Need planning advice, please

[Arizona Rita]

Hello!
My family and I will be travelling to London on the 8th of June for 3 nights, taking the Magic Baltic cruise and topping off with DLP.
Its been almost 30 years since I was last in England and am so excited!
I have a friend who has been trying to help me and she also advised to throw this out to ya'll.
I am looking for the best way to get around London.
Which card is best? Do any of the cards offer any specials or 2-4-1 offers?
I priced the London Transport card with travel and it came to 255pounds or close to over 500USD.
Any advise, thoughts, opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much in advance!
Rita

PS~ I hope this is the correct place to post this.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hello!
My family and I will be travelling to London on the 8th of June for 3 nights, taking the Magic Baltic cruise and topping off with DLP.
Its been almost 30 years since I was last in England and am so excited!
I have a friend who has been trying to help me and she also advised to throw this out to ya'll.
I am looking for the best way to get around London.
Which card is best? Do any of the cards offer any specials or 2-4-1 offers?
I priced the London Transport card with travel and it came to 255pounds or close to over 500USD.
Any advise, thoughts, opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much in advance!
Rita

PS~ I hope this is the correct place to post this.

Rita the options for travel are

HOHO Hop on hop off sightseeing bus.
Tube bus rail inside London on Oyster card.
Taxis

And do not forget walking everything is so close, I walked Buckingham palace to Holbron via Piccadilly and Convent garden in 25 mins today.

Oyster looks expensive, for what you quote how many people??

Options on this, look at the WEBSITE TFL.GOV.UK.

You if you are aboard can pre purchase in $s you charge your card with a level of prepayment.

You have options on this.

Kids below 10 should be free on the tube and bus.
11>16 if in Education will have reduced fares.
Over 16 to 18 some discounts if in education.

Now what you put on in £ or $ is up to how much you will use it.

If you stay in central London thats Zone 1, if a little bit outside say Docklands thats Zone 2, the fares go up the further you go, so for example Hampton court is a higher zone. So if just central London the fares are lower.

How many days, how much travel, you touch in and out on each trip, so it takes a bit each time, I would work on something like £7 a day, you can always top up on credit cards at any station if you use more.

Oyster is the cheapest and best way around town, its a card, and even covers some boats on the Thames, there are no 2 for 1 offers as i know it, some HOHO might have discounts for advance booking. I also suggest advance booking for London Eye, Tower of London.

Museums are generally free, but special exhibitions might have a fee or donation required.

 

[Disneymad]

Where are you staying in London Rita? Like Andrew says, there are a lot of things that are actually in pretty close walking distance to each other and considering our road congestion (especially at the moment as there are major roads going on at the moment to replace the Victorian water mains) it can actually be quicker too.

The Hop on Hop off busses are good and you get a tour guide telling you information, but personally I'd just invest in a good guide book and DIY your way around.

If you did need to use public transport, the Oyster card system is very good and flexible system as it uses Pay As You Go mechanic which automatically trips over to the cheaper travelcard status rather than endlessly deducting fares if it becomes a more cost effective option to do so. Oyster cards do require about $5 when getting them but iirc you're not actually purchasing them, that's just a deposit so would get most (possibly all) of it back when if you turned them back in at the end.

 

[Arizona Rita]

Thank you both!
We are staying at the "Park Plaza London, County Hall".
I think that from everything Ive gathered the Oyster is the best way to go and I'm pretty sure we will be staying in Zone 1.
We've decided to not do any day trips since we only have 2 full days and get a good taste of London.
Should I buy Oyster online in advance? How will they know that DS is a student? Will he need to show some type of id when we first use the cards?
DS is 16 and DD is 13.
Thanks again!
Rita

 

[Disneymad]

County Hall is a great central location, you'll be able to walk lots of places and don't forget the river boats (pier is just across the way from you), that's an awesome way to get across town and I really, really recommend doing taking a trip (dunno of you're thinking of Tower of London but it's a lovely place to walk around - even outside without having to pay to go in! Also near by St Katherines Dock is a tiny, quiet oasis, very pretty with some lovely boutiques and quaint coffee shops) at least once as it's also a great way to see some of the sites along the way from the river.

Oyster cards can be bought from any tube station and many newsagents (small local stores selling newspapers, candy and drinks etc), I've not checked but I wouldn't be surprised if you could even buy them from the airport.

The student thing I'm not sure on tbh, it seems complicated and not really designed for tourists unless I'm missing it. Over here kids are expected to have a photocard and it's actually physically part of the pass which means you have to provide a digital passport style photo and proof of age when you collect and then nominate a specific place to pick up the pass from when you arrive in London.

The form to apply for a child visitors oyster card is here. Considering the hoops you have to jump through for what amounts to a 2 day trip you might want to consider buying them the adult pass. That way too you could buy them all until after you arrive and you can get a feel for London and how much you might find yourself on foot rather than using the transport system anyhow.

 

[angel81uk]

I would definitely recommend purchasing oyster cards for the flexibility they offer. The transport for London website has a page for visitors wishing to buy cards and will post to various countries for a very reasonable postage fee visitorshop dot tfl dot gov dot uk ( without the www, I can't post a link as a new member!)

I'd agree with Disneymad in that there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through in order to get a childs photo card and to be honest for two days the saving aren't great enough to make it worthwhile in my opinion.

With regards to cost, as a worst case scenario of buying adults passes for the kids and factoring in travel during peak times you would currently end up paying a maximum of £7.20 per person per day. That would cover unlimited travel on buses, DLR, tube and overground trains within zones 1-2. So a £15 card (plus a £2 card purchase fee) each should work nicely. If you decide at a later date that you would like to travel outside zones 1-2 you can top the cards up (a minimum top up of £5) very quickly and easily at the machines in the stations.

If you want to wait until you arrive to purchase cards you can buy them at stations in London (either at the ticket desks or some stations have small vending machines), some newsagents (look out for the Oyster symbol) or at the Gatwick or Stansted Express ticket offices.

 

[Arizona Rita]

DisneyMad and Angel, thank you so much! Appreciate the advice very much!
It looks like buying 4 adt cards would be best.
In 1982 I dont think there were so many choices. I remember buying one card for rail travel and that was it.

Here's another question~ are there any good resturants around where we are staying that locals would eat at?
BTW, the Tower and British Museums are a MUST onthe to do list.

 

[angel81uk]

I've never really eaten around that area but I've just asked my fiance who works for a restaurant pr company and he recommends looking on squaremeal dot co dot uk. I've just had a quick look at the area you'll be staying in and it looks like there's plenty of choice! I've heard great things about one of the turkish restaurants that's nearby called EV, I keep meaning to try it some day.

And slightly OT, I noticed you're a crafter. Just incase you knit there's a lovely yarn store very close to your hotel!

 

[Disneymad]

BTW, the Tower and British Museums are a MUST onthe to do list.

Oh, oh, sorry to bang on about it again but you really do have to take the river boat then! There are a few companies that operate from right across from your hotel and I don't know if they all cost the same but it's the one time I'd recommend taking the touristy version as there's lots of interesting things to see along the Thames and they give you a running commentary during the journey. It drops you off right at Tower Pier and I actually suspect that not only is it a prettier way to travel but it's possibly even faster. The views of the Tower as you approach are great for pictures and of course also arrive past Traitor's Gate.

I've lived in London all my life and I still think both the river boat and the Tower are very cool things to do - you'll love it