I'm being thick about travelling about in London - help me please!

[Moomin]

OK so if me dh and dd1 want to travel from Ealing (zone 3) to centre of London and maybe one or two tube journeys in the day before going back again same day, do we need a normal ticket (£4 adult £2 child) or a travel card (£6 or something)? We won't be using any other transport (bus for instance); we will be getting a boat from London eye to Tower of London but you have to pay for this anyway.

I can't see why we'd need the travelcard but am I being thick?

pretty sure if you ask for return ticket you will get travelcard anyway. Advantage of travel card is you can use it for more than return journey eg: another tube journey IYSWIM.

Well, when you add the cost of the tube journeys to the £4, it will come to more than the cost of the Travelcard. Or am I being even thicker?

Get an Oyster, put £20 on it and you can put Travelcard-related worries behind you. Apparently Ken has made the tube free for kids - don't know the age limit though.

one or two tube journeys in central London adds up. def get a travel card!

What time of day are you travelling, and what day of the week?

It's your "maybe one or two tube journeys" that will make the difference, to be honest. If you don't have an Oyster card then those will really pump up the cost (if you ever again intend to travel in London, it would even be worth getting an Oyster card).

Your DDs would both be free on the tube (or on DLR, buses or trams), by the way.

ooooooooh, I see

Yes, will get travel card then. Phew, am getting all unnecessary trying to organise itiniery for our Big Day Out!

(in answer to previous question, it's under-11s who get free tube travel. Under-16s can travel free on buses or trams (not tubes) (but 14-15 year olds need Oyster photocard) as can 16-18 year olds in full-time education.

Thought Oyster was only for if you were there for more than a day? We're going on Monday, will be in London for 10am, leaving 5ish

Anyone can use an Oyster, for any length of time. The advantage is that you use it for each journey, but when you reach the monetary equivalent of the Travelcard price, the Oyster stops charging you - so, rather than deciding in advance whether or not to buy a Travelcard, you can just go with the flow and not experience the 'dammit, should have bought a Travelcard but it's too late now' feeling.

(Clear as mud?)

From Transport for London

Under-5s
Children under five can travel free at any time on the Tube, DLR, buses and trams as long as they are accompanied by an someone with a valid ticket or are using Oyster to pay as they go

5-10 year olds
Children aged 5-10 years can now travel FREE at any time on the buses, trams the Tube and DLR at any time.

An Oyster card holds information - such as the type of season ticket registered to it, or an amount of money held on it. If you put money on an Oyster card (you can do it online, or at a station) you can pay as you go, but in one day you will never pay/be charged more than the price of a daily travelcard.

See above site for less confusing explanation!

It's generally twice the price paying cash for a tube fare as paying with Oyster. E.g. Zone 2 - Zone 1 is £4 single fare cash at any time, on Oyster it's £2 on weekdays and £1.50 at weekends or evenings. A single journey within Zone 1 is £4 cash while on Oyster it's £1.50.

So make two tube journeys and you'd save back the cost of buying an Oyster card (£3).

In your particular case, though, probably your best option is to get 1-day travelcards for you and your DH and to pay the £2 child fare on the train for your DD (since she'll be free once you get to central London anyway), and not worry about the Oysters until another day.

In your circumstances I would also suggest that you and DH buy a one day travelcard each. This will cover all the zones you need and each journey you take on it.

Oystercards are more useful if they are used frequently i.e daily. I don't think you can as yet buy family oyster cards; they are individually issued.

wow! I didn;t know that you couldn;t get charged more than the price of a travel card in a day on oyster. Ace! That's so good!

only problem with an oyster if it's only for one day is that you have to pay a £3 'deposit' on the card, although I have bought them a couple of times and only paid it once (?)