How long will you be in London?

For public transportation, there are all kinds of permutations- you can simply load some cash on an Oyster (which is what I do), or buy a travel card, I'm absolutely clueless myself but there are lots of posters here who know the system. You should do a search for older threads, and also study the tfl website.

If you want to take a black cab, then taking one home after dinner and drinks makes sense to me. If you ask your hotel to prearrange a car service/taxi to take you to the train station, there's a good chance it will just be a regular car and not a black cab. At least that's been my experience.

I like to aim to arrive at the station approx. 1 hour before departure, which is probably a bit excessive but I prefer to plan for delays on the tube or in traffic, and give myself time to fiddle around the station before boarding.

You shouldn't have any trouble picking up your tickets at the station before you board.

You need to search "2 for 1" on this site. But as far as just transport's concerned:

If you're sure you're going to be using only buses, you're probably deluding yourself. But if only buses are being used, you don't absolutely need, for transport, a card. You'll need to buy, with coins at the stop, tickets for each individual journey. Tickets cannot be bought on buses in central London.

If you're using the tube, a single ticket within central London is £4.30 cash, £2.00 bought on Oyster or nothing at all if you've got an Oyster card and have already paid your daily maximum.

I honestly can't begin to imagine why anyone would spend time in London without an Oyster or one-day Travelcard. Acquiring an Oyster costs nothing, except a deposit that's refundable when you leave.

There's absolutely no point arriving at a British railway station more than 15 mins before departure. Kings Cross is tiny, and it can't take even an illiterate blind person speaking only Cantonese and with severe mobility problems more than 3 minutes to find the platform. It's virtually impossible to be allowed onto a train more than 10 mins before it leaves.

To avoid any potential areas of anxiety, all you need do is find the information displays listing departures, which will show the platform you need (there is no airport-style security or any potential hold-up other than putting your ticket into a machine reader (you can use any, so there shouldn't be queues to get on to the platforms, which are all on a level with the concourse).

Slight gloss: Kings Cross is in the throes of a rebuild of its entrance and public concourses, which may confuse the issue a bit. The new concourse at one side is due to open in the next couple of weeks, so presumably the existing rather cramped area on the front will be closed while they revamp that.

No doubt signage from the tube will make it easy to find where you need to go, but personally I think 15 minutes might be cutting it fine for someone who's not been there before (anyway, I like to get myself a cup of tea to board with, rather than wait for the onboard buffet to open). As for picking up tickets, I've never had a problem picking them up from the machines (using the credit card I've bought them with), but for peace of mind you might want to do it in advance - it doesn't sound as though you're staying that far away. If you've any spare time you might want to drop in at the British Library to see their treasures gallery, and you could combine that with picking up your tickets.

Yes, get an Oystercard: all the fares are set to encourage you to do so.

As a London native I agree with other posters... that buying an Oyster card and topping up PAYG is the best way forward. Just for clarification, an Oyster card will cap the money taken off at the price of a daily travelcard so you don't need to worry about potentially spending more than a travelcard per day. if you travel after 930am then you can avoid peak fares too.

flanneruk's suggestion of 2 for 1 is the main instance it might make sense to buy a day travelcard. You could buy two off peak travelcards and then gain 2 for 1 on entrance to the Tower of London. It has to be from a National Rail station (who promote the 2 for 1) and not London Underground stations.

The Kings Cross concourse opened a day early yesterday so should be a bit more free to navigate than it has recently. For taxis I find this site quite nifty and fairly accurate especially if you use post codes:

http://www.worldtaximeter.com/london

Okay, what I meant was we are planning on walking mostly, just taking tube/bus transportation for long jaunts. I have a bit of claustophobia and would rather see the sights as I am out rather than going down into a dark tunnel. LOL

PatrickLondon: Yes, we are staying near the British Museum, but I do want to see the British Library, so was thinking that the station was across the street and we could get the tickets then. Thanks for the encouragement.

Loco2: Thank you for that link.

You all are so very helpful!!

Some first comments on the new arrangements at Kings Cross:
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/new-kings-cross.html

London sights are pretty widespread. Consider taking the bus instead of the tube -- if buses don't bother you so much.

It's virtually impossible to be allowed onto a train more than 10 mins before it leaves.>

then this must be a recent change in the past few years since I have ridden trains but I have never seen any train that you could not board ten minutes out - I wonder how many trains flanner has actually taken - or has the policy changed - don't think so and 10 minutes time when they close they doors I just do not believe and it would be so stooooopid to do so - yes they often closed the doors a minute or two top before take off - but still get there in a timely fashion.

I allow extra time to get to the station as it only takes one delay and your "I'm going to arrive 15 minutes before the train leaves" becomes "I'm stuck on a Tube train when my train leaves".

As for other options to get to Edinburgh do consider the Caledonian Sleeper train whose Bargain Berths are truly a bargain as not only do you get transport, you also get a bed for the night saving on London accommodation costs and be in Edinburgh in plenty of time for a hearty breakfast.

"I wonder how many trains flanner has actually taken "

A hell of a lot more than you, it seems

Now go and find some poor sucker to sell those hokey Eurail passes to.

>> I have never seen any train that you could not board ten minutes out <<

Ten minutes sounds about the sort of timeframe at Kings Cross: they don't tell you till about then what platform your train will be at.

For those of you NOT permanently incomprehensible as a result of a sad addiction to paint:

There are two ways you might board a train in Britain. If it's come from somewhere else, it stops at each intermediate station for somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes.

If, as is normal for intercity trains (except FCC trains to Luton and Gatwick) in central London, it starts its journey from the station concerned, the platform it's leaving from will be announced a maximum of 15 minutes, though more frequently 10 minutes and sometimes five mins or fewer, before departure, though boarding is allowed earlier on most overnight trains and some early morning departures. Access to platforms is frozen, when that's technically possible, 60 secs before departure, and doors are normally locked 30 secs before departure.

If you know a station well, you can often kill time if you've allowed an hour for tube delays and (as is usual) the tube's precisely on time, by using your Poirot skills to work out which platform your train's going to leave from, going there and being rewarded by seeing a paper poster in its windows telling you you detected right. Beats seeing how many inedible new variations the Original Cornish Pasty company has invented on what was once edible snack food, marvelling at the markups Paperchase demands on birthday cards, or trying to work out (if you take trains as often as I do) why every major London station has almost exactly the same shops.

The ONLY other diversion usually is identifying the statutory Public Art. From the obvious (Paddington Bear and Platform 9 3/4) to the harrowing (the Kindertransport statue at Liverpool St) to the Perfect Rejoinder (Betjeman at St Pancras massively upstaging the absurdly grandiose Meeting Place). Oddly, there's no handbag statue near the Victoria Left Luggage. Lady B is regally annoyed...

mimar: From Bloomsbury to Westminster Abbey and around, walkable?? But I think to the Tower is a bit far, so that is why I am thinking only one ride is needed. And, yes, I am thinking of the bus.

alanRow: Already bought the tickets...I want to go during the day to see what England looks like. Everyone scared me from driving to Edinburgh.

>>From Bloomsbury to Westminster Abbey and around, walkable??<<

A long walk. I'd do it by bus.

>>Oddly, there's no handbag statue near the Victoria Left Luggage. <<

I sense a public campaign coming on. What odds on Boris suddenly making it an election promise?

And then Boris will be left holding the proverbial 'bag'?

I have been researching the Tube and bus lines and have decided that it will not be *too* confusing. You all had convinced me to go with a car service from the airport when, at the last moment, I noticed that our hotel in Bloomsbury is very close to the Holborn stop on the Piccadilly line. So now I am thinking of buying the Oyster card at Heathrow and getting on the Tube since it is a straight shot, no transfers. Am I missing something???

>>So now I am thinking of buying the Oyster card at Heathrow and getting on the Tube since it is a straight shot, no transfers. Am I missing something???<<

No, you´re not. There are some steps to get your luggage up at Holborn, and some narrow walkways that get quite claustrophobic in the rush hour, but only for a couple of minutes. After that it´s escalators all the way up.

>>And then Boris will be left holding the proverbial 'bag'?<<

He has, as they say, form in that department. And I don´t just mean:
http://autolycus-london.blogspot.com.es/2010/10/is-there-no-limit-to-our-beloved-mayors.html

Okay, new question. I have now decided to be bold and use the Tube and bus. How much should we put on the Oyster card to start? If we have money left on it, what happens?

I go on around £5 per day. If your balance when you leave is less than £10 you can get it as cash and it's easy to add cash to an Oystercard if needed so there's no need to keep large balances on it.

BUT OP - you said "we". If you are being a tourist then a Travelcard bought at a National Rail ticket office can save you far more than the cost of the Travelcard through the offers on daysoutguide.com.

If you are staying less than 5 days then you can get Oystercards but on days you want to use the offers buy a one day Travelcard and not use the Oystercard that day. If you are staying more than 4 days then you should be buying 7 day Travelcards anyhow as they cost less than for 5 days of Oystercard caps.

Re: The two for one offers...I didn't see much of interest to me besides the Tower of London, which is why I was thinking it wouldn't be worth searching out a train station... You can get cash back???

If you purchase an OYSTER card (which is a plastic credit card size card), it requires a deposit. Then you "load" either the amount that a 1 or 7 day travel card would cost OR you "load" some amount of cash/credit. If you turn the card back it, then you will get back the deposit and any leftover amount of CASH. If you load it with day/7day travel card credit, then that amount is not refundable. These are purchased at TUBE stations. (and are returned to manned TUBE station window.)

The other travel option is to purchase a PAPER travel card, either 1 day or 7 day, purchased at a RAIL/train station. There are several stations (e.g., Victoria and Waterloo) which service both TUBE/UNDERGROUND trains and RAIL trains. If you want to purchase a paper travel card, you would go to such a station and to the RAIL part.

There is another thread about needing a photo now to purchase such a card http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/photo-now-required-for-7-day-travelcard.cfm I haven't read that thread carefully so don't know info it holds.

Anyway if you don't want to mess with the paper card, then just purchase the Oyster card at LHR--ask the agent about how much PAYG cash to put on it. If you run short, you can "top it up" easily. There are "rules" about how much cash you will get back so don't leave very much on it--we had an agent bend the rules a little and we got back more than they usually refund.

Have you used any mapping program to get a feel for how far things are apart? Try plugging in a few places in googlemaps if you can and click the walking icon and you'll see. The Tube is NOT hard to figure out if you pay attention. I'm not claustrophobic and never use public transport in my town so I'm not used to bus schedules, so the Tube for us has been a better option than buses. And no way to walk to all the places we've seen--London is simply put huge.

texas: Yes, I have looked at the distances, the prices, etc. We will be in London 3 1/2 days, plus some period when we return from our Grand Tour of the UK. The more I read here and the more I think about it, I think I can deal with the claustrophobic part. I still think the bus, with the ability to see the surroundings, is more my style.

Thanks to everyone!!