London travel card vs oyster card

Oyster v Travelcard. Depends on How much you are travelling. A through Oyster fare from East Croydon (Zone 5) to a destination in Zone 1 is £4.10 if you need to change enroute (tube etc). A daily travelcard is £8.50. My own preference would be paper one day travelcards, if you don't already have an Oyster card. Regarding Heathrow, shame you are not flying to Gatwick since the journey to East Croydon is so much quicker from there. There are several routes requiring multiple changes, but there is a direct bus from Heathrow Central bus station to East Croydon - the X26. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes - runs twice an hour. This is the longest bus route in London - and would be by far the cheapest way of doing it.

Lindsey smith, I went into some detail in your prior post asking about getting from Croydon. Have you seen that? I note that your email is still in that post - that can cause trouble. Have you given up on using the Britrail pass? The trains into London from East Croydon, on the Southern service and on the First Capitol Connect are included in the Britrail programme. I don't know if you will have a limited number of days on the Britrail pass or if you can use it straight through all the days you will need. If you use a Travelcard and there are two of you, you can use a National Rail issued one on the National Rail Two for One Days Out programme. If there are not two of you then that advantage won't apply. If you use a Travelcard you will pay the full price of the Travelcard regardless of how much or how little you use the transportation. If you use an Oyster Card it will never (when used properly by touching in and out on trains and Underground, and touching in on buses) cost more than an equivalent Travelcard, as it is capped, but if you use less it only charges you what you actually use. You do need to buy the actual card for £5 and you can return the card and get your £5 plus any remaining credit on the card when you leave the UK. For only 3 days it may be seen as a hassle but Oyster Cards, to my mind, are way easier to use. If you intend to return at a later year you can hold onto the card and reuse it. The bus mentioned by Marco is one way to get to Croydon, as are the ways I related in your previous thread. If I were going from Heathrow to East Croydon, a particularly long journey, I'd take the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow to Earls Court, change to the District Line to Victoria, go upstairs and take one of the frequent trains to East Croydon, being sure I got on a fairly fast train and avoiding trains to West Croydon.

Thank you for your help! I did see my email is still on that original post. I will have to get back to my computer to fix that. I figured we would purchase the oyster card when we get to heathrow. We do need the Brit rail pass because we will be traveling to Glasgow on Sunday then to Edinburg on tuesday. From my research that seems to be the cheapest way to do that? Any other suggestions you have would we welcomed!! Thanks again for all the help!
Now that I have you, I may ask one more question. Is the London attraction pass worth purchasing for someone like me who wants to see all the "tourist" attractions?

Each to their own but personally I would prefer a direct express bus over a routing that required two changes to save a theoretical 10-15 minutes at most and cost significantly more. Since I have mobility issues this consideration may weigh more with me than with someone else though. For those who do not like long bus rides, taking the 285 bus to Feltham, and train to East Croydon changing at Clapham Junction would be my marginally preferred route, mainly because I dislike the ride of the trains on the Piccadilly line. Oyster cards in theory should be easier to use than paper tickets, but the number of times I have needed to call TfL because a through journey hasn't been properly resolved and I have been charged a maximum fare has been annoying. Knowing now that you aren't just single makes paper more attractive for the 2-1 offer, as Nigel has explained. You might find advance tickets are cheaper than the Britrail pass. Or flying to Scotland even, since you are only 15 minutes from Gatwick Airport and flights to GLA start from £27 one way, depending on bags etc. Attraction passes. Depends on what you intend to go to, since many major attractions do not have admission fees but request donations instead. Factor in the 2-1 deals in your calculations (www.daysoutguide.co.uk/)

Thanks! One last thing. Ive tried 2 times to get my email off the original post and a message comes up saying it cannot be edited at this time. Please let me know what I should do. Thank you so so much for your help!
Lindsey