Luckily my wife and I had each been to London before. As a big and modern city we knew there were a lot of transportation options. We also knew we’d need to figure out cell phone coverage during the trip to help us get around.

Cell Phones

During our trip to Rome a few months prior in February 2018 we had purchased two data-only SIM cards that allowed us to text, use google maps, and do everything but make phone calls. Those same cards would also work in London and we still had most of our data allowance. We didn’t have to worry about it expiring either because it would never expire. This simplified things. We just needed to make sure the cards were installed and set up in our phones.

I’d put one of the cards in my phone and the other in one of our old phones that we kept as a spare (and the kids used to take pictures during trips). If we split up the group that wasn’t with me would have the other phone.

Airport Transportation

There are several options to get into the city from Gatwick where we were arriving. I considered hiring a car/van since there would be 5 of us and we’d have considerable luggage, but not only was it about twice as much as the Gatwick Express train, but the estimated drive time was more than twice the time of the train.

The Gatwick Express train is direct from the airport into Victoria station. The terminal is actually in the airport so it’s easy to get to. One leaves in each direction every 15 minutes. It’s perfect for what we needed and being how it just goes to and from the airport, it’s better suited to having large suitcases than normal trains would be since all the passengers would be in the same situation.

I looked and we could buy tickets online, but I decided to buy them in the terminal in the airport when we got there. I probably should have bought them online to save 10% but for whatever reason I didn’t.

From Victoria station we would be pretty close to our hotel. We could take the subway for a couple stops, but it would only be a short taxi ride and with our luggage. Avoiding the need to lug our bags up and down escalators and through the crowds. We’d take a taxi (or two) that would simplify things and minimize the stress on our first day.

Oyster Card

Once in the city we’d need to figure out the best way to get around on public transport. Google maps would tell us how to get anywhere we needed but we would need to figure out the best way to pay for those rides.

Children under 11 are free on most modes of public transport within the city so we’d only have to worry about the three adults. They don’t really have an unlimited daily or weekly pass, or at least not one that worked for us, but there is the Oyster card.

The Oyster card is a refillable contactless pass that charges you per-ride, but with a maximum amount per day. Once you reach that daily limit the rest of the rides that day are free. It works out to be 4 or 5 rides so it doesn’t take much before the rides are effectively free. When you run out of credit on your card you can recharge it at a tube station with cash, credit card or debit card.

There are daily travel pass cards, but there were very few scenarios where those would be a better deal. There are two types of Oyster cards as well. You have to add a 5 pound deposit to get both types of Oyster cards. If you get the tourist version of the Oyster card you can’t get that deposit back, but if you get the card in a station, you can get the deposit back by closing the card at a station at the end of the trip. Since our hotel was within a block of a tube station I figured I’d get those when we checked into the hotel.

Not only did the cards work on the subway and buses, we could also use it on the river water ferry. I had read that it was a much cheaper ride than a paid tourist ferry and we got the same views. It would definitely be on our todo list!

Day Trip to Cambridge

My wife wanted to take a side trip to Cambridge one of the days. Cambridge is about an hour long trip from Kings Cross station in London. I looked up train ticket prices online. They vary by time and day. We were planning to go on a Sunday which was actually one of the cheaper times. There were plenty of trains leaving throughout the day so we could pick and choose which one we wanted to go on when we got there. No need to purchase them in the future.

We knew where to go and how to get there. Now we needed to narrow down our choices