Oyster Cards / Travelcards, London

I know everyone has an opinion, so I'll share mine. We chose the Travelcard for getting around London. It was good for zones 1-6, which meant we could use it from Heathrow to get to our centrally located hotel without any hassle. Since we were zipping all around the city it definitely came in handy and is much cheaper then buying individual tickets every time you want to use the tube, bus or metro.

Before you head to London, visit the website and compare the two cards to see which one meets your preference. Buy your card for the number of days you'll need it and then off you go. It's very easy to use, you just insert it into the machines at the entrance and exit at the tube station.

We bought our Travelcard in conjunction with the London Pass, so there are a few extra savings that we got out of our card (train ride out to Windsor Castle).

I love traveling on the "Tube" in London. It's the easiest and most economical way of getting around.

Recently on a day layover from a business trip I discovered this very ingenius way of traveling, the "Oyster Card". Its a refillable smartcard that never expires. Determine the amount you want to put into the card and use is as you wish.

For more indepth information about the Oyster Card, check out their website.

The Travelcard can be used on the DLR, London Overground and buses, trams (where your Travelcard would include Zone 3, 4, 5 or 6), National Rail (excluding Heathrow Connect between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow, and on Heathrow Express).

The Travelcard must be valid for the zones you’ll be traveling through. You have a choice of pruchasing a 1 or 3 day Travelcard for peak or off peak times.

The off peak Travelcard can be used from 9:30 am Mondays to Fridays, all day Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, on the day you validate the card and for journeys that starts before 4:30 am on the following day.

I decided to purchase an off peak Travelcard for the one day I was going to use the public transportation as I found it to be the most economical way to get around London.

The Travelcard was £5.30 for Zones 1&2.

Please note that you can use the vending machines to purchase your cards. Some machines only accept coins, while others accept bills and credit cards.

Once upon a time when I was a girl, there was the Red Bus Rover - the day pass that allowed you unlimited access to London buses and all the magical possibilities that went with that.

This was superceded by the Travel Card, which allowed you unlimited access to the London Transport system for the duration of your stay - all you had to work out was which zones you wanted covered (the more zones, the more expensive) and how long a period the card should be valid for. And then the Oyster Card was introduced and things got more confusing ...

Essentially the Travel Card gives unlimited access to travel within selected zones for a set period of time. By contrast, the Oyster Card is a 'pay as you go' system which is not limited to a particular time period. I am not going to try and explain the complex details and conditions of each in any greater detail or take credit for someone else's work, so instead I will happily direct you to the website detailed below, which gives a simple, easy-to-use comparison of both options. It's then up to you to decide which meets your needs more closely ...

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When you're in London, the Oyster card is one very usefull thing. Regular price for tube one way ticket (in Central London) is 4 pounds. With Oyster card it cost only 1.5 pounds. You can buy this card at ant Subway station. The card with 2 pounds credit is 5 pounds + you can add on it as much money as you like.

Don't throw away your Oyster card cos you can use it forever!

Make sure you get yourself an Oyster card. You can get this from all underground stations and some newsagents. It's a small electronic card that has replaced the old paper tickets system - which is slowing being phased out! Look for the yellow rings at undergrounds station ticket gates, on buses and trams. You don't even need to take your oyster card out of its wallet, even works when its in a thin bag! The fastest, cheapest way to travel - I say that as a user of 3 years. ALways go for 1 week or more travelcards because you save more if you are staying even just 4 days or something it will still work out cheaper if you are planning to run around a lot. Be warned that this is not yet valid on surface trains so you may get fined!

There are a variety of travelcards on offer for the entire london transport network. Most tourists would probably be interested in a one-day travel card, this can cover various zone combinations, but the most useful for the visitor is the 1-2 zone travelcard. These are offered in peak and non-peak versions, the non-peak one is sufficient, as peak allows one to travel before 9:30, and the rest of the day is considered non-peak. For longer travelcards, you must get an oyster card, which can have money and "passes" added to it by machine or through a teller at a tube or train station, or at a newsagent.

Here is the definitive guide to the cost of the tickets and travel cards for London. Though a zone 1 and 2 travel card covers the needs of most tourists, for anyone staying longer it is worth investigating cheaper options, espcially the Oyster prepayment card.