First London Trip

I cannot get enough of the big museums in London, Victoria&Albert, Science, Natural History and Tate Modern are my favourites, Maritime Greenwich, Hampton Court Palace, Tower of London are very nice too. Add Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and I am super happy. Oh, forgot British Museum. As most of the museums are both free of admission charge and huge I always love to take it bit by bit and take a stroll/break often. Each of the big museums I would at least spend 6 hours each. British museum has so called Eye Opener tours where staff lead a tour (approx 1 hour) to a certain part of the collections - check their website. I always loved doing the walk from Houses of Parliaments to Tower Bridge in the afternoon. Highlights for me always are: Lewis chessmen, Oxus hoard, Rodin's The Kiss, Indian sculptures at V&A, the exhibit displaying the different ways spiders catch their prey, the Rocket, Apollo 10, Harrison's timekeepers, greenhouses at Kew. Add a pint of bitter, a picnic or an ice cream in one of the parks and some fish&chips and I am a very very happy person indeed. I am avoiding London Dungeon and Tussauds doesn't interest me even the slightest bit.
Public transportation system in London is fantastic, and from weekly travelcards onwards not too expensive.

I am most interested in opinions regarding what type of pass or card I should get to A) get from Heathrow to Paddington Station and back and B) get around London for the 3 of us. I narrowed it down to either daily passes or the oyster card, but the Heathrow to Paddington leg has me confused as to which is best for us. Thanks for your help.

Please when you get back let me know how it went. My husband, myself and my 10 yr old son are going to London in July and I'd love to hear what is not to miss with a 10 yr old!

Cheryl Neither the Oyster Card or Travelcard are valid on either Heathrow Express or Connect. Sorry. That's a ticket. Well at least that simplifies what you need when in London. You will want to get an advance ticket on Virgin for the run up to Manchester unless the employer is paying in which case I'm sure they would understand First Class open return (£££).

Thanks, Nigel, I was hoping you'd answer. The Virgin Train tix are already purchased. I'm thinking the Oyster Card would be the preferable way to go for the 4 days we are traveling around London. Does that sound right? Also, between the Churchill Museum and the Imperial War Museum, which should we not miss? Or should we see them both? Thanks.

The Oyster card is just a smartcard that can hold different tickets, like bus pass, travelcard etc. In summer 07 they still issued paper travelcards, so there is no need to buy an Oyster card. Cheapest option usually is a (weekly) travelcard for the city centre (zone 1 if your accommodation is that centrally located) and buy the surplus fares for the trips farther out (like to Kew). As your trip is interrupted by the trip to Manchester I think daily travel cards are maybe the better option.

I think an Oyster card would fit best. Unless you are wedded to 2-for-ones for which you need a rail ticket - and maybe you could use your return from Manchester if it is not day specific to qualify, the Oyster card for actual travel is so much easier. You do need to claim back at the end both the deposit and any remaining funds on the card but I understand that's not too hard. Or leave it on and use it the next trip. The great thing about the Oyster card is it looks like you are walking a lot or perhaps taking hops on buses. You can never spend more than a Travel Card because of the daily cap, and for those days when you are travelling under the cap you only pay for what you use. Stick to buses and its half as expensive as using tubes. Yet if you want a tube, just pop on. It is accurate, and easy. And, because of the gap in the land of Man United, there is no penalty. Bon chance.

I'll post back here after the trip to let you know which sites our son liked the most. Thanks for your help everyone!

As a recent visitor to London I find it interesting as to the loyalty here to the Oyster card. A travel card, whether it is a 1-day or 7-day card is much better for your money if you are visiting sites eligible for the 2FOR1 discounts. Visiting the Tower of London costs almost 20 GBP per person. So the 2FOR1 would save you 20 GBP right there. A 1 day travel card only costs 8GBP (for peak travel) so you would be ahead. A 7 day travel card for zones 1-2 only costs 28GBP. You can also use it in conjunction with rail travel by buying an extension. For example we traveled to Windsor and for the two of us it cost an additional 18 GBP for the R/T. Not everything has 2FOR1 offers but quite a few do and I would imagine most people would cover the cost of the travel card just with the savings. We used it on items such as: Tower of London Churchill War Rooms HMS Belfast Shakespeare Globe Theater London Transport Museum (not worth seeing IMO)
Tower Bridge I'm guessing the savings more than covered our 56 GBP cost for the two 7-day travel cards. It also works on the London Eye, some restaurants and other odds and ends. Personally I'd have a tough time seeing how it wouldn't be better to get a travel card over an Oyster unless you never use any of the 2FOR1 offers. Just my opinion.

Thanks, Richard. I'll look into the sites we're planning to pay to tour and do a comparison...good advice.

From my research (and from talking to my friends in the UK) the Oyster card is the best bet for travel. However, I agree with Richard. If you are going to use the 2-For-1 Deals you will come out ahead with the travelcard. I wish I had known about the 2-For-1 Deals earlier!

So far, it looks like we will pay to tour Westminster Abbey and possibly the Churchill War Rooms. We're going to see the British Museum and Imperial War Museum, but both of those are free. The British Library is also a possibility. Our time is extremely limited there, and we like to spend more time exploring the markets, parks and pubs. Your suggestions are all very welcome!