I will be in London 10 days, I was thinking about getting a 3 day london pass with travel and a 7 day travel card. I will be using a britrail pass to go on many day trips. Does this sound logical?
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Just buy an Oyster Card and load it up with credit. See here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/oyster/what-is-oyster?intcmp=1685
Or, if one of your credit/debit cards has the tech, use that directly and pay "contactless": https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless?intcmp=8257
Posted by
The Heartland USA
9048 posts
Do a Search (top of page, gray box) on London Pass and you'll see dozens of previous discussions on whether the pass is worth it. The travel Oyster card that you can buy from The LP people is not the same as the regular everyday Oyster Card that most people use. There are advantages and disadvantages.
Posted by
Maryland, USA
533 posts
To elaborate: The Oyster card has what's called "fare capping," where you get charged individually for trips until you reach the cost of a day pass (for whatever zones you're traveling in), and then you can ride the rest of the day for free. If you're taking a lot of day trips outside London (so that your only tube trips on those days might be from your hotel to the train station and back), it's probably a better deal to use the Oyster card to pay as you go, because you'll pay less on those days.
Be careful with the London pass - it's not easy to get good value out of it. Many of the best attractions in London are free, and some of the best of the rest aren't covered by the pass. Of those that are covered, they're so spread out around the city that it's hard to see more than about two of them per day. If you've already checked the list of what's covered and see a lot of places that you were going to want to visit anyway, then go right ahead. But don't assume that you necessarily need the pass to have a good sightseeing experience.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
34124 posts
Do you know exactly what you want to see in London? How many of those things are free anyway? Most?
Have you costed out what it would cost you for individual entries to the ones not free? Do you know about the railway promotion which allows 2 adults to visit many of the paid attractions for the price of one?
Between this post and your other one it sounds to me like either you you want perceived simplicity and don't mind paying over the odds for it or you aren't as well informed as you might be after working with us for a while.
If you shared a bit more with us we really can help. There is a lot of experience amongst us all.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To add to the excellent advice you've gotten so far, if you do want to see a lot of attractions covered by the London Pass, you may do better with a longer one. The per day cost is much lower, and they are often discounted (the shorter ones are less often discounted). With a longer London Pass, you won't have to run around frantically to see everything, but can indeed see 1-2 attractions per day.
Posted by
OP
10 posts
Thank you for all advice, I have calculated and decided against the London Pass. I was getting advice from co-worker who has been to London before. His style vacation and mine are different. I have a handful of places I really need to go to and alot of day trips and countryside that is more my style. Thank you all very much
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
34124 posts
That sounds like a good decision in those circumstances.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7238 posts
I used the 2 for 1 train promotion when my wife and I visited Hampton Court last November. Saved one entrance fee. Not related to your trip, but someone was going to throw an old £5 paper note away while we were there, so I asked if I could have it. I took it, along all my other old paper notes, and turned them in for new notes. A free £5.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
"someone was going to throw an old £5 paper note away while we were there, so I asked if I could have it. I took it, along all my other old paper notes, and turned them in for new notes."
I'm not sure why they were going to, literally, throw away money!
In fact, I arrived in London today, and my first activity after checking in to my hotel was to go to the Bank of England and change my five old £10 notes. At current exchange rates, that's about 70 USD - certainly not the kind of money I'd want to throw away!
For anyone else who worried that their old notes were worthless, here are the directions for exchanging them: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/exchanging-old-banknotes
I had to wait in a bit of a line, but once I got to the window, it was very fast.
Posted by
USA
423 posts
I would just buy the regular Oyster card for 5 euros, load it up, and use that- you can always reload if you run out of funds and at get any remaining balance out from the same machines used to purchase upon leaving. Or save for your next trip.
Happy Travels💫✨