taxi vs tube in London for family of 4
 

Rick Steves wrote that a family of four should taxi everywhere in London since it will be cheaper than the tube and other transportation for 4 people. Do you agree? Thanks in advance!!

RS can be an idiot sometimes -- and yes he is right sometimes. But not this time.

If all 4 are adults and all 4 pay for full-fare cash single tube tickets -- then yes cabs can be cheaper for some journeys.

But nobody other than RS would travel that way. Oyster cards cap your daily travel costs so it doesn't make any difference how often you move about and eventually by your 3rd or 4th tube ride they are essentially free.

And if any are children - they travel free or cheap depending on the ages.

Sure - you will want to take a cab ride or two for the experience. But to save money - nope.

(RS is good/great for a lot of places/countries- but for the UK a lot of his advice is crap)

For short distances often true - but traffic can make a cab awfully slow. for longer trips and if 2 of the 4 are kids - often not true at all.

NEVER pay cash for tube and bus fares in London: the fares have been set deliberately high to encourage you to prepay using Oyster. The maximum you could pay for a whole day's travelling around for two adults is about the cost of one or two taxi rides. If you stick to buses it would be even cheaper.

You can play around with prices to your heart's content at

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/...axis/1140.aspx

I would add it depends on your budget and the weather.

Just got home from a day in London and the Tube was crowded and swelteringly hot. Bus would be marginally better on days like today and if I could afford it a cab would be better still.

However the tube is quick and cheep and London is so brilliant that I think its worth suffering other peoples sweaty armpits for!!

Thank you all for your replies. We are all adults except one of our sons is a student and will be studying in London for the semester. Now I just need to find out if we should do the Oyster or the rail with the 2 for 1 deals. Thoughts??

Depends on whether there are enough 2for1 places you want to go to and how much trouble it would be for you to get to a rail station to buy the paper tube tickets to decide if it is worth it. If you'd only save for like one site and it would take some time and effort to get the paper ticket, then maybe not. If you have several places to save at, then maybe so.
So look at at the list of voucher offers and see which ones you like, then use a map to figure out where a rail station is to buy the paper cards and if that would be feasible given your schedule and housing.

Remember that bunches of stuff in London is free--all the walk-by stuff and most of the major museums. And some major stuff likeWestminster Abbeyand and St. Paul's don't take vouchers. And last time I looked most of stuff on voucher list wasn't anything I'd really go to. We did use the vouchers to go to the Tower of London and then since we had vouchers and were there, we went to the Tower Bridge Exhibition which is expensive for what it is at full cost but really cool for views of the Thames at half off! In our 9 days in London that was the only time we used the vouchers.

YES, do the two-for-one deals. Seriously, if you're in central London you will never be far away from a national rail station. And if you're flying into Gatwick, you can book both your train ride to central London and your ride back to the airport, then use those tickets for the vouchers even if you ultimately get an Oyster.

And getting a paper travelcard at a national rail station is a matter of minutes. For the 17+ GBP savings you'd get for four adult-aged visitors to the Tower, it's worth it.

Evidently Txbkworm wouldn't go to or partake of the Tower, the Churchill/Cabinet War Rooms, Hampton Ct. Palace, Fat Tyre (that's British for "tire") Bike Tours, London Walks, Kensington Palace, HMS Belfast, or any of the special (paid) exhibits at any of the free museums that are covered by the 2-4-1 deals (there's one at the Imperial War Museum and the National Gallery has frequent special exhibitions). Go to daysoutguide.co.uk for details.

<<< We are all adults except one of our sons is a student and will be studying in London for the semester. >>>

I would suspect that your son is an adult - ie at least 18 yr old - as I can't see many high school children being able to spend a term at a UK school

I think there are just a few more people than Rick Steves who might be taking a taxi.

Some time ago there was a rather long and drawn out "discussion" started by the "beloved Fodorite" Robespierre who decalred that people who chose to travel "in that dark hole" were "stupid" for not taking busses because the latter made it easier to see "where you are going."

The problem I have had in some parts of London and at certain times in BOTH taxis and busses is/are the traffic jams. On the most recent trip after sitting for more than a few minutes WITHIN SIGHT of my destination the taxi driver suggested I get out and walk the rest of the way...and I passed more than a couple of busses and taxis as I finally did so.

To each their own.

BigRuss--not getting huffy here--but if you read you will see that we did use 2for1 for the Tower of London--and would recommend that highly. As for the rest of the ones you mentioned, you are right, we chose not to attend or see those things (had already been to Hampton Court or that would have been appealing) but that was US--that's why I tried to clearly say Look at the list of vouchers and decide for yourself.

"And getting a paper travelcard at a national rail station is a matter of minutes. For the 17+ GBP savings you'd get for four adult-aged visitors to the Tower, it's worth it." I agree. That's what we did, as I said. Although it was for us more than a few minutes--it really depends on where the OP is going to be, arriving and staying, whether a rail station is at all convenient. Which is why I suggested that the OP also consult a map to decide.

I do think the 2for1 deals are worth looking into. How many are appealing is totally up to the OP.

So jayneanne--keep researching. And remember you can do some sort of combo of an Oyster card and a/some paper cards. That's what we did; we had a paper card for the one day we used vouchers and Oyster card for the rest. Or if there end up being lots of deals you want, then you can look into the 7 day paper card from a rail station.

It all sounds very complicated--and it is sorta but what really complicates things is that each person's ideas and priorities and "must-sees" are so different! Consult the other family members, too!

If you're going to get a 7-day travel card, anyway, get the paper one from the national rail station instead of getting both an Oyster loaded with a 7-day travel card and buying a single day travel card on the day you will use the two-fers -- that cuts into your savings.

Yes, if you're going to need 7 days of tube access and you want to use several 2for1 vouchers, then no, you don't need an Oyster card also. But if you aren't going to be there that long, you can get an Oyster PAYG card, adding to it if you need to, for travel on days you don't need a paper card for 2for1 sites and get paper 1-day passes for the days you want to use 2for1. That's what we did. There's some break-even computation for whether buying a 7-day-card is really just as effective as loading an Oyster with some amount of money. There are lots of threads here on the Forum that go into this in more and better detail. You didn't say how long you will be in London so we're sorta tossing out lots of ideas, many of which may not be applicable.

<<< There's some break-even computation for whether buying a 7-day-card is really just as effective as loading an Oyster with some amount of money. >>>

Assuming Zone 1-2 usage then Oystercard PAYG will cap at either £5.60 or £7.20 per day depending on if any of your travel is in peak time or not.

7 Day Travelcard for zone 1-2 costs £25.80, so for 5 days or more a Travelcard is always cheaper and if you have peak hour travel it's cheaper after 4 days.

And as has been pointed out a Travelcard bought at a train station can save you lots more money so the breakeven point might be as low as ZERO days - ie you effectively get all your transport FREE.

<<< RS can be an idiot sometimes -- and yes he is right sometimes. But not this time. >>>

And I heard reports that his restaurant and hotel recommendations can be a bit "eccentric".

So exactly what does he offer that's useful?

His gaffes have been chuckled over on this forum.

The ones I remember are that Sir Francis Drake circumcised the globe.
He said that Nelson had one leg and that the inhabitants of the Cotswolds spend their leisure time badger baiting.

no...I thought the badger baiting had to be a joke...had to google it. he really does say that!

"Rich people open their gardens to support their favorite charities, while the less couth enjoy "badger baiting" (a gambling cousin of cockfighting where a badger, with its teeth and claws taken out, is mangled by dogs)."

The people of the Cotswolds aren't averse to pulling American legs, either, it would seem. Did anyone try to sell him Blenheim Palace?

CW would say that it is the South's answer to kestrel strangling

Re Fashionista's comment above, we were in London in 90 degree days in June and it absolutely was worse in the busses than in the tube.

We went with the 7-day travel cards for the 4 adults in our party (along with 2 kids), and used the 2:1 at the Tower, London Eye, Hampton Court and the Golden Hinde, it's not hard to get your money's worth from that.

I haven't bothered to work out the math (or maths) on whether we were better off with the 7-day cards vs. some combo of Oyster cards and one-day train tickets, but it was worthwhile to us just to be able to hop on and off the trains and busses.

Oh, and we did use a taxi (for four of us at least) when we were hauling luggage, but not otherwise.

Thanks again for all of your replies!!! I do think it would be cheaper for us to get the 7-day travel cards since we want to go to the Tower, London Eye, a show........

We are staying on Garrick St, near Covent Square, so I'm assuming I can find tickets close by. I need to study a map as I couldn't figure out the exact location on their website.

We are renting a flat that provides a driver to meet us, so we won't need transportation from LHR.

AlanRow, yes, my "student" son is 20, an adult, but I thought I read somewhere that student fares are discounted. Maybe not for the trains though.

Thanks again everyone, you are all so helpful! Can't wait to experience London!!!

I don't recall student fares being discounted on the Tube.

There are trains (national rail network, operated by various companies) and there is the Tube. The London Underground is the Tube.

There is no Covent Square, it's Covent Garden. The British do speak a form of English (far more understandable than Australian or South African), but it's best to know some of the lingo beforehand too. This can help: http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

Here's the deal with "7-day travelcards." They come in two varieties: (1) if you buy a "7-day travelcard" <b>at a Tube station</b>, you will get a blue Oyster card with a travelcard loaded onto it -- this is <b>USELESS</b> for the 2-for-1 offers; (2) if you buy the 7-day travelcard <b>at a national rail station</b>, you get the orange paper card -- this is used with the 2-for-1 offers. Make sure you have this straight.

It's never better to get a 7-day travelcard loaded onto an Oyster AND buy single-day travelcards during the period covered by the Oyster card -- that's paying twice.

I was in London for 5 days in June when it was stinkin' hot and found it better to take a bus rather than roast on the tube - at least on a bus I could get off sooner if the heat became too much. I was told the tube temps can reach 115F in the summer.

I asked the ticket seller what was best for me for getting around and she sold me the 7 day travel Zone 1 and 2 Oyster card even though I was only going to be there 5 days - when I returned it to get 3 pounds back, the woman behind me in the line who'd just arrived on the train and who was in London for the weekend, paid me 5 pounds for it so the card cost me twenty pounds plus top ups; that woman had it for Friday night, Sat and Sunday.

I just accepted what the woman selling the tickets said as I wanted to get to my hotel. I started to read the Oyster card pamphlet but gave up. I used it a lot and topped it up to go to Kew and Woolwich.

I find Oyster confusing ... when I said I wanted to go to Kew they wouldn't tell me well you'll need x number of pounds in addition to what's on the card.

Jayneann, Garrick St is between Leicester Square and Covent Garden tube stations, but you can also get Oystercards at a couple of local convenience stores, the nearest being on St Martin's Lane: you can play around with this map:

http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/LocationLocator/

The nearest national rail station for paper travelcards would be Charing Cross, but expect some queues there, as it's a busy terminus.

All great information!!! PatrickLondon, I really appreciate you letting me know where the closest rail station is, I couldn't figure it out! Thanks so much everyone! Fodors is the best!!