Oyster card advice! Family trip to London

[QueryA]

We have booked a trip to London for the October school holidays. We’ve not visited London in about 15 years and are completely clueless about the cheapest & easiest was of travelling around. We are there 4 days, staying near Paddington and will be travelling around zone 1 (tower bridge, Tower of London, London eye, madam Tussaud’s)
There is 2 adults, dd (13) dd(11) and ds (9).

I’ve been looking into Oyster cards but I’m completely confused. Does ds need one? How do I get a ‘teenage’ ones for dds? With a family is it cheaper taking taxis? Don’t even get me started on Uber, I’ve not got an account and have never used one!

Any help and advice much appreciated, I feel like such a country bumpkin!

Tlf site. Zip card for 11 to 16 Yr olds. Admin fee £15. Need a valid passport for a quick delivery or it takes upto 10 weeks.

Tfl site. Sorry

Zip card for kids, under 10 is free and you can just use your debit cards/phones for the adults

Just use your debit cards. Don’t bother with an oyster. Same price.

Unfortunately the kids passports have lapsed so it might be tricky to get a zip card in time . Also not keen on forking out £30 in admin fees for a card they are unlikely to use more than once but looks like I might have to.
Does the 9yo need proof of age to travel free? He looks a lot older so may be questioned. How does he get through the barriers? Doe he need to get a ticket from somewhere?

Sorry for all the questions, I’ve looked at the tfl site all weekend and my head is swimming with all the info

If you've got enough "spare" debit/credit cards for the older kids and aren't fussed about paying adult fares for them, easiest thing would be to all use contactless payment cards.
9 year old can go through the gates with a parent.

Ignore the previous advice re passports and 10 weeks - look at the young visitor section on this page

tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/11-15-zip-oyster-photocard#on-this-page-5

The 9yo can go through the wide /accessible barriers beside one of you. Station staff can let them through if necessary and no ID needed. My DD looked older at 9 too and was only ever asked once by a bus driver but it wasn't an issue. We live in London so frequently on buses.
From what you've said, it might be worth just using a separate debit/credit card for the 11yo and 13yo as £30 admin fees for a short visit likely isn't worth it.

There you go, I never knew about the young visitor Oyster!

Just get Travelcards.

We went recently. Ordered normal Oyster cards in advance and then when we got there just asked a member of staff to apply the young person discount for the duration of the trip. Think it got them half price fares.

The discount can be added there & then at any tube station, gives you 50% discount.

We did a lot of research before we visited London in August. Like you I didn’t want to pay for an Oyster for my 13yo so our plan was travelcard for her, contactless for me and dh and our 9yo would have been free. In the end it was cheaper to just add on travelcards for all of us when I booked our train tickets so we did that. How are you getting into London? We used Clubcard vouchers to buy a family railcard which saved us loads.

Using debit cards is marvelous... and consider walking. London has beautiful building to gawp at & a lot of attractions are within walking distance to each other.

Paper travel cards for kids and use debit/phone for the adults

Download CityMapper app for getting around.

Fellow country bumpkin here, but visit London several times a year, and it is super helpful.

I have used the youth visitor oyster card before.
Really easy. Arrived at Euston Station queued for about 15mins at customer services and they sorted one for them straight away.

Get travelcards for the kids, and use your debit cards. Remember to tap your debit cards in and out on the tube/trains even if the barriers are open.

Download uber app.
Very simple.
If you need to get somewhere when buses less direct for example

You also don’t need to tap in and out on a bus. Seems obvious, but I see lots of tourists do it.

Use any contactless card for adults, presumably children go free. Also second bus ride (fare £1.50) within an hour of the first ride is free.

DH and I will definitely just use our debit cards. Think it should be capped at about £7 per day for each of us as long as we stick to zones 1&2.

Kids we are not so sure about. 9yo we’ll put through the gate. (Tempted to put 11yo through there too 😬 she looks young. ) 13 yo and 11yo we are swithering between buying an Oyster card (£5 admin fee each) and then getting the child discount applied when we get to London. Which caps them both at about £4 a day I think. But there is the credit left over at the end of the trip, hopefully only a few £ though. So about£42 for the pair of them. Think child day travel cards might work out slightly more expensive at about £7 each per day.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I’m still not sure if I’ve got it all straight in my head but hopefully I’ll not bankrupt us on tube fares. We want to do a trip in a black cab too. I’m getting really excited, as is eldest dd. The younger 2 are just disappointed that ther isn’t a water park with flumes 😂

We bought a family railcard with Tesco clubcard vouchers (think it cost £30 or £10 in vouchers) which we used to buy heavily discounted tickets to London, then bought day tickets which allowed travel within London on trains/tube/buses and cost less with the rail card discount than paying for each journey would. I think you can get tickets that do longer periods too.
Look at the TfL website, and Trainline to work out the cheapest way to travel around.

The thing that surprised me was that for a city so popular with tourists it is ridiculously difficult to find out the cheapest way to do things. I guess those who live in London think it's obvious, but it really isn't

We recently bought paper day travel cards from the machine at the tube station for adults and DD. We have a family railcard and there is an option before you buy which gives you a discount.....can't quite remember how much but worth a look if you have a railcard