Oyster and 7 Day Travelcard

As a tourist doing irregular journeys... You should use Oyster pay as you go. Travelcards are for locals and would only be cheaper on very specific and limited occasions... Yours not being one of them.

Be aware that you cannot get to Windsor using an Oyster card. If you arrive there having opened the barrier at either Paddington or Waterloo with one you are likely to be considered a fare evader.

Buying a 7 day Z1-2 travelcard and then PAYG extensions might work out cheaper than pure PAYG if you are doing a number of journeys within those zones each day in addition to the longer journeys you mention. You don't say where you are staying etc to give better advice.

The Oyster PAYG weekly cap is the same price as a 7-day travelcard. All you're doing with a travelcard is immediately paying the maximum up front.

Oyster doesn't cover all your travel needs. When travelling beyond Zone 9, separate tickets are often needed.

It's rare I go beyond Zone 6, so others may be of more help there.

I thought weekly capping is still contactless card only, unless the TfL website is behind the times. But yes since the period is Monday to Sunday this would work well with this although American contactless cards are a bit hit and miss.

I also think that the weekly cap is only for contactless card payment, so a seven-day Travelcard will be the way to go. If you are going to Hampton Court and Kew it might be worth getting the Travelcard for six zones, but compare the prices to Oyster PAYG. Note that the Harry Potter studio at Watford and Windsor are outside the Travelcard area - Watford Junction can be reached using Oyster PAYG but Windsor will need a separate ticket.

Thanks all. Marco - we are staying in the Bayswater area and will be using the tube almost entirely for our travels all over the city. Lots of other journeys in addition to the longer ones I mentioned. So, I will need an actual train ticket for Windsor then? Good to know.

From Bayswater you would go most likely from Paddington. You could queue up and get a ticket from the boundary of your travelcard but if you are only covering Z1-2 it probably isn't worth it; just get a return from the machine. If there are more than two of you though it would be worth looking at Groupsave.

Pay as you go Oyster card is what my daughter & I used while in London 3 yrs ago, took us to Windsor, Kew, Hampton Court. We stayed close to Earls Court & used Brompton for almost every trip. The card cost 5 british pounds which is refundable. The man at the station told us how each card worked & said this was the best for traveller's - he helped us so much each time we used Brompton, gave us directions for each trip which saved us so much time, he was so nice & we hope hes still there when we return in June.