I am traveling to London for a week in Feb.with my husband and my children (18,15, and 12). I plan on buying each of us a weekly Travelcard. My guide books say that we will need passport size photos to buy one, but I read online that photos are no longer necessary for the weekly travelcard. Is this true? Do we need passport size photos or not?

You no longer need the picture for the card. I was there in November and it was great to be able to buy the card without having to have the picture. Enjoy yourselves and London is such a great place to visit, the family will have a wonderful time. Halfpint

The rules for photocards can be found in this document:

<b>http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2005/downloads/tfl-fares-2005.pdf</b>

on pages 52 and following. The Family Travelcard is the best deal for your situation.

The guide books tend to take years to catch up with rules changes.

Keith

True, but I think you can rely on a TfL document titled <u>Fares and tickets 2 January 2005 until further notice</u> as authoritative.

sktutor, Your 15 and 12 year old will need a photo (for the photocard) for virtually any of the travelcards or tickets no matter which cost scheme you choose. Only adults don't require photos.

There are a number of ways to reduce the costs for the kids and the Family Travelcard (1 Day duration) is by far the most money saving of the lot. The 18 year old won't qualify tho.

The TFL document Robespierre cited is the best resource but it is so dense and convoluted, it makes my brain hurt trying to figure out the combinations. If budget isn't too tight, just get everyone a 7 day travelcard and be done with it. Life is too short.

Many will probably shout me down on this, but I've found in the last 12 months a noticeable marked improvement in the customer services of the staff on the underground. Many of the folks in those boothes will actually try to sell you the best ticket for your family. In fact, just before christmas, we were part of a rain sodden, bedragled bunch of about 20, waiting at Stanmore for the 0930 cheap deadline for travelpasses to arrive. The weather was awful, the guards said they felt sorry for everyone and let us on 15 minutes early. If you are very lucky you will occaisionally come across the wannabe comic-undergound guards who tell jokes over the tannoy on the commutes home - how times change.

Thanks for all the help. After looking through the official site, I see my youngest children (15 and 12) will need photos. What size photos do they need to be? Also, I was planning on getting travelcards for zone 1 only. If we happen to go somewhere in zone 2, can we just pay the difference and if so, how does one do this?

zones 1,2 go together...i.e. you cant get a zone 1 travel card.incidentally about this paying the difference, i bought a 1,2,3 zone card and later found i needed to travel to zone 4. i stopped at the last stop in zone 3 and asked to extend my card.i told my story to the guy at the counter &amp; he sold me a single ride ticket for &pound;2. Was this the cheapest option?

errata: its the day and 3 day travel card that has the zone 1,2 minimum, you can get the week card for zone 1 only.

You may consider buying in US if an American thru RailEurope, who charges $36 for a 7-day zone 1,2 London Visitors Travelcard, which is just like cards you buy there but has a coupon book that you'll probably find something worth a few pounds in and can be used anytime, no until 9:30am as some travelcards in London. TFL web site lists 2005 prices for 7 day travelcard at 21.40 pounds - at 1.88 $=1 pound this would be about $40 - for two you'd save about $8 by buying thru them - no big savings but you may actually find something in the accompanying coupon book worth more. Anyway, Raileurope does charge a $15 mailing fee so I'd go thru one of their agents who doesn't charge the $15, like Budget Europe (800-441-9413) who are also London travel experts.

The OP has a group of five - three adults and two children (for the purposes of Family Travelcards). The adult tariff is &pound;3.10 per day, and the children are &pound;.80 per day (free on weekends). Thus, the entire week will cost &pound;73.10, a marked saving from the &pound;107 for 5 Visitor Travelcards. You can buy the Family Travelcards at the first tube station you transit, thereby saving the postage and handling.

If you feel adventurous, you could save mucho &pound; by getting Weekly Bus Season Passes for &pound;41 for the lot of you. The bus system is easily understood - see the links on the London Superthread - and doesn't require the amount of walking and climbing that the Tube does.

I bought a 7-Day pass at the Heathrow Tube station for Zone 1 (and paid the difference from the airport to the station) and didn't need to have a photograph taken. I hope you all are in good health, because the tube has STAIRS in many places. On my next trip, I'm going to get a bus pass. It's cheaper, no stairs, and you get to see more of the city. The downside is possible traffic jams, and rain. I think the benefits outweigh the negative possibilities.

Family travel cards do reprent some savings, but it's a hassle to wit until 9:30 and purchase them every day; in this case, only the two younger kids would qualify for the child fare.

IMHO, the simplest thing would be to just buy 5 individual 7-day visitors travelcards (3 adult, 2 children's) and be done with it -- no wondering about whether you're straying into Zone 2 (which includes Greenwich and the Zoo) no questions about photos (not needed for visitors travelcards) and best of all no daily waiting and purchasing (as there would be with family travelcards). There might be ways to save a few pounds, but when you're on vacation convenience and not worrying are part of the equation, too.

Most attractions in London don't open until 9:00 or so anyway, so the fact that the Family Travelcard doesn't permit use of the tube and buses until 9:30 is moot. On Saturday and Sunday (<i>i.e.</i> 28% of the week), there is no time restriction.

It takes less than a minute to buy 5 tickets from a machine, and I have never encountered a line. I don't know anyone who wouldn't spend 7 minutes to make &pound;30.

The &pound;73.10 quoted above is for Zone 1-2 cards, so you don't have to worry about staying in Zone 1.

The photocards for the 12 &amp; 15yo take about 2 minutes to obtain. You can do the paperwork before you leave the US by printing out the application from

<b>http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2005/downloads/application-form-5-10-11-15.pdf</b>

The last time we went, we had the applications and pictures with us, and they didn't even want them.

Anonymous, Didn't you get the memo? Robespierre is always right. Always.

I am only awed by the magnitude of what I do <u>not</u> know.

3 adult 7-day visitors' travelcards @&pound;20.40 and 2 kids' @8.20 = &pound;77.60, not the $107 that Robespierre calculated (perhaps not aware of kids' rates?).

For a savings of (77.6 - 73.1=) &pound;4.50, the family can hit the road whenever they feel like it. If they find any use for the coupons and offers that come wth the visitors' cards so they might even come out ahead. I speak from personal experience, we did find ourselves waiting in lines for the family travelcards during our visit. The 9:30 start time is also a discount on the regular one-day travelcards, so people arriving at hte station in the 5 minutes or so before 9:30 would queue up to save a pound or two.

Er, &quot;savings of&quot; should read &quot;outlay of&quot;, sorry.

Being able to start the day an hour earlier, arriving at attractions when they open rather than an hour later, adds a significant number of hours to week-long trip.

The post 930 saving on a weekday is quite substantial. It about twice as expensive before 930.