That is why it is twitchy to get advice from someone who doesn't use the tube. South Kensington is totally convenient - mostly because it is on the Piccadilly line whcich connects everything from LHR to the V&A to Harrods to Green Park to Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Sq (for 1/2 price tickets) to Covent garden to the British Museum.

Plus it is also on the Circle/District line convenient for Victoria, St James Park, Big Ben/Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London.

One can hardly find a more convenient area for the typical visitor.

But surely the journey times are increased? I believe that my local station, Green Park is on the Piccadilly and some other line too? That's in Mayfair.

South Kensington doesn't even give one the opportunity to walk, it removes flexibility. Besides who wants to spend all this time underground?

Just going through my recent trips (listing only cities with an underground train network): I never touched public transport in Athens, Barcelona, etc. I used taxis (public, but let's not be pedantic here) and walked. A tourist will have plenty of time without having to rush between places. They've listed four or so attractions that could all be done in a day at a pinch, so spread over three days there is plenty of time to amble.

Robespierre:
Of COURSE you must rely on surface maps. My intention with my comment was to state that if you want to get from, for example, the British Museum to Covent Garden, the Tube is probably your best bet. Likewise with the Victoria and Albert Museum to the Tower of London. ETC.
Honestly...

Paddington is on the outskirts of Central London and is FAR FAR away from most of the tourist sites, most of which would require a tube change to get to.

South Kensington / Earls Court provide direct tube lines to virtually everything you would want to see as a tourist.

As for "I don't see why you want to spend so much time underground.", if you plan your visiting you'll use the Tube once at the start of the day & once at the end of the day & inbetween you'll do nothing but walk.

Paddington and South Kensington/earl's court are very similar in distance to the the main tourist attractions. from paddington, you take the bakerloo line 6 stops to Piccadilly and walk everywhere from there. from Earl's court, you take the piccadilly line 6 stops to piccadilly. between paddington and central london, you have the tourist areas of marylebone, and shopping of districts (oxford and bond streets, etc). from south ken to central london you have popular knighsbridge. there is no big difference convenience-wise between south ken/earl's court and paddington. as the poster says himself, with careful planning, you take the tube once in the morning and once again to get back to your hotel in the evening.

When you qualify A and B, your statement makes sense, of course. But I see a lot of people who don't consider the distance when planning a trip, assuming that "the shortest distance between two points is the Bakerloo Line" - and committing such folly as going from Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner by changing tube lines twice rather than riding one of eleven bus lines that ply that route, arriving in a quarter of the time.

Your example of going from the British Museum to Covent Garden illustrates my point better than I ever could. By the time you walk (in the opposite direction from Covent Garden) to the nearest tube stop at Russell Square and ride the elevator ten stories down to the platform, you could have walked to a bus on Southampton Row and ridden it to Aldwych, a stone's throw from the market.

Lordy - now Earl's Court is in the mix. If any area is drearier than Paddington, it is Earl's Court. And both are too far west to be close to much w/o long-ish tube rides.

I would not stay in either area unless one needed a rock bottom budget hotel - and then I'd probably pick one of the cheaper properties in Victoria.

South Kens = walking distance to V&A/Natural Hist/Science museums, Harrods, the Parks, Royal Albert Hall, and on 3 convenient tube lines.

Victoria = walking distance to the River, Tate Britain (and its direct boat link to Tate Modern/London Eye), Buckingham Palace, St James/Green Parks, Westminster and on 3 tube lines plus Victoria Coach station.

Covent Garden = walking distance to MANY theatres, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Sq, Soho, the River/Somerset House and on the Piccadilly line

Russell Square = walking distance to the British Museum, British Library, Oxford Street, Lincoln's Inn and on the Piccadilly line (or Picc. and Central if using Holborn)

Any of these areas would be more convenient and nicer than Paddington or Earl's Court.

Enjoy your trip to London! Don't forget that in 3 days, you will see some of what London has to offer, leaving plenty for another visit. The fun part of travel is navigating the buses-tube-taxis, as alot of the fun of a journey is in the getting there! Personally, I still think that if you want quick and direct travel, the Tube is a great option. Unfortunately, you miss out on the sights of London!
Have fun, anyways!

You're all frightening me! London Pass? TravelCard? Oyster Card? Tube? Bus? I don't know what to do now. My daughter (18) and I have a week in London. We plan on all of the touristy things-Buckingham Palace, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, the Tates etc. Here's my plan, let me know what you think. Take the seven days and divide them by locale. Visit whatever is in the area each day for as long as it takes, whether it's three hours or ten. We'll eat and shop in between. How does that sit? Also, I woud love to either see a show or take a river cruise, or both. Also---take in a few pubs. She is 18 now after all!

deavs: I think doing it by area is an overall good strategy, and it also means you'll be able to walk around each area and see it, rather than tubing halfway across London every day.

So... the deposit is £3.00.

What is the minimum to initially load the card, and what is the minimum to increment it?

Does it ever expire?

Hi there!
You can get the card. You go to the automatic machines and plug in the amount of money you want to charge the card with. You pay the money and swipe your card. It is now charged with said money. You swipe your card when you use the tube or the bus. The fee is automatically deducted from your card. When you run out, you top the card up. The cost of each use is less than the amount that you would pay if you used cash -- i.e. a single fare on the tube is 3 pounds, and if you use Oyster, the same trip will cost 1.5 pounds. Savings also apply to day passes for Tube travel and to bus fares. For more info, google "oyster card London" (can't get the link to work!), go to the uk site (the first one), open it and click on the Oyster guide symbol on the left hand part of the page.
Have fun!

A couple of points about oyster...

1. It is not clear if you simply buy a 7 day travelcard that you are nailed for the £3 deposit...I know last September when tfl announced no more paper 7 day passes, they said for a limited time they would waive the £3 deposit...I bought mine in January and didn't get charged the £3 but I don't know if this offer has been extended or whatever.

2. But oyster is a phenomenal deal and I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to use oyster....A return on the tube is now £6 cash...a return on Oyster is £3 and so much for the deposit. Not only that, oyster has caps in place and you will never pay more if you don't have say a 7 day pass on it than the oyster price for a one day travelcard which is less than the one day travelcard purchased with cash.

Example...a one day travelcard purchased with cash for use non peak (after 0930 on weekdays and all weekend) costs £4.90...certainly not a bad deal when you consider the price for single trips on the tube if you pay cash. But the price is £4.40 on oyster but you don't have to do anything to get it. Why? Let's say you take your first tube ride that day after 0930...go into central London and come back to the hotel on the tube to rest up for the evening...okay £3 for the return trip on the tube. Now you decide to take the tube to go to a West End restaurant and then to the theatre another return trip...well not really...you will be charged £1.40 for the first trip on the tube and now that you've reached the cap for the day, nothing further. No need to decide each day if you want to get a one day travelcard or pay single fares...you get capped at the rate of a one day card.

Or let's say another day you just want to take the bus. The cash fare on the bus is £1.50, the oyster fare is either £1 or 80p depending on the time of the day. But once again it will cap at, I believe, £3.50 the price of a 1 day bus pass...if you then decide to use the tube for one more trip, it becomes a one day travelcard and you hit the cap of either £4.40 or if your first trip was before 0930 on a weekday I believe the cap becomes £5.50 and it's kept track of by the central oyster computer...no need for you to worry about it.

And as noted, top ups are very busy using the vending machines.

I really like the system, especially just touch the yellow card reader and the turnstile opens.

21st century technology at work.

Thanks, xyz for the info. It helps a lot. I have just spent the past hour on the TfL site and the Ask Oyster pages, and I understand some things and am still confused on others (I have a 17yo daughter and our friends have a 15yo son).

Anyway, we are going for a week, and the adults will get the Oyster pass. I think the 7 day travel card on the pass (the only way you can get a 7 day pass now is on the card I think) is what we want, rather than the pay as you go (with built in cap).

I'm still a bit unsure about the 17yo (does anyone know if the 16-17 photo card issues on the spot?) and the 15yo (takes a month for the photo card to issue, so we have missed that). We may just end up buying them adult oyster cards, assuming that we can.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...toApp-form.pdf

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...ocard-form.asp

You're here for a week, to save even fifty pounds (and unless you're going to spend the entire week on a tube train, it's not going to come to that) isn't worth the hassle of organising photo Oyster cards. Just buy adult ones if you must.

Taking taxis everywhere in London: a few hundred pounds.

The sense of self-importance it brings: priceless.

"Taking taxis everywhere in London: a few hundred pounds"

A nice plug for MasterCard.

But really, people shouldn't worry so much about how to navigate London. Not once have I ever gone away and thought about rail networks or local buses. Worry about it when you're stood in front of the concierge's desk.

Also, don't go looking at the tube map if you want to get any idea of the layout of London, whilst it's visually perfect in the aesthetic sense (after Harry Beck's obsession) the distances are not representative of the actual ones.

Just enjoy London and don't worry about how to travel from place to place as it'll just all fall into, er, place.

02/19/2006, 12:11 pm

I've not had the time to research Oyster cards. I took a quick look at the London transportation website (what's the official name for this?) and I understand that there's a cap on spending at the one-day travel card - 50p.

But is the 3 pound deposit non-refundable? I'm only there for two days, so I'd imagine that travelcards will be better.

Thanks!