nytraveler

As for your safety, I can understand you mother's fear if she has lived in Detroit. but the UK is much safer than the US and umpteen times safer than a place like Detroit.

While her fear may be understandable there is no need to let it warp your whole life.

Bokhara2

Get Rome2Rio on your iPhone.
It's a useful guide for getting around, whether by foot, public transport or cabs.

There's probably a London app too.

WillTravel

If your food is wrapped up neatly in a backpack, no one will even know you have it. You can eat it in a park, or in a pinch at a bus bench. The sardines, though, I would not try to carry around unless you eat them all in one go, and even then. Substitute nuts or cheese or some such unless you have a kitchen area to eat your sardines.

Stay in a hostel (try www.hostelbooks.com ), or stay in LSE accommodations - http://www.lsevacations.co.uk

Museums are free in London. You can get food at the supermarket. I'd get a transit pass, though. However, if your aim is to go cheaply, you can.

Have you considered Spain or Portugal, though? Those are cheaper than London, for sure. So is Berlin and some other Central European spots. That's just something else to consider.

WillTravel

Remember that on December 25 in London, everything is extremely shut down. You really have to plan if you are arriving that day, as most public transit is out too.

Sassafrass

The consideration and respect you show for your Mother is to be complimented.
Detroit has been a scary place for a long time, and I have been there, so can only imagine your Mom's fears. Reassure her as much as you can.

Willtravel gave you some other nice options to consider.

janisj

"I don't have a strict budget but I think the airplane ride will be approximately $1,300 US dollars and I wonder if I can take the whole trip for under $2,000 or $2,500. "

Please clarify -- do you mean $2000-$2500 including the airfare? In other words $700-$1200 for everything else?

If so, with a lot of scrimping you might make it for $1000-$1200 but IMO/IME $700 simply isn't possible. If you just go for 10 days (which would net you 8-ish days on the ground) you'd have only $87/£55 a day. You will be lucky to find accommodations plus basic groceries for that. Leaving nothing for transport, any paid attractions/sites, or anything else.

And if you visit for longer it would be even harder. 12 days = 10-ish days on the ground so your money would be stretched even more.

michaelpianko

I still have not visited England yet but I am thinking of traveling to London, England, in July, or about two months after whenever I make my reservations. I probably want to see at least:
1. The British museum (1 day?)
2. The National Gallery (another day?)
3. The British library (There may be an exhibit there and I am actually a librarian, may take 1-2 hours or less?)
4. The Tower of London
5. The London Eye ferris wheel
6. The Jewish museum (I am Jewish according to heritage but I don’t observe the religion.)
7. Museum of London (2-3 hours?)
8. Possibly Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (I have been to the Chicago botanic gardens, so perhaps Kew Gardens would just be repeat of the Chicago Gardens?)
9. Possibly one or more of the smaller art museums if I have time (Dulwich picture gallery, Wallace Collection, or Courtauld Gallery. I do like art museums.
10. Probably will want a city walking tour. (I normally don’t pay attention to churches but I would not decline to go into one if it happened to be part of an organized walking tour.)

I haven't decided whether I need or want a tour of the museums or whether I want to just randomly pick up the museum map and go without the tour.

It is hard to give an exact budget but I still want to take a rather cheap trip. I am still thinking of staying in a hostel, but a sort of decent hostel with not more than 3 other people in the room, I don’t want a decrepit place just to save money. I am still thinking of buying my own food at whatever random grocery store or fruit market I can find sort of near wherever I am staying. Most of the trip’s cost will probably be the airplane tickets. Would taking leaving on a Saturday and leaving the next Saturday be enough time or too much time?

marvelousmouse

Ok. So here's your biggest issue (as I see it). Your idea that you need a 4 person dorm and your limited budget. I haven't been to London, but I've been researching for a trip there for December and I've stayed in hostels all over North America.

A typical dorm bed in London will be, say, $30-36 per night. That's probably 10-12 people. At some places, that price is 20 people. If you want a 4 person bed place, it jumps up to around 50 dollars. That's quite typical. So let's say 6 nights at 50- that's 300. 6 nights at 35- that's 210. For the price of a 4 bed, you could stay 2 extra nights in London in a basic dorm. Just saying. To me- the extra money is not a huge deal, because trust me, my food/entertainment budget is way more than 300 for the week. It sounds like to you it would be significant.

Plus, although I generally recommend people go for the smaller dorms, in reality, the HOSTEL you choose is far more important than the dorm set up. Stay at a hostel that is family friendly with great security, and they generally crack down hard on the party animals. So a 12 bed is not necessarily going to be a whole lot noisier than a 4 bed provided you don't have completely rude roommates or insist on going to bed at a crazy early time.

All of the decent hostels I've looked at (and I'm kind of a hostel snob) are in the price ranges I've listed. Go to hostelworld.com or something like that and limit your search to hostels with a 80% rating or higher. Enter some dates and find out what's available.Then come back and post locations of your top picks and folks here can give you their input. There's a lot to choose from in London which seems to make the prices slightly more reasonable than what I've seen on several US cities.

You may want to play with your dates- it could be easier/cheaper to go from a Wednesday to Wednesday, for example.

A week would not be enough for me. Pick up a London guide book or merely look online. There are so many museums and cool historic sites. Things like Kew really depend on your interest. I've been to Chicago Botanic Gardens as well. And several other cities' gardens. It's not a case of "seen one, seen them all". But 15-20 years ago, botanic gardens bored me to tears. I absolutely love them now- they're a highlight of any place I go. Skipping Kew this time merely because I'll be there in December. So my point is that only you know what interests you.

I think museum tours are too restrictive, but if I want an overview of the city, I sometimes do the hop on hop off bus. So perhaps that's something to consider. I like it for the first day because it gives me a bit of an overview for navigation by myself later on. That also gives you the freedom to get off at museums or sites you didn't plan to see or maybe didn't even know they existed.

marvelousmouse

Hey also- I don't know where you fly out of, but possibly consider September instead if you have a bit of flexibility. July looks like the priciest month so far in terms of airline tickets. And I'm assuming the major sites would be a lot less crowded.

flanneruk

"3. The British library (There may be an exhibit there and I am actually a librarian, may take 1-2 hours or less?)"

The British Library has one permanent exhibition: simply the world's greatest public display of rare and historic books (from very early bibles to handwritten drafts of John Lennon's alleged poetry), which I'd see as THE single most important thing in London for anyone interested in books to see.

It also has frequent short-term exhibitions (some, tbh, more interesting than others), mostly centred on its immense undisplayed archive.

There are a few open opportunities (under "tours" at http://www.bl.uk/events) to see its librarianship, but its reading rooms are accessible only after an interview, with evidence of a need that other public resources in London can't meet. You'd probably do better networking professionally via your current employers if you want to get to see the Library, as a library, at work.

janisj

flanner is back to using parens w/ his url's . . . messes them up.

Here is the correct one http://www.bl.uk/events

Re the H-o-H-o bus tours -- the biggest problem w/ them (other than being stuck in traffic) is they are expensive. A one day ticket costs more than your daily budget for accommodations. If you are still on the very tight budget from your original posts, you really can't afford the H-o-H-o's

Re tours in the various museums -- most offer free general tours which are fine - they give you a overview and you can then visit more in depth.

'3. The British library (There may be an exhibit there and I am actually a librarian, may take 1-2 hours or less?)'

Actually more like 2 hours or more.

The Courtauld and Wallace Collection are good. The Dulwich is more problematic because of your limited time in London. We don't yet know where you'll be staying but just say somewhere in Bloomsbury/Kings Cross it will take an hour travel each way.

marvelousmouse

Oh, thanks for mentioning the hoho price, janisj. Yes, it is expensive. And often pretty useless as actual transportation. Only mentioned it because when I first started doing a lot of my solo travel, the hoho bus was well worth the money to me- it made the destination feel more manageable, and it was a good first day activity. OP seems a bit nervous but maybe that's changed since last year?

Anyway...I've gotten a lot bolder and better at navigating public transit since then-I've only taken a hoho once in the last few years and that was because I was ill. Sometimes stuff like that is worth the price, no matter how limited your budget is (in my opinion).

janisj

"Only mentioned it because when I first started doing a lot of my solo travel, the hoho bus . . ."

Oh - for this OP I agree a H-o-H-o would actually be a good idea - it is just the very small budget and having to pinch pennies. There are a couple of (regular) bus routes that pass a lot of the big/famous sites.

Mimar

The British Museum is huge; a one-day visit would take a lot of time and more stamina than I have. But it's free. If you stay nearby, you can drop in more than once.

I'm glad flanneruk mentioned the Treasures exhibit at the British Library. For one of your interests, it's a don't-miss. For a preview: http://www.bl.uk/treasures/treasuresinfull.html.

Others have mentioned London Walks. Here's the website: www.walks.com. Highly recommended.

michaelpianko

My budget increased to approximately $3,500 US dollars. But even if I had a lot of money to blow, I would think that as a single person, a hostel would slightly increase my chances of talking to other people. I would stay at a "normal" hotel with a private room if I had somebody to travel with. Orbiz.com seems to have a list of good hostels and tripadvisor.com seems to have a lot of reviews of places. I or the websites could be wrong. I suppose that without any reason not to, I will randomly pick a hostel sort of near the British museum or National gallery and then I'll do a combination of walking and taking the London Tube or subway to anywhere else I see. I care more about whether the place and neighborhood is decent or decrepit than just about price. If I am not seeing multiple major cities or multiple countries this shouldn't be a complicated trip.

I might or might not go to the British library after all, if I make time for it. Maybe I will just look at the parts easily accessible to the general public, briefly. I don't have a research interest that justifies viewing any part of the collections and I need to take a break from looking at books and at a computer screen.

carolyn

Even if you don't ordinarily visit churches, a docent tour of Westminster Abbey is very interesting--a lot of history plus the Poet's Corner where a number of great writers are either buried or have a marker.

michaelpianko

The grandfather who I may have mentioned gave me some money, is actually still alive and is not happy that I didn't invest his gift with his stockbroker. Although I do work as a librarian and I have no kids to spend money on. If you had a 32-33 year old kid or grandson, wouldn't you be pissed at the possibilitynof him spending money you don't want him to spend, on a trip you are afraid for him to take too?

But assuming I want to see England anyway, would it be wise to sign up for a tour leaving London, going to Stonehenge and/or some other areas away from London? I am supposed to get two weeks off of work and I probably could take off up to ten days, but I work at a private small business that sells to libraries, not an actual library, and my owner takes a two week vacation at the end of every December, when we either have to count the days as vacation or just not get paid for them.

just_wandering

A few years ago I went to London for a week on my own right after New Year's Day. Even though it was winter, the temperatures were in the upper 30s and low 40s, which did not discourage me at all from walking around and enjoying the city. Besides, I planned to spend a lot of time indoors, so I wasn't all that worried about the weather to begin with.

If you spend 6-7 days there as you suggest, you won't run out of things to do. Unless you are able to sleep on the plane, you may find that you are jetlagged on the day you arrive, so you may not want to plan too many activities for the first day.

In addition to the list of things you would like to see, I suggest you also consider the following (in no particular order):

1. Westminster Abbey (as someone has already suggested). Even if you are not interested in visiting churches, there is so much history there.

2. St. Paul's Cathedral, especially if you are into architecture.

3. Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace - you need to arrive early for the best view, but even if you arrive late, you can still see the soldiers parading through the streets between their barracks and the palace grounds.

4. If you are interested in history, two excellent museums are the Churchill War Rooms and the Imperial War Museum.

5. Victoria & Albert Museum - A lot of cool stuff there, mainly decorative arts.

6. Greenwich Observatory and National Maritime Museum - Taking a water taxi is a nice way to get there.

7. Take in a play - there is a half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square (if I remember correctly). When I was there, a lot of the plays were from Broadway, but it's cheaper in London!

Of course, you need to tailor the visit to your own interests.

Sorry, but I cannot offer any advice about hostels or eating outside of restaurants. The major grocery chains like Tesco and Sainsbury's have mini-stores all over London so I would expect you can find something to eat close to wherever you stay. Eating in a park may not be all the pleasant if it is cold outside!

marvelousmouse

If you want to travel in the winter, I recommend either becoming fond of pubs or limiting your eating to the hostel. Take an insulated thermos- maybe your favorite tea, if you have one- something hot to drink will make a difference. I've done both the grocery store thing and the ethnic food/pub food thing on trips- broke about even.

Make sure your hostel has a kitchen and allows you to keep food there. And laundry is a good idea too, in case you need to dry clothing fast.


If I understand you correctly, you've got potentially 24 days. You could probably see a lot of UK on your own- it seems that nearly everything is reachable on trains and buses. Here's one link about a tour to Stonehenge (there are others):

https://www.londontoolkit.com/whatto...ting_there.htm

Lots of literary tours in UK, so if you have any favorite British authors be sure to look them up.

Hostelling international has 130 hostels in Wales and Britain alone. So I'd buy a book about the UK and peruse through seat61.com for train info. He's got a whole page on just the Britain trains

https://www.hihostels.com/destinatio...stels?view=map

http://www.seat61.com/UK-train-travel.htm#.VzGKrGFHanM

Somewhere that is on my bucket list that may interest you-
https://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseypipp...7Wo#.ckmow7XMl



And, hey, about your family: if you stand your ground, some of your fearful relatives will be reassured that you know what your doing and that travel is important to you. It sounds like your mother is a lot like mine. Terrified that you'll be stupid and die a horrible death the minute you step out of her sight. I stood my ground because travel is something I really wanted to do. She relaxed more and more as I travelled more and more. Now, her reaction is like "oh, you're going to Europe, I need you to pick up a few things for me..."

In your grandpa's case, I'd be willing to bet he had similar adventures in his youth. My grandparents often gave me a hard time, but in the end I learned so much about them as people. So if he starts giving you a hard time about the travel bit, ask him for stories about his younger and (probably) wilder days. (My grandmother- Irish American, probably not 110 pounds soaking wet and the biggest nagger and guilt tripper I will ever know- turned out to be, in my twenties, one of my favorite drinking and traveling buddies. I miss her dearly). I think we tend to think of our grandparents as the responsible folks who have always had those stocks and their house and their children, and that is definitely not the case

Good luck! Be sure to post a trip report! I'm really excited for you- this is making me want to spend more time exploring the UK.

bilboburgler

I arranged to give family money to a relation on the basis they spent it frivolously, unfortunalty the person went against family wishes and invested it. You just have to learn to bite your tongue when this sort of thing happens.

yha.org.uk has hostels throughout London and beyond and is one of the best deals around.