One week visit to London

techno12

thelawnet wrote: »

Heathrow is Zone 6, so the journey into London will use some of that credit, either £2.70 morning/evening peak, or £1.50 otherwise.

£1.50?

I've got an Oyster and for even the tiniest journey around Zones 1-2 I'm charged £2.10

So from Zone 6 to Zone 1 is £1.50? (it says £3 off-peak 1-6 on the website).

thelawnet

A zone 3-6 single is £1.50.

If you buy a weekly z1-2 travelcard, then the appropriate fare for Heathrow - central London is Z6-3, since you already have paid for z1-2 for the whole week.

Oyster will charge you only for the bit you're not already covered for, automatically.

Any off-peak journey that is only in zone 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, or any combination of two or more of these, will be charged at £1.50 - this is the cheapest Oyster tube fare.

geordie_taxi

also i dont know if ur entitled or have any railcards but u can get them loaded on to an oyster card for discounted travel

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/18343.aspx

duchy

azzabazza wrote: »

I will be travelling to London for one week in late May. I fly into Heathrow and my hotel is fairly central. During the week I will of course wish to travel around the city to various attractions, including visits to Chelsea Flower Show.

Any advice on best type of travel pass and can this be purchased on arrival at Heathrow (I intend using the tube into the City, not the Heathrow Express).

Good call avoiding the expensive Heathrow Express.....an alternative route into central London is local bus from outside the terminal building to Feltham -then overground rail Feltham to Waterloo (or Victoria changing at Clapham Junction)-quicker and more pleasant than the tube and importantly for many - no steps to drag luggage up and down !

Altarf

duchy wrote: »

and importantly for many - no steps to drag luggage up and down !

There are no steps if you use the Piccadilly line to Green Park or Kings Cross St Pancras.

p00hsticks

thelawnet wrote: »

£30.40 for the travelcard
£5 deposit for the Oystercard
£10 for the credit

Depending on how much the OP likes walking and exactly where they want to go, it may be worth considering whether they will be using public transport enough in the week to make the travel card worth it, as they say that their hotel is "fairly central".

I've just returned from a week in London staying in the Covent Garden travelodge, and we only used our Oyster cards twice on the tube, to get to South Kensington and back - a total of £4.20. The rest of the time we walked, apart from one day where we made use of the Thames Clipper 'river Roamer' day tickets, and getting a taxi to and from Euston at the start and end of our stay.

At £2.10 for a zone 1 single tube journey on an Oyster card, by my reckoning you need to be making more than two journeys a day every day for the full week before you start saving on fares by using the Travel card. If you're central you may well not need to do this as you can walk to many of the sites (and get to see more that way anyhow).

If you do decide to get a travel card, then if there are two of you, etting a paper one at a National Rail station (NOT an underground station) rather than having one preloaded onto an Oyster card, would enable you to take advantage of the various 2-4-1 offers - the savings made this way may well justify the cost of the card.

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

discplayer

duchy wrote: »

Good call avoiding the expensive Heathrow Express.....an alternative route into central London is local bus from outside the terminal building to Feltham -then overground rail Feltham to Waterloo (or Victoria changing at Clapham Junction)-quicker and more pleasant than the tube and importantly for many - no steps to drag luggage up and down !

I certainly agree about the Heathrow Express.

I find the speed of the Feltham route really depends on traffic affecting the bus and where in central London you're heading to.

I don't think you've said which hotel you'll use. As well as the step free tube comment already made I'll add that for other parts of London where you need to change to the District Line you can just cross the platform at Hammersmith. If you need the Circle do this then get off at say South Ken or Sloane Square stay on the platform and get a Circle line train.

PruHarrison

Its great to be at London there are many place to visit and some of them are : National Gallery, Natural History Museum, EDF Energy London Eye, Science Museum and don't forget to visit Trafalgar Square; finest pedestrianised piazzas.

azzabazza

thelawnet wrote: »

You can buy a zone 1-2 weekly travelcard at Heathrow underground station. Get it on an Oyster card and ask for £10 credit to be loaded. The credit is needed to go outside zones 1 and 2 (central zones). Heathrow is Zone 6, so the journey into London will use some of that credit, either £2.70 morning/evening peak, or £1.50 otherwise.

The cost will be:

£30.40 for the travelcard
£5 deposit for the Oystercard
£10 for the credit

When you return to Heathrow you can get the £5 deposit, and any remaining credit of the £10, refunded if you wish (the £30.40 travelcard cost will be used up, obviously), or keep it for a future visit (the credit doesn't expire).

A zone map of the underground is here

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.gif

You will be covered for zones 1 + 2.

I returned from London on Sunday. I followed your advice and it worked just perfectly! I used the oyster card a lot during the week's visit on both the tube and the DLR.

I was staying at the Tower Hill Travelodge very near a tube station (District Line). I changed tube at Hammersmith both coming in from Heathrow and on my return on Sunday - just a step across the platform with my suitcase.

Thanks for your advice - much appreciated.