London calling! Mumsmetters with tube experience please help

[LegoTherapy]

11 year old ds and I are heading to Legoland tomorrow. We are travelling from Euston to Windsor and Eton Central around 7.30am.

I’ve googled but my brain won’t function. We are returning the following day. How much would it be to tap on the tube to Slough? We’d then get a train from Slough to Windsor. I don’t understand London zones at all. We don’t have an Oyster card.
TIA.

Install Citimapper, it's good for Tube prices.

You don't need an oyster. But Slough isn't in London so idk how much it would cost. It's way out of zone 6.

You can use contactless cards but you & your ds will need one each. It’s £4 one way from zone 1 to zone 6 if you travel off peak (after 9.30) but if you do enough journeys on the same card then TFL cap the price. tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares

Slough is on the Elizabeth line but it is outside the tfl travel zones so the tickets will be more than zone 1 to 6. You can use contactless cards to tap in and out to pay the fare though. Worth looking at city mapper to find the quickest route and prices.

The app isn’t helping with the ticketing. We are travelling at 7.30am because our train arrives into Euston just after 7am from up north.

I’m autistic and find the whole thing stressful.

Just to add, I know the route so that’s ok. We w only done it on a Saturday before where we’ve had a through ticket from home but they weren’t available this time.

If you look it up on Citymapper it will tell you the price

Slough (and Windsor and Eton) aren't in London so you will need separate tickets.
You'd be best to ask at Euston to get the correct information.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/single-fare-finder usually pretty accurate, what with it being TFL. Half 7 on a weekday morning is normally considered peak time

I think I’ll just get a national rail return from Slough to Windsor and tap in and out if I can as far as Slough?

Its £13.70 from Euston to Slough. Just touch in and touch out when you leave Slough as normal. There really isn't anything massively stressful about it, once you accept the mildly extortionate pricing.

National Rail website says £15.30 (edit: from Euston to Windsor & Eton Central) based on contactless fare, which implies you can use contactless for the whole journey.

You can use contactless all the way to Windsor and Eton Central:
https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e8xgegruud3g/5R3x3OGztK6dm9Lh76tKWs/a82f98aa8e27734155c861f5f93ce577/Contactless_stations_map_8_March_26.pdf

The only thing is your DC will be charged an adult fare using contactless.

TfL fare checker (https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/single-fare-finder) says £15.30 each way peak fare (£10.70 off peak) for contactless (although it may be less due to the daily cap, but I can’t figure out how much that would be), whereas a paper ticket (or e-ticket) for both of you would be £35 ish return - so that ends up pretty much half the price.

Thank you. National rail
wanted £367 return from Manchester to Windsor! It normally costs around £100 so it’s completely thrown me and I get overwhelmed planning trips on my
own.

Lots of different ways of you put it in Google Maps
Or look on Trainline

@LegoTherapy does it really normally cost £100 at peak time? I though Manchester-Euston was known for being extortionately expensive.
But anyway, fine to have one ticket (presumably an advance) for the Man-Eus leg, and then something else for Euston to Windsor.
Hope your journey goes smoothly!

London travel with children between 11 and adult as an outsider is a pain.

@BringBackCatsEyes totally agree. Our local station is within the contactless zone but not oyster zone, so travelling into London with the kids (now both in that 11-15 bracket) is super annoying. I have actually got them those zip cards, so we sometimes go in from Amersham
instead which is then a lot cheaper - though slower.

I know this journey very well. 1. get taxi direct from slough to legoland. It’s not much further or more money more than Windsor to legoland maybe £10 vs £7 and much less time and hassle than changing and taking additional train. 2. Don’t arrive between 930 and 1000 as traffic can be bad that last few minutes to the legoland roundabout. 3. You can tap in and out in slough. Hope that helps and have a lovely time.

I wish he was still 10!