Weekend travel around London

Zaph

Going to London with my wife the weekend after next (Friday to Sunday), and unlike other cities where you can buy a 3 day pass for all your travel, it seems that TFL like to make things a little more challenging.

We'll be flying into Heathrow and getting the tube from there as our hotel is on the Piccadilly line. Apart from that we'll be using the tube to get around zones 1 and 2 only. What would be the cheapest and most convenient tickets we should buy to cover all our transport?

Thanks

exiledelbows

Best thing to do is get 2 oyster cards and top up by 20 pounds each. Oyster has a daily price cap of 6 or 7 pounds depending on what zones you use so even if you're constantly hopping on and off tubes and busses it won't charge more than the cap (including night buses). You can then top up using cash or a card at machines at any station.
You have to lay down a fiver deposit for the card but you get that back.
One other thing to note is that engineering works mean that half the tube lines are closed/limited at weekends. There's a calendar of what lines are affected when (plus a journey planner that takes this into account) on tfl.gov.uk. Oyster info is there too.

enda1

That price cap is 7 and 8.50 if you include the zone 6 journey to heathrow. So Friday and Sunday could be up to 8.50, Saturday should be no more than 7.

An interesting thing to note is that loads of attractions do a 2 for 1 entry if you arrive by train so having a train ticket valid on that day could be handy. It needs only be 1 ticket too and not for even a real journey. Maybe the paper travelcards would work which you can buy from national rail ticket machines/offices and are the same price as a capped oyster fare.

Louche Lad

Yes, Oyster cards are by far the most convenient option. And when you leave London, you can just hang on to them for your next visit without losing your credit (or you can just give them to friends/family visiting London).

enda1

Don't discount the travelcard idea as while oyster's great for locals, as a tourist it can be easy to find you've been hit with a fine for not tapping out correctly somewhere. Travelcard's just as easy to use.

Jack B. Badd

OP, the TFL's page on the Visitor Oyster Card looks pretty informative and gives info on travelcards too - http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/

My preference would be the Oyster Card - you should be able to buy the Visitor version in Heathrow and I believe you can return it before you leave.

LadyMayBelle

I'd go with.a travel card for each day; think they are 7:70 each or something and much easier than the oyster (don't need to worry about tapping it twice etc as often tourists do!). Works out cheaper as you don't need to Pay out the fiver for the oyster. Plus it covers all the zones

djpbarry

enda1 wrote: »

Don't discount the travelcard idea as while oyster's great for locals, as a tourist it can be easy to find you've been hit with a fine for not tapping out correctly somewhere.

That's unlikely to be an issue in Zones 1/2 - pretty much every station requires you to tag off in order to get through a barrier.

LadyMayBelle

djpbarry wrote: »

That's unlikely to be an issue in Zones 1/2 - pretty much every station requires you to tag off in order to get through a barrier.

Double tapping can happen and also it gets confusing using the dlr, there's often no barriers.

Zaph

Thanks everyone, really appreciate all the advice and things are a lot clearer now.