Explain the Tube for me as if I've just landed from Mars

[Littletreefrog]

I have tried googling and I am more confused than before.

2 adults and 1 1r year-old visiting London for 1 day. We would like to see some of the famous buildings i.e Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower of London etc.

Hop on hop off bus is many £££££ so thinking of the tube but how do we work it? How does the tap in and out thing work? Does 14 year old need own contactless debit card?

Help please

You can always just get a normal bus. The hop on hop off buses are a tourist thing. Actual public transport buses you just tap your card (oyster or bank) as you get on.

You can easily walk Buckingham palace to Big Ben.

Tube you tap in on the way in and the way out - there are barriers - and there’s a daily limit, so there comes a point where you can take as many journeys as you want without paying more. I’m not sure of the limit these days!

According to TfL it looks like a 14 year old would need a photo Oyster card so personally I’d just buy them a paper ticket or use a bank card.

Under 11s don't pay. The adults each need a debit card so that you can tap in and out.

From the official site: If you're travelling with children aged 11-15, buy a Visitor Oyster cardd_ before you leave home and, when you arrive in London, you can ask a member of our staff to add a Young Visitor discount to a Visitor Oyster card at a main station

Oh it’s bloody brilliant!

First off avoid busy times so morning and afternoon commuters, it’s absolute bedlam.

Secondly there are super helpful staff at every station so people to ask if you get stuck.

Thirdly, it’s a great adventure and will be great fun!

Download TFL App, I use it a lot when going to London for work. It’s a great little tool and easy to use.
Put in where you need to go and you will get your route and colour of line to take, each stop and how many stops to where you want to get to.

There's something called an Oyster card. You buy the card and put money on it and use that to tap in and out.

There are big maps of the tube on the walls of the station and you can plan your route. You can also plan your route on a route planner on the London transport web site.

You can also use a normal red bus to get places, you don't need a hop on hop off bus. Again you can plan which bus on the route planner. You can also download an app which gives you live updates.

Try the Citymapper app if you have data with your mobile phone.

london is very walkable. Things are nearer than you think. But get an oyster for buses and tubes.

I use my bank card to tap in and tap out, it’s not expensive and super quick. You can buy an Oyster card and pre load it, I cba with that, so bank card is quick.

City mapper is a good app that will show you the walking, buses or tube routes to take.

I'd put all of the places you want to see in chat gtp and ask it to work out an itinerary. Probably won't be perfect but could be a good starting point. I normally lend my teen my contactless card and use my phone to pay for myself.

You can buy a travel card for your teen, £7.60 I think, adults use their debit card. Many of the main sights are within walking distance though. There's also the river bus, not the tourist sightseeing boat, which you can tap on off too but isn't included in the travel card but you might not need it at all if using that option. I often find I don't use any transportation in central London other than my feet

The tube is great fun bit honestly think about going on a normal bus. You only tap on (go in the front door) and alight at the mid door but you don’t need to tap off. You can see more than the tube and go past lots of interesting places. Download an app and you can route plan really easily. And you don’t waste time underground walking to and from each tube stop! Of course do it for the experience but I love the buses! And the bus stops will tell you when yours is coming on a little screen! Have fun

I would also second how walkable London is! You get to see everything on your way too and there’s such a lot of really interesting things to see on foot.
comfy shoes though as you will get your steps in!

BTW if you're visiting in August then don't worry too much about rush hour - it's more quiet now due to school holis.

OP there is an upper limit for the tube and buses (buses are brilliant as you can see so much from them! not the tourist buses, just the normal ones). So however often you tap on and off, you only spend £7.20 (in zones 1 and 2, all you will need). Do you have a spare debit card your DC can use - to save getting an Oyster? I mean a debit to a joint ac or similar?

Edit to add: yes don't tap off the bus, just tap on!

This is useful, shows the walking time between tubes.

Download Citymapper app which is good if you're clueless (Google maps will also advise accurately).

Walk in.
Tap contactless debit/credit card on big yellow circle at gate. Each person goes through separately and taps their own separate contactless card.
Gate will open. Go to platform, look at indicator board to check whether the next tube goes to where you want or whether you'll need to wait for the next one/change. Get on tube.
Change if necessary- you don't tap in and out if you're just changing trains.
When you reach your destination you leave the station and tap The Same Card on the big yellow circle to open the gate to get out.

Magic computers calculate "treefrog got on at Bank and got off at Balham. She owes us 3 quid. But she's already paid 8 quid in fares today, and we cap daily spend at a tenner (zones 1-3) so we'll just take 2 quid off the card and any further journeys today will be free"

CityMapper is great. Download it beforehand and get used to using it.

Ok fantastic so what I'm taking from this is:

If I work out a bit aof an itinerary I may be able to walk between some of the places we want to see.

Buses are good because you can see things on the journey.

If I give my debit card to teen and use my phone even though its technically the same card it will let us both tap in and out.

Ok doesn't sound as complicated as I thought, thank you.

Get the Citymapper app - shows you all options including walking, bus and Tube. I’d avoid tube unless doing longer distances as it’s much nicer to see London from walking or bus! You need a debit/credit card each to tap onto the bus (you don’t need to tap off). There’s a daily cap on how much you pay, but make sure you keep using the same card all day.

Citymapper is definitely a good app for working out how to get places. I will sometimes walk to a further away station to avoid the irritation of changing trains etc.

The tube used to use oyster cards before contactless was a thing, and you can still choose to, for people who can't have contactless cards - i.e. if your child doesn't have a contactless card. Children can get a discount if you get them set up correctly but that may or may not be worth the trouble depending how long you're going for.

If you use a contactless card make sure you use the same card (and card location i.e. phone/watch/actual card) each time.

So if you tap in with your phone, tap out with your phone and do the same thing with the same device all day. Don't then use your debit card, even if it a card for the same account.

That way a) the system knows it was the same person tapping in and out so you don't get charged the maximum amount and b) that way the system can add up all your journeys for the day and cap your payment correctly.

As an alternative try the No15 old routemaster bus. It's not a TfL route anymore, you need a separate ticket that you buy before you board, it's not as expensive as the sightseeing busses. You can catch it from outside of the Tower of London and it will take you into Westminster past all the landmarks. It's a lot more fun compared with getting on and off the tube.

One addition - I haven't seen the official answer anywhere for whether or not you can use different "versions" of the same card separately for travel. It tells you to make sure you use the same device for each tap but I've never seen the confirmation the opposite way round, so I would either want to have confirmed that or ideally to use a different card altogether to avoid any risk of confusion.

Does the 14 year old not have their own bank account with debit card??

It shouldn't take many days to set them one up or order a monzo card.

Which station are you arriving into London at?

No don’t use your phone if it’s the same card you are giving to your son. Use a different one or get him an oyster.

On buses you only need to tap in on the yellow circle by the drivers cab, you don't need to tap out.

The tube is easy to use and very efficient but as people have said in central London it is often easier and quicker to walk.

Also don't forget - stand to the right on escalators (unless you want to be shoved out of the way by a fast moving and possibly enraged Londoner), never take the stairs at Covent Garden tube and always let people get off the train first.