I have spend the last hour reading different threads on the oyster vs. travelcard vs. pay as you go & have gotten some wonderful information and a headache!!

Here is our situation for anyone kind enough to offer words of encouragement & basically to tell me what to do!

Four adults (couple w/19 & 21 year old daughters), arriving Gatwick 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 28th. We will take the Express to Victoria Station (do I purchase this in advance? Notice on line that you can travel 4 for 2, assume you have to purchase that there?) where we'll spend the night at the Holiday Inn in Kensington.

The following morning we will take the Eurostar to Paris for 3 nights & return to London on Friday, June 1st, where we'll be staying in an apartment (Kensington-Olympia area) until Tues, June 5th, head to Gatwick that day (on the Express) & spend the night at the Hilton to leave the next day.

My 19 year old daughter will be staying there for 10 weeks to do a study abroad program & an internship. What would be the best thing to purchase for her, as she'll be there for such an extended time? Also, she won't check into her school until June 2nd, so we would like to store most of her luggage until then. Any suggestions? Does Victoria Station or the Waterloo Station have places to store luggage for a few days? We already know that we can't store them we're she'll be studying, unfortunately!

If the rest of us (3 adults) were to purchase travel cards, should we just get the 7 day on an oyster card when we get back to London? Haven't completely decided on our itinerary in London, but we'll be walking, taking the bus or tube.

I know this probably seems like I haven't researched much, but there is a permanent indentation on this chair from how long I've spent planning this! In advance, I thank you, thank you for any and all advice!!!

Re your daughter - how far will it be from where she'll be living to the school? How much free time will she have? What will she be doing at weekends & in the evenings? This will decide what sort of travelcard - if any - she'll need. It may be best, if she isn't going to use the Tube much to get a PAYG Oystercard and just pay for the trips she makes

As for storage ALL the major stations have baggage storage facilities which charge around £6 per bag per day - see www.excess-baggage.com

Re you - why are you going to Gatwick the night before your flight, as unless it's an extremely early flight (before 9:00am) you could just stay in Central London.

On your current schedule you have 3 full days and 2 half days in London.

In that case I'd be tempted to get an Oystercard, put £20 on it & use it as PAYG - at worst you'll pay 50p less than a one day travelcard each day & it could be a lot less.

You can get a full refund of remaining money & the deposit before you leave Victoria

Thanks Alan, for your quick response!

My daughter will be a 15 minute walk from school, so that should be easy for her. As far as evenings and weekends, she will be studying, don't you think...??? I'm not really sure how her free time will be spent, but I'm sure she will take advantage of traveling around and seeing things as much as possible. She has a friend who goes to school in Oxford, so they will probably try to get together.

We're going to Gatwick the night before because my husband is a worrier & this gives him less to stress out about. We have a free night at the Hilton, so thought we'd use it while there. We won't be in any hurry to get there, so we'll spend a full day in London before we head there.

That baggage site is very helpful. Thanks so much for your help.

Sounds as if just occasionally topping up the Oystercard under PAYG rather than getting any form of season ticket will be best.

BTW note the left luggage prices are per bag, so if your daughter has small bags then get a larg cheap bag that she can stuff the other bags into before handing them over and remind her to collect the bags before the next 24 hour period starts otherwise she'll be charged for the full day

alanRow has given you good advice.

But I have a question about your first night in London. Why staying at the HI in Kensington?? Unless - is it free on points? That is not at all a convenient location for a lightning stop over where you arrive at Victoria and leave from Waterloo.

I'd stay either near Victoria or near Waterloo - not all the way across town in Kens . . . .

janisj- yes, the HI is free, but I could change it to something closer. Guess I need to check that out. Know that there are other Holiday Inns/priority club hotels, so perhaps a closer one would be better. I'll give that a look - thanks!!

Perhaps I read your post wrong (and I'm too lazy to re-read it!)but...we just returned from London/Eurostar to Paris/London....and we purchased our 2 for 1 Gatwick Express tickets online prior to traveling using the code found on this website.

For the Gatwick Express, the 4 for 2 tickets have to be purchased at the train station. You could also use the 50% of codes that have been posted here to purchase tickets - it's 50% off each single fare, which might come out to be a bit more than the 4 for 2 off the return (round trip) fare.

Holiday Inn has a location in Mayfair which is fairly close to Victoria. We have stayed in this hotel 3 times and love the location. The tube is not even a block away (Green Park station, where 3 lines come together)

Of course, I did misword by post - you're right - the online code purchases single seats at 50% off...thanks for correcting!

Thanks again for the info! I'll definitely look into the Mayfair.

dorkforcemom, would love to hear how your trip went, perhaps I could steal some of your info! Have you done a trip report?

I haven't put together a trip report yet - I'd be glad to share info, it was a wonderful trip. The Eurostar was quick, easy, relaxing and a perfect way to combine Paris & London.

We flew from DFW to Gatwick, took the Gatwick Express to Victoria, changed to the tube to Waterloo and caught the Eurostar to Paris. I know, it didn't make much sense not to fly directly to Paris but we purchased the airline tickets before thinking it through.

In retrospect, once we arrived at Victoria, we should have taken a taxi to Waterloo as we paid 8 pounds between the two of us and, with luggage, would have gladly paid a bit more for the taxi ride.

We went 2nd class on the Eurostar. We booked online, and upon arriving at Waterloo to the Eurostar area, went to the ticket counter to have real tickets printed up. You put your tickets in a machine, the doors/gates open, and you proceed to a brief security belt/area to a secure waiting area with food vendors & places to sit. There are closed doors with escalators up to the train platform once they're ready for you to board. It was efficient and easy. You can purchase food/drink items in this security area to take on the train.

Once in Paris, there's a taxi line which was fairly brief - I recommend taking a taxi from Gare du Nord to your hotel/apartment. It was reasonably priced. Hope this helps somewhat...

In addition, they've had a mild winter, spring has sprung, the trees are budding, flowers are blooming, it'll be beautiful May 28!

Thanks, I find all information very helpful! Where did you end up staying in Paris? I've been so wishy/washy about what area to stay in. Do you have a recommendation for one area over another? We're a bit limited as I'm looking for a room for 4.

It looks like the 50% off offer from Gatwick Express no longer exists, so I think we'll try and take advantage of the 4 for 2 when we arrive.

Thanks again for helping!

Luckily, my sister had starwood points which we were able to use for rooms at The Westin Paris. It is a beautiful, historic hotel in a perfect location - near the Louvre, Opera, St. Honore shopping. The price posted in the room we had said the cost was 950 euros per night! Egads....

I'm not really able to advise since we didn't "shop" for a hotel.