jelopez33

Please help:
We( a small group of 9 adults); will be visiting London for 4 days arriving at Heathrow(terminal 5).As our hotel is really close to a tube station (Gloucester Road, on Picadilly line); I assume te tube is best for transport; and for our visits in London (also for going to St.Pancrass as we will continue to Paris).
Can we buy our Oyster Cards at Heathrow at arrival?
I understand we must charge the cards with money; and pay a deposit for the cards.When returning the cards are the deposit and any amount of remaining money returned to us?
Thanks in advance, and forgive me for my poor english...

BigRuss

<<When returning the cards are the deposit and any amount of remaining money returned to us?>>

Yes.

<<I assume te [sic] tube is best for transport and for our visits in London>>

Generally, yes unless you are relatively close to wherever you want to go and a bus makes more sense.

<<. . . (also for going to St.Pancrass as we will continue to Paris)>>

The Tube does connect with each major national railway station in London and St. Pancras is major. That said, if your train to Paris is early, you may want to take cabs.

jelopez33

Thanks Russ!!

alanRow

You may also want to avail yourself of the offers on daysoutguide.com

In your case you buy one day Travelcards from a train station ticket office to get the required eligibility and use them instead of the Oystercard PAYG (Oystercard by itself is useless as it's only an electronic wallet) on that day.

You can buy the Travelcards the day before as you pass a train station BUT do ensure they are dated correctly.

PatrickLondon

To clarify, alanRow means a National Rail station, not a tube station (so not Heathrow).

Please see the discussion at
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...yster-card.cfm

jelopez33

Thanks alan and Patrick! I think that we must stay with Oyster Card; buying it at Heathrow,and start using it inmediately to go to our hotel.I assume this is cheaper than a shared private car or van... do any of you know the cost of a car/ van? of course, Terminal 5 to Gloucester Road station.

nyse

And your English is perfectly fine!

janisj

A car service like justairports.co will run approx £40 for a van (maybe £45 tops), so actually not that much more than the Tube per person. Especially when you consider the walks to/from the stations and schlepping luggage up the steps at Gloucester Rd station.

jelopez33

Thanks NYSE!!!
Janisj:Thanks, sound really convenient; I will contact them.

janisj

oops --that should be justairports.com . . .

starofthesea

An MPV will probable cost double that price. £45 I think is the price of a regular car.

Gloucester rd station is a great spot (it's where I am) but yes it has a lot of steps. So if you have a decent sized bag with you, I would take the easier option of a car/van from the airport. It's easy to get anywhere in London with Tube or bus and Oyster card is so convenient.

janisj

staroftheseas: "<i>An MPV will probable cost double that price. £45 I think is the price of a regular car.</i>"

Nope, unless their rates have gone up a LOT. A regular saloon car from justairports runs approx £35 depending on post code (less for cash payment). An estate will run £35-£40-ish, and a people mover a bit more.

dutyfree

Gloucester Road tube station has elevators for the Picadilly Line from LHR and if you are staying at either the Millenium,NH Harrington or the Holiday Inn Kensington it is an easy 5 minute walk.Central and District lines at Gloucester Road would be using the stairs.

Justairports is a great limo service and as others have mentioned it is dependent on how many,luggage,etc.When we moved my son to London two years ago it cost 3 of us with 8 suitcases to Bloomsbury, 55 pounds.

The Oyster card will really save you a lot on money on the tube and buses around London-be sure and ask for the bus map at the tube station as there are a lot of bus stops right outside the Gloucester tube station.

Its a great area to stay in-Tesco convenient store,Waitrose grocery,Boots drug store and some nice pubs/trestaurants to hit if the weather turns bad and you want to stay near the hotel.

Tips- If you are staying at the Holiday Inn it has a wonderful breakfast that is well worth it along with a Starbucks coffee shop in the lobby.
The NH Harrington doesn't have voice mail on the phones so make sure your party knows that beforehand because it is hard to plan things together without a message-the front staff delivers it manually later?
Millenium is nice but overpriced on alot of food items,etc.
Have a great trip!

kawh

i don't know a lot about this subject, but we did use an oyster card during our visit last april and just loved it. it strikes me that, if there is an elevator at the tube station, it may be a lot faster than a car into central london.

i do want to say that, when we left london, the line was probably 30-people deep when we got to the place where we were going to get our oyster-deposits back. if it's important to you, plan plenty of time for it.
we ended up just keeping our cards-- which was a great thing in the end, because we are unexpectedly going back to london next month! a total and wonderful surprise.

we will also be staying by gloucester road tube (millennium baileys) and were happy to read that there's an elevator there as we come in from lhr.

jelopez33

Hi Fodorites! Thanks to you all!
Dutyfree(you choose a great screen name)....Going to the NH Harrington; your advice about the elevators is greatly appreciated.No doubt we will be using all your info; and any other tip you can send on restaurants nearby.

Once again thanks to all for your info; tonight we all will meet to talk about this subject.

jonus12

Hiring an MPV transporter might actually be a better idea. And you can actually get online quick quotes for your travel. So you will know about their price before using them. And if you're an 8-9 guy's group and MPV is probably a better option.
Never the less... Yes you will get back your deposit when you give back the Oyster card.