Cheap Trips to London
 

What are some of the best deals you have seen/taken for trips to London? Airfare, hotel, etc. What kind of budget would you suggest for a one week trip?

Perhaps you can supply what kind of budget you're working with and which coast?

Oops sorry hit reply by accident. Check your local newspaper travel section. Virgin Atlantic Vacations offer some great air & hotel packages at terrific savings. My travel agent always comes across great last-minute deals too. Alternatively, there's always Priceline for amazing hotel savings. You can stay in a 4* hotel for as little as 75/nt and a 3* for around 60. You can easily do a week in London with air and hotel per person for less than 1kpp.

Within the past month or so, there have been some incredible deals to London as a result of a fare war initiated by British Airways for travel that stretched into the first weekend of April. A lot of cheap seats were undoubtedly sold, but there are still sub-$300 fares showing up out of big hubs such as Chicago O'Hare. Rooms generally aren't cheap in London, but travelinwifey's suggestion of under $1,000 per person looks very do-able for an early spring trip. Book before those low fares disappear, however!

One connection will be necessary. We are departing from the deep South. Will have to connect maybe in Boston or NY. We were hoping to stay under $1500 per person. Does your $1000 estimate include hotel & air? Not too crazy about booking last minute. If you were planning a trip for next November, when would you start looking for low fares?

There are no guarantees from year to year on timing or cost, but I would think you will easily be able to do it for under $1,500 per person next November for air and hotel because it tends to be a low-cost month for European travel from the U.S. If I was planning to travel in November 2004, I would start looking for fares in late spring/early summer and expect to book no earlier than mid to late summer. Looking at our printouts for a trip to Paris commencing in about an hour -- (YESSS!!!! Umm... Pardon me...) -- I see that I booked in late July. On expenses other than air, I'm guessing exchange rates aren't likely to get a LOT more unfavorable than they are right now -- but it's ONLY a guess, just like my take on airfares next year.

Would flying direct out of Mia or Atlanta be an option? I would start research by checking the advertised vacation packages on the Airline websites. Off season airfare should be around the same plus or minus a few dollars or so next year(crossing my fingers). I would think airfare would be $400 for less. On your own you can book a central london hotel accomodation through Priceline if interrested, check out www.biddingfortravel.com for help. Unless you're taking an air+ hotel package through the airlines themselves I would hold off on separate airfare until next fall. Hope this helps.

travelinwifey: flying out of Houston. For cheap airfares can you name a few websites? I've heard that for sidestep.com you must download something onto your computer.

I would suggest you watch American Airlines fares to London as well as BA. Continental tends to be a little higher, but sometimes they do match sale fares.

I just booked a trip from Houston thru DFW on American to London Gatwick for next May for $473 per person during the aforementioned sale started by BA. I'm a very happy camper since the fare before and after the sale have been $200 per person higher. Sometime after the first of the year, there might be another round of sales, but after that prices usually will hold steady thru the summer months.

For the past several years go-today.com has had very cheap London packages all winter (Nov through March, except Christmas). Usually run about $400 air and hotel per person.That's for 6 nights. You'd have to add about $50-100 if not going from a major city like NY. I used the go-today London package last year and it was great.

But you are WAY too early for next November. I agree with others above that you don't even really want to look till mid summer. If you were to book anything now you'd probably pay a lot more.

If the trip in question is for mid-November, this is way too soon.

If it's a trip in the next couple months or so, I would suggest pricing out airfare + hotel yourself, vs. getting a package.

I haven't found packages to be a savings yet, when I considered searching for the cheapest airfare for my dates and the probable result of a Priceline bid. (Of course you can't bid until you buy the flights, so you just have to make a best guess to determine if the package is a good deal.)

Decide which airline(s) you are willing to fly and check their websites about 5-6 times a week starting in late April.

If you can be a little felxable with your dates, that will help a lot.

Once you are familiar with air fares, you will know when they are offering a deal. Then jump on it.

If you book through the airlines, if they happen to get better latter, you will probably be able to get a refund of vouchers for the difference.

Keith