london travel card

If spending nine days in london I would get an oyster card, the maximum charge every day is 6 pounds 80, so just top your car up with 6 pound 80 each morning or do the math your first day and load it for the enitre trip, easier, faster, and much cheaper then any other form of transportation in london, plus you get unlimited bus usage.

I'm not familiar with britrail, we did all our business at tube stations and at st. pancras train station.

If you have any other specific questions message me, and I will be glad to reply.

Greenwich is part of the Tube system (its called Docklands Light Railway- but Tube tickets/Oyster Cards/Travel cards are good for it). You might want to look at Railpasses and compare them to the price of point-to-point tickets. Depending on your specifics, sometimes one is better than the other. We personally like the flexibility of the railpasses. I believe you can get passes that allow 3,5, or 8 days of travel out of 30 or 15 days. The pass is good on the Heathrow Express (and probably on the Heathrow Connect) so that would solve that issue. Feel free to private message me. I've been to London more than 40 times.

The post above is factually incorrect, you cannot use London travel passes on the Heathrow Express and Connect trains.

If you want to take advantage of the 2 for 1 deals then you must purchase a Travelcard not an Oyster Card. For periods of 5 days or over a 7 day Travelcard is cheaper than an Oyster Card.

As your question implies you must buy your Travelcard from a rail station to qualify. If you buy a 7 Day Travelcard from anywhere else confusingly it comes on an Oyster Card.
For most visitors just purchase a zone 1/2 Travelcard which will cover most attractions including Greenwich.
Heathrow is in zone 6, so on your arrival buy a single ticket into the centre. Rail Stations in the centre that can provide the card Travelcards compatable with 2 for 1 include Victoria, Paddington, Kings Cross, St Pancras, Euston, London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Waterloo - whichever is closest to your hotel.

Bath is 100 miles outside London, you can only use these cards at all in the London urban area. Windsor, Oxford are also outside the London area and you cannot use as part payment.

The Tube is the cheapest way to get from Heathrow to London. Buy Oyster cards, load some pounds on them, and use them as pay-as-you-go cards to get to London and for any other rides you take beyond zone 2 in the greater London area. When you leave London you can get a refund on your deposit plus any unspent money you loaded on your cards.

Buy 7-day, zone 1-2 paper travelcards at one of the National Rail stations listed by Bob.

Thank you for all the wonderful information. We are not leaving until October, but since we are going to be in London for 9-10 days, we are starting to do our planning now. It has been a lot of fun reading all these boards and appreciate the wealth of information available.

Regards,
Marcie

We got an Oyster card when we arrived at Heathrow but bought paper travelcards on the days we wanted to take advantage of the 2-for-1 deals.

I was not refering to the travel card for the Express- I was refering to a BritRail pass for that and the day trips the poster mentioned. Sorry for the confussion.

We are considering buying an Oyster Card for the 4 days we are in London. Our plans include the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Tower of London. There are 4 adults in our group. Should we also purchase the 2 for 1 travel card to save on those sights or is that overspending?

For rail trips in southern England, consider buying the London Plus Pass. The pass includes Heathrow Express into town and several train trips out of London, including rail to Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Salisbury, etc. Check the railpasses section on this website (way at the bottom of the England section). I've used these passes a on a couple of trips and found them very convenient.