LONDON WEEKEND BREAKS - London Underground (Tube)

When combined, the central city and greater London districts cover a massive area, but the London Underground Tube network makes city travelling fast and easy. It is for this reason that we recommend the Tube system over all of the other city travelling alternatives for those taking London weekend breaks.

For details of ticket types and how to get them, go to the bottom of this page.

The Tube has two advantages that make travelling within London fast and easy. Firstly, the main tourist hubs like the popular sightseeing attractions and theatre land are never more than a very short walk from a Tube station and secondly, most London Weekend Breakers find the system itself easy to understand and navigate.

A further advantage of the Tube is that it connects with all of London’s main railway stations and it also provides a regular shuttle to and from Heathrow airport.

How the Tube works

The Tube has 12 different lines that cover the whole of London and interconnect at various stations enabling cross-line travel. Each of theses lines is distinguished by a different colour enabling the different Tube lines to be easily identified on a map or when at a station.

Small maps of the Tube, which show a schematic of the complete network, can be picked up (free of charge) from all tube stations and many tourist offices. Theses maps make locating the station that you are at and the station that you want to get to easy. You will also quickly pick up how to jump from one line to another at interconnecting stations. It may sound difficult, but it is not.

Buying tickets and ticket prices

The Tube works within different zones that radiate concentrically out from the city centre. Each zone has a number starting with 1. The more zones that you pass through on your journey, the higher will be the fare.

Additionally, you can buy a single one way ticket, a return ticket, or a day pass or three day pass – the latter two being most relevant to London Weekend Breaks.

If you buy a day or multiple day pass, you need to make sure that it covers all of the zones in which you intend to travel. E.g. When spending a day in London within zones 1 to 4 you would buy a day ticket at a cost of £5.70 per person (price valid as of January 2008). This ticket would provide unlimited travel for one person within those 4 zones for the duration of that day.

The other big plus about a London transport day pass is that it also includes travel on the buses and may (dependant upon the pass type) include the Tramlink and London Transport river boats as well.

Our tip - Once you have your ticket, look after it. You will probably need to use your ticket repeatedly and the system for entering and leaving tube stations is an automated one where your ticket is read by a machine. If your ticket gets bent or deformed, it will become unreadable and this will require you to find an attendant each time you enter and (possibly) leave a station. This will waste time and become very annoying, so store your ticket carefully.

Buying tickets for your London weekend breaks

You can buy any of these different tickets from the kiosks (manual and automated) in the London Underground Tube stations. If you tell the attendant what you want to do and where you intend to travel, they will sell you the best ticket for you requirements.

The day and three day passes offer the best value and the greatest versatility.

The London underground lines are as follows

Central line,
Piccadilly line,
Bakerloo line, the Circle line (which is in a continuous loop),
the District line,
Jubilee line,
Northern line,
Victoria line,
Metropolitan line,
Hammersmith line,
Waterloo line and East London