The Tower Of London Is The First Thing Every Family Asks Me About

Every single family planning a London trip asks me about the Tower before they ask me about anything else. Not Buckingham Palace. Not the Eye. The Tower of London, and specifically the Crown Jewels, comes up in nearly every first conversation I have.

Here is what it actually costs and what you get for it, because most of what I read online before I checked myself was out of date.

The real numbers

An adult ticket is 37 pounds. A child ticket, ages 5 to 15, is 18.50. Under 5 gets in free. One ticket covers the Crown Jewels, the White Tower, the Battlements, the Bloody Tower, the Torture at the Tower exhibition, the Fusiliers Museum, and the Royal Mint exhibition. It also includes the Yeoman Warder tour, the one everyone calls the Beefeater tour, though that one runs subject to availability, not guaranteed at every single time slot.

Book online before you go. During school holidays the ticket office line can eat an hour you did not plan for, and that is an hour a 7 year old will not forgive you for.

The Beefeater tour is the part to build your morning around

The Yeoman Warders are the ones in the red and black uniforms, and their tour is free with your ticket but it is not something you can just wander into whenever. Ask at the entrance what time the next one starts the moment you walk in, and plan the rest of your visit around it. It is the best 45 minutes of the whole day, and it is the part that actually keeps a 9 year old listening, because a Beefeater tells this history like it is gossip, not a lecture.

The Crown Jewels line moves on a slow conveyor belt so everyone gets a real look without the room turning into a crush. Go early if you can. It gets dense by midday.

The ravens

There are ravens kept on the grounds, and the belief is that if they ever leave, the kingdom falls. My kids do not care about the Crown Jewels nearly as much as they care about the ravens, and I have stopped fighting it. Let them have the ravens. It is free and it works.

If you are a UK resident on certain benefits, there is also a 1 pound ticket program covering up to four tickets per household, and it is worth knowing about even if it does not apply to you, because it tells you something about how this place is actually run.

This is the one I build every London itinerary around first, because once the Tower is booked for the right morning, the rest of the day tends to fall into place around it. If you want help with the timing, email me at nicole@fgluxurytravel.com.