london underground/tube
 

i'm planning a trip to london & venice. will be in london for 2 days on front end going as far east as greenwich, then on to venice. will be staying four day on back end going as far west as kew gardens.

what are the best option for tube passes?

can't figure out what "zones" anything is in.

try the web at LONDONUNDERGROUND and you will find all kinds of maps.

this information will also be found in any guide book for london. everything you will want to see is in zone 1 and 2

You can use a tube pass on buses as well, if you are here on the weekend best to buy a weekend travel card as not too much more. Also during the week if you get a day travel card for zone's 1 & 2 after 9:30am you save yourself around 2pounds.

All the main downtown london stuff is in zone 1. Think of the circles in the stump of a tree-dead center is zone 1, next ring is 1 and 2, next one out is 3,2 and 1, etc. Pretty easy actually. go to anybook store or library and look at a london travel book and they'll give you the pass options.

try looking on www.thetube.com

You will most likely need a travel card. Check this link for travel journey planners and ticket info:

http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tickets/default.asp

All the Greenwich tube/DLR stops are in Zone 2, and Kew Gardens is in Zone 3.

Having lived in Greenwich for some years now I still can not find the Tube station. That could be because Greenwich is not on the Tube, unless you count North Greenwich, which is about 2 miles from the historic centre of Greenwich and is only useful for the Dome. Greenwich is on the overland and DLR, from Charing Cross and Bank respectively Greenwich is in zone 2, Kew is zone 3.

The map here

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/colormap.pdf

will show the zones (look at shaded grey areas and white areas-zone numbers in grey)

This site lists the various card options. Look in the shaded grey box on the upper left.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...velcards.shtml

There's a day card, a weekend/holiday card, a family card and a 7 day card.

You can't take advantage of the 7 day pass (not on the front end, anyway). If it's a weekend, there you go.

It depends on how much walking vs riding you'll do, how many of you there are etc. If, on the back end, you estimate you'll use transportation a lot, it may pay to use the 7 day pass.

If you're only going to a zone 3 destination once and plan on getting one of the passes, I think you're better getting a zone 1-2 card or pass and supplementing it that once. A pass that covers more than 1-2 is really for people who are commuting on a daily basis.

When I was last there, I made myself crazy standing at the sign in the underground trying to figure out which was the best option #-O My husband (an ex-Londoner) lost patience and just bought return tickets (to our destination and back). We would have been better, in the end, with a day pass because we (unexpectedly) wound up taking the underground later that night in a rain storm. But the savings were not big enough to make a huge difference.