My husband and I will be traveling to London for the first time in October. We will arrive the morning of the 17th and leave the morning of the 19th. We need to include travel to and from Heathrow airport in our transportation considerations, but other than that will be only using the tube in central London (staying in Belgravia and using to get to Notting Hill to as far as the Brittish Museum) in this short trip. I am debating our best option for cards/passes. The Visitor card sounds great, and it would be nice to pop right off the plane and be ready to go with that card already in hand, but I'd love to hear the opinions of experienced travelers on the best option?
Posted by
Hampshire, England.
1075 posts
Visitor oyster: If you buy in advance it costs a non refundable £3 plus postage to you and you can't add travelcards to it.
Normal oyster: Costs £5 refundable and you can add travelcards, just buy a normal one when you get here.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
If you have a contactless credit card, or Apple / Android pay you may be able to use this directly and avoid using Oyster altogether. Not all non-UK cards work but it maybe worth giving it a try.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
Marco, many North American cards (not all) charge a fee for each foreign currency transaction. That could add 50 per cent or more to each ride. Getting an Oyster card is easy and will be cheaper in the long tun.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
The system only charges on a once a day basis, not per trip.
If anything it is far more common for (relatively) cheap currency conversion with cards issued in N America than those issued in the UK.
Posted by
Chicago
1334 posts
Buying an Oyster card at Heathrow is as easy as buying a soda from a vending machine. You do have a very short trip, I'd keep the Oyster card if you think you're likely to return anytime in the next couple of years. Otherwise, you can get your deposit back as well as any pay as you go money loaded on the card. Keep in mind that you could end up with some small value UK coins, but you can try to spend as much of the refund as you can at Heathrow when you're leaving. If you end up with a few small pence coins, then give them to children who might like to see foreign money.
I can see no benefit to the Visitor Oyster card.