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Travelcard / 2-4-1

I realize it may seem the topic has been beaten to death...but I have read all the threads and formulated a plan....and I just wanted some experienced opinions....to make sure I have a good plan here.

5 days / 4 nights in London. Arriving Heathrow, Departing St. Pancras. Staying in Bloomsbury.
While weighing the London Pass/2-4-1/oyster card, etc. This is what I have decided. I'm looking for a mix of ease and convenience throughout the trip.

Planning to arrive Heathrow and take the tube to St. Pancras. Surface and go to the Rail station, purchase 7 day zone 1-2 travel cards for entire family (I have passport photos of the children already). Gather the booklets with the 2-4-1 vouchers (possibly print some before I leave home if able).

The reasoning for me was, the London pass - while nice for budgeting - seemed to charge far too much for what we were getting. Particularly if the kids become enthralled at one (free!) location (British Museum, etc)....I don't want to feel stress of not getting "our money's worth".

The travel card will prevent us from having to top off 5 Oyster cards periodically, hopefully making transit more efficient.

Thoughts? Thank you all so much!

Posted by
3428 posts

Your reasoning is very sound! Good job. However, you will need passport sized (not necessarily passport quality) photos of each of you. You can even print them at home. You will get free ID cards to use with the travel card. For any travel outside zone 2, you can just purchase day tickets.

Posted by
32519 posts

That is sounding just perfect. I think you have got it.

I'd print out as many vouchers as I could at home to save the stress of being in the one station that has run out of brochures, and time is money on holiday.

When you go up at St Pancras and get into the train station just keep walking forward. You will pass the Eurostar area on the right and then see a couple of escalators heading up to the East Midlands Trains platforms and just beyond the escalators bear to the right and keep left and you will see all the 15 or so windows of the East Midlands ticket hall. A perfect place to get those photo IDs and paper railway 7 day Travelcards.

Good choice.

And you have a good point about those free museums. They are top quality world class museums. A real bargain. Let a kid loose in the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum and tell them that they can touch things and do things and you may need to get the fire service to pull them out with ropes. They will love it.

They will probably also really love the Harry Potter studio tour. Adults do too.