When I arrive at Heathrow this July in London, I want to take the underground to my zone 2 place I’m staying. I don’t know how to buy?

Just get an Oyster card

Yes, you can simply buy a ticket to the station you’re going to in Zone 2 from Heathrow. You can look up the price at tfl.gov.uk.

But the most economical way is to get an Oystercard from a ticket machine at Heathrow and put money on it for “pay as you go”. If you’re going to be around in Zones 1-2 for 5 days or more and doing at least 2 trips a day, buy a Zones 1-2 7 day Travelcard and you’re covered for all your exploring the cheapest way. This will also go on your Oystercard Clever little Oyster can hold that Travelcard AND “pay as you go” credit at the same time and it’ll work out the fares all by itself. When you go back to Heathrow, it’ll see you’ve paid for Zone 2 and just charge you the extra for Zones 3-6.

If you’re not going to do that many trips in a week, then forget Travelcards. Just use Oyster. Add money to it, it’ll deduct the right fare whenever you use it, and all you have to do is top it up at any Underground ticket machine when the credit is running out. Same as a “pay as you talk” cellphone. It’ll cost you £5 deposit but if you hand the card back at the end of your stay, you’ll get that returned. Or keep the card for coming to London again. It never expires because it’s not a ticket, more an electronic wallet.

It even implements the daily cap all by itself. Do more than three trips a day and you hit the cap on the third one – the rest will be free. How good is that?

Another little hint – the Hopper fare on buses. If you take a bus, pay by Oyster, and take another bus within an hour, the second bus is free. You can thank Mayor Sadiq Khan for that one. I love it because it means I can take a bus to the supermarket 10 minutes’ ride away, and if I can get round and buy my groceries in half an hour or so, I’ll have a free ride home. You NEED Oyster or a Travelcard on buses anyway as they don’t take cash.

NEVER buy an all day Travelcard. It’s deliberately overpriced so that getting an Oystercard for one day is cheaper, even including the £5 deposit. Transport for London’s aim is to get everyone to pay electronically and that’s why they’ve done that.

To summarise, if you don’t want to get complicated, just use Oyster “pay as you go” and it works it all out for you. It’s almost always cheapest.

Heathrow is in zone 6, so zone 6 has to be covered, there are ticket machines in the tube station.