Short answer. Buy a ticket, arrive at 9am, and go straight to the Crown Jewels. Admission includes a Yeoman Warder tour that leaves the moat every half hour, so a plain ticket already comes with a guide. Pay more only for a booked slot, a guide before the gate, or entry before the public.
Quick facts
| Address | London EC3N 4AB, United Kingdom |
| Nearest station | Tower Hill (Circle, District), about three minutes on foot |
| Hours | 9:00am to 5:30pm, seven days a week |
| Founded | 1066; the stone keep from the 1070s |
| Visits in 2025 | 2,817,852 |
| Cheapest way in listed here | $51 day ticket |
| Re-entry | None — the ticket ends when you walk out |
Hours and address from the operator listing and the Google Business Profile, 26 August 2026; visit figure from ALVA. Tour prices are the operators’ own on the same date.
Tickets: what you buy, and from whom
Three routes, and they are not equivalent. The attraction sells its own admission, which is the lowest fare and comes with nothing added. A tour that bundles admission costs more and buys a booked slot and a guide. The gate sells tickets on the day, which works in February and is a gamble in August.
Every listing below refunds in full up to 24 hours before the start, and the price shown is the operator’s own. The full spread, with what each includes, is set out on the visiting page; the reasoning behind choosing between them is in the ticket guide.
💡 Did You Know? The Crown Jewels were moved into the fortress during the 14th century because Westminster Abbey, where they had been kept, was repeatedly robbed. A Keeper of the Crown Jewels has existed since 1207.
Getting there
Tower Hill is the obvious answer, on the Circle and District lines in fare zone 1, and it is about three minutes on foot down towards the moat. Tower Gateway on the Docklands Light Railway is a similar distance. Fenchurch Street handles mainline trains from Essex, and Tower Millennium Pier puts you on the river. There is no visitor car park, and the City’s congestion and emissions charges apply. Route detail is on the transport page.
If you have booked a guided departure, the station is only half the problem. Guided departures gather at nine different meeting points, and two of them start in Parliament Square, three miles west. Where each tour meets lists them by operator.
Three things visitors here get wrong
All three are stated on the listings themselves, and all three are the sort of thing you only find out at the gate.
- There is no re-entry. Walk out for lunch and the ticket is finished. Eat inside if the day is long.
- There is nowhere to leave a suitcase. The attraction states plainly that it has no luggage facilities and that large items are prohibited. Plan the day around a station locker.
- Strollers cannot go into the White Tower. The keep is stairs from bottom to top. A soft carrier solves it; the rest of the grounds are fine.
How long to allow
Three hours is a comfortable first visit. Two works if you skip the Wall Walk and the Medieval Palace. A full day is only worth it if the armouries interest you, and they are worth a great deal more than most people expect. The guided departures listed here range from one hour to a full day, and the time actually spent inside the walls ranges from ten minutes on the walking tour to three hours on the small-group departures.
The best time to arrive
Nine in the morning, or after three. The Jewel House queue is the whole argument: ten minutes at opening, up to an hour in the middle of an August day. Weekdays beat weekends. If your only slot is midday in summer, the four early-access departures are the one thing that genuinely fixes it, and they are compared on the early access page.
✅ Useful Tip Go to the Crown Jewels first, whatever else you plan. Everything else in the fortress absorbs a crowd; the Jewel House is a single corridor with a moving walkway, and it is the one place where arriving early changes the day.
Every tour option, and who each suits
Sixteen listings, four broad shapes. A day ticket for people who want to set their own pace. A guided departure for a first visit that wants the history told. Early access for summer mornings. A private guide for a family or a small party who need the pace set around them.
| Tour | From | Length | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Day Ticket | $51 | 1 day | Independent visitors who want to set their own pace and stay all day |
| Early Access Tower of London: Crown Jewels and Beefeater Ceremony | $87 | 1 hour | First visits in summer, when the Jewel House queue is the real problem |
| VIP Beefeaters Meet & Greet with Tower of London Guided Tour | $89 | 2 hours | Visitors whose whole reason for coming is to meet a Beefeater |
| The Tower of London - Small Group Tour with a Local Expert | $212 | 2 to 3 hours | Anyone who wants depth and the chance to actually ask a question |
| Tower of London Private Tour for Families and Friends | $353 | 3 hours | Families and mixed-age groups who need the pace set around them |
| Tower of London After Hours Tour with Beefeater & Keys Ceremony | $220 | 1 hour 30 minutes | Anyone who wants the fortress in the dark and the oldest ceremony in it |
Prices are per person, the operators’ own, captured 26 August 2026.
What to combine it with
Tower Bridge is five minutes away across the wharf and is a separate attraction with its own admission; one departure here bundles the Engine Rooms. St Katharine Docks sits just east and is where to eat without a queue. The river runs west past the Globe and St Paul’s, which is what the forty-minute cruise covers. All of it is walkable, and none of it needs a taxi.
Frequently asked
Do I need to book Tower of London tours in advance?
Yes for anything guided. The operators’ own figures show travellers booking these departures between 18 and 84 days ahead, and four listings carry a sell-out flag. A ticket alone is safer to leave late, though a summer weekend still sells through.
Is the Beefeater tour included with a ticket?
It is. The Yeoman Warder tour comes with admission and leaves the moat every 30 minutes, signposted as you come in. What a paid tour buys on top is a booked slot, a guide before you go through the gate, and on some departures entry before the public.
Can I leave and come back on the same ticket?
No — there is no re-entry once you walk out. Worth knowing before you head off to find lunch, because the cafes inside are the ones that keep the ticket alive.
What is the cheapest way in?
The day ticket, at $51 on the listing we hold, sold by the charity that runs the fortress. It covers the Crown Jewels, the keep and the free Yeoman Warder tour. Cheaper options are a walking tour and a river cruise, and neither takes you inside the walls.
Everything else — access, photography, the ravens, the ceremony — is answered on the FAQ page. To compare the departures themselves, start at tower of london private tour.
Tours that fit this
Chosen for what this page covers.
Book the ticket first and the date second: the fortress is open every day, and the hour you pick matters more than the month.