How to get to Kew Gardens

There is no point in booking tickets in advance. This is within the London area so for all the routes I mention you can use Travelcards or Oyster pay-as-you-go.

There's no point going to Richmond. From Vauxhall you can take a train to Kew Bridge station, from where you walk over the eponymous bridge and around Kew village green, and reach the old main entrance of the Gardens. (Incidentally, on the station side of the bridge is a pub called the Stable which has one of the best choices of REAL cider (not Strongbow) in London.)

Alternatively you can get the District Line from Victoria to Kew Gardens station and then walk to the Victoria Gate of the Gardens, which was originally a subsidiary entrance but has become the modern main one due to the proximity to the tube station.

If you go back from Kew Gardens station to central London, make sure you get the right train. There are District Line tube trains, but also London Overground trains which take you on a long and not very attractive loop of inner North London.

When I visited Kew last May, I did as Emma suggested and took the tube (District Line). It was quite simple and there are signs directing you to the gardens once you arrive at Kew Gardens station.

Would it not be easier to walk from your hotel to Victoria station and take the Underground (District line) direct to Kew Gardens station?

Just use a contactless card (Oyster or bank card) no need for a train ticket or to book ahead,

Thank you ALL! It really helps to ask the question so as not to mess up!

Both routes given by emma work very well.

As a single visitor (only pairs gain from the 2 for 1 admission tickets promotion from the railways) there is no advantage in buying or using a train ticket for that journey.

You will be using either contactless or Oyster to travel around London (have you researched that bit yet?) and both contactless and Oyster work perfectly well for that journey. Kew Gardens station is in both Zone 3 and Zone 4, so from central London it will be counted a Zone 1 to Zone 3 journey. Richmond station is in Zone 4 so the journey will be more expensive, a Zone 1 to Zone 4.

Don't worry too much about the prices - the system will take care of that as long as you tap in and tap out properly - but do understand that a 1-3 is cheaper than a 1-4. You automatically get the cheapest fare for the journey or journeys you take that day.

I agree about letting the bus do the walking that day - unless you come to Kew Gardens station - Kew Gardens is HUGE.

If you are going downtown after Kew, we enjoyed the boat after our most recent Kew visit. It's slightly more expensive than the Tube.

Ann, remember that you save £1 by buying tickets online. You can do this the morning of your visit from your phone - you don't need to do it in advance, and the website says you can show the ticket on your phone and don't need to print it out.

MANY London sights have discounts for online advance booking. The trick I learned is that for anything not needing advance reservations, the morning of the visit is far enough "in advance." Some of the sights require you to create an account before buying tickets. For those, it saves a lot of time and effort to set up these accounts before leaving home, for anything you may want to see (much easier to enter all the information with a keyboard and a large screen compared with doing it on a phone!). Then, the day you decide you want to go to something, you just log in and buy the ticket.

You may get there:
By London Underground
Nearest Tube Station: Kew Gardens. Take the District Line towards Richmond.

Approx. Travel Times: 15 minutes from Earl's Court and 30 minutes from Westminster on the District Line to Kew Gardens Station (Zone 3).

Top Tip: If steps are a problem for you, for example, if you are traveling with a child in a buggy, go to Richmond station (it's only one more stop) and come back on the Eastbound train to Kew Gardens. This way you can avoid the steps and bridge over the train tracks.It's a ten-minute walk from Kew Gardens Station to Kew Gardens Victoria Gate.

By Train
Train services (South West Trains) from Waterloo, via Vauxhall and Clapham Junction, stop at Kew Bridge station.