Going to London - some advice please.....

colcheslad

suki1964 wrote: »

There's only the one train in and out of London Called the gatwick express it stops at Croydon and Clapham junction It's a commuter train and yes it's expensive. It's a cost we factor in when deciding where to fly into as often Heathrow works out cheaper

Contactless cards are the cheapest option for travel. Else it's the oyster. We are frequent travellers so have registered our Oyster cards and have had them over 10 years.

Cheapest tickets for the theatre are issued Jan and Feb. For Easter it really is a question of queuing up at the kiosk at Leicester Sq

Just to mention that the Gatwick Express is not the only train in and out, if you want to get to Victoria use Southern (takes about ~1min longer) or if you are going East/City use the Thameslink service (often showing destinations of Bedford / Luton etc). You'll save a packet!

newgirly

Woman in black is a good option for teenagers, I've seen it and my teens have all seen it separately on school trips and enjoyed it, obviously depends on what sort of things they like but I couldn't get my 16 year old twins to a musical that easily

Hedgehog99

Read up about Oyster now https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/oyster?intcmp=1683

You might find you're better off using Oyster pay as you go rather than loading a travel card. The daily fares are capped, so it leaves you free to be flexible - if you don't end up doing many journeys, it'll just charge you singles, but if you travel more, it'll cap your spend at the travelcard price.

The TFL journey planner website is useful too:
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Sharon87

Also you can use your Oyster or Contactless card to travel between London and Gatwick, saves buying a ticket. Although a return using Southern services or Thameslink may be a tiny bit cheaper. Fares here:
http://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/ticket-types/gatwick-payg/

If you still can't decide on a show until closer to the time the tkts booth in Leicester Square sells discounted tickets for the day's shows - you can also find what shows they sell on their website.