Travelcard or Oyster card?

Will you be traveling alone or with someone? If you'll be with someone and wish to take advantage of any of the 2for1 offers from National Rail, then it would be better to buy zone 1-2 paper travelcards from a National Rail station for each day you will use a 2-for-1 offer and use Oyster cards as pay-as-you-go cards for all other days. For information on the 2for1 offers, go here: www.daysoutguide.co.uk.

If you're traveling alone, buy an Oyster card and do two things: Load a 7-day, zone 1-2 travelcard on it and load some pay-as-you-go pounds on it for any trips you take beyond zone 2 (like from Heathrow to London and back).

The hard thing to figure is how much you'll use it. We got the pay-as-you-go because we were there 9 days and staying just outside Zone 2. The tube website will figure your fare if you want to test a few - if you'll use it several times a day, the travelcard may be better, but it's pricey. If you only mostly only will use once or twice a day (or bus), I go with the pay-as-you-go system. Either way, you'll spend less than without one.

I am not sure, but I thought I recall that the travel card was restricted to certain times of day (non rush hour)? whereas the Oyster card was valid at all times. We were mightily confused by these options and ended up with the Oyster and took our refund off the card when we left. It was very convenient, and the few extra dollars it may have cost was easy to give up after the angst of trying to figure all this out. Have a great time!

I'm highly fond of the Oyster, but don't really see the point of loading travel cards onto it... as the regular oyster caps you each day once you've hit the travelcard limit. And, if you're spending less than the limit during the day, you're saving money. There were days where I spent a lot less because of using buses.

I'd just get an Oyster, and load 10-20 pounds onto it, and then hit the ground.

I was in London in May and my friend and I each got a 7 day travel card for 25.80 pounds. It was good on the tube, busses and Docklands light rail. We used it at all hours with no problems.
If you buy the card at a national rail station you can also take advantage of the 2 for 1 deals at this site: www.daysoutguide.co.uk It gets you 2 for 1 entry at places like the Tower of London and the Tower bridge experience. If you're going to go to these sites you can practically pay for the train ticket with what you save. Also, it was easier for us to just deal with one card for the entire trip.

We have just arrived in London for 6 nights after being around England for two weeks. We purchased the one-week Oyster card. We arrived yesterday afternoon and we have just finished our first full day. We've been on the tube 4 times thus far. We plan a lot more to see all that we want to see. So far, the value of the Oyster card is quite good. We don't plan on going beyond Zones 1 or 2.

The 7 day Oyster card means a 7 day travel card on an Oyster card, which can be bought at any tube station.

You can also buy a 7 day paper travel card at rail stations and get 2 for 1 offers and discounts, but not if it is put on an Oyster card.

One-day Travelcards cannot be used before 09:30 on Monday-Friday, but the longer period ones, including weekly, have no time restrictions.

For most zones one-day travelcards come in two versions: anytime and off-peak (after 09:30 on weekdays). For zones 1-2 the prices are £7.20 and £5.60 respectively.

It's now the end of our 7th day on the 7-day Oyster card. We started out using the tube but learned quickly to ride the wonderful modern double-decker buses. We went everywhere on both the tube and the bus. The Oyster card covers both in Zones 1 and 2. Over the 7 days, we rode the bus or tube almost 35 times. We really got the value out of our Oyster card. We are now in the Yotel at Terminal 4 at Heathrow. We fly out tomorrow morning.

I was in London recently. I used the pay-as-you-go system with my Oyster Card. I averaged about 4 GBP in use daily, so I would say that if I stayed a week a 7-day card would be a good deal. For me, it would probably cost about the same either way. For heavy "users" the 7-day card is definitely the way to go. If you use only the buses, the daily cap is low. It would be cheaper to use the Oyster pay-as-you-go in that case.

If you are in London 5 or more days its generally cheaper to get a 7 Day Travelcard than a Pay As You Go Oyster Card.
If you are staying less than 5 days the Oyster PAYG option is guaranteed to be cheaper than Travelcard for travel only.

However for most visitors the 2 for 1 admission offers to places like the Tower of London that come with Travelcard and not available with Oyster (must be purchased from a Central London Railway Station) easly offset any minor advantage of Oyster over Travelcard.

If you have kids between 11 and 15 Travelcard has definite advantages over Oyster too

See url below for full comparison on what is right for you.
www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/travelcard_oyster.htm