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London · Kensington Gardens · A Historic Royal Palace
Kensington Palace Tours
The palace where Queen Victoria was born and Diana lived is a self-guided visit; the guided tours are garden walks with afternoon tea at the Orangery, some with palace entry. Which to book, and what is closed until spring 2027.
From
$127
per person
Free cancellation
For a guided visit, book the Kensington Palace afternoon tea and guided walk. A live guide takes you through Kensington Gardens, the formal water features and the Sunken Garden with the stories of the royals who lived here, then you sit down to afternoon tea at the Orangery, Queen Anne’s 18th-century garden building. It is $127 per person, rated 4.6 from 373 reviews (checked October 2026), meets at Queensway station and runs two to four hours depending on the option; one option adds entry to the palace itself.
Check dates for the tea and guided walk
What a Kensington Palace “tour” actually is
Kensington Palace is run by Historic Royal Palaces, the same charity that runs the Tower of London, and its own visit is self-guided. The palace entrance ticket, sold by Historic Royal Palaces, gives you a timed entry and an audio guide, and you need about 90 minutes for the State Apartments: William Kent’s painted Grand Staircase and Cupola Room, court dress and paintings from the Royal Collection, and the rooms of William III, Mary II and Queen Anne. Queen Victoria was born here in 1819, and Diana, Princess of Wales, lived here.
So the guided “tours” are mostly about the grounds. Kensington Gardens, the royal park around the palace, is free to walk, and the operators’ tours add a guide, the stories and a booked table for tea. If you want a guide inside the State Apartments as well, pick a tour option that says it includes palace entry.
What is closed until spring 2027
Check this before you book. Historic Royal Palaces says the Queen’s State Apartments are closed until spring 2027 for a major re-presentation, and the King’s Gallery closes from 18 November 2026 until spring 2027 for roof repairs. The King’s State Apartments stay open, the Last Princesses of Punjab exhibition runs until 8 November 2026, and from 25 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 the ticket includes Victoria’s Countryside Christmas. The ticket’s GetYourGuide listing still mentions the Queen’s apartments, so expect a shorter visit than it describes. This is the main reason the garden-and-tea tours are a good choice this winter: the gardens are not affected.
Tickets, prices and hours
| Option | Price, from | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Palace entrance ticket (Historic Royal Palaces) | $17 for the lowest ticket type | Timed entry, audio guide, about 90 min |
| Afternoon tea and guided walk | $127 | Garden walk with a guide, tea at the Orangery |
| VIP gardens tour and royal high tea | $154 | Garden tour, Cradle Walk, high tea; timed palace entry optional |
| Palace tour, guard change and afternoon tea | $92 | Pre-reserved palace tickets, audio guide; guard change and tea optional |
| Westminster walk and Kensington Palace visit | $87 | A Westminster walking tour, then the palace |
GetYourGuide prices per person, checked October 2026. Historic Royal Palaces’ own visit page lists the adult ticket at £24.70 and the child ticket (5 to 15) at £12.40, under-5s free, also checked October 2026; prices vary by date.
In the week we checked, late October 2026, the palace opened Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 (Sunday to 16:00), with last entry at 17:00, and was closed on Monday and Tuesday. There is no skip-the-line entry, and everyone goes through a security scanner at the door. The address is Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, London W8 4PX.
The VIP high tea and the other tours
LetzGo City Tours Britain’s VIP Kensington Palace Gardens tour with royal high tea ($154, 4.7 from 78 reviews) is the more formal version: a guide through the gardens and along the Cradle Walk, the tunnel of limes that looks into the Sunken Garden and the 2021 statue of Diana, then tea at the Orangery with a choice of up to ten teas. The two-hour option at 11am covers the gardens and tea only; the three-hour option at 9:30am adds timed palace entry with an audio guide. It is guided in English, Spanish, German or French.
If you want the palace and a guard change in one morning, the Kensington Palace tour with the guard change and afternoon tea ($92) includes pre-reserved palace tickets and an audio guide, with the Changing of the Guard and tea as options. For the neighbourhood rather than the palace, the Royal Kensington guided walk ($99, 4.7 from 14 reviews) and Compleat Walks’ Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens walk ($44) stay outdoors; neither includes palace entry.
Pick the Kensington visit that suits you:
Guided, with tea
Afternoon Tea & Guided Walk
A guide through the gardens and Sunken Garden, then tea at the Orangery; palace entry as an option.
Check dates →Just the palace
Kensington Palace Entrance Ticket
Historic Royal Palaces' own timed ticket with an audio guide, at your own pace.
See the ticket →The formal version
VIP Gardens Tour & Royal High Tea
The Cradle Walk and the Diana statue, high tea at the Orangery, timed palace entry optional.
See the high tea →Prices, ratings and review counts from our October 2026 data check; prices are per person, and the lowest ticket type on GetYourGuide is not necessarily the adult price.
The Tower and Kensington on one day
The two palaces are at opposite ends of central London but share an operator, and a day of both works. Start at the Tower of London with a Beefeater tour in the morning, take the Circle line from Tower Hill to High Street Kensington, and walk ten minutes through Kensington Gardens to the palace; Queensway on the Central line, where the tea walk meets, is the other close station. Mind the 17:00 last entry. If you would rather stay on the river side of town, the Thames cruises from Tower Pier start in front of the Tower.
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Kensington Palace Tours Compared
A guided garden walk with afternoon tea, the palace's own ticket, or a VIP high tea. Prices checked October 2026.
| Feature | GUIDED, WITH TEA Afternoon Tea & Guided Walk | Palace Entrance Ticket | VIP Gardens Tour & Royal High Tea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $127 per person | $17 per person (lowest ticket type) | $154 per person |
| Guide | Live guide in the gardens | Self-guided with an audio guide | Live guide in the gardens |
| Inside the Palace | If you choose the option with entry | Yes, about 90 minutes | If you choose the 3-hour option with timed entry |
| Food and Drink | Afternoon tea at the Orangery, or a takeaway cream tea | Not included | Afternoon tea at the Orangery, up to 10 teas |
| Sold By | Top Tasting Tours | Historic Royal Palaces | LetzGo City Tours Britain |
| Rating | 4.6 from 373 reviews | 4.4 from 4,849 reviews | 4.7 from 78 reviews |
| Check Dates | View Tickets | View Options |
More Options
Other Ways to See Kensington Palace
The palace's own ticket, a VIP high tea, a royal London day with the guard change, and walks through Kensington and its gardens.
THE PALACE'S OWN TICKETLondon: Kensington Palace Sightseeing Entrance Tickets
VIP HIGH TEALondon: VIP Kensington Palace Gardens Tour & Royal High Tea
WITH THE GUARD CHANGELondon: Kensington Palace Tour, Guard Change & Afternoon Tea
WESTMINSTER + PALACELondon: Westminster Walking Tour and Kensington Palace Visit
ROYAL KENSINGTON WALKLondon: Royal Kensington Guided Walking Tour
HYDE PARK WALKLondon: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens Walking Tour
Guest Reviews
What Our Guests Say
4.6/5
from 373 verified guests
"This was a great tour. Our tour guide Paul was excellent. Stop searhing and just book this tour."
"The tour was great and our tour guide Doug was super kind and very well informed. He took us around the beautiful gardens and was happy to answer any questions we had. Would definitely recommend"
"Paul was knowledgeable and fun, a great combination of"
"Porshia was an amazing tour guide! She made the experience very pleasant and memorable! She shared a wealth of knowledge about the Kensington Palace and the royal families that resided there, including Princess Diana. The Orange Room and high noon tea was a perfect ending to a great tour. I will highly recommend this tour!"
"I like where it started, and that we saw so much wild life (dogs, geese, magpies, swans, seagulls, squirrels, etc). I liked that we got to learn some history bit by bit as we walked. Paul did a great job telling relevant stories and helped to ensure everyone had an easy time hearing. The tea and lunch was great and the Kensington Palace was one of our favorites so far. The self-guided audio tour allowed us to go at our own pace and it made it so we could get as much out of it as we wanted."
"Everything was great and we were totally satisfied"
"Our tour guide Doug was amazing , gave us such great knowledge and was so patient, he even had a cup of tea with us , great tour , Afternoon tea was very elegant and classy .. 10/10 highly recommended, Thanks Doug from Robert and wife from Florida"
Read all 373 verified reviews
See All ReviewsKensington Palace Tours: FAQ
What people ask before booking a visit or a tour at Kensington Palace.
The palace's own visit is self-guided: Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that also runs the Tower of London, sells a timed ticket with an audio guide, and you walk the State Apartments at your own pace. Guided tours come from independent operators, mostly as walks through Kensington Gardens and the palace grounds with an afternoon tea, some with palace entry as an option. The afternoon tea and guided walk is the best-reviewed of those.
Yes, if you like royal history told through rooms rather than ceremony. You see the King's State Apartments with William Kent's painted Grand Staircase and Cupola Room, court dress and works from the Royal Collection, in a palace where Queen Victoria was born and Princess Diana lived. Until spring 2027 the visit is shorter than usual, because the Queen's State Apartments are closed. The palace entrance ticket is the way in.
Allow about 90 minutes inside the palace, which is the time Historic Royal Palaces suggests on its ticket listing. A guided garden walk with afternoon tea runs two to four hours depending on the option, and the VIP gardens tour with high tea is two hours, or three with timed palace entry. Kensington Gardens is free to wander before or after. See dates for the afternoon tea and guided walk.
Historic Royal Palaces lists an adult ticket at £24.70 and a child ticket (ages 5 to 15) at £12.40 on its visit page, with under-5s free and members free (checked October 2026; prices vary by date and season). On GetYourGuide the same official ticket is listed from $17 for its lowest ticket type. Buy ahead: there is no skip-the-line entry and every visitor goes through a security scanner. Compare in the ticket listing.
For the palace, yes: entry is by timed ticket, and members of Historic Royal Palaces go free. Kensington Gardens, the royal park around it, is free and open to everyone, so a garden walk needs no ticket at all. That is why most guided Kensington tours are garden walks, with palace entry as an extra. The Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens walk covers the park itself.
No. In the week we checked (late October 2026) it was closed on Monday and Tuesday and open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00 (Sunday to 16:00), with last entry at 17:00. Hours change by season and around Christmas, so check the date you want on Historic Royal Palaces' opening-times page before you book anything. Guided walks such as the afternoon tea and guided walk list their own start times.
Two parts of the route. Historic Royal Palaces says the Queen's State Apartments are closed until spring 2027 for a major re-presentation, and the King's Gallery closes from 18 November 2026 until spring 2027 for roof repairs. The King's State Apartments stay open. From 25 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 the ticket includes Victoria's Countryside Christmas. The entrance ticket listing still names the Queen's apartments, so read it with that in mind.
Yes. Kensington Palace is still a working royal residence: members of the royal family have private apartments there and it is the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose office is based there. The public part of the building is the State Apartments, which is what a ticket shows you. A Royal Kensington walking tour covers the family stories around it.
In the Sunken Garden beside the palace, where a statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, was unveiled in 2021. The Cradle Walk, a tunnel of pleached limes around the garden, gives views into it. Garden walks usually stop there; the afternoon tea and guided walk includes the Sunken Garden, and the VIP gardens tour takes the Cradle Walk.
Yes, at the Orangery, the 18th-century building in the palace grounds. Two tours here book it for you: the afternoon tea and guided walk ($127, with a pre-booked table after a garden walk, or a takeaway cream tea option) and the VIP gardens tour with royal high tea ($154). Prices checked October 2026.
The Circle line runs from Tower Hill, the station next to the Tower, to High Street Kensington, and the palace is about a ten-minute walk from there through Kensington Gardens. Queensway on the Central line is another close station, and it is where the afternoon tea and guided walk meets. Both palaces are run by Historic Royal Palaces, so a morning at the Tower and an afternoon in Kensington fits one day if you mind the 17:00 last entry.
Still have questions? Email us at info@toweroflondon-tour.com
A Guided Walk and Afternoon Tea at Kensington Palace
Book the Kensington Palace afternoon tea and guided walk from $127 per person (checked October 2026): a live guide through Kensington Gardens and the Sunken Garden, then tea at the Orangery, with palace entry as an option. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
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