Article

London Tourism

London is the Capital City of England and a tourist hot spot for overseas tourists, as well as for UK residents. However it is a large area and has lots of major attractions to visit and photograph. These include:

• Houses of Parliament

• Tower of London

• London Eye

• London Bridge

• Buckingham Palace

• Kensington Palace

• and loads more .......

Getting Around London

There are various modes of transport to get you around London including on foot, the London Underground, London Buses, National Rail Trains, The Docklands Light Railway, Tramlink as well as London River Services.

London Travel Pass

If you are visiting London, with so much to see and do, a Travelcard to get around the capital may be the answer. It allows you to move easily, quickly and economically around London’s Public Transport network, this includes travelling on London Underground, London Buses, National Rail Trains, The Docklands Light Railway, Tramlink as well as giving a 33% discount on London River Services. One point to remember that to travel around central London by bus you are now required to have paid for your journey prior to travelling, so the Travelcard is one way of allowing you to do this. It can be used for travel into London from Heathrow using the Underground, and from London City Airport using London’s buses and Docklands Light Railway connections to the Underground but excludes the Heathrow Express and City Airport Coach Link. For transport purposes London is split into travel zones and the Travelcards are valid for use within Zones 1-2 or Zones 1-6.

For more details on the card as well as being able to identify the zones you want to travel in and therefore the relevant prices as well as being able to purchase a copy prior to your visit see their website a   www.londontravelpass.com.

London Oyster Card

This can be used for paying for bus, tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and participating national rail travel in London. It costs £12 per person, which includes a £2 non-refundable fee to cover the cost of producing the card. It will be pre-loaded with £10 credit and can be topped up at over 3,000 outlets all over London. Cards do not expire and can be used for future visits or given to someone else visiting London. Placing it on the available card reader each time you make a journey automatically deducts the best price option. You can make as many journeys as you like in a 24 hour period and Oyster will automatically charge less than the price of an equivalent Day Travelcard or One Day Bus Pass. Children and the Oyster.  All children under 16 travel free on trams and buses at any time. Children under 11 may travel free on the tube and Docklands Light Railway from 09.30 Monday to Friday and anytime at weekends and public holidays, provided they are travelling with an adult who has a valid ticket or Visitor Oyster Card. Children under 5 may travel free at all times with a fare paying adult. Oyster Cards have to be purchased prior to arrival in London and are available online from this link.

Also see the City Sightseeing Tour details listed below for another way to get around London and see 70 of it's top sites.

For more on getting around London at a discount see our article on Ways to Cut the Cost of Rail Travel .

Visiting Attractions

There are many attractions in London and definitely too many to cover in a day trip, even if you just visit them to photograph from the outside. So if you want to take photographs and do the tourist sightseeing at the same time you are going to need to plan your visit, identify what you want to achieve and therefore see and be aware that even if you're there for a week you will still need to go back again. Visiting London can be costly, but there are ways of keeping the costs down with a little forward planning. Some of these methods include, using Tesco Clubcard Deals for those attractions that are apart of their scheme or the Airmiles scheme, using vouchers which can be found in tourist leaflets/brochures or even some special discounts being offered by hotels and other places.

The London Pass  allows you to purchase a 1-6 day card to get entry into 55 of London's attractions, plus discounts and offers on restaurants, cafes, shopping etc. You can also incorporate a travel element to allow you travel around on the London Transport Network. See this link for more details - The London Pass

City Sightseeing Tours in London. In the UK they cover 30 cities/towns including London. They operate as a Hop On and Hop Off as much as you like service at any of the bus stops on the route as well as allowing you to see all the best sights and attractions that the town or city has to offer, for London this numbers 70.  This may be a good way of getting around as well as a cost effective way to see and photograph the major tourist attractions. Being Open Top buses if you sit on the top in London they will go at a slow enough speed that you will be able to photograph as you are travelling along.

For London they offer 3 routes taking in different tourist hot spots and each route, if you take it all in one trip, lasts 2 hours, the buses run every 10-20 minutes. The ticket price also includes 3 free walking tours:

• Changing of the Guard (10.30am from the Original London Visitor Centre, Trafalgar Square)
• Cool Britannia (1pm from the Original London Visitor Centre)
• Jack the Ripper (3.30pm from Tower of London/Tower Hill stop).

For more details on the City Sightseeing Tours in London and to purchase tickets - see this direct link.

For more on these tours and where you might be able to go in other parts of the UK see our page on City Sightseeing Tours .

Restaurants and Eating

Eating out can be a costly affair particularly when you have a family to feed but there options available to reduce the cost or even help towards the costs.

The London Pass   - also acts as a discount card in some establishments around London.

Tesco Clubcard Vouchers can be exchanged for their Deal Vouchers to a value which could cover most if not all of the costs of eating out. A number of the offers available only cover the cost of the food and not the drinks. The sorts of places covered include Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge, Harry Ramsdens, Planet Hollywood and more - see this page for a full list and see our article on Tesco Clubcard Deals   on how to go about collecting or spending your Clubcard points.

Kids Eat Free Card London - For £10 you can get a card which allows children under the age of 11 to eat free in 40 family friendly restaurants in London when accompanied by a full-paying adult. You need one card per child and it expires 90 days after the first day of use. See here for more details and how to get your copy.

For more details on what else may be available to you, and especially economic methods for a trip to London especially on travelling there from other parts of the UK, and using available voucher schemes, discount incentives etc - see the other pages on our website:

Ways to Cut the Cost of Rail Travel

Cutting the Cost of Getting Your Photographs

If you know of other specific deals and offers specifically related to visiting London then please do let us know.