Which is better for a tourist, Oyster or contactless?

[paddington]

The problem could be avoided if your first journey was on a bus.

 

[LA50041]

You need to make a journey to prove it's your card before registering it.

You could try a visitor information centre, such as the one at Kings Cross where they will happily sell you the card, register it and load a discount all in one transaction

 

[freddie1729]

The problem could be avoided if your first journey was on a bus.

I suppose the ideal would be a journey from Heathrow Terminal 4 to 5!

 

[gray1404]

That could work actually. But I think the workaround would be to purchase a card online. That way its registered before use.

 

[hooverboy]

As an infrequent visitor to London, say once a month, I'm wondering if it's worth getting an Oyster card, and yes, I've read and re-read the web pages but I'm still no nearer an answer.

I get you have to pay a fiver up front and continually top-up (via an app in my case) so that makes contactless better, but are there any real benefits to the tourist using Oyster (eg cheaper fares?)

I also understand that if you have a senior railcard, an Oyster gets you 30% off rail fares (but not underground/tram) but those could be bought in advance anyway.

Help!!

depends how long they stay for.

for a tourist staing for a week solid i would say a 7 day travelcard is the best option.
for the occasional stay the 1 day travelcard
for a really infrequent stay/off the cuff reason to be in london then an oystercard does come in handy.seeing as all london buses no longer accept cash, if you get caught short with a tube line out(hence no TVM to hand),then having a spare £10-15 on an oystercard can get you out of a tight spot.

 

[hooverboy]

That could work actually. But I think the workaround would be to purchase a card online. That way its registered before use.

for a tourist the registering bit is a bit nonsensical, just buy the ticket at TVM at the airport/londong mainline terminus.job done.

 

[gray1404]

for a tourist the registering bit is a bit nonsensical, just buy the ticket at TVM at the airport/londong mainline terminus.job done.

My comment was given in the context of adding a railcard discount to an Oyster card, not a tourist.

 

[plugwash]

The point here is surely that many domestic tourists will have railcards, which they would benefit from adding to an oyster card, but the registration requirement (if it's enforced, which it seems it sometimes isn't) would make this something of a pain.