London Travelcards Questions
 

Hello,

We will be first-time visitors to London this June for a week and I have been reading that getting Travelcards is a must for the 2 for 1 deals.

I have a few questions:
1--Where would the nearest National Rail ticket booth be to St. Katharine Docks? This is where we are staying and we'd like to purchase them upon our arrival. (Yes, we know to bring two passport pictures along.)
2--When purchasing the Travelcards, will we actually get coupons for the 2 for 1 deals or should they be printed out before our trip?
3--We will be in London 7.5 days. It is my understanding that we will be able to use the Travelcards for tube transportation in Zone 1 & 2. Would buying an Oyster card then be unnecessary? I'm not yet sure how far zone 2 goes....hopefully it covers the Tower Hill tube station.

Thanks for all your help!

Marlene

(1) Probably London Bridge, but don't quote me on that. If you're flying into Gatwick, you'd want to take the train to London Bridge and not Victoria, anyway.

(2) No. You get them from www.daysoutguide.co.uk and print them from the interwebnet thing before you bop across the pond or channel.

(3) Tower Hill is in Zone 1. You likely only need a Zone 1-2 Travelcard (there is no Zone 1 only card). The necessity of an Oyster card depends upon what you're doing the other .5 days.

If you're flying into Gatwick, you'd want to take the train to London Bridge and not Victoria, anyway.>

If flying into Gatwick and going back out of it simply buy a return paper Gatwick to all points in London ticket and that is, I understand from previous discussions, all you will need to get 2 for 1 until your return train to Gatwick.

And yes London Bridge I'm pretty sure is the closest National Rail Station to the docks.

BigRuss--We are looking into going to either Greenwich or Kew Gardens. Would we buy an Oyster card on the day we plan to travel to either of those places?

We are flying into Heathrow and plan to use justairports for transportation to St. Katharine's.

>>Where would the nearest National Rail ticket booth be to St. Katharine Docks?<<

Fenchurch Street station

>>We are looking into going to either Greenwich or Kew Gardens. Would we buy an Oyster card on the day we plan to travel to either of those places?<<

Greenwich is in zone 2 anyway, so covered by your travelcard.

For Kew Gardens, it could get a bit complicated. The quickest way there is to get a (National Rail suburban) train from Waterloo and change at Richmond to the TfL service to Kew Gardens. If you wanted to get add-on tickets to combine with your Travelcard to cover the extra zones, you could do so from Waterloo National Rail station, which should cover you through to Kew Gardens. If you tried putting money on the Oystercard for that, the system would have no way of knowing that you also had a travelcard for zones 1 and 2 when you started your journey, and would charge a penalty fare of some sort. So it would probably be easiest to get add-ons at Waterloo (you could still use them on the tube if you choose to travel back that way), or for the sake of simplicity and to avoid any queueing to talk to a ticket clerk, use the ticket machines to buy day returns for the whole journey at Waterloo.

Thanks, PatrickLondon! My DH wants to go to Greenwich while I would prefer Kew Gardens. In light of the fact that Greenwich would be an easier destination, that may win out.

Kew isn't difficult of itself. Just more expensive (the museums in Greenwich are free, after all).

:)

If you're going to Kew, just buy a zones 1-3 travelcard. I think the £4 difference is worth not having the extra ticket hassle.

Mirandaverandah---I wasn't aware of the travelcard for zones 1-3. Great tip! Thanks!