Oyster Card versus Travel Card for one week in London

The only reason to consider the travel card is because it might be cheaper. A seven day travel card is £32.10 for zones 1-2 and the Oyster Card daily cap is £7.60 in zones 1-3 or £53.20 for seven days. The problem is that most people who don't do a lot of rush hour travel never reach the cap. We've used the Oyster on three London trips now and always did better than we would have with a travel card. But if you use the tube a lot your experience may be different.

The Oyster Card is just a vehicle for storing your tickets and it can hold both travelcards and PAYG.

Are you traveling solo? If so, I would suggest loading both a 7 day zone 1-2 travel card and some PAYG money on you Oyster card. The PAYG will cover your trips to Hampton Court, Highgate, and Gatwick. The daily cap for zone 1-2 is 6.60 GBP. and it only takes 3 trips on the tube to reach the cap. The weekly ticket is 33 GBP (equivalent to the cap for 5 days), so this can save you some money if you are there for 7 days. The system will only deduct from the PAYG balance for travel beyond zone 2.

"I will be in London in March, 2017 for one week"

If "I" is actually "we", the paper travelcard 2 for 1 offers may be of interest:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g186338-c195600/London:United-Kingdom:2.4.1.Travelcards.Step.By.Step.html

I would get the 7 day Travel Card on Oyster as it's cheaper overall. You can add money to cover your out of zone trips as well.

You can use Oyster to and from Gatwick as well, but you can't refund an Oyster at Gatwick.

TC:

Here is a tip I learned the hard way on my recent trip to London. My stay was for 16 days which translates to two 7 day travel cards plus a few days of PAYG. Normally when I depart from London I can get an instant cash refund for the the deposit of the Oyster Card, 5 pounds, plus the balance of the PAYG funds. However, the instant refund is capped at 10 pounds worth of travel. On my final days in London there was one day when I just walked around and on the last day I decided to take an airport shuttle bus rather than the tube to Heathrow (I was lugging and carrying 100 pounds of luggage and did not want to deal with crowds and the tube gap which can be substantial at some stations). The bottom line is that I had about 11.5 pounds of PAYG left on my card and I did not have time to take a needless tube ride in order the bring the balance to under 10 pounds. So I left London worth a card with 16.5 pounds. I can have a refund check sent to me, but because it would be written on a British bank the service fee to cash it will eat away most of the value. I will use the balance on my next trip to London assuming that I don't misplace the Oyster Card and that the value does not expire. The lesson is not to overload the PAYG fund.

Miranda - I refunded my Oyster card at Gatwick in October 2016 - they gave me the 5 pound deposit in cash and credited the balance to my credit card. Just an FYI.

That's good to know about refunds at Gatwick!

@Geor -- The two Oyster cards my wife and I had used in 2008, bringing home with some value left on them, were still good in 2016. The nice TFL guy at Paddington combined their remaining value into one card and applied it toward a 7-day Travelcard, so it cost me around 27 GBP.

@ TC -- Even at 32 or 33 GBP, the Travelcard would have been a bargain for my week's local sightseeing, including buses as well as the tube, all over London. Apart from the monetary calculation, there's a lot of value in knowing that you can hop a bus or train "for free" whenever you want. I took several short bus rides just to save my feet, since I had this magic card I could just touch in with.

For Salisbury, you'll just have to buy your "return" train ticket. You may be able to save by buying it in advance, see the [National Rail] site to find out.

Note that if you have a travelcard you can save a little money going to Salisbury by buying a ticket valid from the boundary of the travelcard rather than from London.

For the tourists, there are few aspects of the Travelcard that make them very appealing and if understood, can make Travelcards cheaper than Oyster Cards, especially when you are visiting the major sights on a first time visit. Both the cards cover the same London public transport. You cannot use Travelcard to/from Gatwick Airport and it may be cheaper to travel using rail tickets between Gatwick and London than using Oyster.

Oyster card is best choice when only making few journeys in small area and not travelling every day in London and especially in Zones 7, 8, or 9. Travel card are best for one ticket for one day or one week. If you are in London for a week and plan to travel only in the Central London area (eg zones 1 to 2 or zone 1 to 4) on a daily basis then a 7 Day Travelcard may be the most cost-effective option. Since you are travelling London for a week, credit your Oyster card with £40 for unlimited travel in Central London and a single journey on a Thames Clipper River Bus. The two for one can be a good deal however there are many of things on it that you really wouldn't be interested in. But I guess, the Oyster card is always good to use all the time when in London! For more information regarding your travel details in London, you can download our comprehensive London guide to enjoy how to travel like a local.