Four days in London - Day passes or Oyster card?
What would be the most economical way to go? I thought the Oyster card was more economical if the stay is for a week, but might be wrong.
We are arriving at Heathrow. I am looking for accommodations around Victoria station/St. Pancras/Paddington.
What means of transport would you use to get from the airport to those areas?
Eli
Always dreaming of Europe 10/26/09
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For the transfer to Paddington, take either the Heathrow EXPRESS (expensive) or the Heathrow CONNECT (slightly slower and cheaper).
For accommodations, check the Kensington Gardens area near Paddington for listings in Rick Steves' London book for ideas. You have mentioned three train stations in different parts of London.
International visitors can buy a standard pay-as-you-go Oyster card on arrival or buy a Visitor Oyster card in advance through Visit Britain online.
The London Travelcard is valid for 1*, 3 or 7 days and gives you access to unlimited travel on the underground trains, buses (also night buses) or regular trains within London.
You can buy either the "small" Visitor Travelcard for Central London (Zones 1+2) or the "large" Visitor Travelcard which gives you free travel throughout the whole of Greater London, including Heathrow Airport (Zones 1-6). The small card should be fine for most visits, the large card would include the long slow tube ride from Heathrow to London.
The Visitor Oyster is $20. The Travelcard has different prices adult/child, zone and number of days.
The regular Oyster cards cost a refundable 3 pounds
You can find a full discussion about all the different choices and which is better at about.com.
Thanks Steve.
The last couple of times we visited the UK we stayed in Abingdon/Oxford and travelled around from there, so this is why I am not too sure which card we would need.
Is it possible to get a travel card from Heathrow to London that would also cover the day's travel in London?
When we travelled from Oxford to London, we also had unlimited travel around London. We used to buy the 2for1 tickets from Oxford which included this day pass.
If you're packing light and can easily schlepp your own luggage, take the tube from Heathrow to any of the locations you listed.
If you buy zone 1-6 travelcards at Heathrow, they will cover your ride into London. However, it would be cheaper to buy Oyster cards, load 7-day, zone 1-2 travelcards on them, and also load some extra pounds to use for pay-as-you-go for trips beyond zone 2 (like Heathrow to London).
If you plan to take advantage of any of the 2-for-1 offers from National rail, then you could buy 1-day, zone 1-2 paper travelcards from any National rail station for each day you're going to use a 2-for-1 offer. Load only PAYG pounds on Oyster cards and only use the cards to get from Heathrow to London and for rides in London on days you won't have travelcards.
For more information, see this page on the London Toolkit site.
It might make sense to do different things for different members of your family. I can't remember your kids exact ages, but this past July I ordered oyster cards for each of my kids (pre-ordered online and picked them up upon arrival). My son is 14 so he qualified for a children's version, and he rode for four days for practically nothing. You have to start the card with 5 GP, I think, and I don't think he ever used that up. My daughter got the teen version, and her rides definitely cost more than the child, but still not a bad deal. I thought the oyster cards were easy to deal with (check and reload at the machines), and we got the leftover refunded before we left London. My husband and I used travel cards most days so we could take advantage of the 2 for 1 discounts.
Thanks, Kathy, for suggesting the Oyster card for children. That one had slipped my mind.
Eli, for more information, go here and click on the appropriate link(s).
If you are looking for hotels near Victoria, check out the Gosovenor (former Victoria Thistle). Not cheap, but VERY convient! Right inside Victoria Station, good shopping (Sainsbury's , Marks and Spensers Foods and Whistlestopso you can "self cater" snacks, etc. plus food court, Boots, etc.)nice resturants (in station and immediate area) and the train and tube right there.
If you decide to go the Oyster card option, I urge you to take Rick Steves' advice and start with a small amount (like 10 pounds). My wife and I are experienced travelers and live in a city with a subway system, so we thought that we'd use the Underground a lot. But we still ended up walking places more than "tubing", so at the end of our trip we had combined about $25US left on Oyster Cards that we couldn't use. Start small, and add as you go, even if you think you'll be there a week and might need more.
Matt, that's good advice. Thank you! On our first day, we will want to get from Heathrow to Marriott near to the Swiss Cottage tube. Would a day pass work from Heathrow to Swiss Cottage?
Someone else wrote and told me that if we are not going to travel around much on the first day (doubtful), and mainly use the tube a lot on the following three days that we may be better off with days passes on all of them rather than the Oyster card.
Eli,
Perhaps Matt didn't realize that if you load more money than you need on an Oyster card, you can get a refund. (See Kathy's post.)
Yes, as I said in my first post above, you could buy a one-day zone 1-6 travelcard at Heathrow which would cover your ride to Swiss Cottage plus any other rides you take in the city that day. However, see that same post for an alternate plan.
Refunding the unused balance on the Oyster Card was easy, and I believe we did it at Heathrow on our way to the plane home.
Tim, I was confused by the Oyster Card and also loading a day pass on it?
We won't be leaving from Heathrow to come back home, because we're leaving London by Eurostar for Paris, and very early in the morning...