Early Access Tower Of London: Crown Jewels And Beefeater Ceremony

This option was ideal because I am definitely a not a huge fan of crowds and waiting in lines. Our tour guide was personable and knowledgeable.

We did the early entry with Crown Jewels. So glad we did. A lot of people there for a Tuesday for the last week of October. Our guide we had for the first part was very helpful. The Beefeater ceremony was insightful.

It was a great experience to see the Tower of London's opening ceremony with the Beefeaters. The early admission also came in handy since we were able to see the Crown Jewels and several other exhibits before the crowds.

Early access is a must during tourist season, especially if you want to see the Crown Jewels because the lines get long very quickly. Are guide that meet us outside of the towel gave us a lot of the history and the Beefeater was the best yet.

I had friends from the USA here over the weekend. My wife and I showed them as much of London we could on Saturday. I day started with a City Wonders tour including the Opening Ceremony of the Tower of London. Our guide Michael Gould was amazing. He told us many stories mixed in with some humor. The morning was spent viewing the Crown Jewels and other sites inside the Tower. A big thanks for Michael and City Wonders for wonderful beginning of our day. It is well worth the early start to the day.

This was an early start but we’ll work the effort to de the Opening ceremony and be entertained by the Beefeater. We were also first in the see the Crown Jewels. No Queues, no hassle and the tour guide was really engaging. It makes me proud to be English, seeing this amazing Historical palace in all is (gory) glory! I would recommend this to everyone! V

There is an initial talk and tour taking you down to the opening up ceremony. Then you are handed over to the beefeater who talks you through the ceremonial opening up. After that you’re in early to wonder round and listen to the self guided tour. There is beefeaters who do tours and talks I think every hour and this is round the grounds and narrates through the history.. very good you could spend all day here if you wanted.

The meet up instructions were very clear, but there was no one with a City Wonders flag that was available for our time slot. A City Wonders person was leading a different group and came over to assist us. We wish we could have gone immediately to our Beefeater guide instead of standing around listening to our “outside” guide. Our Beefeater was fantastic! We learned so much and loved the whole experience once we were inside the Tower.

David was great! So much knowledge but made sure you laughed the whole way through. Highly recommended

I had an fabulous time learning about history of England our tour guide was fabulous recommend it...

Early access is key to this experience. Our guide Natalie was well-informed. Without the early access I would have lost patience completely with ambling folks and school trips- sorry I don’t want to sound rude! But I was glad to get to see what I wanted to see with minimal cattle driving so to speak. Like our tour Natalie said- the Tower was a prison but a “VIP prison”, and those of us on the early tour did line up a little like cattle for the opening drill, but “VIP cattle” lol (there really was no wait and hardly a line). I really enjoyed the humor and story telling, and the fact that after we got in and saw the opening ceremony, we could break off and do our own touring at our own pace. Overall a good choice and I’m glad I booked it and it’s worth getting up early to get there on time. We were staying in Kensington near Kensington Palace. I booked a cab for 7am on Gett, and we arrived at about 0735, plenty of time to have a coffee and pastry before the tour met at 815. Set the tone for a great day and we saw a lot at the Tower.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining prior to the Beefeater hand off and them led us straight to the Crown Jewels entrance, She was outstanding.

Loved getting in early with fewer crowds. Both tour guide and welcoming staff were great.

A great tour! Our guide David was full of facts about the history of London... and had such a great sense of humor! We laughed along the way, always a bonus on a city tour. We were able to get our questions answered by a Beefeater and had a great walk-through to see the Crown Jewels and exhibits. Really happy with our experience!

The tour was pretty short but informative. The meeting location was easy to find. David was knowledgeable and gave us a good history. So glad we did this option to get in early as when we were leaving there was a massive crowd coming in. We didn't end up using the audio app as a visual was worth a thousand words.

Loved this! It was about 45 minutes long and we loved learning the wacky history of the Tower of London. Seeing the beef eaters was great!

Our tour guide David Norton was terrific!! He was thorough and had a great sense of humor. We all enjoyed learning from him. The Tower and Crown Jewels were fascinating and beautiful… recommended!!

Sophie was engaging and entertaining. We learned so much while having fun!

Rob was great. Fun and knowledgeable.

Our guide was friendly and very informative. Totally enjoyed hearing the history. All the guides throughout the grounds were helpful.

Good your an expensive though.

Georgia greeted us with a smile and provided us with information that was helpful to jumpstart our visit to the Tower of London.

This was a most do at least one time

Wonderful experience getting to go in before anyone else! So worth it! The Crown Jewels are amazing! Our tour guide was great! You need at least 4 hours if you want to see all of the Tower.

Outstanding! Guide was very knowledgeable and fun. The only way to see the Tower - get in before the crowd and see the Crown Jewels. Loved that we had time on our own after the tour - we wound up spending 3 hours at the site.

Jo was our fantastic tour guide! She was witty and knowledgeable. The opening ceremony was very interesting to watch and gets you in early. After the opening ceremony, we went straight for the Crown Jewels and enjoyed the collection before the large crowd started to trickle in. That alone was worth the entire ticket price.

Dave was a great host very knowledgeable. Funny and entertaining. Got use to all the places and shared great information. Highly recommend!

Our guide Georgie was so very good! Friendly, unpretentious and approachable. The entire Tower experience is amazing. Everything is clearly marked. Expect to spend 3 hours.

We met our tour guide as instructed next to the Tower of London before it opened. The guide was informative and interesting and spoke for about thirty minutes before she led us to the entrance gate. There she left us with the Beefeater guide (not part of City Wonders) who then explained the ceremony of the keys to open the Tower gates, after which we were left on our own to visit various parts of the Tower complex. Essentially, we paid a significant fee for about thirty minutes of tour albeit early in the day.

This ticket provided access to a small group experience of the opening ceremony and first access to the Crown Jewels.

it was worthwhile to have early entry/access to the tower of london and to see the crown jewels before it got too crowded the beefeater intro was neat our guide provided useful tips and interesting stories before we went in we were provided with a self guided tour audio package to listen to as you walk aroond the place

Jay was fantastic. Very informative. Highly recommend the tour.

I would highly encourage goin on this Tour if you are interested in visiting the tower of London, the early arrival/entry and access to the tower, the Beefeater interaction, and early views of the Crown jewels made the visit to this popular landmark much more enjoyable. our guide provided interesting points and stories while we waited to enter. the self guided audio tour they provided was well done

The early access can make a huge difference in your experience. Rather than standing in lines, you are able to get in, observe and enjoy, and by the time the lines for everything are getting long, you are simply enjoying a stroll around the grounds.

Dave was the best guide of our European trip

Getting in early to see the Changing if the guards at London Tower was great. The Crown Jewels are amazing. Would definitely recommend.

Early entry and weekday is the way to go! We passed by on Saturday and the line to get in was wrapped around the corner. The tour guide was knowledgeable and on time. There are 2 coffee shops steps away to grab a drink and a pastry. The only reason I gave it a 4/5 is the actual tour guide is only with you for a short period of time. As soon as you get into the Tower and the ceremony starts, the guide departs. The Tower property is fascinating and a “do not miss”. Heads up though… parts are not suitable for kids, it can be super hot in the summer months (no AC) and lots of stairs.

Tower of London itself was very interesting. I don’t think it was worth the cost though for the tour and opening ceremony. The tour part is about 20-30 minutes. Once we got inside and saw the opening ceremony, we were on our own. I’d personally just save the money and see the tower on your own.

Our guide was friendly and got us to the entry point. She was knowledgeable and provided a brief history as we walked from the meeting point to the entrance. We enjoyed our time with the beefeater. He was very entertaining, so I recommend this add on. If you want a more guided tour, this is not what you’re looking for.

The experience was quite nice, the tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly. The history of the tower and the Crown Jewels were impressive. We had a nice day to experience the tour and would definitely recommend it. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was simply because the end point of the tour was marked “Buckingham Palace” but it was not. Not really a problem, but just misinformation.

This tour is so special in every way. Securing a ticket to this tour for the opening of the Tower of London allows you to experience the pomp and ceremony associated with the opening of this amazing building. Since the crowds can get rather large later in the day, this tour provides the perfect opportunity to get in before everyone else.

A wonderful experience. The guide was funny and informative and got us right to the front of the line for the opening and into see the Crown Jewels. Witnessing the opening ceremony was a very cool experience. The place fills up FAST so it was worth every penny to be the first in.

We had to get up earlier than my kids would have liked, but missing the crowd and getting to see the opening ceremony was worth it - even my teens said so

The guide Natalie was amazing. Great tour. Neat info. Amazing ceremony. Loved this

Overall it was nice to be the first in line for the Crown Jewels because the lines do get super long, but the rest of the experience was not memorable. You can sort of see the key carrying ceremony but there were so many people crammed in that we had very little visibility. The beefeater said that the closing ceremony is the old tradition, not the opening one. Just fyi if that’s what you are looking for. The history was very basic so if you already know that, not very informative and our guide was rushed due to another family on a later tour that kept insisting they were with our group and he was being very nice and trying to help them. I would recommend the Tower of London to families but not this tour.

Early access is the Most efficient way to see the Crown Jewels. Plenty of time to then walk the grounds, grab a snack onsite. Clean restrooms available with cool gift shop.

We met with our guide Matthew and he gave us a great overview of the history of the Tower of London.

Our guide was animated when telling the history of the Tower of London. Very informative and highly recommend this tour!

The guide was easy to find and he was great. It was worth getting in early to see the ceremony and beat the crowds - as we were leaving there were loads of school groups coming in! Some people on our group seemed to think this tour included heading to Westminster after the tower, but this is just to get you in early and the guide leaves at 9. We stayed for a while to explore on our own afterwards.