Hello! have read all your posts, but am still slightly confused- There are 4 of us including 2 children 11 & 15 in London from the 2nd of June to the 6th.
do we buy a Travel Card when we land?
Do we buy a Brit rail pass for travel to bath & oxford for same day journeys? (I believe there is a group save 4 thing on )
would you recommend a 2 for 1 for attractions and where do we buy that from..
Thanks
Himani Verma
I'll assume that you will arrive at Heathrow and will take the Tube to London. If you want to both take advantage of the 2-for-1 deals offered by National Rail and get the best fare for LHR to London and back, you could do this: Buy Oyster cards at Heathrow, load some pounds on them, and use them as pay-as-you-go cards. When you return to Heathrow you can get a refund on any unspent money, plus your deposit. The Oyster computer will automatically give you the best fare. You will never pay more than 50 pence less than the cost of a one-day travelcard for the zones in which you travel that day, no matter how many rides you take.
Buy one-day, zone 1-2 paper travelcards at any National Rail station for each day you want to use 2-for-1 vouchers. Don't use your Oyster cards on those days.
For information on the 2-for-1 offers and to print vouchers for the sights you wish to visit, go here.
BritRail passes will not be cost effective for you.
For a day trip to Bath you could take advantage of a GroupSave offer. Or if you can commit well in advance to specific departure dates and times, you can get discount fare tickets as low as £9.50 each way by booking now on the National Express East Coast site.
To get to Oxford and back buy GroupSave tickets or take the Oxford Tube (a bus, not a train).
Thank you, very helpful- your national Express suggestion is a really good one. In fact advance tickets to Bath are also cheaper than on the Oxford tube.
Just one more question- do I buy travel cards everyday for the day from a train station for the 2 for 1 offer?
Or can I just buy the 7 day travel card? Is it available on train stations only?
(i don't intend to buy the Oyster because it requires a photo id card for the children and takes longer to get made)
It just dawned on me that on days you use pay-as-you-go Oyster cards you wouldn't be able to take advantage of the £1 travelcard offer for your children. You and your wife should both buy travelcards for the entire time you're in London.
Here's a quote from the Transport for London site: "Up to four 11-15 year olds accompanying an adult Travelcard holder can buy a Zones 1-9 Off-Peak Day Travelcard for just £1 each. Just make sure that the adult holds either a valid printed Travelcard or an Oyster card holding a Travelcard. Off-Peak includes Monday-Friday from 0930 and all day at weekends and public holidays."
Even though you'll only be in London for five days, seven-day zone 1-2 travelcards will be the best deal for you and your wife. To take advantage of the 2-for-1 offers, buy those seven-day paper travelcards at any National Rail station. Do NOT buy your travelcards at a Tube station.
All right, I admit it. The more I read about travelcards and oyster cards, the more confused I become. We (2 seniors, if that makes any difference) are flying into Heathrow in June, and staying in London for 5 days. Can anyone tell me what the best deal would be for us, keeping in mind that we have to get into London from LHR and back out again? Also, Tim, why did you say that travelcards should not be bought at tube stations?
Rosalyn,
2-for-1 offers from National Rail require paper travelcards with the National Rail logo on them and they can only be bought at National Rail stations. If you don't care to take advantage of those offers, then buy Oyster cards at Heathrow, load 7-day zone 1-2 travelcards on them, and load some extra pounds to use as pay-as-you-go to get from Heathrow to London and back and for any other rides you take beyond zone 2.
If you do want to take advantage of those offers, then see my recommendation in my post above on this thread about using Oyster cards for pay-as-you-go (including getting from Heathrow to London and back) and one-day National Rail travelcards for each day you will use 2-for-1 vouchers. That note has a link to those offers.
Tim- Thanks for your replies. It's made things finally clearer(that's after a month of research on London)
But, closer home- we are also going to the US before London- NY. DC, Boston. why on earth would anybody travel by Amtrak- It is so expensive.
my question- We have to travel from NY to DC- what is the best way for a return trip, also cheaper than Amtrak which is 432$ for Return
then we have to go from NY to Boston- what is the best option for that journey.
