London Oyster card

We were in London for a week and we purchased the 7-day card. It worked quite well as we were either on a bus or tube 4-6 times a day. For shorter stays, I understand that you can load British Pounds onto the card as you need.

I believe Larry means he purchased a 7 day travel card and had it put ON an Oyster card... Which is what I do and it works out great since you can use it on all the city buses as well.

You say "we" so I assume there will be at least two of you traveling together. You can load seven-day travelcards on Oyster cards which you would buy at a Tube station. You can buy seven-day paper travelcards from a National Rail station and use them to take advantage of some very good 2-for-1 offers from National Rail. Read about the offers here. You can buy one-day travelcards at a Tube station or one-day travelcards at a National Rail station. Travelcards cost the same wherever you buy them and they are good on the Tube, bus, Docklands Light Railway, trams, and many National Rail trains in the zones covered. You can load pay-as-you-go pounds on Oyster cards to cover travel beyond the zones covered by either Transport for London travelcards or National Rail travelcards. Will you fly into and out of Heathrow or Gatwick? How many days will you be in London? The answers to those questions will help determine what would be best for you.

I ordered my Oyster Card with prepaid GBP on it from raileurope.com when I ordered my Eurostar ticket. I just didn't want to mess with buying a card when I arrived from France. Their website is very easy to use.

The Oyster card is a great way to get around London, just press it agains't the reader on the bus or entering the tube station, you never have to worry about having money when getting on public transportation and it is easy to reload at any tube station

I have similar questions about the Oyster card. I have a short stay in London (2 nights 3 days) and will be using the Tube and buses to get around.
It looks like the HeathrowConnection will be my best option for getting from the airport to my hotel, and when I leave London I will be taking the train from London to Poole. Can I put all of that on an Oyster card? Or at least put enough pounds on the card to cover that?

Matt, Oyster cards are NOT good on either the Heathrow Connect or the Heathrow Express. They are NOT good on National Rail trains to Poole. Unless your hotel is within easy walking distance of Paddington, taking the Tube all the way from Heathrow to the station closest to your hotel will be no more than 15 minutes longer than taking either the HEX or the Connect to Paddington and some other means of transport from there to anywhere in central London.

I purchased a 7 day paper travel card. When I arrive at Heathrow, can I buy an Oyster card and put the travel card on it? The paper card seems awful flimsy, and I would rather have the plastic card, if possible. Can I do this?

We bought our Oyster card in Heathrow and used it on the tube, Picadilly line, to get into London. It's much cheaper than Heathrow Express/Connect but it does take about 45 minutes to an hour. They will help u figure out how much to load on it if you give them an idea of how much public transportation you will be using. On the way home, we just turned in the Oyster card at the same station at Heathrow and got our deposit back. It is also very easy to "load" with more money if you need to add more to it at any tube station.