I'm going to buy an oyster card for London before i go but what sort of card , if any, should i buy to be able to get into the usual tourist sights in London so i don't have to queue for too long?
Some places i want to visit that are nor free(I think)
St Paul's, Westminster Abbey,Hampton court, the tower, Houses of Parliament,tourist things at Greenwich.
i think the main museums and art galleries are free?
Thanks in advance
moonrise

First of all, I never understand why anybody wants to buy an oiyster card in advance...it's readilly available at every tube station in London and you don't save any money. The one queue is far from intimidating when you arrive.

Basically all the tourist attractions for the most part referred to above are in London zone 1. But to properly advise you on what oyster card to buy when you get to London, we need more info.l How long will you be in London? Where will you be staying? Will you be tubing in from Heathrow or are you arriving by train?

Trust me...you are muchy better off waiting till you get to London when you can speak to a real live human being in buying the right oyster card (if indeed the oyster card is the direction to go; you know those silly 2 fdor 1's that you need paper tickets for)....

Thanks so much.
i'll be in London for 4 days, then with a group (all organized )for 3 weeks then back by myself for 9 days in London.
when by myself, I'll be staying in Holland Park Avenue,Kensington. there looks like lots of buses go by the door of the hotel.
My trip from the airport to the hotel is an organized pick up so i don't need to worry about that.
I read about a 'London pass'...what about that for entry?
moonrise, getting excited...leaving Australia on 24th April for a special trip to dear old England!!!

Assuming the two for one's are not an issue, your best bet is a PAYG oyster card on arrival.....put say 20 auid on it (it also has a £3 deposit)...you can monitor its use as you go through the 4 days...if it runs low you can top up easily enough using the machines.....then let the tfl computer in the sky (maybe it's not in the sky) figure out what you're spending...don't worry...it will give you the best deal each day with the daily caps...

Upon arrival back in London on the first day back, you'll probably have something left over on PAYG for that day....for the next 7 days you will probably be best off with a 7 day travelcard loaded onto the oyster card for zones 1 & 2...if you venture out of zone 2, the left over PAYG will serve for extensions (most of the national railroads operating within the capital now honor oyster)...again you can easily check the PAYG balance on the machines at each station and if it runs low, then top up. For the ninth day, it's probably back to PAYG......as you leave London you can take the oyster card for a souvenir or at your very last tube stop, get your £3 deposit back as well as whatever time is on it....the beauty of the oyster card is the daily caps and the transparency of not having to worry about what you should do each day....you will get the best deal daily and the machines work pretty easily to top up.

(All this assuming you don't need the 2 for 1's)

I don't know that there are any passes for London that allow you to bypass queues, unless you are part of a tour group. (I could be wrong and if so others will correct me!) But I think your best bet is simply to arrive at the Tower and Westminster Abbey early, when these sites open. I don't think you'll have a problem anywhere else.

"<i>I'm going to buy an oyster card for London before i go</i>"

I agree - absolutely no reason to pre-purchase Oysters. Also, for a single, there is no advantage to either paper travel card or any tourist pass.

The London Pass does let you do a bit of queue jumping at a few places - but not much since you still have to go through the security/bag screening. It definitely is not worth the cost.

the way to avoid the queue at the Tower -- get there just before opening time. Westminster Abbey can have a queue, but not often that long - especially at this time of year.

Thank you for all this. you have cleared things up well.
I don't think I'll bother then with a london pass.When I'm by myself I mostly want to visit, in depth, the two Tates, British museum, National art gallery , V&A,Portrait gallery and the main parks. It's only W w and Tower that isn't free , I think, so I'll get there early as suggested.
moonrise