Questions on my trip to London

hi, according to RS LONDON book there is a "national express bus" to stansted and Victoria 24h/day. 2~3 trips/hour and 1.5 travel time. it also says it stops at several stops in london too. from his book thats all you have at that time of the night. w/re to Oyster Card and Travel pass. dont know, since i use Oyster Card when im there. hopefully others will chime in..good luck and happy trails.

There are coaches to Victoria and Baker Street / Gloucester Place throughout the night. The latter is an EasyBus, which costs between £2 and £10 depending on availability. An oyster card is stored-value contactless smart card used for paying for public transport. You can get long period travel cards on it, but it is also usable for pay as you go fares, touching in and out on the tube or on getting on the bus. For a couple of days in zone 1 it would be fine as your maximum fare is capped at no more than the one day travel card level. A travelcard covers unlimited travel within the zones and times of validity. The one advantage for tourists is that this qualifies for the 2-for-1 admission offers offered by rail companies providing it is bought at a rail station (which on your areas the nearest could be Victoria or Marylebone). However, if you are not planning on going to anywhere covered by this then there would be no benefit.

An Oyster card is a plastic smartcard that you can top up with cash at any Underground ticket office. Travel cards are printed tickets that give you 1 day or 7 days unlimited travel on buses, Underground and London Overground trains. Which is cheapest depends on how much travelling you intend to do. Money is deducted from the Oyster card as you use it, but the daily total is capped at the same cost as a Travelcard for the same zone or zones. So, for a very limited amount of travel each day you are probably better off with an Oyster card. For a lot of travel, it won't matter which you have. I believe that you can get discounts in some places with a printed Travelcard, but not with Oyster. Comparison of all the features of both cards is here: http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/help-centre/ticket-comparison.html

Both Marco and Kevin are correct. One other thing - an Oyster Card has to be purchased prior to loading it with money - a £5 unspendable deposit on each card, one per person - and it is possible to reclaim both the deposit and unspent money on the cards at the end of use but a slight hassle. If you are returning to London you can keep your Oyster cards. They don't expire nor does the credit.

@Nigel, afa the Oyster card not expiring and keeping credit is good news to me. I got 2 now since i didnt have time to get my refund. Since im going back this sept, i will bring it along and use it again. btw, i just love to use them, beats paper tickets. Mind the Gap! happy trails.

Hey guys thank you so much for all your help, Can someone please find a airport coach for me? I looked into national express and other websites on the Transportation section of the STN website, but it seems I cannot find one that departs any later than 23:30 on the April 2, and my plane wont arrive until 23:55. Thank you

hi again, there are a couple ways to go.. google "stanstedairport.com" and use the "transports & directions" tab near the top, or go to "nationalexperes.com" directly from there you can find links to the Nationalexpress and the other A51 bus. the nationalexpress you have to plugnchug your arrival date/time and choose. the A51 bus has a timetable you can see and if, choose to purchase your ticket. if you have issues, try a different browser. happy trails.

Easybus booking website: www.easybus.com Leaves three times an hour until 01:00