We're planning to hop onto the double decker buses in London as a way of easy and efficient site seeing. We're also planning to take the tube back and forth from Euston/St. Pancras to Paddington station. Should we be buying a certain bus/train pass? Or should we be paying as we go?
What is the best way to get from Euston station to Paddington station? From Paddington station to St. Pancras station?
Paying as you go is the most expensive way to use London Tube and buses; and Tube costs can be significant on a pay as you go basis.
Look at the Oyster card website. Rick has good advice on this in his book, London 2014.
And buses will be slowed down by surface traffic congestion during commute hours (which in London are somewhat later than typical American cities). But buses do allow you to see things on the surface, which most of the Tube does not.
Hopefully others will answer your other questions.
See also the TFL (Tube/bus) web link on your other question. A one-day paper pass saves money with just two rides. An Oyster Card can hold a 7-day pass or be a cheaper way to pay as you go over several days.
If you're staying for five days or more, it is worth getting a seven-day Travelcard. As well as added convenience and a discount over single-day Travelcards, it means you don't get charged extra for travelling early on weekday mornings.
The easiest ways for both those journeys are the Circle Line between Paddington and either Euston Square (for Euston) or Kings Cross St Pancras (for St Pancras). The Circle Line is fairly shallow below ground, and I believe that all three stations now have elevators. If you want to go by bus, route 205 serves all three stations but will be much slower.
St Pancras and Euston are adjacent on the lines mentioned, if you look at the maps of the Underground.
On the surface its a matter of hundreds of yards, nothing more.
So, same line, just one stop further.
Thanks so much, everyone, for your advice!
Are you looking at using the 2 for 1 offers?
It is actually marginally quicker to go from Paddington to Euston or St. Pancras using the Bakerloo & Victoria lines, changing at Oxford Street, taking into account the time to do the change. It may be considered less convenient, but then again to get to the H&C platform at Paddington means walking the whole length of the mainline platforms, if you have gone in the entrance to the mainline station, rather than Bishop's Road.
Since you mention buses the 205 does this journey as well, but takes about twice as long as the underground. If you stick entirely to buses you can save a bit of money though.
We just returned and saw a lot of Hop on Hop off buses. They get pretty bogged down in traffic. I know the underground seems hard at first but in the end we used it with an Oyster card for everything. They have manned booths and they are very friendly and happy to set up your Oyster card and even mark out your route on the schedule. I think you will get to do a lot more and not waste your time in traffic. It was extremely busy in London in May, I can only imagine how the high season will be. The Oyster card seemed to be the cheapest and before we left we easily got a refund back on our credit card for the unused portion by going to a ticket line.
An Oyster card or a travelcard does NOT cover rides on the hop-on hop-off buses.
