Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden — Attraction in Three Rivers

We just got home after spending about 7 hours wandering through the tour. I think that alone is the best endorsement I can offer, as I can't think of anything else that has held my attention continuously for so long. The experience began even before entering the building, when a gryffindor-masked parking attendant chatted for a moment regarding our Harry Potter themed bear. After a short walk to the entrance we passed quickly through ticket checks and security (a fast but thorough bag check and metal detector) and gained access to the main atrium. This contained a small cafe, as well as a food hall serving, somewhat disappointingly, standard museum food alongside a more exciting selection of film-inspired pastries. The food itself was good and not extortionately priced, but we had hoped that at least one of the main meals on the menu had featured in the books and films.

The tour itself begins with a short overview of the films and their marketing, before being ushered through two short films. These are pretty much the only guided sections of the tour, after which the experience is mostly free flow. They're a little cheesy, but still fun and feature a handful of the lead actors from the films. Without too many spoilers, the ending of the second film was legitimately an incredible experience.

The self-guided portion of the tour passes through several sections, from Hogwarts itself to the Forbidden Forest and Platform 9 3/4. After this point there is a small train-themed gift shop and a restaurant serving hot dogs, burgers and the famous butterbeer. Opinions on butterbeer tend to be like it or loathe it, so I'd suggest only buying as many as you'd want for the souvenir glasses, and grabbing a few bottles at the gift shop at the end if you find yourselves wanting more. Also note that while the midway gift shop claims some of its items are exclusive, staff at the final gift shop have some "secret drawers" where they can find them if you change your mind.

The tour then continues through the creature shop and animatronics, then into Gringotts, Diagon Alley and the artists' studio. It finishes with a rather incredible surprise which I'm definitely not going to spoil here, but any fan of the books and movies will love it.

The gift shop comes at the end of the tour, and is about what you'd expect. They have a wide range of Harry Potter merchandise priced rather high, but in generally good quality. A lot of what they sell is also available on the online store or in the shop at King's Cross Station, with a discount if you happen to have a gold membership.

Overall, it's a wonderful day out and definitely...

Great place for any Harry Potter fan, big or small, young and old who can manage too much crowds and noise.

Extremely overcrowded 😶 please add opening hours for Autistic, Asperger.... people.. Add Silent rooms.. Offer noise suppression headsets for such people..

When buying tickets we had to choose particular slot to avoid crowds but it was not checked, people went inside immediately (no matter of time)

We appreciated a lot of benches one could rest on.. Comfortable shoes is a must.

I would suggest to make it more attractive for children, for the future think about expanding studio by adding attractions like Legoland, trains, carousels, roller coaster, splash zones.. Turn passive Harry Potter studio to adventure Harry Potter park. Also ticket could be valid for 2 days because it is simply too much for one day.. Smaller children got bored very quickly.

It was possible to take "passport" and collect 7 stamps over the places.. It would be great if a child gets some reward after filling it.. Eg small keyring.. Admission is so high, a keyring for free would not bankrupt the studios.

Food is very pricey but still huge queues to buy it.

Easy to get to the studio. Take a train from Euston station to Watford junction. Outside you will find long queue of people waiting for shuttle. It is for free if you have ticket to Harry Potter studio. Vice versa from studio you can take a shuttle to the railway station. We had to wait for the shuttle for ages on the way back.. There were no benches at all and hundreds people with children in queue..

The Harry Potter studio itself.. There were great parts, some boring parts.. Some parts we simply could not get through the crowds.. Our asperger son could not cope with noise and amount of people, he just sat down on the bench and when we moved to another area, he moved to another bench.. Overall it was fine.. but it did not fulfil our expectations, not because of amazing display of huge creativity of Harry Potter creators.. but because of crowds.

The gift shop was amazing, extremely large, split to sections.. Extremely expensive.. We did not buy anything but I appreciate the articles looked more continent like quality than chinese one time...

For my 60th birthday my son gifted my 2 tickets and guide book as a present 🎁. Through having to wait for operations ages so waiting on another i booked this wonderful experience. I took a lot of photos but due to a shoulder and hand injury and back problems I held my phone for as long as I could. I don't want to put any spoilers in but I loved the train although the queue to enter it was just too long for me to wait I would have loved a peak inside but did get see to see Harry and Ron eating their sweets! The leaky cauldron and the sorting hat and all the effort put in with the animals and animatronics were eye opening! There were so many people involved! The great hall, the gringots bank and smoke and sound effects were great and there were a couple of areas that made me jump to the point a little scream escaped me! Especially in the enchanted forest it was so dark! And those spiders 🕷! I'm just glad they don't come into my bedroom at night! The cafe was a wonderful light and airy area to emit some food and refreshments and the the adults a more adult version at the butter beer bar although I did see some drinking a coffee. The views outside were of a lovely start with a bus and the old flying car 🚗. The diagon alley was full of shoes so realistic I wanted to go inside and buy something especially at evanda wands. The gift shop was well stocked but again the queues were extremely long and by this time I was on my last legs. Luckily for me and another couple which one was disabled and in a wheelchair and me with my walking stick 👩‍🦯👨‍🦼 we were kindly assisted and was able to make it purchases. At the info desk I was able to get my wonderful souvenir guide book. Thank you warner brothers for a lovely experience. I'm now at home with a soft drink l drink and in bed hardly able to move but it was worth it. Thank you to my son and family for giving a wonderful...