Visitors to Buckingham Palace appear to be anything but happy about their experience there with many describing it as a ‘money-making machine’.
Discover our latest podcast
Tourists took to TripAdvisor to register their disappointment and to warn prospective-visitors from visiting the Queen’s official residence.
The 39-acre gardens were reopened to the public this summer for self-guided tours and picnics. Access to the palace exhibitions was blocked last year due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
Tickets went on sale in April at £16.50 for an adult or £42 for a family with up to three children.
Disappointment
According to the palace website, visitors on a self-guided tour would get to enjoy the 'beauty and calm of this walled oasis (and) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to picnic on the lawn.'
This was far from what the visitors got, at least not according to the reviews on TripAdvisor.
They complained of large parts of the gardens being off-limits to them with overbearing security guards. They were also not thrilled about the ban on prosecco and found the food to be overpriced. One visitor in particular said they felt ‘robbed by the royals’:
Beware of this complete rip-off! What I experienced was first a long queue to security check and then seeing a piece of a lawn surrounded by standing stewards watching your every step and ropes segregating the rest of the garden. This small fragment of the park that you have access to is easily walkable around in 10 min and nothing is interesting to see there... I am very disappointed and feel robbed by royals.
Underwhelming experience
Many of the reviewers said they expected to spend a beautiful day, picnicking or just lazing about in one of the world’s most beautiful gardens. However, they said their experience was rather underwhelming.
A visitor questioned the import of opening up the gardens if a large part of it would be restricted, they said:
Buckingham Palace has opened its gardens to the public for the first time this year – it really shouldn’t have bothered. We expected the garden to be spectacular, but it was totally underwhelming. The (potentially) more interesting parts of the garden were roped off and only accessible if you parted with yet more cash on a guided ‘tour’.
