Leaving Friday - last questions about tubes and rails in London

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I’ve just spent a lot of time on London transportation sites and I’m still confused. Main travel will be between Stratford upon Avon and London - stations in London include Marylebone, Ealing Broadway and London Victoria.</p>

<p>Marylebone seems to be the main hub. Does it make sense to get rail tickets from Stratford upon Avon to Marlebone and then figure out the tube system or it better to get a ticket to the station I want? Prices seem all over the place.</p>

<p>Choices seems to be National Rail, Chiltern Railways and the Oyster system.</p>

<p>There also seem to be a variety of transport cards - any suggestions? The card is for a 22 year old student who may be making 3-5 trips between Stratford upon Avon within a 9-10 week time frame.</p>

<p>The trip begins this Friday so it looks like this is my last round of questions.
Thanks!!</p>

2

<p>I advise you to have a look on the Trip Advisor UK forum for more detailed answers to your questions, but here is the answer in outline.</p>

<p>The Tube aka the underground (NOT the Subway. That’s a pedestrian walkway underground, or a shop selling sandwiches) only operates in london. There are also overground stations in london, and many of these have an underground station as well. You can easily identify such stations on the underground map linked below. Tube stations with links to overground have alittle red “crows feet” British rail symbol next to them.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.london-tube-map.co.uk/london-tube-map/tube-map.jpg[/url]”>http://www.london-tube-map.co.uk/london-tube-map/tube-map.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>travelling from S-U-A and London will be by an above ground normal train. Sometimes cheap fares can be bought in advance online. Often this will be “off peak” travel times only. Which means weekends or after 10am weekdays. </p>

<p>There are lots of trains companies but it doesn’t matter which company you buy your tickets from. they all sell each others tickets. In most cases only one company runs any one route. So don’t worry if you buy from Southern and your train when it comes is Virgin. That’s normal. Some of the train websites do not accept overseas credict cards, but I know east coast does.</p>

<p>[Cheapest</a> Train Tickets for the East Coast > East Coast](<a href=“http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/]Cheapest”>http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/)</p>

<p>On the tube you can buy single journey tickets which cost about £4. Do not do this! This is twice as much as you need to pay.</p>

<p>There are two ways you can save money pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or a travel card. </p>

<p>To use PAYG you go to an underground (NOT overground) station and purchase for £3 a little credit card called an oyster card (when you leave London, have the card in to get this £3 and any remaining money on the oyster back). You can then put money on the card. When you go on the tube you swipe the oyster and the gate opens. swipe again when you exit the tube, and it charges you the lowest price for the journey. £2 instead of £4 for a single zone 1 journey (the tube is divided into zones. Heathrow airport is in the furthest zone, zone 6, and is the most expessive to travel to. Nearly all tourist attractions are in zone 1).</p>

<p>The alternative is to buy a travel card. this allows all travel for 1 day in the specified zones for a fixed price. eg zones 1-2 costs about £5 (personally I’ve got an oyster so I don’t know). You do not say if you are staying in London or in S-U-A. If travelling from S-U-A, you might be able to get a train ticket (over ground) and travel card all in one ticket. These tickets are paper things which you slot into the tube gates and they pop out. Remove ticket and the gates open (this is obvious once you’ve been on the tube once). Alternatively, if it also possible to have a travel card “loaded” onto an oyster for the same price. Then use the oyster as above. If you go outside the zones listed on the travel card, you will need to pay more. this is why PAYG oyster is good. it’s smart and will charge you for a zone 1-2 travel card if you only travel in zones 1-2, and just add the extra cost of travle outside these zones if necessary.</p>

<p>If you are staying in london for 9-10 weeks, I recommend getting weekly travel cards loaded on oyster, and put a little bit of PAYG cash onto it too in case you travel outside thecentral zones. </p>

<p>If you are staying in S-U-A, I would buy an overground train ticket to marylebone with a zones 1-2 travel card included for the day (the people at the station they will know what this means). The it doesn’t matter if you go wrong on the tube. You can have as many travle card journeys in zones1-2 as you like. If you find significant savings online for the overground trainfare, buy these tickets online then on arrival in Marylebone buy a tube travel card (on oyster or paper as you prefer).</p>

<p>NB travel cards/oyster work on the buses and river taxis things too, but not the open top tour bus or guided river cruises.</p>

<p>Finally, for a student making lots of rail journeys, you can save money by buying a young persons rail card</p>

<p>[16-25</a> Railcard - Make Epic Savings on rail fares](<a href=“http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk%5D16-25”>http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk)</p>

<p>only works for overground trains as far as I know.</p>

<p>There is also megatrain (google it) who offer £1 fares but on a very restricted service.</p>

<p>Hope this helps. Maybe not. The tube is hard to explain but easy once you have used it once. Try tripadvisor!</p>

3

<p>Great information - thanks Cupcake</p>

<p>I have another quick question - I want to get some money converted ahead of time. I thought I needed only Euros but now I think I need pounds for London - is that right?</p>

<p>The trip is Paris, London, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Rome/Florence</p>

<p>Suggestions please</p>

4

<p>Yes, England is not on the euro - it’s on the pound. Same for Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland, France, and Italy use the euro.</p>

5

<p>Why not just convert some money at the airport after you land? That’s what I’ve always done. You can also easily exchange money wherever you end up. Sometimes it’s easier not to exchange money but rather, to withdraw money from an ATM in the country and only exchange when you want to go back to USD at the end. You should plan on this latter for when you land - just don’t forget. If you do forget, or need more money, it’s as simple as using the ATM attached to any major bank you see when walking around whatever town you’re in. Other than at the airport I try to only use an ATM at a bank that has people working in it so if there’s any issue I can go inside and talk to someone (but I haven’t had any issues). I also avoid ‘standalone’ ATMs, those not at the actual bank, both in Europe and here.</p>

<p>Be careful of the exchange rates at some of those money exchange places in a mall or elsewhere around here. Also, don’t exchange too much money - remember that you pay a commission for each exchange - both to the foreign currency and back.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes of course. The UK (including Northern Ireland) has never been in the Euro. Have you read any guide books or anything at all in advance? This question is kind of worrying if you are leaving ASAP. There are a few shops (eg Harrods, large branches of Marks and Spencers) in the UK which will take Euros, but at a terrible exchange rate and you will get UK£ in change. But if you land at a UK airport and need to get a taxi, train or bus somewhere else, you are going nowhere with Euros. </p>

<p>The easiest way to obtain cash, and the best rate, will almost certainly be to just withdraw cash from an ATM. If you have a bank of America account, you can use ATMs at Barclays in the UK, and BMP Paribas in France, for free. I really would NOT recommend walking round carrying large amounts of cash if you can help it. ATMs are everywhere.</p>

<p>Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but the Republic of Ireland is not. NI uses £. Republic uses Euros (as do France and Italy. So you only need Euros and UK£ for this trip). NI has its own bank notes (bills) with different pictures on them compared to bank of England ones. However, there is technically no need to exchange these (and I’m not actually sure if it’s possible in any case) as they are worth the same as bank of England ones and can be used interchangably. But (and this is a big but!) since they are pretty rare outside of NI, many shops in England will refuse to accept them (and are perfectly within their rights to do so). So if you do end up with any NI notes in your wallet, spend them before leaving NI or take them home as a souvenir. Some ATMs in NI are labelled “English notes only” and these will only dispense bank of England money (which can easily be spent in NI, they see it every day).</p>

<p>Some NI money pictures</p>

<p><a href=“http://images.travelpod.com/users/vhenschke/adventures.1251729681.northern-ireland-money---not-uk-pounds.jpg[/url]”>http://images.travelpod.com/users/vhenschke/adventures.1251729681.northern-ireland-money---not-uk-pounds.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>standard issue bank of England (paler in colour)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.financebehavior.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/uk-money.jpg[/url]”>http://www.financebehavior.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/uk-money.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This doesn’t apply to the coins. There are dozens of different coin designs.</p>

<p>Different £1 coin designs. All worth £1, valid everywhere in the UK.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.coinnews.net/wp-content/images/2008/25th-Anniversary-Pound-Coin-Royal-Mint-Collections-Silver-and-Gold.jpg[/url]”>http://www.coinnews.net/wp-content/images/2008/25th-Anniversary-Pound-Coin-Royal-Mint-Collections-Silver-and-Gold.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I wouldn’t recommend travellers cheques. They went out with the dinosaurs in Europe and can be very difficult to exchange. Have to find a main bank on a weekday usually, and stand in a long line. Perhaps take some for emergencies only (since no-one else but the signatory can use them) and just change them back to US$ when you get home if they are not used.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would get $100US of UK£ and $100US of Euros just in case you arrive and cannot find an ATM for some reason, and after than just withdraw small amounts from ATMs. </p>

<p>Do not accept £50 notes if you can help it. These are perfectly legal in the UK but so rare hardly anyone has seen one. So many shops (and pretty much all buses/trains/transport) will refuse them due to lack of change or assume them to be a forgery. Only foreign tourists seem to use them. Ask for £5, £10 and £20s. </p>

<p>If you are travelling by Eurostar train from London to Paris or vice versa, there is an ATM in Gare du Nord which dispenses UK£, and an ATM in London St Pancras which dispenses Euros. So in this case it is easy to get money ahead of time.</p>

<p>Forgive me if you know all of this, but you sound like an inexperienced traveller.</p>

7

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I appreciate the information. I’ve been researching and planning for months but it is all new to me so there’s a pretty big learning curve. I’m not going on the trip - it’s our two college kids so there are a lot of firsts going on.</p>

<p>Overall I think we’re done pretty well planning but there are always last minute questions. </p>

<p>They have Capital One Visa card to use and a Visa bank card for the ATM’s. We were able to get Euros and pounds today to get them started.</p>

<p>They’re good problem solvers and I’m sure they’ll be able to figure things out as they go. It’s a pretty packed trip and lots of things are already in place.</p>

<p>I’ve gotten great advice on this board and we’re made several reservations based on information from here.</p>

<p>Thanks again!!!</p>

8

<p>I agree the transportation sounds confusing-
before college my D was traveling from Chennai -> Dubai -> London -> Leeds with 4 months worth of stuff by herself. She had sent me a message asking for the route from Heathrow-Piccadilly- I couldnt figure it out even with the help of natives & the internets- but once she got there, she managed.
After all, mum, she said, * the signs are in English!* ;)</p>

<p>She is a much more experienced traveler than I am- even though she was just 18 when she set off, she figured it out.</p>

<p>This site has lots of links for travelers</p>

<p>[Rick</a> Steves’ Europe: Smart Money Changing](<a href=“http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/moneytip.htm]Rick”>http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/moneytip.htm)</p>

9

<p>Please make sure your credit / bank cards work in the ATMs. Some ATMs in England won’t take more than 4 digits in a PIN. Don’t know how prevalent that is, but it’s safer to check.</p>

10

<p>^^ My D went to England and found that her card didn’t work in the ATM machines. She started running out of money fast! It was related to her having only a savings but not a checking acct. It worked just fine on ATMs here but not there. I was able to eventually contact the correct person at her credit union and get things straightened out by establishing a a checking acct for her so her card would work (this happened right away once we figured out what the problem was).</p>

<p>A related point - contact the CC company and bank with the ATM card beforehand and let them know it’ll be used in Europe for the next few weeks (or whatever) so they can note it and not think it’s fraud when they suddenly see a charge from a foreign country.</p>

11

<p>ATM PINs are always 4 digits in the UK. This may or may not mean they will accept a 6 digit PIN if you have a US bank account. If possible, I’d change it to 4 digits.</p>

<p>If you ask someone in the UK what a “checking account” means they will have no idea. This has no meaning here. When you put your card into an ATM in the UK, you can take out money from a single account attached to that card (this would be called you current account in the UK. The one into which you salary is paid basically). I doubt there will be any option to take money from other attached accounts like savings. </p>

<p>The flip side of this is that in the UK we use PINs for everything. In a shop or restaurant for example, you put your card in a “chip reader” machine and type in your PIN in order to pay. US credit/debit cards usually don’t have the correct kind kind of chip for this, so the machine won’t work. If this happens to you, you need to ask to pay by swiping the card and signature (by law they have to allow you. I think it is the disability rights law). This is usually not a problem when dealing with real humans. The problem comes with automated machines. eg ticket machines at train stations. Sometimes you will have to go to the ticket desk because the ticket machines will not accept your card.</p>

<p>I am still very concerned about anyone travelling to another country who only a few days before they are leaving has not researched what currency they need. This is quite fundamental! To me this sound like last minute unplanned and clueless travel, which is when things go wrong. Go to your local library and get out as many guide books as you can carry. Read them! Practice map reading on a map with no straight lines (that is any place in Europe). Also go to the Trip Advisor forums. The people there are very helpful, and I think you really need to ask all of your questions ASAP. Especially about France and Italy if the travellers cannot speak French/Italian.</p>

12

<p>A related point - contact the CC company and bank with the ATM card beforehand and let them know it’ll be used in Europe for the next few weeks (or whatever) so they can note it and not think it’s fraud when they suddenly see a charge from a foreign country.</p>

<p>Good point- you don’t want to be stranded while your bank investigates your ATM use.(however our Pins are 4 digits)</p>

13

<p>You can purchase some pounds at local bank, yours preferably.
Some banks set the minimum amounts like $500 to avoid fees.
Or you could exchange some at the international airport your kid is departing from.
Get them in small amounts like, 20 and 10 pound notes for small purchases and meals in sketchy places you don’t want to risk using your credit card.
I would recommend taking a bank card and a credit card in case one gets eaten in the ATM machine leaving the backup card.
Take a pix of your kid’s passport info pages and down load it in your computer in case you need to forward it to him in an emergency for a replacement.</p>

14

<p>It’s imperative that the CC card companies and ATM card Co. be notified of your trip in advance.
I’ve known this for myself and my D on traveling, but before I left last Sept and before I notified CC cos., I booked a UK to Prague flight and hotel, from here in US, and my AmEx was refused, and AMex subsequently contacted me about possible fraud. Any purchase that is outside of one’s normal pattern is flagged and could be declined.</p>

<p>Also, do not use credit cards for public phones at Heathrow. The charges go through a company called BBG Luxembourg, who overcharge huge amounts. </p>

<p>Also agree with the passport copies. In fact when I travel, and when my D was in London for study abroad, we had copies with us, hidden in the lining of a suitcase.
Also, write down the CC emergency international numbers which are found on the back of the credit cards.</p>

15

<p>When we were in Italy, we discovered that the Italians (1) don’t like credit cards, and (2) hated making change. So we took small denominations of Euros.</p>

<p>Is this true in London, too, or do most places accept credit cards?</p>

16

<p>^^ It seemed to me that CCs were accepted pretty much everywhere in the UK (England/Scotland/Wales on the last trip) except sometimes at a B&B that was more of a cash deal.</p>

17

<p>Most places accept credit cards in the UK, but occassionally you will see a sign in a store saying purchases under £5 must be paid for in cash.</p>

18

<p>Thanks. So I think for a 5 day visit, all in London, 50 pounds in cash should be sufficient - does that sound right?</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>Before I left for London in September, I called Mastercard and Amex to inform them I’d be traveling. Mastercard was glad I called, made notes of dates and where I’d be going, etc. Amex told me they no longer need this information!</p>

20

<p>^ Interesting that Amex told you that. Maybe it was the fact that in my case the flight/hotel was over a certain amount that caused it to be flagged. However, the fraud dept did state that Amex was VERY security conscious. I dunno. Funny, I subsequently used my Business Amex for that purchase, and that one did go through.
In any case both my D and I did inform the CC companies and the ATM bank that we’d be traveling before we left. In my D’s case, her Mastercard needed re notification after 60 days in London as well. Maybe OP should also inquire about any time limit too.</p>

<p>Also, regarding credit cards…we found that the UK often preferred Visa or MC, and sometimes did not accept Amex…in some shops, and in the B&B we stayed at before D moved into residence.</p>