Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

I can get a cheap air/hotel package to London, but will I go broke on the other expenses?

I can get a cheap air/hotel package to London, but will I go broke on the other expenses?

Old Jan 18th, 2004, 06:14 AM
  #21  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 9,050
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Patrick made a good point about high fees for special exhibits at the free museums. When we visited the British Museum in 2001, the special exhibit about Cleopatra was £8 or £9.

The good news for first-time visitors is that unless a special exhibit is on a topic you're especially interested in, you can just ignore it, since there's more than enough in the free parts of the place to completely overwhelm you!
Anonymous is offline  
Old Jan 18th, 2004, 07:22 AM
  #22  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,251
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I am glad to hear about the museum tips. In the US I much prefer D.C. to New York. I have never tired of all the great free museums in our capital.

We always travel light and always take public transportation in from the airport. We've done it in Paris, Frankfurt, and Vienna and can't imagine we'd do anything differently this time. We are basically your standard cheap budget travellers. This allows us to take many more trips.

re: hotels choice

I am not a fan of canned packages myself and much prefer to be able to choose my own lodging. However, this is one of those times when I could never put together airfare and lodging on my own for anywhere near the same cost. This package is around $750 a person (all taxes and fees included) for a 6 night hotel stay and airfare from Minneapolis (the dates we are looking at the cheapest plane tickets I can find are over $600).

The tip on choosing a hotel with full English breakfast is a good one though as some of the hotel choices offer this where others only offer continental. We love northern europe where you get the full breakfast. We really eat up and have found that this can hold us until about 4:00 by which time we are ready for a break for a snack and a drink anyway.
julies is offline  
Old Jan 18th, 2004, 09:23 AM
  #23  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 6,523
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Julies, go for it!! We are leaving next week and our Canadina dollar is even worse.
I agree with the other posters, that it is possible to have a good time without breaking the bank. We have printed out the 2 for 1 vouchers for the Tower of London and anything else I think we might be interested in doing.
We plan on taking the A2 bus from the airport. But it depends where you will be staying. This bus drops us right near our hotel, so we won't need a taxi. A bit more money than the tube, but a lot less than the Express train, or taxis or drivers.
Also the last time I was in London, Pret a Manger, a sandwich shop, had reduced sandwiches by mid afternoon. I don't know if that is always the case, but it worked well for me.
After many trips to London, I have only just realized that a ZOne 1 travel card , which is good for zone 1 underground, is good for buses throughout all of London. So if you are tired of walking one day and need a rest, or a place to eat your sandwich, hop on any bus and enjoy where it takes you...and then cross the street and take the same bus back. We saw lots of areas we would not have seen otherwise. So, you really don't need to spend a lot of money.
kodi is offline  
Old Jan 18th, 2004, 10:14 AM
  #24  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
HI
having recently returned myself from a short repeat visit to London, on a budget that was pretty tight (at least for me) I will tell you that I found myself just making different decisions.

The souvenir booklet for 7 pounds (translating to $12-$13 for me)--did I really need it? The admission charge for the special exhibit that I wasn't sure I was going to spend much time in--did I want to spend that 8 pounds?
I took one taxi ride for 10 minutes--10 pounds. Ouch!! That was my ONLY taxi ride, and it gave me renewed appreciation for taxi rates here in New York, a not exactly cheap city to visit or live in.

I just found myself passing up the silly souvenirs,and even the refreshments in some of the museum cafes which seemed way overpriced, as they often are. Since my B&B also provided breakfast, I found myself not hungry again until mid to late afternoon, so almost every day I had a large very late lunch/very early dinner, and never went to bed hungry.
Tight budget doesn't mean I wanted my experience to be Dickensian on vacation!
elaine is offline  
Old Jan 18th, 2004, 10:41 AM
  #25  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 507
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
While jsmith is correct about the Dollar being even weaker than it is now in the early 1970s,you got alot more for your £'s back than.On my first trip to London in 1974 I stayed in a B&B in Sussex Gardens,for £7 a night.That same B&B today is now £55 a night.That pint of Bitter that now costs £2.50 was 29 Pence.As a matter of fact I was able to spend two weeks traveling most of the UK for less than £15 per day.
Lovejoy is offline  
Old Jan 18th, 2004, 11:06 AM
  #26  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5,579
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Lovejoy, the only fair comparison of the cost of things is in relation to earnings. My first job after college with a BS in Chemistry from an ivy league university in the mid 50s was at $300 per month and I worked for 6 months before getting a raise to $325. My actual first job was at $0.75 per hour, the minimum wage, while attending school.

Is the 55 pounds today any less affordable than the 7 pounds in 1974?
jsmith is offline  
Old Jan 19th, 2004, 11:38 AM
  #27  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 571
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I did one of those packages (from BA) recently) - here's my advice:

1. Choose the hotel that includes the biggest breakfast. Make a list of the offerings and check them out at Tripadvisor.com. I took the one with the biggest breakfast & hightest rating, and it was fine.

2. You can eat nicely and not too expensively in museums which is easier & more quality-controlled than hunting for places near them, also more time-efficient.

3. If you are interested in theatre, really research you choices: besides the half-price place in Leicester Square, each theatre has its own scheme for same-day distribution of cheap tickets, in some cases costing a penny.

4. If you care about art: the Saatchi Gallery is the best venue for contemporary art in the world: it has an entrance fee BUT Time Out London, which is worth buying, usually has a two-for-one coupon in it, saving you L8.50

5. If you want to take a side trip by all means do so of course, but London is vastly bigger and more varied than the other places you mentioned, vastly bigger & with more to do than Manhattan (where I live) in my opinion-- so - you might find enough to do there!!

6. Did you say time of year? April on, I would think, I would highly recommend day- or side-trip to one of the areas with amazing gardens, like a visit to Sissinghurst.

Try site for National Trust

& National Garden Scheme (different thing)
Elizabeth is offline  
Old Jan 19th, 2004, 11:47 AM
  #28  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
When I went to London in 01, the dollar was almost the same as the pound, and it still was really expensive
I worked the trip out to be about 4k, but it ended up about 7k
sam453 is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
akogel
Europe
6
Mar 9th, 2013 12:11 PM
Reisender
Europe
13
Jul 11th, 2007 11:05 PM
4khansen
Europe
44
Sep 15th, 2006 12:57 AM
Hagan
Europe
22
Mar 14th, 2005 12:12 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -