alanRow

BUT OP - you said "we". If you are being a tourist then a Travelcard bought at a National Rail ticket office can save you far more than the cost of the Travelcard through the offers on daysoutguide.com.

If you are staying less than 5 days then you can get Oystercards but on days you want to use the offers buy a one day Travelcard and not use the Oystercard that day. If you are staying more than 4 days then you should be buying 7 day Travelcards anyhow as they cost less than for 5 days of Oystercard caps.

eastenderusvi

Re: The two for one offers...I didn't see much of interest to me besides the Tower of London, which is why I was thinking it wouldn't be worth searching out a train station... You can get cash back???

texasbookworm

If you purchase an OYSTER card (which is a plastic credit card size card), it requires a deposit. Then you "load" either the amount that a 1 or 7 day travel card would cost OR you "load" some amount of cash/credit. If you turn the card back it, then you will get back the deposit and any leftover amount of CASH. If you load it with day/7day travel card credit, then that amount is not refundable. These are purchased at TUBE stations. (and are returned to manned TUBE station window.)

The other travel option is to purchase a PAPER travel card, either 1 day or 7 day, purchased at a RAIL/train station. There are several stations (e.g., Victoria and Waterloo) which service both TUBE/UNDERGROUND trains and RAIL trains. If you want to purchase a paper travel card, you would go to such a station and to the RAIL part.

There is another thread about needing a photo now to purchase such a card http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...travelcard.cfm I haven't read that thread carefully so don't know info it holds.

Anyway if you don't want to mess with the paper card, then just purchase the Oyster card at LHR--ask the agent about how much PAYG cash to put on it. If you run short, you can "top it up" easily. There are "rules" about how much cash you will get back so don't leave very much on it--we had an agent bend the rules a little and we got back more than they usually refund.

Have you used any mapping program to get a feel for how far things are apart? Try plugging in a few places in googlemaps if you can and click the walking icon and you'll see. The Tube is NOT hard to figure out if you pay attention. I'm not claustrophobic and never use public transport in my town so I'm not used to bus schedules, so the Tube for us has been a better option than buses. And no way to walk to all the places we've seen--London is simply put huge.

eastenderusvi

texas: Yes, I have looked at the distances, the prices, etc. We will be in London 3 1/2 days, plus some period when we return from our Grand Tour of the UK. The more I read here and the more I think about it, I think I can deal with the claustrophobic part. I still think the bus, with the ability to see the surroundings, is more my style.

Thanks to everyone!!

PalenQ

I more and more eschew the tube for taking buses around London - especially for shorter journeys - just love sitting up top in the front row overlooking the driver - feel the tree branches swish over the roof and yes see London - Tube often require lots of walking up and down and over to get to a potentially crowded Tube train - and you see only tunnels in central London - I love the Tube experience but now love the buses a lot more.