londoners - while I have your attention... travel tips?

[laurawaterford]

please I'm at a loss. we are family of 6 travelling to London with our own car (does that 'own car' bit sound like I'm showing off? (he has his own suit too, actually).

we want to get into central london for most of our days (6 days). what is the best ticket to buy for public transport. I'm sooo confused. Oyster looks the business but can't quite make out what I need. What DO I need??

where are you going to be staying?

Wimbledon - so back and forth each day. how long will it take to get to central London would you say?

yes, get oyster card, you can use them on tubes and busses. i think wimbledon is on the tube so probably no more tahn 30 mins in to a majour central station i wouldnt have thought (i live the other side so not sure)

by the way kids travel free on buses not sure about tubes

Oyster card is great for tubes/buses, but if you're travelling on the train (which you may well do if you're in Wimbledon as trains into Waterloo only take about 15 minutes) then a family rail card might be a good investment.

Go to the station at Wimbledon and ask at the information counter.

Get an oyster card and stick a 7-day Travelcard on it.

I think they used to do family tickets but I can't see any on the website (here), so you may have to have 6 separate ones.

look here

you can't use oyster on south west trains which is the service that goes to waterloo from wimbledon
you can however buy these 2 for 1 ticketshere which you may want to do

Wimbledon on a branch of the District line - lovely & quick up to High St Ken/Notting Hill/Paddington - easy as anything to get connections from there on everywhere. Don't drive in from W'don (remember & beware of congestion charge too!)

Under-11s free on the Tube at all times (and I think up to 4 of them!) when travelling with an adult. Ask staff to let children through gates - they're always nice about it.

Get an Oyster, but let the ticket office at W'don recommend you the right package - they're the experts.

excelland links and advice. thants everyone!!

I wanted to ask a very similar question, we are coming to London for a few days in August too (but by train, and already have a family railcard).

The websites about Oystercards are a bit difficult to fathom, usually I come on my own and just get day travelcards.

So you need an Visitor Oystercard and then buy 7 day travelcards for the adults with the oystercard?

Presumably you don't need travelcards for the children if they go free on the tube?

and should you buy your oystercard in advance online or just when you turn up (at Paddington for us)?

I'd call the Oyster people [naive assumption there is a number to call] as being a Local I don't anymore know whether there are special visitor deals you have to buy from outside London (there used to be).

In your place, I would probably just go to the Paddington office - unless I was arriving there at one of the times when P'ton is unholily mobbed (Friday evening before a long weekend; commuter-time first Monday of the month; that sort of thing).

PS - yes, no need for Oysters for children. I've still got ds's Oyster from when you still had to pay for b/w 5 & 10s at rush-hour - I've kept it out of nostalgia as it's got such a sweet 5yo pic. [Random mush moment]

Thanks.

there are Visitor Oysters, apparently, but whether they are just for Foreign visitors or UK non-Londoners too I don't know. I can't see why we don't just get the normal Oyster if it's pay as you go anyway.

Paddington is likely to be mobbed on an August Saturday I suspect.

The old visitor travelcard thing was that, as visitors, you could get 3-day travelcards - while as locals you could only get 1 day or 7-day. (Though if you think you'll do pay as you go anyway it might be neither here nor there .. though personally I like travelcards better since you don't find yourself ambushed by running out of credit/rationing your journeys.)