London Mumsnetters - cheapest way to travel around London please.

[fourandahalfkids]

Hello. We are going to London next week as a family. 4 adults (1 a uni student with rail card) and 2 children (12 and 15). What is the cheapest way to get about on the tube please? Oyster card or contact less. I understand the children will need an oyster card. Thank you.

Go to a ticket office and ask staff to apply a young visitor discount to the Oyster cards of the 12 and 15 year old and the 16-25 railcard discount to the Oyster card of the uni student.
Details here: tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card#on-this-page-7
AND here: tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/national-railcard-discount

Oh and if you won’t be coming back to London again anytime soon don’t forget to return your Oyster cards at the end of your trip to get any remaining credit plus the £5 deposit back.

Contactless card will be debited at exactly the same as an Oyster card would, most Londoners don’t even use oyster anymore, just a bank card.

Obviously for your children, it makes sense to use an oyster so you can have the relevant discounts applied.

Yes sorry for not mentioning it, PP is correct and full paying adults should use a contactless card! Oysters just for the younger ones so they can get the relevant discounts applied and save money.

Thank you. Another question. We are staying in battersea so planning on using Clapham Junction to get into London. I have read online that you can't buy an oyster card at Clapham Junction but you can at a store in Clapham. Can you still get the discount applied at Clapham?

You would need to go to a tube station, or apparently Victoria National rail station ticket office can also do it. CJ isn’t a tube station so I don’t think they would be able to unfortunately. Will you pass through a tube station on your way to Battersea? Otherwise maybe accept paying full price for your first journey and get the discount applied at the first tube station you come to.

Also not related to the bit about discounted travel, but if you’re staying near the river (it’s not the Travelodge is it?) then the River Boat from Plantation Wharf Pier is great for getting into central London, it’s pretty quick and you get views you don’t get on the train!

@LakeShoreD yes it is the travelodge we are staying at. (Got to be budget when there are 6 of us to cater for and we were camping in a field a few weeks back so it's a step up from that). Thank you for your advice I will check out the river boat.