Please sign in to post.
Holiday Sale! Save 20% Storewide!

More London?'s

Posted by (Cleveland, OH, USA) on

Hi,thanks to everyone who gave me hotel tips and info for traveling into London after a late flight. I have a few more ?'s for travelers as I'm doing more research...

1.Not to beat a dead horse,but anyone who has arrived into LHR late(my flights in at about 10pm) have you had any trouble getting through immigration and making the last Heathrow Express into London? If so,are there any other travel options into the city besides the $100 taxi?

2.I'm researching Oyster cards vs. Travelcards-Oyster has me baffled at the peak/off peak caps.If I'm understanding it correctly,you can be charged the daily cap for off peak PLUS more $$$ if you travel in peak hours?? Which is a better deal? I'm planning on being in London for 8 days(minus one overnight stop to Paris) and will probably remain in central London,but am still open to some of the outside excursions(Windsor,Greenwich,etc)

3.Any thoughts on the London Pass? Is it a good deal? I purchased the Paris Museum Pass when i was there before,and it was ok,but dont think I quite got my $$$'s worth for how often i used it.

Thanks for any/all info!!

Posted by
5850 posts

Stacey,

1) I have taken the morning flight from IAD that arrives into LHR about 10pm five or six times. I take the tube into London rather than the Heathrow Expess and I have always been able to make it before it stops running. Where are you staying? Depending on your location, the tube could be easier and just as fast as the Heathrow Express when you consider the time to transfer to the tube. Regardless, before you leave check the tube schedule, the heathrow express, and the Heathrow Connect schedule so that you know when the last departures are. There is a night bus also.

2) On the Oyster card with pay as you go, if you travel during peak time, the max you will pay is the daily cap for peak fare. If you only travel offpeak, the max you will pay is the offpeak daily rate. If the sum of your single journeys is less than the daily cap, that is what you pay. There are more nuances, but you will never pay more with Oyster pay as you go than you would with either daily or single journey tickets.

Another option is to load a weekly travelcard on the oyster. For 8 days, you could get an oyster card loaded with a 7 day zone 1-2 travel card (starting the day after you arrive) and a small amount of pay as you go money to cover the journeys outside of zone 2 and your extra day; this is what I would do. Are you travelling alone? The reason that I ask is there is a different type of travelcard (the paper card issued at rail stations) that gets you certain 2 for 1 discounts. These make sense if two people are travelling.

3) The London Pass is not a good deal for most people. I know that I could never make it worthwhile. Many of the museums are free. This has been discussed many times on the Trip Advisor London Forum so you may want to check there for additional info.

Posted by
5850 posts

By the way, the Oystercard PAYG will get you to Greenwich, but I don't believe that it will cover Windsor.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.