Getting Around London

RMS Oceanic

Me, my Mother, my adult Brother and 15 year old Sister are all going to London in March. Naturally, this entails a lot of moving around, so I'm looking for a ticket to cover all transport in Zones 1 and 2.

However, my research shows the London Transport seem to only do all-day travelcards in one day and seven day flavours, ignoring our specific need for a four day version. Do any Londoners know what the solution would be? Would getting an Oyster card be worth it?

saint2e

I'm pretty sure they do multi-day Travelcards for Zones 1 and 2. At least they did when I lived there 2 years ago... I never used an Oyster card when I was there as I lived outside of London and just used travelcards to get into London and then around on the underground/DLR/etc.

Here's a 7-day one:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/seasontickets/4805.aspx

Cost is £25.80 for 7 days, and single travelcards (non-off peak) are £7.20 per day (£28.80 in total per person), so for 4 days of travelling around London, it saves you a bit of coin doing the 7 day pass if they're planning on travelling at peak hours (ie- prior to 9:30am). If they don't mind waiting until after 9:30am to start their day, the Off-Peak Travelcards are £5.60/day, which is slightly cheaper (£22.40 for four days).

Personally I'd spend the extra coin to not be limited, but that's my own opinion. Another option is alot of the "Multi-Attraction Passes" (ie- London Pass http://www.londonpass.com/prices.asp) include a travel card, so if they're planning on seeing a lot of the attractions that pass gets you into, it may be worth getting one of those.

Hope that helps and doesn't hinder.

Adda

That sounds about right. If you are doing a large amount of traveling over those 4 days then an Oyster card won't really save you any money as it just reduces the cost of each individual fare yet can still go over the amount of a daily travel card if used a lot during one day .

Also just because it's a 7 day card it doesn't mean you wont still be saving money, especially if you want to start traveling before 9 am on any of the days.

Weather permitting, it's actually better to stay above ground and walk to where you want to go so you may want to do some planning of your intended attractions before you lump in and decide to go the travelcard option.

Daxon

Adda wrote: »

That sounds about right. If you are doing a large amount of traveling over those 4 days then an Oyster card won't really save you any money as it just reduces the cost of each individual fare yet can still go over the amount of a daily travel card if used a lot during one day .

Also just because it's a 7 day card it doesn't mean you wont still be saving money, especially if you want to start traveling before 9 am on any of the days.

Weather permitting, it's actually better to stay above ground and walk to where you want to go so you may want to do some planning of your intended attractions before you lump in and decide to go the travelcard option.

No, it limits itself at some point and stops taking off money and all subsequent travel is free afterwards.

Scorched

If you can get a map of London before hand, I highly recommend you get one. It's actually amazingly easy to move around London very quickly if you know what you want to see, and also because I guarantee that you will want to walk certain distances around peak travel times as well, because the underground gets hilariously crowded when everyone is trying to leave the center.

Adda

Ah my mistake, I'm always on an annual travelcard.

Here is the list of the daily caps and they are the same as the daily travelcard prices. Just need to factor in that the oyster card itself costs £3 or at least it used to when I got mine

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/singlefares/5196.aspx

Kalkino

Maybe give TfL a call to see if they can make sort of custom multi day pass. They probably cannot, but worth a call if you are in the UK

BobCesca

Just get an oyster card. seriously, I have one just for the 1 or 2 times a year I go down to London. You don't have to do much (and you can order them in advance and get them posted to your house).

It just makes everything really easy.