London public transport: tickets, passes and apps

London has no single ticket you buy once and reuse all week. Fares are distance-based by zone, and the system is built around pay as you go: you tap in and out, and a cap stops the charges once you have hit the day's or week's limit.

Compare the options below by how many days you will actually travel. Two or three days of sightseeing rarely justifies anything beyond contactless. Five or more days of daily travel is where a weekly product starts to pay.

Contactless is the default. Any contactless bank card, phone wallet or watch works at the gates and on buses. Tap in at the start of a Tube, DLR, Overground or Elizabeth line journey and tap out at the end; on buses and trams you tap in only.

The one rule that catches visitors: use the same card or device for every tap. If you tap in with your phone and out with your plastic card, the system treats them as two separate journeys and the cap will not apply. Pick one and stick to it for the whole trip.

If you have no contactless card, buy an Oyster card at a station machine or ticket window and top it up. Oyster gives the same pay as you go fares and caps as contactless. Paper single tickets cost more and are rarely worth it.

Apps: the official TfL Go app for routes and live status, Citymapper for door-to-door options, and your bank's app to check whether it charges a foreign transaction fee on each tap. A travel card that charges no foreign fee saves a few percent over a week.

London is ringed into zones. Zone 1 is the centre — the West End, the City, South Bank, King's Cross. Zone 2 covers places such as Camden, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf and Greenwich. Zones 3–6 reach out to Wembley, Richmond, Croydon and Heathrow.

Almost everything a first-time visitor wants sits in zones 1–2, so the zones 1–2 cap is the number that matters. Journeys that cross more zones cost more per ride, but the daily cap still limits the damage. If you are staying in zone 3 or beyond, price the extra daily cost against a cheaper hotel before booking.

Heathrow sits in zone 6, so a Tube ride from the airport into the centre costs more than a central journey; the Elizabeth line is priced differently again. Check the fare for your exact route rather than assuming the zone 1 figure.

Heathrow has three rail options. The Piccadilly line is the cheapest, stopping through central London but taking around an hour to the West End. The Elizabeth line is faster and more comfortable into Paddington and the City. The Heathrow Express is the quickest to Paddington but the most expensive; it is only worth it if time matters more than cost.

Gatwick is served by trains to Victoria and London Bridge, roughly 30–40 minutes depending on the service. Stansted and Luton use the Stansted Express and Thameslink or the Luton Airport Express into St Pancras and beyond. City Airport sits on the DLR.

At every airport, tap in with the same contactless card or phone you will use in London. Airport journeys are outside the normal zone 1–2 cap, so expect a higher charge on those days.

Avoid peak hours if you can. Fares are higher in the morning and evening peaks, and the Tube is packed. Off-peak travel is cheaper and calmer, and the daily cap is lower on off-peak days.

Do not switch between card and phone mid-trip, and do not buy a paper ticket for a single journey unless you have no other option. If you are in London for a week of daily travel, compare the 7 Day Travelcard against the weekly cap on your own card — they are close, and the cap needs no purchase.

Walking is often faster than the Tube for one or two stops in the centre. The Tube map is not to scale; a journey that looks like three stops can be a ten-minute walk.