TravelCard

I've never run into this before, but as far as I know Travelcards in London are for specific dates at the point when you buy them. It's not like in certain European cities where your ticket starts from whenever you first use it.

My opinion, however, is that it's not worth buying them in advance. Even if you have to queue for a while at the point where you arrive, it'll be less hassle.

If you think there is little or no prospect of you coming back to London in the near future then the travelcard option does in some ways end up having less hassle, if it covers the necessary zones, even though it might not absolutely be the cheapest.

If you specify a start date and ask for 3 one day tickets, then I would expect that you would end up with 3 tickets valid for the same day, which isn't what you want.

Posting crossed with the above and I agree there is little merit in buying in advance, with the exception in the case that if the station you are going to start from each morning is one where lots of people buy tickets, such at a main line station, where queues can be long.

njc,

from your other threads I see that you will be traveling on your own, and that you are considering a day trip to France.

I don't see any advantage to you to consider paper Travelcards and especially not ones you buy in advance.

Trying to understand Transport for London fares can be somewhat of an arcane art, especially since they "simplified" the webpage about them. But you can get the information you need, and it is all at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/tube-dlr-lo-adult-fares-jan-2014.pdf

A Travelcard for zones 1+2 where the tourist attractions are is £9. It is 10 pence less if you only use it after 9:30 in the morning, and costs the same no matter if you take 1 or 100 qualifying journeys. If you go to France it will sit in your pocket still costing for that day regardless.

If you use an Oyster you do have to put down a deposit, but you get that back at the end unless you have fallen into the pothole of a "Visitor Oyster" which has a smaller (£3 vs. £5) deposit but on a Visitor one is non refundable and any claim for unused Pay as you Go money will only be mailed to you in a British cheque after you mail in to them, whereas you can collect both the refund of Pay as you Go money and deposit in cash from a normal Oyster after you have finished using it.

With an Oyster you only spend what you use in rides. If you don't do much one day it doesn't charge as much. It maxes out at £7.00 in zones 1+2 if you only travel after 9:30, at £8.40 if you start earlier. And if you want to go to the airport it will figure that out and you don't need any other ticket (if you have sufficient cash on the card).

All in all, I would suggest a Pay as you Go Oyster.

Happy travels

So with a PAYG Oyster card, it maxes out at 8.40 (I plan on going out early in the day), and after I hit 8.40, I can continue riding without any fare being taken out?

That's right - as long as you stay inside zones 1 and 2

That is how it should work, providing all journeys are properly completed. If it goes wrong you have to get TfL to correct the record.

Until this year it was possible to get paper travel cards that covered just zones 1-2. TfL though wants to move everyone on to Oyster - to their advantage in holding all the deposits on them.

Just an FYI to everyone. I contacted TFL and they stated that you order cards by each day. Thus, if you are traveling 3 days by subway, you buy 3 different tickets with 3 different dates on them. Marco and Phillip were correct.

njc707, I'd suggest that you follow Nigel's suggestion and just buy your card when you arrive.

I really see no advantage in ordering in advance. They are going to charge you a shipping fee to send the cards to you.

Just get a pay-as-you-go Oyster when you arrive in London. You could just put 20 GBP on it to start. Check the balance at the end of your second day. If you need to add more money for day 3, you can do it at a machine at the station before you get on the train. It really isn't difficult.

I think I will probably go with an Oyster. The 3rd day I am only using the train to go from my hotel to St. Pancras station to take the Eurostar to Paris and then from St. Pancras to my hotel that night.