Getting around london (no tubes-I'm a wuss)

[Rowgtfc72]

We're due to visit London beginning of Nov. Dh, me and dd (11).
Staying in South Croydon And driving down.
We hope to visit the Science museum and the Natural history museum, certainly central London.
I'm not a fan of the tubes. Nor trains but would rather get on one than a tube. Love buses. We have a car.
What's the best way to get in and out of central London? Is it drivable? The train to King's Cross from Croydon is over an hour.
And how the hell do oystercards work? Or travelcards?
Would appreciate any advice for confused Northerners!

Also East Croydon to London Bridge, 30 mins, then walk down to the river and walk along the river to Tower Bridge. Lobely walk, past HMS Belfast ans nice restaurants along the way. Then reverse back and gonunder London Bridge to get to Borough Market for lunch or tea.

The 52 bus goes from Victoria station, up to Hyde park corner, turns left and goes towards Kensington. You get off at exhibition road, turn left at the lights, walk down there and the museum's are at the other end.its a long road. If you stay on the 52 you pass the Albert hall on your left, I think it's the next stop. The Albert hall have events on too. The c1 from Victoria goes the other way, you get off at south Kensington tube and cross the main road and walk up to the museum's.

If you don’t like trains I wouldn’t go from one of the southern most parts of ‘London’ to one of the most Northern ‘Alexandra Palace’. That’s a massive journey. Would take hours. There’s plenty of fireworks in South London

Came on to say don’t bother buying an oyster card.
Use your contactless debit/credit cards.
It’s £1.50 per bus journey, but you can do many bus journeys in under an hour you only pay for the first one.
You can use it on tubes/trains/buses.
The only real need for oyster or travel card is for your child, anyone over 11 yrs old has to pay full fare unless you buy them a child travelcard or get one loaded onto oyster card.
You have to pay £10 for the oyster card and then load it, I wouldn’t bother just use the contactless.
If just using buses all day your contactless or oyster will only be charged for the first 4 journeys at £4.50, after that, although your touching the card in , you are not being charged.
It will also cap at £11.60 I believe for out to Croydon- if you hop on bus then hop on tube, it will round up your days travel and charge best price for all those journeys.
Oyster cards are becoming outdated because you loose £10 each person straight away buying the thing.
Also rarely do people remember to take it back to where they bought to get their deposit back before their trip ends meaning there’s millions of Oyster cards sitting in people’s homes with money sitting on them making the other parties rich!!
Contactless is perfect .
You will make this trip very long though by only doing it all by bus, traffic in London is at its highest it’s ever been this year!
Hope this helps

Thanks yes it does. Could I not just use another contactless card for dd. Or is that not allowed?

You would pay full adult prices using contactless for a child.

@Rowgtfc72 is correct.you would be paying full adult £1.50 per bus fare.although obviously it would get capped like yours.
Better to purchase a paper travelcard from the station for the week for a child.

Thanks for the above. London buses look a lot more organised than ours!

If you’re not pressed for time, the top deck of a bus is far more pleasant than the tube. Using the TFL planner, you can see the entire route of the bus, so you’ll know the name of the stop before yours to press the button. The tube is much faster but smelly and crowded. I assume an Uber and then walking is too expensive/not possible?

Have you thought about cutty sark if you are going to Greenwich?

Just an update.

London was amazing. My brother had the Friday off work and was an amazing tour guide and provider of oyster card for dd. Contactless on trains tubes trams and buses was flawless. Info at stations was alphabetical. Genius!
Managed Science museum, History museum,London zoo,Hamleys and Greenwich and the Cutty Sark.

Ally Pally fireworks and lazer show left us speechless.

Had a pint on the Tattershall Castle (it's a local boat to me that I went on across the Humber as a kid) and found a pop up cider shack at a Christmas market by the London Eye.

I still hate tubes and had a bit of a moment at Highbury station as train to me didn't mean being underground . Croydon tram bothered me with it coming up to the anniversary of the crash. By the end of the weekend I was an expert on London transport.

Can I just say everyone we came across was so friendly and helpful.