how far ahead to book tickets for major attractions in London?

[Anonymous]

If you can afford, I highly recommend context tour of British museum with Laurence. A highlight of our trip. My kids still remember so much of what they learned from him and they developed a real appreciation of museums. So worth it but $$

[Anonymous]

TBH I don't think you need advance tickets for any of these unless you absolutely must be there on a particular day at a particular time. The British Museum you do need timed passes for, but we were able to book them for "right now". We were there last Thanksgiving.

From experience, there are some things you do need advance tickets for:

- Hidden London tours of abandoned/sealed tube stations. These are given a few days a week and they do rotate so if you are interested in these, book ahead. My 13-year old loved it. It's fascinating to meet someone on a busy intersection, step inside a small sealed door, and then there's like a hidden secret world inside. Lots of history too as some of them were used as shelters during WW2.

- Big Ben does monthly tours INSIDE the clock tower. These do sell out pretty much instantly so look into the release schedule if you are interested.