VisitBritain - Welcome
Oyster is a reusable travel card for London. It's very easy to use (you just touch the card on sensors at stations and on buses) and it always charges you the lowest fare available for your journey. It's made of durable plastic and can simply be 'topped up' when it runs out of travel credit. Oyster fares are always cheaper than cash fares, so it's worth getting one.
The idea is a bit like pay-as-you-go mobile phones where you top up call credit and when that runs out you simply top up more credit. Simply load up your Oyster card with 'travel credit'.
You can get an Oyster card at any underground station, at one of 3,000 Oyster points around London displaying the London Underground logo (usually shops), or in our online shop VisitBritain Direct.
You can use your pay-as-you-go Oyster card on ALL London underground, buses, Docklands Light Railway and trams.
If you plan to use several forms of transport to get around London, for example buses AND tubes. Or if you think you'll make more than 1 return journey per day, it's usually cheaper to get a travel card.