London travel and attractions hints and tips pls

mutley74

Travelling with my kid to london and some friends soon. Staying at the Travelodge Cricklewood.

Not familiar with the City and would welcome some hints and tips.


- I have heard about an Oyster card. Does one need to apply for one before arriving to london or can i buy them when i get to kings cross?

- Are there many restuarants or supermarkets near Travelode Cricklewood? maybe where one can but drinks /sandwhiches or cheap evening meals?

- Tourist buses - is there any recommended offers or vouchers one can use?

- London Eye - my friend tells me they charge £25 per person. are there any offers on the day or is it best to prebook?

Voucher deals - do Apps like voucher cloud have good offers for London attractions or is it best to find and print from internet?

thanks

mikemaple

If your travelling to london by train - have a look at this

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

normally loads of offers.

Also London food can be pricey, but the chains and shops - mcdonalds, pub chains etc are all about normal prices.

Museums - are normally free

And my favourite ice cream palour is :-

Bar Chiao‎
17 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H 0EP

mutley74

What is best with regards to using an Oyster pass? Can one get these easily from Kings cross or is it best to preorder?

What is the best value tourist bus to get around the centre for sight seeing?

susancs

You can eaisly get an oyster card from Kings Cross on arrival. You will pay a £5 refundable deposit for the card and will need to top up as required. Children aged 10 and under travel free and would just follow you through the lugguage pushchair manned barrier at tube stations and on the buses. If you child is 11 to 15 years old it would be easiest to get them a daily travelcard, rather than apply for a zip photo oyster card in advance for collection at an LT centre on arrival and pay the £10 administration fee for it. Cricklewood is in zone 3 and has a train route that goes direct to St Pancreas/Kings cross. Zone 1-3 daily child's (11-15 year olds) travelcard is £3.20 or £2 for zones 1-9 if you have a Network Railcard, Family and Friends Railcard or HM Forces Railcard. To get cheaper travel, you are best to travel off peak on the tubes with oyster Mond to Friday 9.30-4.30 and all day weekends.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx
Off peak single tube journey zones 1-3 is £2.60, and peak it is £3.10. Bus journeys are cheaper at £1.35 per journey in all zones with no paek or off paek differences in fares.

Cricklewood is on the outer zones and you can get the no 16 bus from there to Marble Arch (top end of Oxford Street near Hyde Park) but it would take about 40 minutes or it would be 10 minutes on the bus to Kilburn Park station and you can get the tube from there direct to Waterloo for the London Eye (20 minute journey approx) and the nearby attractions such as Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben etc. You could also go from Kilburn to Green Park (from Green Park it is also walking distance to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the Guard on certain dates) and pick up the piccadilly line to Covent Garden if you want to see the street entertainers there. You can also carry do a similar journey Kilburn to Green park change onto Piccaddilly to South Kensington for the free Natural History and Science Museums (25 mins from Kilburn Park).

If you go to googlemaps and put in the TL postcode of NW23DU and click on the A yellow sign (which says Beacon Bingo, which must have been previous owners of the building) and click on street view link to the right and then drag the picture to the left you will see the shops in front and you can click along the road A5 Cricklewood Broadway to see the nearby shops and you can see there are cafes, KFC, Iceland, Costcutter, MacDonalds, Buger King, Sandwich bar, takeaways, different restaurants etc (hopefully a large number will still be there as googlemaps street is a couple of years old now).

I noted on the street view that there was a bus going to Whitecity which has the huge Westfield's shooping Centre there.
http://uk.westfield.com/london

As said before if you are coming in via train you can print off vouchers off the 2for 1 train offers for the London Eye.
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/london-eye

You could do a bus tour very cheaply just using Oyster (which caps at the daily Travelcard) from Piccadilly Circus.
http://www.londonforfree.net/outdoors/bustour/bustour.shtml

redvanman2

I stayed at the travelodge just before xmas, there is a tesco express below the lodge, we eat in a cafe for breakfast across the road from the lodge, there are lots of cafes, fast food places within 1oo yards of the lodge,there is a bus stop about 50 yards away, buses take you to marble arch,hyde park, victoria. There is a train station just around the corner it takes you to st pancreas/ kings cross. We bought travelcards which you can use on all public transport, I think the cards cost us 17 pounds a day, that was for 2 adults and a child.

mutley74

Susancs and redvanman2,
Thanks to you both for your replies.
Do i need to prebook cheap rail tickets to get from KGX to cricklewood or is the fair cheap enough to buy on the day?

I have already prebooked TL breakfasts which included free kids meal. But thanks for the tips. I could not find the tesco express on the store finder on cricklewood broadway, but if its close certainly will help by being able to buy some cheap snacks and drinks each day.

I guess that Cricklewood TL is not walking distance to a tube station?

Thanks again

dzug1

Your Oyster or travelcard will get you from Kings Cross to Cricklewood or vv, and you do not need to buy in advance (in fact it may be more expensive to do so once you have taken booking fees and postage into account)

And Cricklewood TL is in easy walking distance of Cricklewood rail station - you don't need a tube.

susancs

Cricklewood train station is within walking distance but trains are much less frequent than the tube tube which comes every few minutes from Kilburn so will be easier and quicker. It is about 20-25 minutes walk from the TL to Kilburn tube if you check googlemaps for walking directions.

dzug1

Trains from Cricklewood are every 15 minutes. You could be in St Pancras in the time it takes you to walk to Kilburn

Or get the bus - you've got a travelcard why waste it walking?

susancs

dzug1 wrote: »

Trains from Cricklewood are every 15 minutes. You could be in St Pancras in the time it takes you to walk to Kilburn

Or get the bus - you've got a travelcard why waste it walking?

I agree that walking to Kilburn would take more time than waiting for the Cricklewood train, but IMO, OP would have an easier, less complicated journey to a lot of the attractions via the Jubilee line tube from Kilburn than travelling in by train from Cricklewood to St Pancras. The bus would be the easiest and quickest way to get to Kilburn station, especially when OP is not familar with the area.

For example for the Eye at Waterloo, from Cricklewood to St Pancras it is 20 minutes of a journey and then OP would have to walk to Kings Cross Underground station and then do two station/platform changes to get to Waterloo, so the total journey time would be about 45 minutes (more if OP has to wait for the train at Cricklewood), whereas the journey time would be only 20 minutes from Kilburn direct on the tube to Waterloo. For someone not used to London I think the direct route is best.

chergar

We went to London last week and didn't buy an oyster card, we just bought a travel card and for 2ad & 2ch it cost £20.40,it worked for the tube, buses, trains - it was for one day though (9.30am through to 4.30am the following morning) but we later found out the children didn't need a card as their transport was free with an adult as they were under 11 (so could have saved £7ish).

We were going to do one of the tourist buses but didn't bother as most things were really easy to get to by walking or taking public transport, we sat at the top of the double decker buses and just chatted about what we saw.

We did get to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, it was really busy so had to lift the children up to see but it was good to watch and of course free, check the dates and times though as they alternate the days sometimes.

We printed vouchers off for children eat free, 241 etc at different chain restaurants as there are loads of them everywhere.

we went on the London Eye and for the four of us it cost £57 booked online, I am sure it is not £25 per person. athough walk up price might be, there were no offers 'on the door'.

We also got the Thames clipper to the O2 arena and it has quite a few eateries in it (TGI, Pizza express etc), the family ticket was £29.50 but that was for the full day, on and off as much as you like stopping at all the piers from the London Eye right down to the O2, you get to see loads on it and is another fun thing to do, there is an offer when you buy the Eye and boat ticket together.