Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Tours run on Saturdays through most of the year, and daily during the weeks when Parliament is in recess — principally the summer, plus shorter breaks at Easter and Christmas.

When the Houses are sitting, the building is working and general tours do not run on weekdays.

That is why August dominates the visitor pattern here by a wide margin: it is the long summer recess and the only extended period when tours run every day.

Check the parliamentary calendar against your dates before assuming you can go.

UK residents have an additional option: contacting your MP or a member of the Lords can secure a free tour, and access to the public galleries to watch debates is free when the Houses are sitting.

Two ways round, and the reviews split on which is better.

The audio tour is cheaper, takes about an hour, is available in several languages — reviewers specifically praise the German version — and lets you go at your own pace.

The guided tour costs more, takes around ninety minutes, and is led by a trained guide. The recurring advice from people who did both, or who compared notes, is to take the guided version: the building is full of ceremonial detail and constitutional oddity that only makes sense when someone explains it.

Both cover the same route.

Guided tours in English sell out first. Book as far ahead as you can, particularly for summer Saturdays.

The route follows the ceremonial path the monarch takes at the State Opening, which is the logic that holds it together.

Westminster Hall, the oldest part by centuries, with its hammerbeam roof — the room where Charles I was tried and where monarchs lie in state.

The Robing Room, the Royal Gallery, the Lords chamber with its gilded throne, the central lobby, and the Commons chamber with its green benches.

You see both chambers, which is the part most visitors come for.

The contrast between the two — gold and scarlet in the Lords, plain green in the Commons — is the whole British constitution rendered in furniture, and a guide will tell you why.

This is a working parliament and a protected site, and the entry process reflects it.

Expect airport-style screening: bag scanners, metal detectors, and identity checks. Photographic identification is required and the name must match your booking.

Allow extra time — arriving at the stated time rather than before it means being late for your tour.

There are restrictions on what you can bring, and limited facilities for storing anything that is refused, so travel light.

Visitors generally describe the process as efficient and the staff as courteous, but it is not quick.

The entrance for tours is not the same as the entrance for the public galleries.

The Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell called Big Ben, is toured separately and it is the hardest ticket in this guide.

It involves climbing several hundred steps up a spiral staircase with no lift, to the belfry and the clock mechanism.

Tours are restricted, run in small groups, and demand is far ahead of supply. Access rules differ between UK residents and overseas visitors, and UK tickets have been allocated by ballot at times.

Reviewers who did both the palace tour and the tower rate the tower higher.

There are minimum age requirements and the climb is not suitable for anyone with mobility, heart or claustrophobia issues.

Book the moment your dates are fixed, and treat it as a bonus rather than a plan.

Several add-ons exist and they are a genuine differentiator here.

Afternoon tea on the terrace overlooking the Thames, bookable with a tour, is the best-known and is priced accordingly. Reviewers rate it highly as an occasion rather than as a meal.

Specialist tours run on particular themes at certain times of year.

There is a gift shop selling House of Commons branded goods, which is a better souvenir than most of what is sold on Westminster Bridge.

Check what is bundled with your ticket before adding anything separately, since combinations change through the year.

Free, and almost nobody does it.

When the Houses are sitting, the public galleries in both chambers are open and entry costs nothing. You queue at the Cromwell Green entrance, go through the same security, and sit above the chamber watching business in progress.

It is not a tour — you see one room and whatever happens to be under discussion, which may be riveting or may be a technical amendment to a fisheries bill.

Prime Minister’s Questions is the exception and is heavily oversubscribed, generally requiring a ticket arranged through an MP.

For anyone interested in how the place actually works rather than how it looks, an hour in the gallery is worth more than the tour.

An hour for the audio tour. Ninety minutes for the guided version.

Add thirty to forty-five minutes for security and arrival.

Add an hour if you are taking afternoon tea.

The Elizabeth Tower tour runs around ninety minutes on its own and is booked separately.

A half day covers a guided tour comfortably with time either side.

The building sits opposite Westminster Abbey and beside Westminster Bridge, so the whole area can be done as one walking day — though the Abbey alone needs two hours.

August is by far the busiest month, for the structural reason that it is when tours run daily during the summer recess.

January, March and May are the quietest, when tours are largely restricted to Saturdays.

Within the day, early slots are calmer and the light through the windows of the Royal Gallery is better.

Saturday tours outside the recess are busy because they are the only option that week.

If your dates are flexible and you want a quieter visit, a Saturday in late winter is the least crowded version — provided tours are running that week.

Photography is permitted in Westminster Hall and is restricted or prohibited in most of the rest of the route, including both chambers.

This is a working legislature and the rules are enforced. Follow what you are told.

The exterior is free to photograph, and the classic view is from Westminster Bridge or from the South Bank opposite, which takes in the whole river frontage with the Elizabeth Tower at the end.

The bridge is also where the view is best after dark, when the building is floodlit.

Parliament Square outside, with its statues of Churchill, Mandela and Gandhi, is free and takes ten minutes.

The palace has made substantial provision: step-free routes cover most of the tour, lifts serve the levels, and accessible toilets are available.

Parts of a nineteenth-century building remain difficult, and some sections of the ceremonial route involve level changes.

A companion generally goes free, and induction loops and alternative formats are available — arrange all of it when booking rather than on the day.

The Elizabeth Tower is not accessible under any circumstances: several hundred steps, spiral, no lift.

Security screening is handled sensitively but takes time.

Contact the visitor office in advance; they manage access individually and well.

Westminster station sits at the foot of the Elizabeth Tower, on the Jubilee, Circle and District lines — the exit comes up directly beside the building.

Waterloo is a ten-minute walk across the bridge, and St James’s Park is five minutes the other way.

Westminster Pier gives you river services east to the Tower and Greenwich.

Westminster Abbey is directly opposite, Churchill War Rooms five minutes away, and Buckingham Palace fifteen minutes through St James’s Park.

The area is congested with crowds and demonstrations at the middle of the day; arriving early is easier in every respect.

The reviews are strongly positive and the criticism is narrow: security takes time, and the audio tour leaves some visitors wanting a person.

The thin version: book the cheapest audio slot in August, queue through security, walk the route in an hour hearing about architecture, and leave without understanding what actually happens in either chamber.

The good version: book a guided tour months ahead, arrive with time for security, stand in Westminster Hall knowing what was tried there, get the constitutional explanation for why one chamber is green and the other scarlet, and — if you are lucky enough to get a ticket — climb the Elizabeth Tower afterwards.

Or come back on a sitting day and sit in the gallery for an hour, which is free and is the building doing its job.