Travelcard's in Advance?
 

Will be going to Paris and London in May. Is their any advantage to buying a Paris Visite card and London Travelcard before I go over? Will I be standing in a line to exchange a voucher at the train station?

I haven't bought a Travelcard so don't know on that, but there is no advantage to buying a Paris Visite ahead. I think you do get vouchers you have to exchange which completely defeats any purpose (some people talk about how they buy ahead to save time, but it would take more of your time to do that than buy them at a metro station in Paris, anyway), but there wouldn't be any advantage even if whoever sold it to you gave you the card IMO -- you will pay a lot more buying outside Paris because the agent you buy them from will add on a profit, also.

No need to buy the London Travelcard ahead; there are several underground/bus passes available in London at any underground station. A good description can be found on this site:<BR>http://www.londontransport.co.uk/<BR>

This has been kicked around many times on this board. Most people agree there is no advantage in ordering ahead - and for the London travelcard there is actually a major disadvantage. The travelcard you can buy ahead of time is for all 6 zones and 99% of tourists only need zone 1. So you are paying 3+ times more than you need to.<BR><BR>So for both wait until you are there. BTW - if you are taking Eurostar you can buy the Museum passees in the Eurostar waiting lounge at Waterloo on your way to Paris so you can use the last of your GBPs to buy the Paris pass.<BR><BR>(It appears the only posters who maintain it is better to buy them ahead of time are ones who were burned by the purchase and are trying to save face.)

Janis, being alittle pompous are we? I have purchased Tourist travelcards for London & it only covered Zone 1. I purchased it(actually 4 of them) ahead & the only thing it cost me was a small shipping charge. I will agree it may be more cost efficient & easier to purchase them on-site, but for me, by purchasing ahead of time I was able to take care of that cost a couple months ahead of time, instead of after, when all the hotel & other purchase bills come in.

OUCH! It looks like Janice has a point, What?, thou doth protest too much.

Thanks for the replies. I think I will wait until I get there. That's just one or two less things I have to keep up with on the trip over.

hi mark,<BR><BR>I agree that it is best to buy the paris viste and carte musee for paris when you get to france (or even at waterloo station). for paris it is cheaper to do so and just as convienent. <BR><BR>however, I disagree on the london pass and would like to recommend that you might want to consider purchasing it online before you go. at least know what you have to do to get either. I know many here disagree, but i found it to be not as convienent to wait.<BR><BR>If you purchase the london visitor travelcard(weekly) thru raileurope you get the card itself and YOU DO have a choice of all zones or just 1-2. 1-2 covers most of the tourist areas and i just found out that it covers tube and buses. also if you purchase thru raileurope you get a coupon book that offers discounts on many of the non free attractions. (25 pds worth). waiting to purchase the travelcard in london; you will need to bring a passport size photo with you and get it at the station your 1st day. (they do sell them at heathrow).<BR><BR>cost difference: in london about 19 pds or around $27. online visitor travelcard around $45(includes shipping) with coupon book.<BR><BR>one thing, the visitor travelcard cannot be purchased once you get there.<BR><BR>as for a london museum pass, unless you are traveling around great britian the great british heritage pass would not be worth it. most of the sites in london are either free or private. we did purchase it and only used it for the tower of london, hampton court, stonehenge and bath and barely broke even on this one.<BR><BR>hope this helps

We debate this issue to death. You will save about $4 a pass by waiting till you get to London plus an aggregate $15 you are charged for shipping the pass.<BR><BR>If you wait till London, and I really do recommend that, all you need to remember is to bring passport size photos. They can be cut out from recent snap shots, they are not very fussy.<BR><BR>The Visitor's pass gives some discounts but you will be hard pressed to use enough to save all that much money.<BR><BR>There is no big deal one way or the other; we are not talkig lots of money.<BR><BR>Just as a reminder, unless your hotel is out in the boondocks, all you need is the zone 1 & 2 passes either way. (Actually, you can probably do okay with just the zone 1 but get the zone 1 & 2 anyway). If you are tubing in from Heathrow, and that is a great inexpensive way into town, you still buy the pass at Heathrow and ask for an extension ticket for that trip in. The extension ticket costs &pound;2.10 and since you are getting the pass anyway, well to pay something like $3 for transportation to any place in central London, well that's certainly worth it.<BR><BR>One other small consideration. You do have to do some homework to find out where your hotel is. The vast majority of hotels tourists stay at are in either zone 1 or in zone 2. If however your hotel is a little further out, say in zone 3, then you definitely wait till London as the Visitor's Travelcards come in only 2 varieties; zones 1 & 2 or zones 1 - 6. The first is too small and the last is too large!