Help! London travel!

[BebeBelge]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help? I am going round in circles trying to work out what kind of travel tickets we need to buy for tourist trip to London. Can someone advise? I don't really want to buy Oystercards as we're only going for 3 days! Here is relevant info:

• We are 2 adults & 3 kids 12yrs+
• We are staying in Zone 1
• We plan to visit Natural History Museum, British museum and the Science museum
• we will go to the theatre twice in the evening
• we don't mind walking but if somewhere is more than 40 mins walk away we'd probably get bus/tube
• we are there for 3 days. Friday morning to Monday lunchtime.
• the children do not have their own contactless cards.

If anyone can help, I'd be very grateful!

You can all tap in and out using bank cards. If you have spare bank cards give them to the DC to tap in/out although they’ll be charged adult fares. For discount fares you either need to apply in advance online for an oyster or speak to someone at a ticket station if you can find anyone (so many are unmanned now). Could also try a machine but I haven’t used one in ages so can’t remember if there’s child fare options there. Easiest really would just be bank cards tho.

The kids will all need Visitor oystercards or as previous poster says if you have more than one contactless, but you each need a separate method of payment.

May be misremembered but I thought under sixteens were free on buses.

You can get Young Visitor discount added to the oystercard.

Under 16s are free with on buses with a zip card but that is only available to London residents.

Yes bank cards is easiest- one per person. Remember you can use a contactless credit or debit card- do the adults have both?... It will calculate a daily cap so you won't pay more than £8.50 per card per day in zone 1 and 2 (tubes and buses). The kids will pay the adult rate but they would be half price anyways if you got them an Oyster so you may find it simplest just to suck up the difference.

You can still buy paper travel cards and single/return tickets at ticket machines inside the tube station - that would include the child discount.

Kids under 16 are free on buses. You're supposed to have a photo/zip card but I've never seen one asked for.

Google maps is reliable as a journey planner, I think citymapper(?) is another one recommended on here for tourists.

I would plan your day/visits then see how much tube/bus you will use and choose ticket/s for the kids from there.

TfL accepts most mobile payment methods, so if the kids have phones they can use those, but it would be adult fare.

Buses are only free in London if under 11!!! I thought this and just googled it. After that they can get free travel with an 11-15 Oyster card. You can apply for this in advance (it will take up to 28 days) and there is a £15 fee. Might not be worth it for a three day visit, though will if they come back a few times.

Using a debit card is good but don't you have to be careful to tap out as well as tap in? If you make multiple journeys during the day it should charge you same as a day ticket. Doesn't always work like that in practice though. Make multiple journeys in a week should charge you same as a weekly ticket.