London travel help please

[Littlebluebird123]

I'm going to visit London next week with two teenagers - 13 and 15.
We'll be going from Charing to South Kensington and then returning same day.
I can't figure out how to pay for the travel as if it was just me I'd tap and go but how do I do that for the teens?
Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Bump

I think you need to get them an Oyster card if you want discounted fares. If it's only that one trip I'd just use another contactless card if you/ they have them to tap in and out to be honest. Saves a lot of faffing around for a few £.
Or you could get a bus which would be cheaper.
Or walk- would take about an hour.

If you go to London often. You can get a Zip card for them. Otherwise apparently you can get a travel card for teens at the station but I have never tried. Otherwise just the normal contactless bank card but paying adult fare.

Having had a quick google.

Charing is a traditional Network Rail train station.

Does it have a physical ticket machine (or a human) to sell you tickets?

Otherwise is there a southeastern train's app?

If they have smartphones you can buy them tickets so they each have one on a phone.

Phone tickets (that you can also print as paper copies) each have a QR code on them that you scan to get through the ticket gates.

Here under young visitor discount https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/11-15-zip-oyster-photocard?intcmp=55575#on-this-page-5

You need to ask for the young visitor discount to be added to an Oyster card for them. May need to buy the cards first, if you don’t have any spare. Gives you 50% off adult fare. Charing Cross should be able to do it, if it still has a ticket office.

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

Honestly for one day's travel I wouldn't bother faffing with tickets or oysters or discounts. Just get them to tap a card or Apple Pay, and use the same card each time they tap in or out. Maximum they'll pay in total is under £10, even if you do 100 zone 1 journeys that day. Best thing about London is how easy transport is, don't make it complicated!

Ah so I have mistaken Charing to be a London station? It looks to be in Kent. In that case, you buy a train ticket to the London train station and then pay for tube fare either by contactless or zip card to South Kensington. Use the TFL website or app to plan your journey.

@cordiality probably not if they are getting from Zone 1. We go via Richmond and it’s £10 for adults and a couple of pounds for DC1. We got her a zip 11-15 card. We got 3-4 times a year.

Southeastern etc will get you to the mainline train station. There is also a tube station.

OP- to get to South Ken on the tube you're better off walking down to Embankment Station and getting on the District Line- there is a ticket office there but I think I'd still just use contactless.

Ha lol sorry I just assumed you meant Charing Cross as well! Shows me up to be a sad city dweller who never leaves! Ignore what I said, sorry I don't know owt about national rail!

Also assumed Charing Cross! It might take you longer than an hour to walk from Kent- sorry!

Do you mean Charing in Kent or Charing Cross in central London? I think there’s also a Charing Cross in Glasgow.

Get a one day travel card for them
? includes rail and tubes/ buses etc ? From southeastern. Cheaper if you leave after peak rush hour

We got the young visitors discount applied to a visitors oyster card for DD when we went to London recently. We already had visitors oysters from a previous visit when tapping your contactless wasn'tt such a thing, and could use that as they are not specific to a person. We just had to find a staff member at our first tube station to apply the discount. I think if we'd had to buy a new visitor oyster we probably wouldn't have bothered, just paid adult price with her bank card or a different one of ours. We were starting from a London tube station though so maybe different for you.

Zip cards allow free bus travel. Train travel is discounted. If you want to pay the £3 for the plastic card, then preload with money you won't get back if you don't use if, feel free.

Or, as previously suggested, buy a ticket into London from your local train station, and provide a dedicated contactless card or payment facility for each child for the London travel. Make sure you tap in and out each time. Capped at about a tenner a day. For a one off, it's not worth the hassle!

I remember collecting the cards back once through the barrier. I was paranoid the kids would lose them!

Sorry, to clarify, I meant Charing Cross. I'm coming from Kent but I can manage that bit, lol.
It's because we previously had Oyster cards/kids went free as they were little. Haven't been into London with the kids since before COVID!
A day travel card seemed so expensive!
They do have tap cards so that's probably the easiest way.
Thank you all for the advice.

If you still have your old oyster cards and they are visitor ones, you can get a young person discount put on them at Charing cross for the duration of your trip and DC can use them. That's what we did.

By the way we did get back the money we didn't spend in cash using a ticket machine at the end of our trip. Not sure if it's the same from the zip cards - our was an old visitor one.

For just 2 tube journeys, it doesn't seem worth the hassle if you really don't have any old Oyster cards in the house/that you can borrow.

If you do find them you could find a member of staff at the underground to add a young visitor discount to the Oyster cards (think it lasts a fortnight without a photo-card).

Otherwise they each need either a debit card or Apple/google pay on a phone. You need a different card/device for each traveller.

I would just get the bus and have them use contactless, it's £1.75.

Can you get all zone travelcards from Charing?

Or rather from your station in Kent, covers the rail into London and any TFL journeys by tube, bus etc

We got told to tap and go for me and DH but get ab all day kids tube ticket for DS. We didn't use the bus at all just the tube and walked.

If they are using their own debit cards they can just tap on and off - but they might be charged adult price.
If you are literally just in Zone 1 and 2 though the adult daily cap isn’t huge and probably easier then faffing around with getting oyster cards.