First Trip to London - need advice
 

Hello,

I will be travelling to London for 8 days with my family of 5 including 3 kids ages 5, 7 and 9. I have been reading websites and travel books but still have a few questions that I would love advice on ...

1. Oyster card vs Travel Card : We will be in London from Sat - Sun i.e. 8 days. Should we get
a) an Oyster Card in London (not Visitor Oyster which apparently doesn't allow you to refund the deposit) or
b) the 7 day Travel pass for all zones (we need zone 6 for Heathrow on day of arrival) OR
c)7 dayTravel pass zones 1-2 only loaded ONTO oyster so that we can use oyster for the occasional far trip e.g.. Heathrow and Hampton Court palace but Travel card for rest
d) Will we still be able to use the travel pass for the 2/1 discounts?
e) Should I buy it when I get to Heathrow ? or order it online

2. The general consensus from reading the previous online posts is that the London Pass is not worth it! True?

3. Is the London hop on hop off bus worth it ? The reviews on trip advisor are very varied and often cite bad traffic and poor acoustics as a problem.

Thanks!

Only time for a quick note. You do not need an all zone travel card for the full time. That would be VERY expensive. What you need is a 7day zone 1&2 travel card plus some xtra PAYG £ to cover the trips from/to LHR.

And both the London Pass and HoHo buses are very expensive and not worth it.

I would not try to stick 3 little kids with a whole day sitting on a bus in traffic. Much better to pick out places where they - and you - want to go and just hop on the tube and do it.

Thanks for the advice....
JanisJ - can we pick up oyster card when we arrive in Heathrow? Would we get Travelcard same spot or should we instead go to national rail office somewhere to get it so that we get 2/1 deals? Also, do we need passport pics for this card? (I know we don't need them for Oyster)

Travelcards can be put on Oyster cards OR are paper ones from National Rail stations.

Only the paper version is good for 2for1s.

Oyster cards do not qualify for the 2for1s.

You likely only need zone 1-2. The easiest is to get tickets at Heathrow for your journey into/out of the city, then get your paper travelcards from a national rail station. This may cost a bit more than getting Oysters for Pay as you Go for this portion of your journey but the hassle factor will be quite a bit less.

You need passport pictures for the paper travelcards.

IF you want to use the 2for1 offers and plan on taking the tube into the city . . . What you could do is get Oyster cards at Heathrow but with just maybe £15 PAYG on them. Just for your journeys in to London and back and any other trips out of the center.

Then when you are settled in at your hotel, go to the nearest train station and buy the paper travel cards.

BUT what I would do personally is use a pre-booked car service like justairports.com Depending on where you are staying it would only cost about £50 - and be door-to-door and a HECK of a lot easier than schlepping 3 kids and luggage on the tube.

<<1. Oyster card vs Travel Card : We will be in London from Sat - Sun i.e. 8 days. Should we get
a) an Oyster Card in London (not Visitor Oyster which apparently doesn't allow you to refund the deposit) or
b) the 7 day Travel pass for all zones (we need zone 6 for Heathrow on day of arrival) OR
c)7 dayTravel pass zones 1-2 only loaded ONTO oyster so that we can use oyster for the occasional far trip e.g.. Heathrow and Hampton Court palace but Travel card for rest
d) Will we still be able to use the travel pass for the 2/1 discounts?
e) Should I buy it when I get to Heathrow ? or order it online>>

None of the above.

First: Hire a car service from Heathrow to your lodging. Don't fart around with this. You'll be tired. Make your life easier and don't skimp here because you're paying enough to take the whole mishpukah to London. Do the same on the way out of London.

Second: buy ONLY 7-day zone 1-2 travelcards for you and hubs. Bring passport-sized photos. Get the card at a manned ticket booth at a national rail station only (Victoria, Euston, Kings X, etc.) not from a Tube station or Tube ticket booth. The rail station ticket booths will be on the same level as the ubiquitous Boots and M&S Simply Food shops.

Your hobbits ride free. https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares

Thanks everyone for the great replies and advice! Much appreciated.