Every page that ranks for the London Eye is selling you a ticket for it. Here is what none of them lead with.
The time printed on your ticket is not when you board. It is when you are allowed to join the queue, and at peak times the wait from that point runs to forty five minutes. The operator publishes this plainly on its own opening hours page. A seven o’clock ticket can be a quarter to eight flight.
The second thing is arithmetic. Some of the combination tickets save a great deal of money and one of them appears to cost more than buying the two tickets separately. Here are the numbers, taken off the official price list.
Parking: 7 pounds at the National Theatre, and a discount code
The London Eye has no car park of its own, and it sits inside the Congestion Charge Zone, so driving costs before you have parked. But its own parking page names two options most visitors never find.
The National Theatre car park charges a £7 day rate, pre-booked through Horizon Parking, open 7am to 7pm every day. It is a secure underground car park within walking distance, taking vehicles up to the size of a large 4×4. For a central London day rate that is remarkable, and it is published by the London Eye itself rather than discovered.
Q-Park Westminster gives 10 per cent off pre-bookings with the promotional code LONDONEYE, entered on the pre-book page before updating the price. It is a short walk away.
Both need pre-booking, so neither helps if you turn up and hope. Other car parks are within walking distance at ordinary central London rates.
How much the London Eye costs
Standard and Fast Track is 29 pounds online and 39 on the door. That ten pound gap is the single easiest saving available and it requires nothing but booking before you arrive.
Flexi Fast Track is 49 online, 54 walk up. The Champagne Experience is 49 online and 59 on the door. The river cruise on its own is 15.50.
The bundle that is not a bundle
The multi-attraction tickets are where the money is, and they are not all equal.
These genuinely save. The Eye with Madame Tussauds is 49 pounds against 78 bought separately, and so is the Eye with SEA LIFE. Take all three and it is 54 against 117. Add the London Dungeon and Shrek’s Adventure and five attractions come to 59 pounds against 184, which is under twelve pounds each. Put another way: the first attraction costs 29 and the next four cost thirty pounds between them. Swap the Dungeon for a Big Bus tour and it is 69 against 198.99.
This one does not. The River Cruise plus London Eye ticket is 49 pounds. On the same website, a standard Eye ticket starts at 29 and the river cruise on its own starts at 15.50, which is 44.50 for the pair. On their own published starting prices the combined ticket is four pounds fifty more than buying the two separately.
Those are both “from” prices and the comparison may move with your date and time, which is exactly why it is worth checking rather than assuming the word bundle means a discount. Do the addition before you click.
The queue
Your ticket time is a queue time. Up to forty five minutes on top during peak periods, which they define as weekends and school holidays.
Early or late is the answer. Their own advice is to come first thing or near closing, which on an October Friday or Saturday means a ten in the morning start or an early evening one. Do not leave it too late: entry typically stops 30 to 45 minutes before the half eight close.
Fast Track is the paid solution. It is sold under the same from 29 pound heading as the standard ticket and buys priority entry at your time slot. Flexi Fast Track, from 49, adds the dedicated Fast Track entrance at any time on the day you chose, with no slot at all.
Travel light. Everyone passes security, and there is a published list of prohibited items.
The London Eye
- Address
- Riverside Building, County Hall, South Bank, London SE1
- Nearest
- Waterloo, five minutes. Westminster, eight across the bridge. Embankment, ten
- Hours
- Varies by date and published on their own calendar. In October 2026, 10am to 8.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 11am to 6pm Sunday to Thursday, then 10am to 8.30pm every day over half term, 23 to 31 October. Entry typically stops 30 to 45 minutes before closing. The River Cruise runs 10.45am to 4.45pm on weekdays and to 5.45pm at weekends and over half term
- Booking
- Online in advance, which is 10 pounds cheaper than the walk up price on a standard ticket. Flexible rescheduling and instant e-tickets
- Price
- Standard and Fast Track from 29 pounds online, 39 on the door, and from 26 for children aged 2 to 15, with under twos free. Flexi Fast Track 49 online, 54 walk up. Champagne Experience 49 online, 59 walk up. River cruise alone 15.50. Multi attraction tickets from 49 for two up to 69 for four plus a Big Bus tour
- Standing
- The wheel on the South Bank, and one of the five landmarks named in The Shard’s own View Guarantee
How to get in
Two things decide whether this is a good evening. First, the ticket time is when you join the queue rather than when you board, and the published peak wait from that point is up to forty five minutes, so treat a timed ticket as a starting gun rather than a boarding call. Second, the opening hours move a great deal by date: an October Saturday runs to half eight while the Sunday after it shuts at six, which is the opposite of what most people would guess. The river cruise is a separate 40 minute trip from the pier beneath the wheel, with a British Sign Language guide on the indoor deck, and it stops running well before the wheel does.
Is the London Eye worth it?
Twenty nine pounds buys a view that two other London platforms give away. That is the honest frame, and it is the one the ticket sellers cannot give you.
Sky Garden is free with a booked ticket, from 10am to 6pm on weekdays and 11am to 9pm at weekends, and its bars run on to midnight, or one in the morning on Friday and Saturday. Horizon 22 is free and the highest free platform in the city. Neither has a queue that runs forty five minutes past your slot.
What the Eye has that they do not is the river and the angle. It sits on the South Bank looking at Westminster, which is the postcard, and it moves. The free towers are in the City looking back west, which is a different picture entirely.
And if you are doing more than one attraction, the arithmetic changes completely. At 59 pounds for five Merlin attractions, the Eye stops being a 29 pound view and becomes twelve pounds of a bigger day.
What to know
Book online, always. Ten pounds a head on a standard ticket for doing it the night before.
Read the ticket time correctly. It admits you to the queue. Add up to forty five minutes at peak.
Check the bundle arithmetic. Five of the six combinations save real money. The river cruise pairing, on published starting prices, does not.
Friday and Saturday run latest. Hours vary sharply by date and the weekend is not uniformly longer: in October a Saturday to half eight is followed by a Sunday that shuts at six.
The river cruise closes first. It stops at a quarter to five on weekdays and a quarter to six at weekends, whatever the wheel is doing, so a combined ticket used late in the day only gets you half of it.
Everything here was taken from the London Eye’s own published information and rechecked in full on 28 September 2026, including both sides of the price comparison. All the figures are starting prices and move with date and time. Confirm before you book.
Where to go next
The Shard is the direct comparison and names the Eye as one of its five View Guarantee landmarks. The best views in London ranks all of them by what you have to arrange rather than what you have to pay.
Sky Garden and Horizon 22 are the free alternatives, and St Paul’s Cathedral is the one you climb rather than ride, with a one pound ticket for anyone on Universal Credit, Pension Credit or ESA.
Tower Bridge is free to watch from the road whenever a ship is due through, and the restaurants with a view cover getting a table instead of a ticket.
Questions we get asked
Is the London Eye worth the money?
At 29 pounds for a standard online ticket it buys a moving view over Westminster that no free platform in London offers, but two others give a comparable height away for nothing: Sky Garden, free with a booked ticket in the daytime and with bars open to 1am on Friday and Saturday, and Horizon 22, the highest free platform in the city. If you are visiting more than one attraction, five Merlin sites together cost 59 pounds, which reduces the Eye to under twelve.
How long do you queue for the London Eye?
Up to forty five minutes at peak times, and crucially that is on top of your ticket time rather than included in it. The operator states that the time on your ticket is when you enter the queue line. Peak means weekends and school holidays. Their own advice is to come early in the morning or close to closing time, or to pay for Fast Track entry.
How much are London Eye tickets?
Standard and Fast Track starts at 29 pounds per adult online and 39 on the door, so booking ahead saves ten pounds. Flexi Fast Track is 49 online and 54 walk up, and the Champagne Experience 49 and 59. The river cruise on its own starts at 15.50. Children aged 2 to 15 start at 26 online and under twos go free. Multi attraction tickets run from 49 pounds for two sites to 69 for four plus a Big Bus tour.
Is the London Eye and river cruise ticket good value?
Check the arithmetic first. The combined River Cruise and London Eye ticket is 49 pounds, while on the same site a standard Eye ticket starts at 29 and the river cruise starts at 15.50, which is 44.50 for the two bought separately. On those published starting prices the bundle is four pounds fifty more expensive. Prices move by date, so compare on the day you want.
What are the London Eye opening times?
They vary by date rather than following a fixed weekly pattern, and the calendar is published. In October 2026 the wheel opens 10am to 8.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 11am to 6pm from Sunday to Thursday, and 10am to 8.30pm every day over half term, 23 to 31 October. Entry typically stops 30 to 45 minutes before closing. The River Cruise keeps shorter hours, 10.45am to 4.45pm on weekdays and to 5.45pm at weekends.
Which is better, the London Eye or The Shard?
Different views and different prices. The Eye is 29 pounds online, sits on the South Bank looking at Westminster, and moves. The Shard is higher, has an open air deck on Level 72, no time limit once inside, and a View Guarantee that gives you a free return if visibility is poor, but it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The Eye is in fact one of the five landmarks that guarantee is measured against.
Is there parking at the London Eye?
Not at the attraction itself. Its own parking page names the National Theatre car park at a £7 day rate, pre-booked through Horizon Parking and open 7am to 7pm, and Q-Park Westminster, which gives 10 per cent off pre-bookings with the code LONDONEYE.
How much is parking near the London Eye?
£7 for the day at the National Theatre car park if pre-booked, which is the cheapest published option. Q-Park Westminster offers 10 per cent off pre-bookings with the promotional code LONDONEYE.
Is the London Eye in the Congestion Charge Zone?
Yes. The attraction confirms it is within the zone, so driving there incurs the charge on top of parking.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 134 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
