alane

i know its not too hard to understand ....but .....

2 of us are arriving at heathrow our hotel is near st pancras/kings cross. are we better offf with 2 train fares or a cab?

we are staying in london for 11 days taking 4-5 day trips. but always coming abck to london. should we get an oyster pay as you go oyster card while in london to save the most money? is there a 7 day pass? what is the paper pass people are soekaing of?

thansk

janisj

"<i>are we better offf with 2 train fares or a cab?</i>

Neither. The best ways to get to st Pancras would be 1) a pre booked car service like justairports.com or 2) the tube. The HEX and/or cabs make no sense at all.

Oyster PAYG would be good. But you'd need a <u>paper</u> travelcard for any days you want to use the 2-for-1 Days Out discounts. These can ONLY be purchased at train stations (but the HEX doesn't count).

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

If you are out of town a lot you may not be using the 2for1 all that much. So you can just buy a day paper travel card for the day(s) you will use them

alane

and if i wasnt interested in the 2-4-1 coupons?

janisj

Then just an Oyster PAYG is the hot set up . . .

alane

ok so what if i wanted to take advantage of 2-4-1 entrance in like for instance the tower of london...or a cruise to grenewich.......... then what?

avalon

Yes from Heathrow a car service is cheaper than the HEX> I too use just airports.Personally I buy a 7 day travelcard zone 1 and 2 loaded on my Oyster for any trip over4 days.And addd about 10 GBP if I am planning on going out to other zones.

PatrickLondon

>>ok so what if i wanted to take advantage of 2-4-1 entrance in like for instance the tower of london...or a cruise to grenewich.......... then what?<<

Go to a National Rail station and get a one-day paper travelcard for that day (AFAIK, you can buy them in advance: just tell the ticket office you want one for Wednesday, or whatever)). On the other days use the money you've put on Oyster pay-as-you-go.

janisj

Since you are in and out of town and want to use the odd paper travelcard most likely PAYG will be your best option.

But if you are in the city for 4-5 straight days and don't use 2-for-1's on those days, then a weekly travel card loaded on the Oysters would work. Me personally?? -- I'd get a headache just figuring out the tiny savings go for PAYG plus the odd paper daily travelcard and be done w/ it . . .

flanneruk

Just about anything is preferable to the HEX for getting to Kings Cross.

But, if it matters to you, a car service is absurdly more expensive (percentage-wise) than the tube - and coming off most overnight transatlantic flights, cars take substantially longer.

Not a universal rule for everywhere in London. But for weekday travel to KX during the morning rush hour, cars are a rotten idea.

xyz123

To get the absolutely best deal on London transportation, you would have to sit down and do some planning to see if there's a seven day conseuctive period where you'll be using public transport four times a day or more or at least on most days in that period. If so, you would probably want a 7 day travelcard on oyster for that period and do PAYG for the rest of the time in London with the point that on any day you will be doing a 2 4 1, buy a one day travelcdard for that day and leave the oyster card in the hotel safe but after a hile, you probably justy sit down and figure out every day to the last dotted i and crossed t. If there are a bunch of days where you might only use public transport once or twice scattered throughout, the PAYG option on oyster won't break you and again for those days you might wish to do a 2 4 1 you follow the above advice.

I've discovered from usage that the cut off between PAYG and a 7 day travelcard is around 5 days but again it depends on just how much you will be using public transport but the differences, given how much a holiday costs you, isn't worth worrying about too much.