London Pass v Oyster Card

Q: When comparing the London Pass + travel to the Oyster card - which repreesents the best value for money? We are a family of 5 (youngest is 12)

A: You don’t say how long you are going to be in London for so let’s assume you’re here for 3 days for price comparison purposes.

You can currently buy a 3 day adult London Pass including travel for £73. Given the London Pass without travel is £54, you are basically paying £19 for a 3 day travelcard for one adult. (Or £6.33 per day.)

Compare that against using an Oyster card. You have to pay £3 per card, and then you put credit on it. Once done, you can use it as a one day travelcard for only £4.60 a day for within zones 1 and 2 (per adult.)

However, the London Pass also includes the train journey to Windsor, as well as all Underground zones within the price. To use the Oyster Card for zones 3 – 6 the price is slightly higher than £4.60.

All in all, I guess it depends on where you intend to travel to and what you plan on seeing. If you don’t intend visiting many sights and you’re sticking to central London (zones 1 and 2), an Oyster card for each of you is probably my recommendation. But if you do intend seeing lots of tourist attractions, maybe going on a trip to Windsor and so on, probably buying the combined London Pass with Travel is a better deal.