Westminster Abbey Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Entry

What a guide adds

A guide turns the Abbey's thousand years into a story you can follow while you stand in front of it: why the Coronation Chair is where it is, which royal tombs to stop at, and who in Poets' Corner is buried and who only has a memorial. The listing names the nave, side chapels, the cloisters, Poets' Corner, the Coronation Chair and the graves of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. The standard ticket's multimedia guide covers the same route, but it cannot answer questions or steer you round the crowds.

Priority entry, explained

Skip-the-line here means the Abbey's priority entrance for groups, not a way round security, which every visitor passes. Rosotravel notes that Abbey rules allow one guide for up to 20 people, so larger parties get a second guide. The Abbey does not allow group entry between 12:00 and 1:00pm, so tours are timed around it. If you only want to see the Abbey without a guide, the entrance ticket at $43 is the cheaper choice.

Which option to pick

The 2-hour private tour is the Abbey alone with your own guide. The 4-hour private tour adds St Margaret's Church and a walk through Westminster to the gates of Buckingham Palace; the 3.5- and 5.5-hour versions add a private car to and from your hotel, with about 1.5 hours of driving built in. The 4-hour group tour, the cheapest, enters only the Abbey and adds Big Ben and Buckingham Palace from outside, in one language, for up to 20 people.

• 2 h private — Abbey only, your own guide
• 4 h group — Abbey inside, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace outside, up to 20
• 4 h private — Abbey, St Margaret's Church, Westminster walk
• 3.5 h and 5.5 h private — As the 2 h and 4 h tours, plus hotel transfer by car

Is it worth the extra over a ticket?

The guided tour costs from $100 against $43 for the plain ticket, so you pay about $57 for a guide and the group entrance. Reviewers think it is worth it: all 10 of the latest reviews praise the guide by name. A cheaper way to get a guide is the Abbey's own verger tour at £10 on top of the £32 ticket, but it is English only, limited to 20, and can only be booked on arrival, so it may be full.

Before you go

Check your email the day before for the meeting point and final details from the operator. The Abbey is a working church: entry is restricted during services and special events, and it does not open for sightseeing on Sundays. Bags larger than 40 x 30 x 20 cm are not allowed inside and there is nowhere to leave them.