I've ready many threads about this but am still confused..
I will be staying near the Hither Green train station so that is how I will be arriving to London each day.
Does a travelcard work for both National Rail as well as the tube/bus or are the separate?
I'm so confused as to what the cheapest way to travel is, any clarification would be great.
You can use a Travelcard as well but you need to work out if it will save you money. Hither Green is in Fare Zone 3. Before 9:30 you cannot use daily Travelcards and rail fares from Hither Green to town will be much more expensive. If you are staying for five days or more I would strongly recommend getting a weekly Travelcard as these CAN be used before 9:30 and it will be much cheaper than paying expensive peak hour train fares into town.
I was reading up on the new system for the pay as you go oyster, and it says "A cap will apply on fares, so passengers making different journeys during the day will find they pay no more than the appropriate rate for a one day Travelcard."
Does this mean it would make more sense to just buy an oyster card and not mess with a travelcard?
There are two kinds of one-day travelcards: peak (before 09:30 on any day of the week) and off-peak (after 09:30 on weekdays and anytime on weekends).
A seven-day travelcard costs about the same as five one-day travelcards. You can load a seven-day travelcard on an Oyster card.
If you're going to be in London for less than five days, buy an Oyster card, load some money on it, and use it as a pay-as-you-go card. The Oyster computer will automatically give you the best fare and your cost will cap each day at no more than the cost of a one-day travelcard for the zones in which you travel that day.
If you're going to be in London for five or more days, load a zone 1-3 seven-day travelcard on an Oyster card.
You can load both PAYG money and a seven-day travelcard on an Oyster card. You could load PAYG money on the card to cover your rides from Heathrow to London and back to Heathrow.