Confused by various London travel tickets for visiting family of 4 !

[BritishRacingGreen]

Can anyone help please?

I’m debating whether to just ask in my local British Rail ticket office what’s the best value ‘all in one’ ticket for our family to cover the overland into London, tube, and possibly various buses. But wouldn’t they try and sell the most expensive travel options?

Zip Oysters
Oyster
Travelcard
Pay As You Go
‘Only valid if ask staff for child discount’ (assuming staff in ticket office...)
Only valid if pre-booked
Contactless only (what, kids have to have own contactless too?)
Etc
Etc

Visiting for 2 nights in April, travelling by train from east of country, hotel in Docklands.

Arriving midday on day one, leaving after 3pm on day three.

Two adults, two kids (age 12 and 15)

Planning to do Tussauds (Kellogg’s voucher entry), Lego shop in Leicester Square, river boat trip, maybe Emirates cable car, the palace, possibly Tower Bridge and Tower of London, plus Science and Natural History museum.

A lot to fit into two days! I know there’s plenty of lesser known attractions to see, but this is the kids first trip to London as a family (teen has already been with me to the galleries and Lego shop).

I have looked at a few travel websites including LT but I’m still confused by too much information .

I would be so incredibly grateful if anyone could recommend just one ticket that does it all in one go!

So you need tickets for your journey to and from London, then travel cards while you are there?

Firstly, look at a Family Railcard for your longer journeys... it may make those journeys cheaper if they are Off Peak.

For adults, you can use a debit card on buses and tubes and it will cap at the price of a travel card.

I'm not 100% on teenagers, my eldest is 10.

You will need to get train tickets for your journey to and from London. I do this journey a lot and use the Trainline App.

A family railcard (which you can get using Tesco club card vouchers) will possibly halve the cost of this journey.

Once in London, the adults can use a contactless card, or Apple Pay on your phone to use the tubes/buses. (You will need a card or device each) The entire day's journeys are capped at about £8ish- I can't quite remember.
You tap in and out for the tube, on a bus, you just tap once.

Your teens will need an Oyster card each. These will be capped at a reduced rate. You need to grab a member of staff in the tube station once you are there to help you do this. It takes a couple of mins, and the staff are fantastic and can't do enough to help.

Check out National Rail 2 for 1 offers- we were able to get into the Tower of London half price using this. You just need your train tickets as proof and to download a voucher or book through the National rail website.

Hope this helps a bit...

Teens can use their bank cards for contactless tube, better value than buying an Oyster card and capped rate.

TfL tube station supervisor here. Buy the oysters for the kids then ask the staff to put a 14 day Young Visitor discount on them. 50% off a adult dare, caps at half the adult rate too. You might want to bring some ID for the 15 year old like a passport. If there's any money left on the Oysters on your final day you can get it back from the ticket machines. Ask any of my colleagues to help you. Oysters cost £5 which is nonrefundable, but still much cheaper than buying child day travel cards.

Adults can just use their contactless bank card.

Zip cards for kids who live in London.

You are right, the TfL website is as clear as mud. Very confusing.

The cheapest fare for adults is to use a contactless card, as PPs have said.

If you are going to visit London more than once (or for longer stays), the cheapest fare for DC is with a visitor 11-15 zip card but there is a £15 admin fee so it isn't worth it for one weekend. DC pay half price with the zip card on the tube/overground/DLR and buses are free. Like the adult Oyster card, the fare has a daily cap (half the adult cap).

If this is a one off visit, the cheapest way is to lend the DC one of your contactless cards or use their own card, and pay the adult fare. Each person needs their own contactless card.

@SpikeySmooth, I thought the admin charge for the Young Visitor discount had gone up to £15? Or is that just online?

Ok thanks @SpikeySmooth and everyone else too.

To summarise, both adults just need to use their contactless debit cards (I don’t have contactless or ApplePay so I’ll need to get a contactless before I go)

Then I need to find staff at St Pancras when we arrive, to purchase
x2 Kids Oysters with 14 Day Young Visitor on.
Do you then load cash onto the Oysters??

@BritishRacingGreen

Ok thanks *@SpikeySmooth* and everyone else too.

To summarise, both adults just need to use their contactless debit cards (I don’t have contactless or ApplePay so I’ll need to get a contactless before I go)

Then I need to find staff at St Pancras when we arrive, to purchase
x2 Kids Oysters with 14 Day Young Visitor on.
Do you then load cash onto the Oysters??

That right- a staff member will go to the ticket machine with you and sort it as they need to authorise the young person discount.

Our last visit was the first where we needed an oyster for our 11 year old- the staff asked us how long we were staying and were able to advise how much money to put on it- it was all done and dusted there and then. We did have to top up on the last day- but again, a staff member helped and put the discount on again.

Yes, you can load cash onto the Oysters at the ticket office, ticket machines or some shops:

tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card

I travel to London on the east coast mainline so book direct with LNER in advance single tickets which are the cheapest tickets available, they go on sale about 12 weeks in advance. We use a family rail card and it more than paid for itself after one trip.

I used my own contactless card for using the tube and my children has Oyster cards bought in advance and when we arrived at KX and tube station a member of staff put the young visitor discount on for free using one of the machines at the station.

£15 for the Zip card. For visitors, it's cheaper to buy an Oyster card (£5) and add credit, then ask staff to add the Young Visitor discount (which only runs for two weeks). Zip cards are different. They require a photo and can be ordered online. They suit children who live in London or at least live part time in London (ie one parent lives there).

If you're only visiting three days then as I said before just get the Oyster and add the YV discount.

Thanks everyone, very helpful !