Trip to London, advise needed please

boglin

You can get BOGOF into some attractions, restaurants and shows with the Oyster card. If you use the regular train you can get loads more BOGOF offers for many, many London attractions - you don't have to travel far to take advantage of this and of course there are deals to be had for the kids using rail travel (I think that you can take them for £1 under certain conditions).

We bought our Oyster cards at the Tube ticket office after discovering that ONE single ticket would otherwise cost us £4!!! :eek: It costs £3 per Oyster card then you can put on it what you like - we just put £5 on each - a single journey costs £1.50 and once you have scanned the card it will clock up your journeys but the total will never exceed the cost of a one day travelcard (do please correct me someone, if I am wrong!) You can top up your Oyster card credit using machines in the Tube stations.

What is useful in the Tube stations are the little area maps that are available at each station - really helpful when you leave that station and start walking to your next destination. You can pick these up from the leaflet holders that also contain stuff like the Tube guides. You can see the same info on the TFL website but of course this saves you printing them out.

You can find some good eating deals also on Last Minute and Top Table websites - however, be warned that we used both to make bookings and each time the venue had no record of our booking - and one restaurant that did get our booking phoned to cancel through overbooking. However, you can grab the special offer and then phone the restaurant to check and take along your print out to ensure that you get the deal at that price. We got a great deal on a special afternoon tea (with champagne!) in a hotel not that far from the Ritz and at about a quarter of the price! If you are interested, I'll post more details.

abbecer

If you look on lastminute.com and type in London Eye it brings up some good deals, including packages with lunch, Thames River cruise etc. There is also a place called The Magic Cavern and tickets are only £8. Not sure if any of these things are specific to your dates but well worth a look. Let us know how you get on.

Rebecca x

stefejb

https://www.tfl.gov.uk to buy oyster cards online and to check out 2 for one deals

before you go check out http://www.londonfreelist.com/home.asp for events, special exhibitions etc which are either free or cost under £3

have a lovely time

Crazychik

Ahhhh, thanks for the last bit of info there, especially the links
Will look now

Crazychik

Well - Im just putting together a folder of my listed attractions, locations, and the order of travel. (to save time on travelling & money) with the help from all of you.

Ive visited lastminute.com to look at The Magic Cavern, that looks amazing, they have certain times throughout the day to visit. I might consider this if we have enough time. I dont really want to commit to anything on a time schedule, as it never happens with my family. We like to go with the flow as such speaking!

The London Eye & Thames cruise looks a good deal. Might look more into that. But will see how the budget goes.

TFL website has been great, Ive printed of maps, etc. To give me an idea of locations/routes etc.

Londonfreelist.com - Ive been able to get prices, addresses & further info about the places. Just so I can explain to the kids the Science & history museum is not as boring as it sounds - lol

Boglin - thankyou for the info ref food/eating out. Dont think we will do this much, plan to take pack lunches with us and because we are staying with relatives, we can come back home to an evening meal. But thankyou for that info! Much apreciated.

You have all been wonderful and very helpful, offering advice, etc
I cant thankyou enough

Here's hoping for an eventfull adventure
Regards

Dumyat

kids are maybe a wee bit young....but maybe for later trips. contact your MP's office via the house of commons website and blag a free tour of the houses of parliament.

we did that
except we ended up seeing round number 11 too as our mp is gordon brown

Mike_J

Get a couple of bags of moneky nuts to feed squirrels in Hyde park and St JAmes park (or is it grenn park next to the Mall). Many CENTRAL London landmarks are within walking distance of each other but not necessarily by the most prominent routes

Lemmy_Caution

boglin wrote:

What is useful in the Tube stations are the little area maps that are available at each station - really helpful when you leave that station and start walking to your next destination. You can pick these up from the leaflet holders that also contain stuff like the Tube guides. You can see the same info on the TFL website but of course this saves you printing them out.

Excellent advice: at all of the stations there is also a large map at, or near one of the exits.
The Oyster card will be always work out cheaper than a travelcard on a daily basis - 50p cheaper. You can keep the Oyster and allow other friends and family to use it on future visits to London; in other words, it is transferable.
Mike J, All the parks have squirrels, (rather fat ones) but the park you are referring to is St Jame's Park, and if you have to visit Buck House, a walk through the park with its wonderful assortment of wildfowl (don't eat any of them!) is a must

TNG

Small point (someone may have made it already)

11 year old is free on bus, not on tube..... may be worth considering when planning journeys, though a kids 1day travel card is only a couple of quid.

Personally, I would avoid Oyster if doing a 1 day thing, cos they don't do one day travelcards on Oyster, you just load up your prepay and get charged each journey. Better buying a 1 day ticket

*prepares to be flamed*

Beate

Yes but you only get charged up to the value of a one day travelcard so you are not worse off and it's so much more convenient!

Btw, the 2 for 1 Oyster deals are here, if you haven't seen the link already:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/oyster/deals/index.asp