The Tower is awfully expensive and terribly overcrowded. There is hardly a better indicator of the worth of a tourist attraction visit than the economics of exorbitant entrance fees not denting the demand to any degree. I first visited the Tower 25 years ago, when the tickets cost around £10, and I somehow recall it as less busy than it is today, even as the entry cost has more or less quadrupled since then.

As others noted, you can easily spend half a day seeing all there is to see on the grounds, exploring multiple layers of history for which this royal citadel has been inscribed. There are nearly a dozen defined points of interest and exhibitions, including the Medieval Palace, the armouries in the White Tower, the battlements, the dungeons and prisons, and the Royal Beasts exhibition.

The top highlights for practically everyone would include the Crown Jewels. For my money, it does not break into the top three of royal jewels exhibitions that I've seen elsewhere in Europe, but as someone else said before me, how often do you get a chance to see a collection of this kind? On an average day, you will probably spend an extra half an hour in line to get into the Jewel House, but it is still an unmissable part of the visit.   

Another component that I find unmissable is the Yeoman Warder tour. Led by one of the colorful resident royal guards, it is both amusing and informative, covering many of the momentous events that took place in the Tower. The crowd following the Warder is larger than what is usually to my taste, and you have to hustle to get close to him when moving from one tour stop to another, but the roughly 45-minute-long activity is among the most entertaining guided tours you could have anywhere.

My most recent visit to the Tower in April of 2025 was for the purpose of bringing my youngest child to a historic place that she wanted to see on her very first trip to London. Costs being what they are, there are clear diminishing returns in the value of a repeat visit (it was the fourth overall, in my case). But going at least once is a definite must in my book.