Hailing a London taxi can cost a small fortune and riding the night buses can take a long time to get you back to your hotel.

However, all that might change with the arrival of the Night Tube – a boon to party people and budget travelers who like to stay out late or are catching a late-night flight.

What is the Night Tube?

After announcing the new service in 2014, the Night Tube has finally arrived! It offers a 24-hour service on selected Underground lines on Fridays and Saturdays.

At the moment, the service is running on the Central Line (that runs west to east across London including stops in Notting Hill, Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Bank and Liverpool Street) and the Victoria Line (that crosses the city south to north, including Brixton, Victoria, Oxford Circus, Euston, King’s Cross, Highbury & Islington).

The service is due to start running on the Jubilee Line starting October 7, 2016 and will be extended to the Piccadilly and Northern lines later in the autumn.

Related: 10 Tips for riding the London Tube like a local

How much does it cost?

The service costs no more than a standard off-peak journey on the Underground, whether that’s a single ticket or an Oyster card fare. Day tickets are valid from the day of purchase until 4:30 am the following day — so if you buy your ticket at 10 am on a Saturday, it’ll still be valid come 4:15 am on Sunday morning (although you’ll personally probably be exhausted!).

How will it benefit the budget traveler?

The obvious benefits are convenience and cost. Rather than having to navigate the network of night buses or shell out for a taxi, this will open up most of central London.

Even the two lines offering the service at the moment are convenient for traveling, servicing some of the typical budget hotel areas including Warren Street, Victoria, and Holborn. Party areas such as Brixton and Shoreditch (using Liverpool Street station) are now much more easy to reach — and return from — in the early hours.

It will also be a huge help for travelers who have scored cheaper flights or trains into and out of London, with Victoria (for trains to and from Gatwick), Liverpool Street (trains to and from Stansted) and King’s Cross (for the Eurostar) all on the network. When the Piccadilly line becomes part of the Night Tube, Heathrow will also be accessible.

Related: The Cheapest and fastest options for getting to the airport in London

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For most tourists, being charged over £4 for a single journey in central London is (understandably) a most baffling concept. While unfortunately I can’t tell you how to make travel on public transport in London cheap, here’s how to make it as cost-effective as possible:

1. Don’t rely on your walking shoes

If you’re planning to really explore all London has to offer, don’t make that common mistake of thinking it is a walkable city. It’s not and it never will be. With the exception of a few tube stops clustered around the area between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn, most stations are there because it would take a very long time to walk between them.

Just tap your Oyster card on the sensor and go through. Photo: Tom Pagenet

2. Make sure you have an Oyster card

The Oyster card is a small plastic card that can be topped up like a “pay as you go” phone (perfect for shorter visits), or used for weekly, monthly and annual Travelcards. Valid for travel on London Underground (The Tube), bus, tram, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), National Rail Service and London Overground, the Oyster card offers savings of over 50% compared to buying individual tickets.

You can get your Oyster card at Tube stops and Travel Information Centres by paying a £5 deposit. If you return your Oyster card when you are leaving London, you get this money back. However, if you are planning on returning regularly then it is worth keeping hold of your Oyster.

With “pay as you go,” a Zone 1 Tube, DLR or London Overground journey will cost you £2. Depending on how much you travel in one day, Oyster will cap your daily spend at £7 for off-peak travel and £8.40 for peak-time travel. Bus rides alone cost £1.35 each with Oyster. If you are staying in London for a week, save some pennies with a 7-day Travelcard to Zones 1 & 2 for £29.20.

Cheapo tip: Just remember to touch in and touch out on the yellow oyster card readers when you enter and leave stations – if you forget your Oyster card will be charged a penalty.

3. Ditch the tourist bus and take the RV1

When you’re out and about in London you may be tempted to give one of those open top sightseeing buses a go. Well, they’ll set you back a whopping £23.

So here’s an idea for Cheapos: One of central London’s public transport bus routes, the RV1, takes in an incredible number of sights and is a whole lot cheaper. Pay with your Oyster card (max £1.35 and less with a Travelcard) and bag a seat next to the window. This is a great option in the winter, as shivering in the rain on an open top bus is certainly not my idea of fun!

Starting in Covent Garden, the RV1 makes its way past Somerset House and across Waterloo Bridge onto London’s South Bank. It then stops at the Royal Festival Hall, the London Eye and the Oxo Tower before heading towards City Hall and the Tower of London. Spend the whole day hopping on and off and feel incredibly smug every time you see an expensive tourist bus pass by!

4. Cruise down the Thames with your Oyster

Another perk to using your Oyster card is that it includes discounts on Thames riverboat routes, meaning that you can opt for public transport and forgo the overpriced tourist boats along the Thames.

Oyster Travelcards will get you a 1/3 off any of the public boat services on the Thames, while Oyster “pay as you go” will get you a 10% discount just on KPMG Thames Clippers riverboats.

KPMG Thames Clippers are perfect for visiting some of London’s biggest attractions, from the London Eye and the Tate Modern, to cruising passed the Millennium Dome and enjoying a leisurely day out in Greenwich. Fares cost between £2.30-£5.40 depending on how far you wish to travel.

Also in our guide: Heading to London and looking for more ways to keep it cheap? Our editors have visited, reviewed and inspected great inexpensive hotels all over town. Read reviews and see photographs in our London guide.

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Cheapos on-the-go can save quite a bit of cash on public transportation—and without walking everywhere, too. You just need to know how to get the best value out of the underground “Tube” system. Here’s a quick Tube primer:

London: The “Big… Onion”?

Transport for London, the main transportation authority, divides London into nine zones. “Zone One” is the city’s center, the “middle of the onion,” if you will. Think Trafalgar Square and Big Ben.  Zones two through nine work out in rings from there, and are the outer “layers of the onion.”

The price of a Tube ticket depends on how many zones you pass through on any given journey. (Tip: Remember, buses work differently. You can travel on them all over London, in all zones, for one price.)

Three ways to pay for the Tube

1. Single Tickets: You could always turn up at any London Tube station, buy a single ticket, and be on your way. But, as locals will tell you, this is the most expensive and least practical payment option, especially if you plan to make many trips on the Tube during your stay in London. (Read more about single ticket prices.)

2. Travelcard: A second option is to buy a printed “Travelcard” for 1, 3, or 7 days. The price of the card depends in which zones you expect to travel. Also, 1-day cards are more expensive if you travel before 9:30 AM.  Remember, most sights are within zones 1 and 2, so stick to those zones and you should be fine. (Read more about 1 and 3-day passes, and 7-day passes.)

* * However, travel agents (watch out!) will often try to sell tourists 7-day passes good for all nine zones, the cost of which is a hefty £68.  For only zones 1 and 2, the same 7-day pass will cost only £25.80.

Tip: If you do need to go further afield, you can buy an add-on ticket (or just go by bus, if you can spare the time – the Travelcard will be valid.)

3. Oyster card: Finally, I recommend that you buy an “Oyster card,” a pre-paid “smart card” that always charges the lowest fare. You pay a one-time refundable deposit for the card (£2 if you buy it from a special tourist outlet; £3 otherwise) and then load it up with money. You can put 1, 3, and 7-day “Travelcards” on your Oyster card, or use your Oyster for single trips (at reduced rates).

* * Pay-as-you-go fares using an Oyster card are half what they are if you pay cash. Also, there’s a price cap per day, so you’ll never pay more than the price of a one-day travel card. (For more info on the price cap and how it works, go here.)

The Oyster card also gives you some security, because if you register your card and it gets lost or stolen, you can claim back any money you had on it. You can’t do that with a Travelcard.

When you’re finished with your Oyster, you simply return it to a Tube station, where an agent will refund your deposit and any money you haven’t spent. (Note: If you’re owed more than £5, it will be given to you in check form, in British pounds, which might be a pain to cash.)

Bottom line

Oyster cards are probably better than Travelcards for most tourists visiting London, as they’re convenient and charge the lowest single-trip fare. Plus, if you plan to travel quite a bit (and for more than one day), simply put a 3 or 7-day Travelcard on your Oyster card.

For more information on using the Oyster card, check out the Tube’s website. A list of Tube fares for zones 1 through 6 can be found here.

One final note

Check with your hotel and in tourist information centers for special offers available to Travelcard and Oyster card users. Benefits typically include reduced entry fees, special deals in restaurants, and more. These offers change frequently, so look for leaflets at Tube stations, or ask a station agent.

The post London Transportation Tip: Get the most out of the Tube! appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

To simplify things for short-term visitors, there are also two Oyster cards specifically intended for tourists—a one-day card and a three-day card. The Oyster card for Visitors gives cardholders nearly 50% off all cash fares around London on tube, tram, bus, and Docklands Light Railway. Although you have to register your details to get an Oyster card—this part is too Big Brother for us; we suggest you register as “John Doe” if you don’t want Transport for London knowing your every move—it’s worth it for the savings.

With an Oyster card, you’ll pay £1 for bus fares and between £2 and £2.20 for Tube rides, a fraction of what you’d otherwise spend. The beauty of it is you can now snag an Oyster card for Visitors before you even get into London. A new partnership with Gatwick Express allows visitors to buy cards on the train from Gatwick on your way into town. For more information, poke around the Transport for London site.

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