London sightseeing

[jaytee1]

Taking my 13yr old daughter to London for 2 full days Mon 6th and Tue 7th april. We have a family railcard and want the best price ticket which will cover the trip from Milton Keynes and also two days of London sightseeing. What is the best ticket to get ?? Any ideas - seperate tickets or is there one to take in the whole trip ? thank you

[gner_ex]

Given Milton Keynes is so near London, are you staying in London, or travelling back each day? I'll answer assuming you are staying in a hotel (but happy to redo this is you're going back each day).

A ticket from Milton Keynes to Euston is £24.80 period return (these are off-peak prices). Your family railcard brings the cost of this to £16.35 (1 adult) and £3.80 (1 child).

A London travelcard is £7.50 (full fare) but £5 (adult with railcard) and £1 (accompanied child).

What you could do to bring the cost down further is get MKC to Hatch End (the first station inside the travelcard area) which is £23.50 return (full adult) or £15.50 (railcard adult) and £2.85 (railcard child), then get the travelcards from the ticket office there (same prices). Note that in both directions you need to be on the slow train that calls at Hatch End (arguably not worth it just to save a couple of pounds) note that this involves going Milton Keynes-Watford Junction and changing there.

There are 'special' zonal fares available from Watford Junction and Watford High Street which may be even cheaper than the above, however I do not know how to issue these on the machine so cannot check (can anyone in the industry reading this tell me how to bring to zone 8 fares up on Avantix please).

If you are doing it all in a day there is one ticket you can buy from MKC that covers all of London - reply if you need the info on this.

[jaytee1]

Brilliant info , thanks, we have got a hotel room so we are staying the night. A rare treat ! I will go right in from MK , it is good to learn that the London travelcard is available on a discount with my family railcard. Thanks again (Last time I was in London - a tube ride was 1.50 !!)

[dacouch]

A tube ride is now £4.00 for an adult single if you pay by cash or £1.60 if you use an Oyster Card (They are trying to price people out of paying by cash.

So the answer is to use a Travel Card or get an Oyster Card (They are great)

https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do

[skintmostofthetime]

Yes def get an oyster - saves money but also all that hassle of getting cash everytime and they're valid on buses.
If you like gold - go to the Bank of England Museum - you get to handle a gold ingot worth - when we went last month - £200,466.00 !!
Sorry - but it was bit of a thrill to handle that much money in 1 hit !!
I would also say that Greenwich is a good trip too.
And a cheap meal in Chinatown - arond £8.00 max each.
Have a great time.

[gner_ex]

Yes def get an oyster
No! The whole purpose of my reply was to show that getting a travelcard from Hatch End would be cheaper for them - this is the case for most children coming from outside of London, as they can get the £1 child ticket.

[hippey]

BUT, niether LM or VT stop at Hatch End, nor does it feature on the Route Plan, so I do not think this would possible, but I will stand corrected as my knowledge of rail fares does get hazy in the Travel Zone plans!

[hippey]

Yes def get an oyster - saves money but also all that hassle of getting cash everytime and they're valid on buses.
If you like gold - go to the Bank of England Museum - you get to handle a gold ingot worth - when we went last month - £200,466.00 !!
Sorry - but it was bit of a thrill to handle that much money in 1 hit !!
I would also say that Greenwich is a good trip too.
And a cheap meal in Chinatown - arond £8.00 max each.
Have a great time.

NO NOT CHINA TOWN RESTRAUNTS! Last time we had a take out from one of them it was still alive!

[gner_ex]

BUT, niether LM or VT stop at Hatch End, nor does it feature on the Route Plan, so I do not think this would possible, but I will stand corrected as my knowledge of rail fares does get hazy in the Travel Zone plans!
Thats why I said change at Watford Jct. For some people, a cheaper fare is worth the inconvenience of a longer journey time - for others it isn't.