Tower of London

The single best thing here, it is included in your ticket, and a remarkable number of visitors miss it.

Yeoman Warders — Beefeaters — are former senior non-commissioned officers with long military careers behind them, and they live inside the Tower with their families. They give free guided tours roughly every half hour from near the main entrance.

The tour lasts around an hour and covers the fortress, the executions, the prisoners and the ravens, delivered with a dry comic timing that visitors describe more warmly than anything else at the site.

It does not include the Crown Jewels, which you visit separately.

Join one early in your visit rather than late. It gives you the layout and the story, and everything you look at afterwards makes more sense for it. Tours stop running well before closing.

The other reason people come, and the queue is the whole problem.

The jewels are displayed in the Jewel House in the Waterloo Block: crowns, sceptres, orbs and the regalia still used at coronations, including some of the largest cut diamonds in the world.

Moving walkways carry you past the principal crowns so that nobody can stop, which keeps the queue moving but gives you a short look. You can walk round again for a second pass, which most people do not realise.

Photography is not permitted in the Jewel House. This is stated repeatedly and widely ignored, which does not make it allowed.

Go straight here at opening or leave it until late afternoon. Mid-morning to mid-afternoon the queue can run well outside the building.

Buy online in advance. It is cheaper than the gate price, it avoids the ticket queue, and on busy days the Tower does sell out.

Entry is by timed slot. Arrive a little before it rather than well ahead.

The pattern that works, reported again and again by visitors who got it right: pre-booked tickets, arrive at opening, straight to the Crown Jewels while the queue is short, then a Yeoman Warder tour, then the White Tower and the walls at your own pace.

Doing it in the other order means queueing twice.

There is a security check at the entrance and the queue moves quickly once the gates open, but it does form before them.

The Norman keep at the centre, built by William the Conqueror, and the oldest part of the complex.

Inside: the Royal Armouries collection, with Henry VIII’s armour, tournament and hunting armour, and an arsenal of weapons. The Chapel of St John the Evangelist on the upper floor is one of the most complete Norman chapels in England and is the quietest room in the building.

It is several floors connected by original spiral staircases — narrow, uneven and steep, with no lift. This is the least accessible part of the site.

Allow forty-five minutes.

It is also where the crowd thins, because most visitors have spent their energy on the jewels.

The wall walk takes you along the battlements through a series of towers, with views over the Thames and Tower Bridge and displays on the Tower’s use as a prison.

Tower Green is where the scaffold stood — the site of the executions of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey, marked by a memorial.

The Bloody Tower holds the story of the princes said to have disappeared here, and Sir Walter Raleigh’s lodgings.

The ravens live on the green. Legend says the kingdom falls if they leave, so their wings are clipped. They are larger and bolder than people expect and they will take food.

The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, where the executed were buried, is accessible on the Yeoman Warder tour.

Three hours is the realistic minimum. Four is comfortable.

That covers the Crown Jewels, a Warder tour, the White Tower and the wall walk with time to sit.

Two hours means rushing, and visitors who allowed two consistently say they wished they had more.

A full day is possible for anyone with a real interest, particularly with children.

Add the queue at the entrance and the queue for the jewels, which together can be an hour on a bad day.

The site is largely outdoors, so allow more time in good weather when you will want to sit on the green, and less in driving rain.

Be there when the gates open. Everything about this visit is easier in the first hour — the jewels have no queue, the Warder tours are less crowded, and the grounds are walkable.

By late morning coach parties and school groups arrive and the site fills.

Late afternoon empties again, but the Warder tours stop and the Jewel House closes before the site does, so a late arrival risks missing both headline attractions.

The practical rule: the first two hours are worth more than any other three.

Check closing times for your date, which vary considerably between summer and winter.

May, April and August are the busiest months here, with July close behind — a broad warm-season peak rather than a single spike.

December, January and November are the quietest.

Winter is a genuine option. The site is outdoors and cold, but the Crown Jewels and the White Tower are indoors, the queues are a fraction, and the fortress in low winter light is atmospheric in a way summer does not manage.

School holidays fill the site with families, which is fine if you have children and worth avoiding if you do not.

Whatever the month, the hour matters more.

There are cafés on site and a restaurant, priced as you would expect. The New Armouries café is the largest.

Eating outside on the green in good weather is pleasant and permitted.

Toilets are distributed around the site and queue at peak times.

Dress for being outdoors. Most of the visit is in the open, the site is beside the river and it catches the wind, and there is limited shelter when it rains.

Wear proper shoes. Cobbles, spiral stairs and uneven ground throughout.

Bag checks operate at the entrance.

One of the best family attractions in London, and the reviews reflect it.

What works: the armour in the White Tower, the ravens, the executions and the prisoners, the Crown Jewels, and the Yeoman Warders, who are very good with children.

There are family trails and seasonal costumed events.

The practical constraints: spiral staircases are hard work with small children and impossible with a pushchair, and the site is large enough that legs give out.

Pushchairs can be left at points around the site rather than carried up towers.

A good shape: jewels first, Warder tour, White Tower, then the green to run about.

Mixed, and worth researching before booking.

The grounds are cobbled, uneven and sloping in places, which is hard work for wheels. Much of the outer site is reachable and there are accessible routes marked.

The Jewel House is accessible.

The White Tower and the wall walk are the difficulty: original spiral staircases, narrow passages and no lifts. Parts are simply not reachable.

A free companion ticket is generally available for visitors with disabilities, and accessible toilets are provided.

Contact the Tower in advance to check which routes are open on your date, and ask at the entrance about the accessible itinerary.

Tower Hill on the District and Circle lines is a three-minute walk. Tower Gateway on the DLR and London Bridge station are both close, and Tower Millennium Pier puts you there by river boat, which is the pleasant approach.

The riverboat from Westminster or the London Eye takes you past the landmarks and lands you at the gate.

Tower Bridge is immediately alongside and is a separate attraction with its own ticket — the two are often confused and are frequently done together.

St Katharine Docks, just east, is a quiet spot for lunch away from the tourist pricing at the Tower itself.

The criticism here is almost entirely about queues and the brevity of the Crown Jewels walkway. The praise is overwhelmingly about the Yeoman Warders.

The frustrating version: turn up mid-morning without a ticket, queue to get in, queue an hour for the jewels, get moved past the crowns on a travelator in ninety seconds, miss the Warder tours because they have stopped, and leave feeling it was expensive.

The good version: book ahead, be at the gates at opening, walk straight into the Jewel House and go round the crowns twice, join the next Warder tour, take the White Tower and the walls afterwards, and eat on the green.

Same ticket, same day, entirely different visit.