Oyster or Paper Travel Card
 

I had decided to get Oyster cards for my husband and I but I hadn't heard about the paper travel card and I am now quite confused. We arrive in Gatwick and we were originally staying in Earl's Court but I think we may change to Euston (the Travelodge near the station). While in London for 4 days we are mostly doing the main area attractions such as Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Parliament area, etc. I'm wondering which card is our best bet? Someone in another post mentioned the Oyster Card also has 2 for 1 offers but I can't find any that aren't expired. Can someone tell me which one is our best bet money wise and where to go to get it?

Thank you!

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...ne-london.html

These are the 2 for 1 offers when you get a paper travel card from national rail. You can use them on the tube network.

There are no longer any oyster card offers, AFAIK.

Here's a good website to start:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/briefin...ard_oyster.htm

List of 2-for-1 offers and where you can print out the 2-for-1 vouchers:
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/attrac...or1london.aspx

The best way to pay for transport during a short stay is often an Oyster Card loaded with cash for Pay-As-You-Go fares. For a day when you want to use a twofer, one of you should acquire a one-day paper Travelcard in advance from a National Rail station. On that day, one of you will leave the Oyster in the hotel and use the paper card exclusively.

Is the Oyster card the cheapest and most used on all transportation in London. I want to travel around the city of London and need to know if the Oyster card is the right one to purchase. Also, can it be used as a Travelcard.

rifraf - it is impossible to tell you if Oyster is the cheapest without knowing how many days you'll be there and if you need to use the 2-for-1 vouchers for attractions. Oyster is just the name of the plastic card. You can either do Oyster PAYG (you load an amount on the card and it deducts automatically each time you use public transport), or you can to Oyster Travelcard where you load a 7-day travelcard electronically onto the plastic card.

You can get a usable approximation of your transport cost by multiplying the Daily Oyster Cap by the number of days you'll probably reach it. If you travel on a weekday before 9:30, that day's cap is £6.70; after that, it's £5.10. If you use only buses in a given day, the cap is £3.30 (no zone or peak restrictions).

Since the 7-day Travelcard costs &pound;25.80, the break-even point is around five days <I>for the days when you reach the cap</i>. If you walk a lot or go out on a day trip, you obviously won't hit it that day.

Oyster is cheaper than cash - any prepay option is cheaper than cash per trip.

A travelcard will be the same price whether held on Oyster or on paper.

The difference in cost is

(a) between the travelcards and pay-as-you-go on Oyster, and as Robespierre observes, which works for you depends on what use you're likely to make of the system

(b) possibly between paper travelcards and travelcards on Oyster, depending on what use you might make of 2for1 offers on the paper travelcard.

The permutations and combinations are many and varied, because the users of the system are. You could, for example, combine paper travelcards for one or more individual days when you plan to use the 2for1 offers, with PAYG for the other days - if that's more flexible and cheaper for you. But only you could work ou what your plans are likely to be.

The daysoutguide website says that both of you will need to produce valid national rail tickets for the 2 for 1 deal. Is this true in practice?