Jeff |
Feb 22nd, 2002 11:57 PM |
The visitor travel card sold in the States is not a bargain. It covers all six travel zones and 95% of the major sites are inside zone 1. So you end up paying for a lot of travel you would never take. wait until you get to London and but Zone 1 cards.<BR><BR>Not really true...there is a visitor's travelcard available that covers zones 1 & 2 for 7 days (there are also cards for 3 and 4 days) but they are not particularly good buys.<BR><BR>1. They are a little bit more expensive than comparable products available in London but the difference in price is not the significant drawback of the visitor's travelcard.<BR><BR>2. You don't actually get the card in the US. You get a voucher that has to be exchanged in London only at certain stations for the card. In fairness, among the stations you can get the travelcard at are Heathrow and Victoria if you pick up the card immediately upon arrival. But if you use any means into central London other than the tube, you might not be near a staton that will exchange the voucher. <BR><BR>OTOH you can purchase the 7 day travelcards either for zone 1 or for zone 1 & 2 at any Underground station. Even if you are using the tube into central London from Heathrow, you buy either the zone 1 or the zone 1 & 2 card at Heathrow and ask for an extension ticket to cover the outer zones for that trip. The extension runs about £2.30 if you use the zone 1 card and £2.10 if you use the zone 2....<BR><BR>The only "drawback" cited by some ignorant people is that you need a passport sized photo but they are not very particular. Go through your picture collection, find a picture you don't want to keep in the collection and cut it down to passport photo size. Or when you get your passport photos, get a couple of extra...<BR><BR>I have even read some people talk of the hassle of dealing with things such as this upon arriving after a long flight in a strange foreign country. I just returned from England and I discovered something....folks, the language spoken by the clerks on the Underground is.......English. If you walk up to the clerk at the station and bravely say, "I should like to purchase a 7 day zone 1 travelcard with an extension", he or she will understand every word you are saying. He or she will ask you for your photo, put it on a photocard, punch a few buttons on his or her consolve and voila you have your tickets. He will say, "£18.50 please" and you will hand over your credit card (yes the Underground takes MC or Visa (not AMex)) slide it through a machine that looks just like the machines at home, out will come a slip, you sign it and you're on your way. Sure doesn't sound complicated to me.<BR><BR>Incidentally, you also pay an additinal $10 for the voucher to be delivered by Fedex if you think you're getting convenience with the Visitor's travelcard as some think....and there is the hassle of waiting home for it to be delivered.<BR><BR>So, you can decide which is more convenient.<BR>
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