London Pass

I don't know if you really need one. 3 days in London is not a ton of time, so I doubt you'll use a pass enough to get the $$$ out of it. However, I DO recommend an Oyster card or Underground pass (purchased in the Underground) rather than paying trip-by-trip subway charges. I know you say you'll mostly walk, but it sure is nice to be able to hop on the subway or a bus and make it from place to place more quickly & fairly comfortably. We just got back in Oct. from 2 weeks in England & bought Oyster passes for the week we were in London - TOTALLY worth it, we saved a LOT of cash, especially considering that when we arrived in London & just wanted to go to our hotel & weren't ready to buy passes yet we were charged about $8 for a one-way trip!

Definitely do NOT buy the travel portion of the London Pass. Even if you plan to walk a lot, buy Oyster cards, load them with 15-20 pounds, and use them as pay-as-you-go cards. Any single rides you take will be cheaper with the card than buying a ticket outright. If you end up taking several rides on any given day, the Oyster computer will not charge you more than 50p less than the cost of a one-day travelcard for that day. You can get your deposit plus any unspent pounds back when you leave London. Or you can get just the unspent pounds back and save the card for your next trip to London!

I doubt that you will see enough places that charge a fee to cover the cost of that portion of a London Pass. However, the only way to tell is to visit each place's Web site, add up the entrance fees, and see if the total is more or less than the cost of a pass.

Thanks for the information on the Oyster card. Is this available for purchase at Heathrow to use to get into Paddington Station upon our arrival to England?
Tim, can you tell me if we want to leave London for Bath early in the morning, is there a higher fare. I am thinking of trying to get to Bath by noon, at the latest, to pick up a rental car.
Thank you again everyone for answering my many questions on England. This is our first trip to England and we are not "in the know". We will be in England for 3 weeks. 3 nights London, 3 nights Bath, 3 nights Cotswolds with a car then heading to Wales area until 20 June, back to Bath to turn in the rental car then back to London for 2 nights. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I bought my oyster card at the ticket office at Heathrow's underground station. At that day it was even good for the Heathrow express to Paddington station because Victoria line wasn't running all the way thru due to construction. But as far as I understand for the express you usually have to buy an extra ticket.

I don't think you would want to bother for just 3 days. I spent 2 full weeks in London, never bought the pass because 95% of the places I wanted to see don't charge entry fees.

Not sure when you are planning on going, but check the websites of the places you want to visit that do charge entry fees. Many sometimes offer a certain day each month when entry is free (or it might be free or discounted towards the close of business).

I can tell you I slipped into St. Paul's Cathedral towards the end of the day when they were offering evensong services for absolutely free. Nobody that worked there seemed to care I then blew off evensong and walked around looking at the inside - best part was that the crowds were gone for the day and I got through in a fraction of the time and got to hear the music while I was looking around.

Consider a 1-year membership to Hostelling Int'l. It will give you discounts to many sites (both in Europe and the USA) just for showing your card.

I have another question, my husband said he read something about a Heritage Card for being in England? We will be touring the Cotswolds and Wales but will we need a card for some of the sights or just pay as we go. Since we will have 3 full days at the beginning of our trip in London, we can choose some of the places for late afternoon and look for the music in the evenings. I'm watching for more info. Thanks so very much.

Miss B,

Walk-up fares for the train from Paddington to Bath Spa can be pretty expensive, but generally they are cheaper after 09:30. However, if you book a month or more in advance at www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk, you can get discount fares.

Your cheapest bus route would be a National Express coach leaving Victoria Coach Station at 08:00 and arriving at Bath Spa at 11:20. The standard fare is £17.50. Booked well in advance at www.nationalexpress.com, Funfares (if available) can be as low as £1.

For information about the Great British Heritage Pass, go here: www.britishheritagepass.com.

Tim's right - the bus/coach is a pretty reasonable way to travel. We took the National Express in October '07 from Manchester to London & back again for the price of about $60 for 3 of us (R.T.). It was pretty crowded (no empty seats) and somewhat boring, but the train was at LEAST twice the price & flying was way more than that.

As for the National Heritage Pass, we've bought them before (for 2 week trips) & found them to be very useful. However, they're best for sites outside of London. They're the ones that offer free admission with the pass or a significant discount. As you mentioned, the big museums are free & some of the other ones aren't covered in the Heritage Pass. Almost all the castles, museums & historical sites (outside of London) are generally included.

We bought our Oyster card at Paddington Station, but you can purchase them online:
https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do