London travel card

[Coconutcoffee]

I am embarrassed to ask this in real life as I used to live in London. Now when I go I just get overwhelmed and confused with the crowds and the travel!

I am going to London with my husband and 2 children soon. I have the train tickets to London but don’t know what to do in regards to travelling on tube/ bus etc….

I am thinking I need to buy something like a family travel card if it exists? My children are 12 and 9 so the 9 year old doesn’t pay for travel. Me and my husband would usually just use contactless but how do we do that and pay for the 12 year old? I am wondering if it’s easier to give her a bank card (I have a couple of accounts) and she can use contactless as well? I don’t want to pay out for an Oyster card I won’t use or is there a paper family travel card I can buy? I feel old and confused!!!! 😫

You and you husband can use contactless it's daily price cap. You can buy a child travel card for the 12yo or you can order a zip card from TfL or get an oyster and get the child rate reapplied in a ticket office.

One of you takes the younger child through the wider barrier, the one you can take buggies or luggage through, using the adult contactless or Oyster card.

If it's just for one day and you are sticking to Zone 1 or 2 tourist areas I would just give your eldest one of your contactless cards. It's means she/he would be paying adult prices but they are capped once you reach a certain amount and you don't pay any more(Zone 1 and 2 is about £9 I think).
The cost for ordering a Oyster Zip (the card for teens) plus putting money on it for the tube journeys would actually be more than the adult daily price cap.

Also if you don't feel confident about using contaxtless /oyster you can still get the paper travelcards at underground stations but it does work out a bit more expensive

I just checked - Zone 1 and 2 adult daily price cap is £8.10.
That's less than the cost of ordering the Oyster Zip plus having to then put money on it for the journeys.

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

Scroll down to Travelling With Children for Young Visitor Discount. It may or may not be worth getting it for your older child depending on how long you are staying / how much travelling you plan.