By Nora Lindqvist · Updated · Affiliate links, explained in my disclosure
Vox City Walks
Sky Garden Early Access with Pastry and Hot Drink
4.0 (1,094) · from $17.99
Sky Garden vs Shard is a free-against-paid choice: I’d book Sky Garden first, because entry is free with a timed booking on the official site, and pay for The Shard when you want the higher deck. The View from The Shard starts at $35.54 and sits at 244.8 m. Sky Garden’s paid add-ons start at $17.99, but those are food and drink packages. If you only have one clear evening and the Sky Garden slots are gone, I’d go up The Shard about an hour before sunset.
| Tour | From | Rating | Length | Free cancellation | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Garden Early Access with Pastry and Hot Drink | $17.99 | ★ 4.0 (1,094) | 2 hours | – | Check availability |
| Sky Garden Ticket with Breakfast at The Larch | $33.32 | ★ 4.1 (275) | 2 hours | – | Check availability |
| The View from The Shard | $35.54 | ★ 4.5 (10,257) | 24-hour ticket | Yes | Check availability |
| The Shard Entry Ticket with Champagne | $49.41 | ★ 4.5 (234) | 24-hour ticket | Yes | Check availability |
The two towers are under a kilometre apart, so the Sky Garden vs The Shard decision is about price, height and what you want around the view. Every price, rating and inclusion here comes from the GetYourGuide listings I checked in October 2026, in US dollars. Links open GetYourGuide in a new tab, and I earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. Full lists are on my Sky Garden tickets and Shard tickets pages.
| Sky Garden | The Shard | |
|---|---|---|
| Building height | 160 m (20 Fenchurch Street), per Wikipedia | 306 m, per Wikidata |
| Viewing height | No published figure for the viewing level; top three floors | Deck at 244.8 m, per Wikipedia |
| Open-air? | A terrace exists, but two listings say it is not included in their slot | Open-air deck on the 72nd floor, per Wikipedia |
| Entry | Free, timed, booked on the official site | From $35.54 on GetYourGuide |
| Cheapest paid listing | $17.99, early access with a pastry and hot drink | $35.54, the plain ticket |
| Top listing rating | 4.03 from 1,094 reviews | 4.49 from 10,257 reviews |
| Google Maps rating | 4.6 from 78,632 reviews | 4.6 from 8,280 reviews |
| Time to allow | 2 hours, per all four listings | Ticket valid for 24 hours; you choose how long to stay |
| In the view | The Tower of London and Tower Bridge close by, the Shard to the south | The whole river and the City below, the wheel to the west |
The Shard is much higher. Its viewing deck is at 244.8 m, and the standard horizon formula puts the horizon about 55.9 km away. Wikipedia places the open-air deck on the 72nd floor, so you can feel the wind and shoot without glass. I could not find a published height in metres for Sky Garden’s viewing level, so I won’t compare the two on distance to the horizon. The building holding it is 160 m tall per Wikipedia, which is well below the Shard’s deck.
Height is not the only point in the Sky Garden vs Shard view. At 160 m you look across the City rather than straight down, and Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are close, which suits a first look at the river. The Shard is 0.78 km (0.48 miles) away, so it is in the Sky Garden view, and the reverse is not true. One GetYourGuide reviewer called the Shard view easily one of the greatest in the world, and another called the Sky Garden croissant and coffee very good. Those are different pleasures.
The garden spans the top three floors, which are accessible by two express lifts and include a large viewing area, terrace, bar and two restaurants.
This is where the two split. The official Sky Garden site says entry is free, with tickets released weekly up to three weeks ahead. The View from The Shard is a privately operated deck per Wikipedia, and I found no free entry to it. So the plain Shard ticket at $35.54 buys what Sky Garden gives away, plus altitude.
The GetYourGuide listings for Sky Garden are not tickets to the free visit. They bundle a booked slot with something extra. Early access with a pastry and a hot drink is $17.99, rated 4.03 from 1,094 reviews. Breakfast at The Larch is $33.32, rated 4.06 from 275. The Larch dinner at $43.99 is the dearest, and it costs more than the Shard ticket.
Vox City Walks
My pick: The cheapest paid way into Sky Garden at $17.99 and the most reviewed with 1,094 at 4.03; I'd use it when the free slots are gone, terrace not included.
from
$17.99
Vox City Walks
My pick: A guaranteed morning slot with breakfast at The Larch for $33.32; 4.06 stars from 275 reviews.
from
$33.32
The View from The Shard
My pick: The Shard default: $35.54, 4.49 stars from 10,257 reviews and free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
from
$35.54
The View from The Shard
My pick: The same deck with a glass of champagne for $49.41, rated 4.52 from 234 reviews; I'd book it for an occasion.
from
$49.41
Calculator
–
from per person, before any child or group discount
Prices are the lowest per-person prices on GetYourGuide when I last checked; the final price depends on the date, time slot and age.
I have no live queue data, so I can’t say which has the shorter wait. Google Maps shows 78,632 reviews for Sky Garden against 8,280 for The View from The Shard, which suggests the garden is the busier of the two. Hours differ too. The official Sky Garden site gives ticketed hours of 10 AM to 6 PM Monday to Friday and 11 AM to 9 PM at weekends and bank holidays. The official Shard site showed 12:00 to 20:00 on the day I checked, and Google Maps lists much shorter days midweek.
Sunset is the same at both, since they are 0.78 km apart: 15:51 in December and 21:19 in June, per Open-Meteo for 2025. In winter a normal afternoon slot at either tower already becomes a night view, but a June sunset falls after the Shard’s evening close on some days, so check the closing time first. I’d arrive 45 to 60 minutes before sunset. April is the clearest month at 44 percent cloud cover and October the cloudiest at 76 percent.
| Month | Sunset (London time) | Cloud cover | Sunshine a day | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16:21 | 75% | 3.5 h | 13 |
| Feb | 17:16 | 73% | 4.1 h | 10 |
| Marclearest | 18:05 | 51% | 9.2 h | 3 |
| Aprclearest | 19:57 | 44% | 11.4 h | 4 |
| May | 20:46 | 56% | 11.2 h | 7 |
| Jun | 21:19 | 54% | 12.9 h | 7 |
| Jul | 21:11 | 59% | 11.6 h | 9 |
| Aug | 20:22 | 60% | 10.5 h | 7 |
| Sepclearest | 19:14 | 51% | 9.3 h | 11 |
| Oct | 18:07 | 76% | 5.3 h | 9 |
| Nov | 16:11 | 69% | 4.3 h | 15 |
| Dec | 15:51 | 71% | 3.5 h | 10 |
Sunset planner
–
book this entry time (50 min before sunset)
–
sunset, London time
–
typical cloud cover that week
Sunset and cloud cover for the same dates in 2025 at the deck (Open-Meteo historical weather (ERA5), 2025); sunset moves by about a minute between years.
Sky Garden is a garden with bars and restaurants. The official site lists Darwin Brasserie, Fenchurch Restaurant and Larch, so you can treat it as a place to eat and drink as well as look. The paid listings reflect that: a Music Night ticket at $29.32 includes a glass of champagne and DJ or live music, though it is rated 3.75 from only 108 reviews and asks you to bring photo ID.
The Shard sells the view itself. The standard ticket includes entry, with a souvenir photograph at extra cost, and the walking tours that end there run from $91 to $113.30 on small review counts, so I’d book those for the sightseeing. For a Sky Garden vs Shard evening out, the garden suits a meal and the Shard suits a short, high look.
Plan the free one first, because it is the one with a deadline. The Sky Garden site releases tickets weekly, up to three weeks ahead, so I’d check it as soon as your dates are known and pick a weekend evening only if you are happy to chase a slot. The Shard ticket is the flexible one: it is valid for 24 hours on the day you choose and cancellable for free up to 24 hours before, so you can hold it while the forecast firms up.
Neither deck is a substitute for the other on a cloudy day. If the forecast is poor, I’d move the Shard visit and keep the Sky Garden slot, since a garden with a restaurant is still a pleasant place to sit. The official Shard site also lists kids tickets from 10 pounds, which matters if you are travelling with children.
Yes, and I think it’s a good pairing. By Google Maps coordinates they are 0.78 km (0.48 miles) apart in a straight line, which is about a 10 to 15 minute walk across London Bridge. I’d book the free Sky Garden slot for a weekday morning or evening and take The Shard on a clear day for the height. Doing both costs $35.54 if you secure the free Sky Garden slot, or $53.53 with the $17.99 early access.
Check the official Sky Garden site and the official View from The Shard site for current hours and prices before you go.
On Sky Garden vs Shard I’d book the free Sky Garden slot first. It costs nothing and puts the Tower of London and Tower Bridge close by, with the Shard in the frame. I’d choose The Shard instead if height and an open-air floor matter, or if no free slot fits your dates. The difference is about $35.54, so let the view you want decide.
For the price, yes, because Sky Garden entry is free when you book on the official site and The Shard ticket is $35.54. For height and an open-air level, The Shard wins at 244.8 m per Wikipedia. Sky Garden has a garden, bars and restaurants. I'd do Sky Garden first and pay for The Shard if you want the extra altitude.
Yes, per the official site, entry is free but ticketed. Tickets are released weekly, up to three weeks before your visit, and you book through the site's online system. The paid listings I compared on GetYourGuide, from $17.99, add a pastry, a meal or a music night to a booked slot. They do not sell the plain entry itself.
You don't buy them for the standard visit. You reserve a free timed slot on the official Sky Garden site, which releases tickets weekly up to three weeks ahead. If the slots are full, the paid options on GetYourGuide bundle a booked time with breakfast, dinner or an evening event, starting at $17.99. Prices were checked in October 2026.
The closest rivals in my data are The Lookout at 8 Bishopsgate, 0.31 km away and rated 4.8 on Google Maps, and Horizon 22, also rated 4.8. The View from The Shard is the paid, taller option, 0.78 km from Sky Garden. I could not source entry prices for the first two, so check their sites before you plan around them.
Google Maps rates Horizon 22 4.8 from 6,757 reviews and The View from The Shard 4.6 from 8,280. That tells you visitors enjoy both, not which view is better. I found no sourced height or ticket price for Horizon 22, so I won't call it. The Shard's deck is 244.8 m per Wikipedia and it has an open-air level.
Sky Garden is the one I can source: the official site presents entry as free, booked in advance. Tickets are released weekly, up to three weeks ahead. The Shard is a paid privately operated deck per Wikipedia, so it is not a free option. For other viewpoints, check each site's current entry rules before you go.