London Day 2 Part 1: London Pass - Don’t get lost with it…

All of us except Skyfish used the London Pass during our wondering-around-aimlessly in London. In fact, me and Deb actually analysed the benefits of taking the London Pass (including travel) instead of the Oyster card (which Skyfish opt to use instead).

We purchased the 6 Days Pass, including travel, which cost 112 pounds. Therefore, it would only cost 18.70 pounds per day for the Pass! Please note that when the site said free 1 day, that only means travelling and does not include the attractions. Unfortunately, we didnt read that part properly and on the last day we had to pay for our entrance fee to Windsor Castle.

Anyway, how does the London Pass works? Well, it offers free entry to 56 tourist attractions in London and if you’ve included travel, then travelling on the tube, national rail and bus would be absolutely free! But if you’re not taking the 6 Days Pass, you can’t use your London Pass travel ticket during peak-time in the tube. As for us, since we’re using the 6 Days Pass, we can travel around London anytime we want to. And to hop on the bus, just flash your travel pass to the driver while for the train service, just stuff your travel pass into the reader and wait for it to come out the other end and the gates open for you.

Unfortunately, Deb’s travel pass went bonkers few days later and the gates refused to open for her and she have to keep running to the officer-in-charge to let her through. I think the magnetic strip on her card got messed up by her handphone. So, please don’t put your travel pass together with any electronic devices that messes up magnetic strips like Deb’s Sony Ericsson mobile phone…

Anyway, there’s other perks that come along with the London Pass but we didn’t really used any of them. The main reason we wanted the pass was the free entrance. We mostly go to the most expensive attractions that is covered by the Pass like Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Gardens and Apsley House. And you even get a cute small London Pass book which lists down all the attractions and perks offered by the Pass, very handy book especially walking around with the wind blowing extremely strong and you wouldn’t want to be holding a gigantic map at that time…

By the way, you can choose to either collect the Pass from the Visitor Centre nearby to Picadilly Circus station, or have it delivered to your door step (but I think you got to pay extra for that service). And us trying to save money, decided to collect it ourself and head out to look for the Visitor Centre… my my… and ended up with an experience which still left me quite speechless. You see, as usual, us being horrid tourists, enjoy asking for directions the moment we’re not sure of the directions and too lazy to take out our map and figure it out, and end up getting more lost. Anyway, we saw this decent looking elderly man and thought he looks kind enough to point out the directions. Trust me, the saying “Looks are deceiving” should never ever be doubted! We walked up to him (he was manning a walking tour at the corner of the street) and below is our conversation:

Silly us: Excuse me, sir. Can we asked you a question?

Elderly man: *turns around* Why, sure!

Silly us: Do you know where’s the Visitor’s Centre?

Elderly man: Of course, I do! *smiles*

Silly us: *looks back at him smilling and waiting*

*few seconds later and we’re still looking at him*

Elderly man: Oh, were you asking for directions? I thought you just wanted to know whether I knew the place!

I was absolutely stunned and horrified! I believed my jaw really dropped open at him and I was speechless! I couldn’t even shoot him back! Oh my goodness, he was really enjoying himself, teasing us in that way! How evil! But anyway, he finally did pointed us the right way but I was still horrified over that experience till now…

Link to the site:
http://www.londonpass.com