tickets (4)

If you are a solo traveller staying in London for a few days, taxis will prove very expensive. Buy an Oyster card and top it up with some money, then use it on any bus or tube/subway journey for half the price of paying cash. Cost £3, but more than pays for itself after two tube trips.

Buy an Octopus Card from any MTR station. It's a more sophisticated Oyster card. You can use it for any MTR or bus journey, the star ferry, in many shops and with vending machines.

Getting a taxi into London from Heathrow can be very expensive, and the traffic is terrible. It's likely to take more than an hour, but there is a high-speed express train that takes you into Paddington in 15 minutes - the Heathrow Express.

Buying a single ticket on the London underground is now £4 – if there is more than one of you travelling, then it is often cheaper to get a black cab. Alternatively you can buy an oyster card, which will reduce the cost of a single journey in zone 1 to £1.50.