A Yeoman Warder tour is included with every admission ticket and leaves the moat every half hour. Knowing that changes what a paid Beefeater departure has to be worth, so this page starts there and works outwards.
A meet-and-greet arranged for your group, a photograph, timed admission and nearly two hours inside the walls.
A Yeoman Warder is a retired warrant officer with at least 22 years’ service and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. There are 32 of them and a Chief Warder, and they live inside the walls with their families. They have conducted tours here since the Victorian era.
What a paid Beefeater departure sells is scheduled, bounded time with one — typically fifteen minutes arranged for your group, with a photograph — wrapped inside a guided tour of the grounds run by the operator’s own guide.
They are on duty rather than on script, and the difference shows in what they will tell you when asked.
The free tour is a performance to fifty people. A meet-and-greet is a conversation with six to twenty-five.
Timed admission means the ticket line is already dealt with when you arrive.
Nine centuries of prisoners, executions and ravens, told by somebody who walks past the spot on the way home.
| Departure | From | Length | Group cap | Rating / reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Access Tower of London: Crown Jewels and Beefeater Ceremony | $87 | 1 hour | 27 | 4.6 / 1,014 |
| Tower of London: Opening Ceremony & Early Crown Jewels Access | $104 | 1 hour | 20 | 4.6 / 133 |
| VIP Beefeaters Meet & Greet with Tower of London Guided Tour | $89 | 2 hours | 25 | 4.8 / 413 |
| VIP Early Access: Opening Ceremony Tower of London & Bridge Entry | $206 | 3 hours 30 minutes | 20 | 4.8 / 756 |
| VIP Tower of London and Crown Jewels Tour with Private Beefeater Meet & Greet | $137 | 3 hours | 30 | 4.6 / 938 |
| Tower of London After Hours Tour with Beefeater & Keys Ceremony | $220 | 1 hour 30 minutes | 20 | 4.6 / 98 |
The paid departures. The free Warder tour is included with any admission ticket and leaves the moat every 30 minutes.
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The honest comparison is this. Free: an hour with a Warder, in whatever group gathers at the moat, on the fortress’s timetable. Paid: a booked slot, a capped group, a guide before the gate, and on several departures fifteen minutes arranged for your party. Both give you a Beefeater.
You get: a booked time, an operator’s guide on the grounds, admission, and on most of these a scheduled meet-and-greet with a serving Warder and a photograph.
One of these departures is the evening walk that ends at the Ceremony of the Keys, and its own terms rule out the regalia and the building interiors.
You do not get: a Warder for the whole visit — they are on duty. Nor a guide inside the Jewel House or the keep, which the venue does not permit for anyone. Two of these listings put the meet-and-greet only on their fuller options, so read which variant you are selecting.
Three hours inside the walls, early timed entry and a Beefeater arranged for your party rather than a crowd.
Prices run from $87 to $220 and the operators’ own figures put average booking lead times between 57 and 72 days, so these are planned rather than impulse purchases. Group caps run from six to twenty-five. Every one refunds in full at 24 hours, and the meeting points differ by operator, sometimes by a few hundred metres and once by three miles.
If you simply want to hear a Warder talk, buy a day ticket and catch the free tour at the moat. It is included, it runs every half hour, and nothing here replaces it.
If your problem is the Crown Jewels queue rather than the guiding, an early access departure is the product that solves it. And if there is a wide age range in your party, a private guide will handle the pace better than any group format can.
The cheapest way inside before the public, and the only listing here offered in six languages. An hour before opening, the unlocking ceremony, the Jewel House, then an all-day ticket and an audio app.
From $87 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
One hour, straightforwardly described: the ceremony, first access to the regalia, then the rest of the day on your own ticket. Its own terms rule out a guided tour of the interiors, which is honest rather than limiting.
From $104 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Fifteen minutes with a serving Yeoman Warder, booked rather than hoped for, plus a photograph and timed admission. Nearly two hours of the two are spent inside the walls.
From $89 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Two riverside landmarks on one booking: the fortress before opening with a welcome from the Chief Beefeater, then timed entry to the Tower Bridge Engine Rooms across the water.
From $206 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
A private audience with a Beefeater for a party of six or fewer, early timed entry and three full hours covering the Jewel House, the keep and Tower Green.
From $137 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
A Yeoman Warder walks the floodlit grounds after closing and the evening ends at the Ceremony of the Keys. Grounds only: the buildings and the regalia are not part of it.
From $220 per personFree cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Yes. A Yeoman Warder tour is included with every admission ticket and leaves the moat every 30 minutes, signposted as you come in.
For a booked slot, a capped group and a guide before the gate. Most of these departures also arrange fifteen minutes with a Warder for your party, with a photograph. None of it replaces the free tour; it schedules it.
About fifteen minutes on the listing that specifies it. That covers what the job actually involves, time for questions and a photograph. Two of these listings put the meet-and-greet only on their fuller options, so check the variant.
No. The venue does not permit guiding inside the Jewel House or the keep, whoever is leading.
A retired warrant officer with at least 22 years' military service and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Their own page covers the role in full.
Yes. The requirements are about military service and conduct, not gender, and the garrison has included women since 2007.
Two of these cap bookings at six travellers. The rest run between twenty and twenty-seven for the departure as a whole.
Every guided way through the gate, from $51 with entry included. Each one refunds in full up to 24 hours before it starts, and you pay the operator’s own price.
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