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What’s the best London travelcard option for visitors?

Don’t throw away money by buying the wrong travel option on your visit to London. I’ll show you what to buy, tell you how to buy it and tell you how much it costs – a completely independent guide to save you money!

It can be really confusing coming to any new city as a tourist. Not only do you have to work out how to get around, but also how much it costs. So how do you save money on London transport? And if If I’m a tourist coming to London, what travel option should I buy?

My MoneySavingLondon rough rule of thumb is this:

“I will be in London sight-seeing for more than four days in a seven day period:”

You want to get a seven day ticket. Preferably a PAPER zones 1-2 travelcard. If you can’t get a paper travelcard – and I’ll explain in a second why paper’s important – then a seven day Oyster travelcard is nearly as good.

“I will be in London sight-seeing for four days or less (in a seven day period):”

Your best best is: A Pay as You Go Visitor’s Oystercard.

Whatever you do: Don't just pay cash before every journey. It will cost you a fortune!

A PAPER ZONES 1-2 TRAVELCARD

What is it?

It’s a paper ticket. It basically allows you to use any form of public transport in London for a set weekly price. In fact A 7 day zones 1-2 travelcard gives you the right to travel on:

All normal London buses

Any tube train in zones 1-2 – all the tube you’ll ever need.
The Docklands light railway and London overground trains (i.e. normal trains, that run above ground) within zones 1 and 2 – you probably won’t need to bother about these as they don’t go anywhere especially exciting.

It’s basically a complete transport solution, with the possible exception of getting from the airport.

What does zones 1-2 mean?

The zones 1-2 bit is important. London is divided – for travel purposes – into six zones. Zone 1 is in the middle, zone 6 the furthest away from the middle. The more zones a traveler passes through, the more it costs. Seems fair, yes?

But 99% of London’s sights and attractions are in zones 1 and 2, so there’s no point paying through the nose for the right to travel to places you don’t want or need to go to. The only time you’ll need to travel outside of these zones in London is getting to and from the airport – I’ve got plenty of advice about that too.

Why is the ‘paper’ bit important?

Well this is the tricky bit. A seven day oystercard and seven day paper travelcard are, for travel purposes, exactly the same. You can travel on the same tubes, buses and trains. BUT the paper travelcard has one MASSIVE advantage, which means it may be worth buying even if you’re here for significantly less than seven days: It makes you eligible for free ‘2 for 1’ tickets into a massive range of London’s attractions – potentially saving you BIG money.

How much does it cost?

As of Spring 2010 it costs £25.80 for seven days. It's the same price an a seven day Oystercard.

How do I use this paper travelcard?

It’s incredibly easy to use – on the tube you just put it in a slot at the ticket gate (subway turnstile) and it will pop out again and allow you to walk through the (now open) barrier. If you want to use a bus just show it to the driver.

Where do I get a seven day paper travelcard?

This is the annoying thing. Irritatingly you can’t buy them at London underground stations - crucially this means you can't buy one at Heathrow airport. You can buy one at the train stations linked to Gatwick, Stansted and Luton airports.

At London Underground stations they'll happily sell you a seven day ‘oyster’ travelcard – a plastic version, which is just as good as the paper version except in one key way: you can’t use it for the 2 for 1 offers.

So to get one, there are two ways:

Online in advance: You may be able to buy paper travelcards in advance from some websites within the US – but I wouldn’t advise it. Firstly you pay a premium for this, and you'll likely end up with one covering zones you’re never going to need. And secondly there’s some evidence that they’re just providing Oystercards and not paper tickets. If they also offer you the LondonPass, an entry scheme for tourists, think hard about whether you’ll get your money’s worth.
Once you arrive: Or you can buy them in any mainline UK station. As discussed, you can't buy a paper version at Heathrow Airport - though you can buy Oystercards. I honestly don’t know why they have to make it so complicated – I hope the absurdity of all of this can be sorted out soon. There are train stations at Gatwick, Luton and Stansted airports too where you can buy this 7 day London paper zones 1-2 travelcard. If all this is too much to think about when you've just landed in a strange country, you can pick one up later easily within Central London from any of the mainline stations: King’s Cross, Paddington, Victoria, London Bridge, Euston, St Pancras, Waterloo, Marylebone, Liverpool Street, Charing Cross.

Seven day Oystercard is nearly as good

If all of this sounds like too much hassle – it’s your vacation, after all – then a seven day Oystercard will probably still save you heaps of money when you get here if you’re in London for more than four days. You can buy one at the tube station in Heathrow or, indeed, in any tube station during your trip. You don’t need a photocard and as of Summer 2010 the price for a 7 day zones 1-2 Travelcard on Oyster was £25.80.

The only difference between a seven day Oystercard and the paper travelcard is that the paper one is valid for the 2 for 1 entry. So if you’re not interested in this then a 7-day oystercard could be the one to go for.

Option 2: Pay As You Go visitor’s OysterCard

What is it?

oysterflat

It’s called an Oystercard. It’s a plastic card that looks a bit like a credit card.

What does it do?

It’s basically a ticket, or a series of tickets. You see, it stores credit for travel in its little computer chip brain. You touch it against a sensor when you use it, and this does two things:

It physically lets you into or out of the tube network by opening a gate for you.

2. It also takes off the amount of money your journey costs from the computer chip that is the card's 'brain.'

Why is it good?

It saves you money: firstly, you only pay for what journeys you use; secondly the fares themselves are much cheaper than cash. It’s also more convenient as you don’t need to stand in line every time you go on the tube.

Where do I buy it?

You can buy one at any tube station. At some, including Heathrow they have vending machines. Or you could buy it before you go from the official UK tourist site. You’re charged extra for delivery but it will mean you won’t have to queue when you get to the UK.

How do I use it?

Well first off you need to buy the plastic card: it’s £3. You don’t need a photocard or anything. Then at the same time you add credit to the card (for example, £10). Then there’s some stuff you need to know about how it works:

1. It’s a very brainy card. The plastic card contains a special computer chip which remembers how much credit you’ve loaded onto it. You load credit onto the card the first time you buy it, and then you can add more on there once it’s run out. You can do this at any tube station in one of the machines or by asking the ticket seller. And then…

2. You use the credit to travel. As you enter the tube you touch the card on a sensor. This will open the gates for you. As you do so…

3. The system deducts the cost of your travel from the card. You make your journey (learn how to use the tube here). When you finish your journey, you touch your card on the sensor. It will open the gates to let you out – and simultaneously automatically deduct the cost of the journey from the brain on the card..

4. The card automatically charges you the cheapest fare. Now we’re getting to the really clever stuff. The system is smart, because it remembers what journeys you’ve done that day. This means you will only ever pay up to the maximum that a one day London-underground ticket (a travelpass) would have cost you. This saves you an absolute fortune, because….

5. You’ll never pay more than £7.20 (or £5.60) in a single day. The maximum fare is currently (as of Spring 2010) £5.60 if your first journey starts after 0930. Travel which starts before that raises the daily maximum to £7.20, so there’s an incentive to linger over breakfast! Traveling on the tube is much less crammed after 0930 anyway so I’d always wait till 0931 to start my first journey if I could! So just to be totally clear: if you use the card fifty times in one day you still pay £5.60 (or £7.20 if you must travel before 0930). But if you only do one journey, you only pay for that. If you don’t travel at all, you pay nothing and the credit stays on your card for ever. Look at this example week of travel with Oyster Pay As you Go to understand this further:

Monday: 1 bus journey (cost: £1.20)

Tuesday: 1 TUBE (£1.80)

Wednesday: 2 TUBE (2 x £1.80, which makes £3.60)

Thursday: 10 BUS = £5.60 (because daily maximum been hit)

Friday: 10 TUBE = £5.60

Saturday: 4 BUS, 16 TUBE, A TRAM AND A VALID OVERLAND TRAIN = still only £5.60

Other top Oyster Tips

Each member of your party needs an oystercard – unless they’re under 11. Cheaper options are available for 12-17 year olds (though these do take some effort to buy - see below) You can get a refund for any credit left on the card that you don’t need anymore. You have to do this at a manned ticket counter.

How do I know how much credit to buy? Allow about £5 per day. You can always top up later and it saves the hassle of asking for a refund before you go home. There’s enough to be thinking about without that! In fact you don’t really need to plan in advance how much credit you’ll need to load as topping up is so easy. If you’ve got a small amount of credit on your card (say, 60p) which is enough to let you into the system but which won’t cover the cost of a one-way tube journey (roughly £1.80) then you’ll have to top up at the destination - ask the guard there for help.

How do I know how much I’ve spent, and how much I’ve got left? Ticket gates tell you how much you’ve got left on the card: as you’re going through them there’s a little digital display which has the figures on them. Or you can also always find out at a manned ticket office or an oyster machine.

What about children?

Ah, if only everything in life was easy. Transport for London, who run London’s transport system, think it’s fun to heap layers of unnecessary bureaucracy, complexity and trouble on top of each another to create a system that’s as confusing as finding a goose dressed as Santa in your bathroom. The problem? If you’re traveling with kids the situation’s fiendishly tricky to work out.

Don’t worry. After many days of furrowed brows and irksome phone calls I have distilled the information into what you need:

Young children

Under 11s travel free with an adult. Horay! This is the easy bit. You just go to the guard by the ticket gate, show him your ticket and they’ll let you all through. You’re allowed a maximum of four children per adult. They don't need any special cards or anything.

Teenagers - 11-15 year olds (inclusive):

Sadly, at the start of 2010, London Underground withdrew the option of buying a teenager ticket for £1. The easiest option by far is to buy them their own pay as you go or weekly Oystercard, just like an adult.

If you're staying in London for a while (or REALLY object to having to pay more because of pointless red-tape) then you get use an Oyster Pay as You Go & get a photocard before you leave. The good news is that it works out at a maximum of £1 per day. The bad: that you also need to buy a plastic oystercard (£3) for each 11-15 year old (called a ‘Zip’ Oystercard) and – and here’s the real killer – order a special photocard weeks before you leave home and pay £5 for it! You can do that at Transport for London’s site.

My children are 16 or 17:

In theory there is a discount for people of this age, but the need to prove their age means it's usually easier to simply buy them an adult card. The two options therefore are:

The easiest option:

You can either buy them a full price adult seven day travelcard or seven day oystercard when they get to London. Or a Pay as You Go if that's how you're traveling.

The cheapest option:

Send off for a photocard before you leave home from Transport for London. The photocard costs £5. But it will mean that they get either their travelcard half price - £12.90 for a week instead of £25.80 – or their fares on Oyster Pay as You Go all cost half the amount. They can travel without ‘adults’ which may be a good thing for everyone for an afternoon too!

Happy travelling!