Tower of London

What makes it special

In the White Tower, give the medieval armour and the Chapel of St John the Evangelist the longest stops of the visit.

The Crown Jewels are kept in the Jewel House, where the lighting is kept low for conservation, as it is in the Bloody Tower and the Torture at the Tower exhibition. In December the Jewel House can have little or no queue, and you may share the rooms with only a couple of dozen others.

From the battlements you look out over the rest of the fortress, the Thames and London beyond, a view one visitor called spectacular. Down in the grounds, one visitor counted Traitor's Gate among the highlights of the day.

Visiting

Once inside, the first choice is between joining the next Yeoman Warder tour and setting off on your own.

For a route of your own, one that works is to start on the battlements that run round the outside of the fortress and work inward from there, ending at the White Tower and the Jewel House.

In the Jewel House, a moving walkway runs alongside the cases, so you pass the Crown Jewels at its pace rather than your own. Expect a slow, dim shuffle there compared with the open grounds.

Guided or on your own

Yeoman Warder tours leave every 45 minutes from 10am, the last at 3.15pm, and come with the ticket. The Warders tell stories of imprisonment, execution and torture, and one family who went with children found their Warder very funny.

An audio guide voiced by Warders and curators is booked online with your ticket, and a tour with a British Sign Language interpreter costs nothing extra; book that one ahead.

Tips

Free wheelchairs are lent on a first-come basis and cannot be booked.

On a Gun Salute day, Tower Wharf, the area that includes the entrance, closes about 45 minutes before the guns fire, and visitors are moved to the area in front of the Tower shop.

Watch the ravens from a few steps back. They can and do bite.