London- 7 day Travelcard and 2 4 1 Discounts

Yes, the National Rail does (now) sell 7 day paper travel cards that are good for the 2-4-1deals. You can get them at any national rail station, just be careful as most also have tube station- be sure you are at a nat'l rail ticket window and tell them exactly what you want.
The London Pass is not much liked by anyone on this board. You'd have to rush through multiple major sites in a day and now there is a limit on each day so you can't even combine some sites. 2-4-1 is better.

Up for suggestions! Greenwich, Windsor (thanks for the station, would Windsor be at the top of your list?), and maybe one more (suggestions?)...Cambrige? Not interested in Stonehenge. DH wants to to a brewery tour, and I'm into the gardens, so I thought we could combine Kew and the Fuller/Griffin Brewery...is Hampton worth doing/could do the same day? We can't stay overnight outside town as the hotel is booked already, so we'll save further out for the next trip.
Thanks again!

I think I see why you abbreviate your hotel to Hilton/Regent if you are at the Courthouse DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel London - Regent Street, that's a real mouthful. Certainly Charing Cross rail station will have the full range of tickets. There is also an Underground ticket office on Charing Cross so be careful you don't go there is you want 2/4/1. I think the reason that the guidebook may not push them harder is that the 2/4/1 promotion is just that, a short time promotion. It could go away at any time. Its been very successful and has been kept around for a while because the sponsoring train companies sell tickets because of it. It also changes from time to time and places join or leave the scheme regularly. Its a great nice-to-have but you must check before counting on it. I've seen one report here of a person being happy with the value for money of the London Pass. Oysters only come in two flavours, season ticket and pay as you go. You will have the pay as you go type. You say you want to use it for day trips. Where? You do know that Oyster is only valid in metro London? Oyster cards and TravelCards do not work on the privately run HoHo buses. Everything you need to know about Oysters is at the official website of TfL at https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do. The editor won't let me embed that URL perhaps because of the secure http. If you order in advance you need to prepare for a £4.25 shipping fee plus a wait of around 3 weeks...

OK, so: - 7 day TCard from N Rail window (thanks for the heads up about the tube windows there as well) at Charing Cross. And 1 day TCard after that if we need more days (Nigel, I'll compare the L Pass just in case). - Hop on Bus (knew that was seperate) our first day.
- Wasn't sure yet about the daytrips, so no Oyster for those (I'll research today...hopefully can buy these at the same station). Thanks so much...Yikes...we'll be arriving about this time in just two weeks smiles!

If Windsor is one of your 'day trips', you can buy the ticket at Paddington Train Station just before your travel What other day trips are you condisering?

Windsor is a great day trip- it's about 25 min. by train from Paddington (probably have to do a very simple change at Slough- everything is very well signed). Trains run 2 or 3 times an hour, so if you miss one, easy to catch the next one. The castle is my favorite and the town is great. All kinds of shopping- from market stalls in the old station to designer outlet shops and wonderful unique boutiques, etc. It is very walkable. stroll over towards the bridge to Eaton, even if you don't want to wander around Eaton, you can catch a short cruise on the Thames- you get to see the castle form a different vantage point and see some of the countryside,too.
Other places are good, but you'll have to pay full price for tickets at this point, and they will be expensive. Or do you have a BritRail Pass? I'll be glad to send you my article about day trips by train out of London- just send me your email by private message.

Nancy, I just started a new thread because I read this on Trip Advisor today " 7 day paper travelcards Apr 24, 2012, 12:36 PM Spotted a notice in my local train station stating ' From 20th May , all paper 7-day travelcards require a photocard. We will not be able to issue 7-day travelcards without a photocard'.
Anyone wanting a paper 7-day travelcard will need to provide a passport size photograph for the photocard." Thought you'd want to be prepared.

I am not sure if I am following your questions, but I can tell you what my husband and I (early 50's) did when we were in London for a week last November. I researched this issue a lot b4 we left! Flew into LHR. Took the Heathrow Connect train to Paddington (a National Rail Station.) Went down the tracks to the main lobby and bought the 7 day pass there. It's a paper ticket. It is orange striped. (I read where you could buy an Oyster Card but that required registering, giving them a deposit and periodically "topping off" the card in the Tube station. I didn't want to bother with worrying about our "balance" and maybe having to "stop and top." This way we just bought a 7 day paper pass and used it all day every day on the Tube and the buses - very easy and it paid for itself.) Note: The pass must have the "crows feet" logo on it to do the 2 for 1 Day's Out coupons. I asked the guy at the counter at Paddington if I was buying the right ticket before I gave him my credit card. Then we went downstairs at Paddington and took the Tube to our South Kensington neighborhood. There are three Tube lines there so you probably can get to your hotel too. Look at the Days Out London webpage for details on the 2 for 1 coupons. I registered here, printed out the ones I wanted to use ahead of time, and placed them in my guidebook on the pages for the sights. This saved me time filling them out at each ticket booth at say the Churchill War rooms. In seven days we paid for our Travel Card and I estimate we saved $140 U.S. in entrance fees.

PS - we used the travel card to go to Hampton Court and a 2 for 1 coupon to get in the Castle. Very nice.

The temporary Days Out 2 for 1 program offered by the train operating companies has been going with minor revisions for at least five years. No need for the guidebooks to promote it, we know about it.