London: Oyster vs. 7-day pass vs. other options for 6 days
 

Hi!
We'll be in London for 6 days and haven't figure out our itinerary yet. Will probably do many of the typical things and will catch the Eurostar to Paris on day 6. Any suggestions on 7 day pass vs. Oyster cards or other options? We are two adults and a 20 and 22 year old. Hubby & I were in London 15 years ago & the kids have never been. We're staying at Earl's Court Holiday Inn Express.

Oyster is just a stored fare card and you can load a 7 day pass on it. We bought the 7 day pass because it was cheaper than buying a card (the card itself was free when buying the 7 day pass, otherwise it costs a couple dollars) and loading with some pounds.
For zones 1-2 (sufficient for most tourists) a 7 day pass runs £25.80. Cash price is £4 per ride. If you use an OC, each trip is £1.80, with a daily max of £7.20 (peak) or £5.60 (off peak). Daily travel passes are the same as the daily OC max. So if you will ride the tube 3-4 times a day the 7 day pass on an OC is the better buy for your 5 or 6 days.

Thanks--it looks like will still need to pay a bit more to get from Heathrow to our hotel. Even with that, it does look like the 7 day pass will be a great convenience. It says you get a paper pass if you buy it at the rail station & then can get 1/2 price deals if you register but no other way.

Is the rail station convenient to Heathrow & worth getting to to get the pass? We do plan to go to the Tower of London and possibly some theater that is onthe 2 for 1 deals, but didn't see anything else.

Any group ticket we could get, like they have in Germany for the 4 of us? I couldn't find any info on discounts or group fares for tourists (except groups of 10+).

We bought a 7-day Oyster though we were only in London for 5 days, and it was worth it. You buy the Oyster card at the Heathrow tube station; the attendants there will add the small surcharge necessary to get you from Heathrow into Central London. After that you just swipe the card every time you get on a bus or the tube...no worries.

If there are only a couple of things you want 2-for-1 deals for, I wouldn't bother with the paper ticket.

The above replies pretty much say it all but we have the total idiocy of the way the 2 for 1's are handled that really complicate matters. First of all, and be very clear on this, you cannot get a 7 day paper travelcard anywhere near Heathrow. There are no national rail ticket offices there; at least to the best of my knowledge. With that in mind, if there are enough 2 for 1's that will make it worthwhile, you have to go to one of the national rail stations such as Victoria, Paddington, Charing Cross, London Bridge and call at one of the ticketing offices inside the national rail portion of these areas, not the tube station. You will, as noted, pay quite hefty tube fares to get there which might obliterate the savings if you don't know many 2 for 1's. You have to research that carefully and decide if it's worth it (not saying it isn't, but you have to do the math. As I travel solo usually, not a factor to me and a no brainer, it's oyster all the way).

Finally there is one error, About a year ago, tfl stopped the practice of waiving the £3 deposit for the oyster card if your first purchase on it was a 7 day or longer travelcard (as opposed to just finds for PAYG). They thought people, instead of re-loading the cards were getting new ones every time they purchased a new 7 day travelcard. I don't know how they could think such a thing (so that's how I have ended up with about 12 oyster cards...hm). You will pay the £3 deposit for each card but it's just that, a deposit. If you want your money back, you can turn in the cards at St. Pancreas when leaving on eurostar and get the deposit back...it it's worth it to you or keep it for your next trip.

I think xyz123 is assuming the 2for1 offers on national rail services are meant for visitors. They're an incentive offered by the rail companies to get people to buy train journeys from them, and particularly to get rush-hour commuters to travel with their families at other times. From that point of view, it's hardly idiocy.

It may be a by-product convenient to visitors that they can also take advantage by buying a travelcard that way, but that doesn't require the rail companies to go out of their way to make them available where they don't need to for the commercial objective they're aiming at.

Patrick...I do understand perfectly. It just makes life somewhat more inconvenient to try to explain what is best for a tourist in terms of transportation choices. One would have to agree, eh.

Getting the 2-4-1 offers with a Travelcard is a loophole in the system that benefits people who aren't travelling by train.

It's not idiocy, it's a bonus

This is all very helpful and confirms that it would not be worth spending our precious vacation time tracking down paper travelcards for a discount for Tower of London. The time & energy could better be expended doing things we want to see, but it would be good if there were more offers we wanted to follow up on.

London has so many wonderful free things to offer, we will probably spend a lot of time in its wonderful museums!

I came to the same conclusion, HImom. It may have saved a few quid trekking to a NR station to get a paper card, but the time and hassle just didn't seem worth it with a limited time to visit.

xyz - thanks for he update on the new policy. Glad we held on to our OC's

One more thing--anyone with experience on the popout London map vs. the Streetwise one? We're only going to be taking public transport & sticking with main London tourist destinations. Is this a good choice of map? I really like the small size & I'm directionally challenged (frequently lost).

If you go to the tfl web site, there are lots of maps that you can download and print yourself of public transport including stip maps of various bus lines!