting.  We have 1 1/2 days to see what we can…

I like to travel like a local whenever possible and am excited when I see public transportation directly accessible to an airport.  You can take the tube from Heathrow into all parts of London and with the London Pass with Travel, off-peak public transportation is included (tube, bus, tram, Docklands Light Rail and trains within in zones 1-6 – see website for details) for short stay visitors.  Since it will only take me about a half hour longer to get to the hotel and I save about £40.00 by not taking the Express to Paddington Station and then another train to Liverpool Station, I am willing to try the public transport.  Normal rates for these modes of transportation can range from £5.50 for a single ride to £8.00 per day for off-peak 1-day Travelcard.

London is not an inexpensive city.  I almost fell out of my chair when I found out how much The Tower of London (£21.45) and Tower Bridge Exhibition (£8.00) cost.  I started pricing out the sights we were interested in and found that the cost of a 2-day London Pass at £82.00 each was worth it.  The London Bridge Experience is £23.00 and the bicycle tour is £18.95… adding just those expenses listed here came to £84.90.

Think ahead… you can not use the London Pass from Heathrow unless you have it mailed to you… it needs about 3-weeks to arrive by mail. I ordered mine on Oct 24th and received it yesterday.

After the fact… I started seeing discounts advertised on different travel websites, so I could have gotten it for less.