How do you know which zones you should buy a London travelcard for?

Question

How do you know which zones you should buy a London travelcard for?

Answer 1

You're going through all of Zones 1-3, so that's what you need a Travelcard for. It's where you travel THROUGH that is the important thing. And you will be going through Zone 1 so that needs to be included even if you aren't getting off there.



The bus is included. If you have a Travelcard for any zone, it works on buses all over London - you could potter around by bus ANYWHERE that London buses go and it's all included. Basically, buses aren't in the zone system.



What if from time to time you want to go somewhere outside Zone 3 but not by bus? Easy. A Travelcard for a week or more (I assume this is what you want, for regular travelling) will be loaded on an Oystercard. That can hold pay as you go money at the same time, so all you have to do is add some to your Oystercard and the system works it all out for you. You just get charged the pay as you go fare for the extra zones.



Do not buy a Travelcard for just one day. It is deliberately priced to be so expensive that it's always cheaper to just get an Oystercard and use pay as you go. I'm even including the £5 Oystercard deposit in that.

Answer 2

You need a zones 1-3 travelcard, given that you travel in all those zones (1, 2, 3).



The slightly more complicated answer is that if you can get from your starting point to your destination without going through zone 1, you could in theory at least get a zones 2-3 travelcard, but that may not be possible and/or feasible in terms of the extra time and hassle involved in trying to avoid zone 1 (the money saving won't be huge).



In any case, if you use an Oyster or a contactless payment card, you won't need to worry about any of that, it charges you the right fare, and more to the point the lowest possible fare not just for that particular journey but for all your travels over a longer time frame also.

Answer 3

You need a Zone 1 to 3 Travelcard. You can use it in buses throughout the Greater London areas as unlike the trains and Underground there are no bus zones. Many people now buy a Pay as You Go Oyster Card which is valid in all Zones 1 to 9 and as long as you scan it in and out at stations and you do not have to worry about going out of zone. You can also view zonal maps and Oyster Card/Travelcard information at www.tfl.gov.uk

Answer 4

That rather depends on what zones you're actually going to be travelling in.



If you're going between zones 1 and 3 - you need a zones 1-2 travelcard.