Day ticket to travel around London - Cheapest Option

hubb

My wife and I are staying on the outskirts of London at a Premiere hotel and would like to know what is the cheapest way to travel around for the day and evening (2 journeys into London in total) please. The last time I went on the tube I bought what I thought was a day pass for a zone (which I was told upon purchase) and yet they didn't tell me the price only allowed up to 2 journeys within that zone, not unlimited for the day hence why I came here for advice. Our hotel is right by Kenton tube station. Also, is it cheaper to buy tickets/pass online before we go ?

I have also been told that it's possible to walk around London to get to destinations which I am willing to do but not sure of the practicality.

Anyway, a more experienced London traveller may be able to help.

Thanks.

NotRichAtAll

Oyster cards would possibly be your best bet, you could walk but its knackering

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

k3lvc

Assuming you have a contactless debit/credit card all is revealed here - not in the easiest English but basically use your card all day and it only charges you up to the level of the travelcard/Oyster card you would have used


https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/what-is-capping?intcmp=20487#on-this-page-1

hubb

Thanks for the info . Not that easy to understand but at least it means I can use my contactless card although my wife hasn't got one and not sure if two people can use the same one.

wealdroam

hubb wrote: »

Thanks for the info . Not that easy to understand but at least it means I can use my contactless card although my wife hasn't got one and not sure if two people can use the same one.

No, two people cannot use the same contactless card when travelling together.

macman

You can certainly walk between 'local' destinations is London, but since we have no idea where you are visiting, (some of your destinations could be 20 miles apart) no one can give you specific advice. Obviously you'll need to use the tube to get to West End or City destinations from your hotel, once there you can do short hops by bus or tube using contactless debit cards or Oystercard (no cash fares on any London buses) , or walk in some cases.
I don't know what zonal pass you bought that only allows 2 journeys, sounds like you just got a PAYG Oyster that ran out of credit after two journeys?
Kenton is in zone 4 anyway, so any zonal pass including that is likely to cover most of the places you are probably going to visit-most tourist sites are in Zone 1 and 2.

hubb

Ok, so if we both use our contactless cards on every journey it will be our cheapest option ? It still is a bit of a mystery how it works but if that is the best option we will stick with it. I know for instance If I get off at Hyde park corner I can walk to Buckingham Palace and Westminster quite easily. We will just use the tube for long distances. We just want to see all the usual tourist places.

The_Groat_Counter

See this TfL video about using contactless cards for travel.

JasX

Using either a contactless card or oyster card (you will each need one or the other)

You'll basically just spend until you reach the daily cap of £9.30 (assuming you stay within zones 1-4 see link above on capping)

Alternatively you 'could' take pains to keep your costs low and stay below this by looking up your fares individually on

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/single-fare-finder

eg Kenton to oxford circus is £3.90 peak (be aware of the evening peak 16:00-19:00 as well as the pre 09:30 one) or £2.80 off peak

So if you're really scrimping, avoid both peak periods and all other travel you can get in and out for £5.60 each.

However with a single zone 1 trip at £2.40 or single bus hop £1.50 I suspect you'll end up so close to the cap you might consider it worth just running up to it and making free use of travel all day to save time and see as much as possible (the cap applies to pretty much all public transport in london except airport express trains, the silly cable car near the O2 and riverboat services)

Hopefully this helps

hubb

JasX wrote: »

Using either a contactless card or oyster card (you will each need one or the other)

You'll basically just spend until you reach the daily cap of £9.30 (assuming you stay within zones 1-4 see link above on capping)

Alternatively you 'could' take pains to keep your costs low and stay below this by looking up your fares individually on

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/single-fare-finder

eg Kenton to oxford circus is £3.90 peak (be aware of the evening peak 16:00-19:00 as well as the pre 09:30 one) or £2.80 off peak

So if you're really scrimping, avoid both peak periods and all other travel you can get in and out for £5.60 each.

However with a single zone 1 trip at £2.40 or single bus hop £1.50 I suspect you'll end up so close to the cap you might consider it worth just running up to it and making free use of travel all day to save time and see as much as possible (the cap applies to pretty much all public transport in london except airport express trains, the silly cable car near the O2 and riverboat services)

Hopefully this helps

Ok, so if we use contactless at either off peak or peak we won't pay any more than 9:30 for the whole day, including going back into London in the evening ?

wealdroam

hubb wrote: »

Ok, so if we use contactless at either off peak or peak we won't pay any more than 9:30 for the whole day, including going back into London in the evening ?

That's right.

£9.30 is the zone 1-4 anytime cap.

I thought your wife didn't have a contactless card?
Once again, you need one contactless card each.