Go City London review 2026: is it worth buying?

Go City at a glance

What is Go City?

Go City is the company behind the London Pass. If you've heard of the London Pass, you've already heard of Go City — they're the same product, now sold through the Go City app and website, as well as third-party resellers like GetYourGuide and Viator. The brand was rebuilt in 2021 when The Leisure Pass Group (which had run the London Pass since 1999) consolidated all its city passes under the single Go City name.

In London specifically, Go City sells two distinct products that confuse a lot of buyers: the day-based London Pass and the attraction-based London Explorer Pass. They look similar in the checkout flow and share most of the same attractions, but the maths is very different.

Key inclusions in 2026

The London Pass now includes 100+ attractions following the February 2026 simplification that merged the old Standard and Plus tiers into a single product. The headline inclusions — the ones most visitors actually care about — are:

• Tower of London (gate price £35.80)
• Westminster Abbey (£31)
• The View from The Shard (£32)
• London Eye (£39)
• Madame Tussauds (£40+ depending on date)
• St Paul's Cathedral (£27)
• Kew Gardens (£25.40)
• Hampton Court Palace (£32)
• Windsor Castle (£32)
• 2-day Hop-On Hop-Off Bus tour
• Thames River Cruise
• Tower Bridge, Kensington Palace, Churchill War Rooms, ZSL London Zoo

Plus dozens of smaller museums, walking tours and day trips (Stonehenge, Oxford, Warwick Castle) — useful filler if you have an extra pass day to burn.

What's not included

The pass does not cover the major free museums — British Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Science Museum. That's not a flaw: these cost nothing regardless, so the pass adds zero value there. If your trip is built primarily around free museums, you do not need a pass at all.

A few paid attractions are also excluded: West End theatre tickets, Premier League football matches, the Harry Potter Studio Tour, and most special exhibitions at the major museums. Don't assume something is included — check Go City's live attraction list before buying.

2026 prices

Go City runs a near-permanent 5–20% discount in the app and on the checkout page — the headline price is rarely the price you actually pay. Wait for a sale or check both Go City direct and GetYourGuide; the cheapest channel rotates.

How it actually works on the day

You buy online, the pass arrives in your inbox within minutes, and you load it into the free Go City app as a QR code. At each attraction you open the app and the staff member scans your QR — no paper tickets, no separate booking confirmations to dig out.

The London Pass clock starts on your first scan and runs in consecutive calendar days, not 24-hour periods. A 2-day pass scanned for the first time at 4pm Monday expires at end-of-day Tuesday, not 4pm Wednesday. This catches a lot of buyers out.

For three high-demand attractions — Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and The View from The Shard — you must book a free timed entry slot in the app before you turn up. Slots sell out 1–2 days ahead in peak summer.

Honest verdict

The London Pass is genuinely good value if you'll visit 3+ paid attractions per day. A single day of Tower of London + Westminster Abbey + St Paul's totals £93.80 at the gate — already £4.80 more than the 1-day pass. Add a Thames cruise and a Hop-On Hop-Off bus on top, and the saving compounds fast.

It is poor value in three situations: trips built around free museums; trips where you're only planning 1–2 paid attractions total; and trips where you want to take it slow (an hour at one attraction, lunch, an hour at another) because the consecutive-day clock punishes pace.

The Explorer Pass is the better choice for slower trips or split-day sightseeing — you pick 2–7 attractions upfront and have 30 days to use them, no daily pressure. See our full Explorer Pass vs London Pass breakdown for the cross-over point.

Common complaints

Reading through TripAdvisor and Reddit threads, the same three complaints come up over and over:

• Confusion between pass types. People buy the Explorer Pass thinking it's the day-based one, or vice versa. Always check what you've actually added to cart.
• Consecutive-day counting. Buyers expect 24-hour periods. The clock runs in calendar days, and a late first scan effectively burns half a day.
• Pre-booking still required. The pass is not a "walk up and skip the line" product at the busiest attractions — you still need to reserve a slot, sometimes days in advance.

None of these are dealbreakers, but they're worth knowing before you click buy.

Should you buy it?

Run the numbers. Don't trust the marketing copy and don't trust this review either — both make assumptions about your trip. Open our free comparison tool, tick the attractions you'd actually visit, and you'll get a £-by-£ answer that's specific to your party in 30 seconds.