Get around without paying the confused tax

Contactless, Oyster, Citymapper, campus tours and the very useful habit of knowing your route home before you say yes to the plan.

SOAS’s international student guide recommends downloading Citymapper and the TFL app, then using contactless or an Oyster. It sounds obvious until you are tired, late, and suddenly paying for indecision with a very expensive detour.

Back to first-week essentials

Need a quieter route instead?

Students moving around Bloomsbury and campus

Start with the obvious setup

SOAS explicitly recommends Citymapper and the TFL app, plus either an Oyster card or contactless payments. That is the first transport checklist sorted. Do it before Welcome Week fills up, not in the doorway of a station with five other decisions already in your head.

The brochure also points new students toward campus tours led by Student Ambassadors from the walkway between SOAS buildings, which is a useful way to make the on-campus part of your route feel automatic early on.

Students learning their routes around campus

A better week-one route is mostly about reducing guesswork

Walk the short trips

The brochure already treats Russell Square and nearby Bloomsbury stops as part of the student map. Once you know those, plenty of central trips become walkable rather than over-planned.

Save the addresses

Have your building names, residence, and one reliable route home saved before the first big social night. Future-you will not want to improvise at midnight.

Know the quiet fallback

If a journey or event becomes too much, the Welcome Week brochure points to Russell Square and the quiet rooms in Paul Webley Wing as practical reset points close to campus.

Plan around your energy

MySOAS SharePoint lets you build a Welcome Week timetable that fits your actual schedule. Good transport planning starts there, not after you have overbooked yourself.

Use contactless confidently

If you already know your bank card works, your phone has data and the route is saved, London travel gets boring fast. That is exactly the goal.

Treat route-home as part of the plan

Welcome Week is more fun when leaving is easy. Think about the return journey while you are still saying yes, not when you are trying to exit with everyone else.

The three week-one transport habits that matter most

Do the route once before the stressful version

Try your most common trip in daylight before you need to do it when tired, late or carrying half your Welcome Week freebies. Familiarity is transport budget too.

Keep one calm route in your back pocket

If the tube feels like too much, knowing how to walk back to a busier main road, Russell Square or campus gives you a lower-pressure option instead of a full panic reroute.

Build social plans around the practical exit

The right event is not just the one you want to attend. It is the one you can get to, get home from, and still make class the next day without resenting London.

International student guide Welcome Week brochure What I wish I’d known in first year

Know your route home before you say yes to the plan

See what’s on

Find quieter corners

Save route-home check