Well getting around in London is not a struggle. As there are smooth nonstop train services available from all corners of London and even around Greater London. The best part of getting around in London is that you can get a smooth train and bus service at any point in time. The women are safe in the city and you only need to make sure that you plan your travel well budget-wise and time-saving-wise. All you have to do is buy an oyster card which is for £3 and then you have to do a minimum top of over £10 to start travelling around London. Whether you are making a one-off trip to London or you are a regular visitor, you can use an Oyster card to travel around the city at ease and use any public transport with the card. You can buy an Oyster card from the tfl.gov.uk website.
London Buses
There are 24 hours bus services available, though at the night the bus services get limited to a few frequent/busy ones. The buses going to central London tend to take more time as there are congestion zones and the roads are always clustered with cars and bikes. The buses stop at every bus stop and if you want to hop off just push the red button in front of your seat. The bus will stop at the next stop. The buses are old age, trolley friendly. So if you have a kid in a pushchair/buggy you can let the bus driver know and they will let you in from the middle of the bus, by opening the step for you to go in. There are three types of buses in London i.e. double Decker bus, normal buses and extended buses. Not all double Decker buses are running on all the routes. As a tourist, I would recommend taking the bus around London or renting a bicycle.
Santander Cycle Hire
Hiring a cycle is a lot easier now than earlier. Santander’s partnership with TFL for cycling services for mass has turned out well and you can now hire a cycle from any part of London where you see the cycle hire station. You can hire up to 4 cycles at a time. All you have to do is go to the cycle docking station and make sure you have the debit or credit card ready, you will need to be sure as to what will be the purpose of using the bike. Being a tourist you need to make sure you understand everything about how much you will be paying and for how long you can keep the bike with you.
Following is a table showing the charges for getting a Santander cycle in London.
| Bike access |
Charges
|
|---|---|
| (includes unlimited journeys of less than 30 minutes) | |
| 24 hours |
£2
|
| 7 days |
£10
|
| Yearly (available to registered users only) |
£90
|
| Extra ride charges | |
| (if you keep a bike for 30 minutes or longer, you pay extra ride charges) | |
| Up to 1 hour |
£1
|
| Up to 1 hour 30 minutes |
£4
|
| Up to 2 hours |
£6
|
| Up to 2 hours 30 minutes |
£10
|
| Up to 3 hours |
£15
|
| Up to 6 hours |
£35
|
| Up to 24 hours |
£50
|
| Other charges | |
| If you or an additional user fail to return a bike |
£150
|
| If you damage or don’t return a bike |
Up to £300
|
To access the bike you need to pay a minimum of £2 and then you pay depending on how long you keep the bike with you at one time. So the example you go from Mansell Street near Aldgate Station and bike to Embankment which takes about 20 minutes or so to reach then you pay nothing extra. In another example, if you take the bike from Great guns near Camden Road station and bike to Putney then it will roughly take 50-55 minutes. In this case, you will have to pay £1 extra to keep the bike with you for more than 30 minutes at one stretch. Cycling with family to nearby places can be fun. We suggest taking the Bike access for a day depending on where your hotel is and travelling around the area by bike if you are close to or inside Zone 1. To know more about the Santander cycle routes, membership click here: Santander Cycle
London Tube Trains
There are in total 13 train lines which connect London. As a tourist you will be travelling around central London a lot, so we would like to suggest you make a ZONE 1 and Maximum ZONE 2 pass by which you will be able to travel around London without any hassle. The busiest ones are the district, Hammersmith, and Central lines. The fares of bus and train tickets are divided into the zones, Zone 1 being the costliest to and travelling from. There are one-day bus and train passes available from every train station ticket counter and kiosks. If you shall need a weekly pass you can buy it from the ticket counters or buy it online from the TFL website. You can have a look at the London tube map here and can click on it to download it.
In case you are coming to London from any part of the UK, you can plan your train journey from Trainline.com
Taxis and Cabs
There are 24×7 famous London black cabs available in and around London. If you are travelling with a group of people there are mini buses are available as well. You can call for the cabs or look at the website London Oxford Taxis. This will help you commute in and around London. Recently another highlight of travel in and around London was the launch of “The Emirates Air Line London cable Car” the initial route is planned specifically for the Olympics, which will probably become another London tourist destination in the near future. The car will run between new stations i.e. Emirates Greenwich Peninsula on the South London side and the Emirates Royal docks on the North London side. For more Getting Around London information please look at the TFL website here.