Semester Abroad in London
 

So I'm new here, but reading over the comments I've seen a lot of wisdom shared here, so I'm hoping there's some for me too!
I leave in just over a week for a semester in London and am renting a flat with a few friends in central London. I have a few questions about life in London, though--

--tube versus bus--safety (I'm female), cost, etc...there's a tube station right near my flat...not too sure where the bus stations are but I've heard the bus is way cheaper. What do you sacrifice for the decreased cost?

--grocery shopping--I love to cook, and plan on making the majority of meals at home and not going out to eat as much as other students may...but I looked at a few markets online and was a bit astounded at the prices. Can anyone give me a rough breakdown of what items are comparable in price to America, and what ones will be much more expensive (I saw 1 doz eggs for 4 pounds and couldn't believe it! I've never payed over $2!)...just general categories like meats/produce/dairy etc would be fine, or if anyone has any recommendations on savings. Are the open-air markets better deals/quality than what's stocked in stores?

--faux pas--so I've already learned that people are English, not British as we so often say, and a few other nuances that I might not have known until getting myself in trouble (underwear=pants=trousers!), but are there any other majors ones that could cause someone to take offense?

--traveling between cities--there are so many excellent areas of the UK outside of just London that I'd really like to be able to take some weekend trips (Stratford-upon-Avon, York, etc), but I certainly can't afford hiring a cab...are the trains the best way to see the country? any recommendations out there?

thank you all SOOOO much...this is my 2nd time to Europe (went to Ireland ~2 years ago) and I am thrilled to get to spend a full semester there...wishing you all well on your travels!

"<i>not too sure where the bus stations are</i>" You won't deal w/ "bus stations (unless you are leaving town from Victoria Coach Station). There are several bus stops in most blocks. Some journeys you'll take the tube, some you'll take buses, some a combination. The buses and tube are covered by your travel card. If you only EVER take buses (not really a practical option since the tube is best for many trips) travel is cheaper. But in practice - bus or tube makes no difference. And both are safe.

faux pas: "<i>people are English</i>" -- English is just one nationality w/i the UK. And that's not counting the hundreds of other nationalities you will encounter. So you will not be correct if you assume all the "English" people you meet are English (could be Scots, Welsh, Irish, Manx -- or others)

"<i>I certainly can't afford hiring a cab</i>" Of course not -- would you take a cab from New York city to Boston? I doubt it. (plus, if you are on a budget, you will hardly ever take a cab even w/i London) Look at a map of the UK -- it is a surprisingly large place. See my point about buses above - for inter-city trips you will either take buses (usually dirt cheap) or trains (usually faster)

I won't comment much about food prices since I haven't lived there for years and now usually only buy the sorts of foods one would cook in a holiday flat. In general some things will be quite a bit more expensive, but a few are much cheaper. Breads for instance are generally a fraction what they cost in the States.

one note - the word for buses that travel between cities/long distance is "coach" not bus. If you ask a local about a bus, they will assume you mean a local bus in town.

First I must suppress envy. Okay.

Safety on public transport: reasonable caution and you'll be fine. I wouldn't hesitate.

We saw selected groceries at Sainsburys Too/ Waitrose recently that were roughly comparable to US city prices. Got really good bread for a song at a Co-Op, prepared sandwiches and soups for reasonable prices. The pound's up a tad since then, but you can find staples for decent prices.

Cherries, "a pound a pound" at a late spring Portobello street stand, tasty and cheaper than here, for instance, and no extra charge for the Cockney accent or being called Lovey.

Food (supermarket) in the US in incredibly cheap in comparison with the rest of the world. Expect to pay way more than you would here - especially is you live outside a major city. Prices in Manhattan are much higher than in the local suburbs ($1.99 for a bottle of soda versus $1.19 in the suburbs) and expect London to be much more expensive still.

You need to check with some locals in your neighborhood to find the best places to shop for quality and decent prices. Public transit should be fine - since it doesn;t really run at night (much of it shuts down by midnight and you often need to use cabs after that).

"<i>much of it shuts down by midnight and you often need to use cabs after that</i>"

If you are out after midnight (and who isn't from time to time ;) ) you don't have to use cabs. There is a fairly good network of Night Buses. They fill the transport needs between midnight and early in the morning when the tube/regular buses run again.

Envy, envy. We use both busses and the tube when in London. You see a lot more on a bus, but it depends on the length of the journey which we would choose. Get an Oyster Card for sure. Enjoy your stay.

My 14 years old DD used tube and bus - never had any problem, although she did not travel after dark alone. You could apply for student discount for buses and tubes through tfl (Transport for London) website. I believe 3.80 is a cap for a unlimited use of buses.

Grocery shopping - there are few local markets (depends on your location) where you can buy fresh fruits and vegetables, for a little as 1 GBP for a big bowl. Check local Sainsbury's or Tesco for the rest of the grocery shopping. Sing up for their cards (free) and get discounts every time you shop.

Language -
read here our observation 1: http://burlaki.com/blog/2007/12/04/s...mmon_language/

and 2: http://burlaki.com/blog/2008/09/17/s...guage-part-ii/

Traveling between the cities -
use buses or amazing commuter's trains. Very easy to figure out and not expensive.

Faux Pas, to be safe, call everyone british. Not English, otherwise you will definately have problems with the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish. Plus many of the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi community are all British too, so stick to British to be safe.

Also the word that you use for a bag that goes round your waste, my friend used this when she was over from the states, and she asked someone where her fannypack was! BIG Mistake, do not use this F word as it means ladies genital area :-)

I use the tube and the bus, for me I always feel better on the bus, because the tube can be too hot, particularly during peak commuter hours.

Be prepared for people walking into you, during commuter chaos, just do the same, walk like you have a mission and head straight forward, mostly people will step out of your way if you are charging onwards.

Food wise, yeah, as someone has already suggested Tesco is a good one, co-operative gives good value too, Sainsbury and Asda (if you can find one) also same. I would avoid Waitrose, Marks and Spencer etc because although they are excellent quality, they are very expensive compared to the other supermarkets.

I think the trains are probably best for longer journeys, try to book the overnight sleeper train up to Scotland, if you book in advance and particularly if you can travel midweek, you can get the whole journey from £19 including your bed. Its called a bargain berth and you can check it out on the Scotrail website under caledonian sleeper.

That way you can see Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness or Fort William. and cost you less than a taxi a few miles in London.

If you might need a taxi, find a local taxi firm, pop in and meet them, then take their card. That way when they get used to your name they will come for you quicker. They call them minicabs in London. and Private Taxi's in most other places (particularly scotland)

Ask for a student discount in music stores, book stores etc. but dont ask for a student discount in a supermarket, otherwise you might get some real strange looks.

Hope this helps,

Scotsgirl

Food shopping.

There's an immense amount of nonsense churned out by visiting Americans about London food prices. Especially by people who use junk sugared drinks as a benchmark of anything.

Central London is generally cheaper for food than Manhattan, since some major chains have mainstream branches in the centre. But most food shops are premium priced, and even mainstream chains offer an extraordinary range of prices.

The only way the poster could have found eggs at £4 a dozen is by deliberately choosing the most expensive offering. Sainsbury's So Organic Woodland Free Range Large eggs are indeed £4.10 a dozen. Sainsbury's Basic Barn eggs are £1.76 a dozen. Why the poster chose to fret over the extremely expensive ones while ignoring the ones most of us buy is beyond me - but it does show that if all you want to do is go back to America with ridiculous stories about British prices, you'll be able to do so.

If, however, you want to save money buying food, then:

1. Ignore most of the rotten non-information you'll get on this board. The best advice about cheap food shopping near your flat is from other students who've self-catered in the area for a reasonable length of time.

2. SOME open air markets are good value. Generally they don't sell much food any more: most of the ones that concentrate on food (so-called Farmers' Markets) are bloody expensive self-indulgences for well-heeled foodies. Close to the centre, Church St market between (Edgware Rd and Lissom Grove) and Chapel Market (between Liverpool Road - NOT Street - and Penton St) have a reasonable number of fruit & veg stalls that are sometimes cheaper than mainstream supermarkets, and some cheapish dairy or meat stalls.

Berwick St market in Soho is at the high end of market pricing, and is usually costlier than mainstream supermarkets, though arguably for nicer fruit or veg. So is Leadenhall Market in the City.

3.Supermarkets. The cheapest are Aldi, Lidl and Asda. They don't have branches easily accessible from central London, though there are a couple of Lidls not far from the centre that might work for you, depending where your flat is. Use the locator on the Lidl site.

As one sensible person has said, Waitrose and M&S charge premium prices. Avoid Tesco and Sainsbury branches with a suffix (like "Tesco Express" or "Tesco Metro", or "Sainsbury Local")), which are premium-priced, and account for the majority of their central London branches. It's Tesco and Sainsbury <b> mainstream </b> branches you want. Input your flat's postcode into the locators on their websites to find the nearest non-suffixed branch. I THINK there's no mainstream Tesco near the centre: there are mainstream Sainsburys in Tottenham Court Rd, Liverpool Road, Kingsway (Holborn) and Victoria St.

Somerfield in Edgware Rd and Morrisons in Camden are generally slightly cheaper than mainstream Tescos or Sainsburys

4. One of the reasons many Americans go into a tizz about prices here is that they have this ridiculous obsession with keeping the advertising industry in business by buying manufacturers' brands. There's a reason we don't: by and large, supermarkets' own brands aren't just a great deal cheaper but are often made to higher standards (certainly nutritionally) than the muck churned out by 20th century dinosaurs like Kraft. While shopping sensibly, look out for the increasing amount of cut-price, slightly mis-shaped, fruit & veg in mainstream supermarkets: generally these days cheaper than in street markets. They often have a taste too.

Socially in Britain, brands are bought only by the feckless poor or prodigal adolescents. Affluent housewives regard anything other than own labels as deeply imprudent.

Buses: cheaper but slower than the tube. Like the tube, they are for, and used by, everyone, so there's no special safety issue.

For travel within London, I'd get a travelcard for the flexibility:
www.tfl.gov.uk
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf
For bus maps for individual areas:
www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/

Trains vs buses (coaches) for travelling outside London:
Again, the bus is slower but cheaper. Train fares work on the same principles as airlines - book early and tie yourself down to a particular train for the cheapest rate:
www.nationalrail.co.uk
www.nationalexpress.co.uk
www.megabus.co.uk
www.transportdirect.info

It might be worth getting yourself a Railcard:
www.railcard.co.uk

Your best source of money-saving tips is likely to be other students who've been there a while already. I take it your university will have support services to pass on the same sort of information? If not, they need a stern talking-to.

Where are you staying?

Tube vs bus - you can see where you are going on the bus, it's cheaper plus you get a sense of where things are, which you don't when you are underground on the tube. The tube is quicker - no traffic. Definitely get an Oyster card the minute you arrive. You can use this for buses and the tube in central London but not for trips outside, for example to Cambridge or Canterbury you'd need to buy a train ticket. You can check train prices on www.nationalrail.co.uk

Don't worry too much about safety on public transport, usually it's always busy and used by everyone, office workers, families, couples, people going to fancy functions, etc etc. The tube shuts down around midnight but there are night buses.

Groceries - Borough Market is fantastic for fresh food and they have a great array of all sort of things but it's not cheap. Lidl is about the cheapest supermarket you will find on the outskirts of London (none in the middle of London) and Tesco is cheapish too. Sainsbury and Waitrose have nicer stuff but are more expensive. M&S has good quality but is pricey. Lidl stock European brands, you will likely never have heard or seen any of them, but we shop there when we can and find the quality good.

If you are used to using a car to do your grocery shopping you will find it hard to carry everything on public transport, especially if you have to stand. If you find a supermarket within walking distance of your flat, you will likely use that a lot, even if it's one of the Tesco Express ones which is dearer than a big Tesco. If you travel to a larger supermarket and use public transport, try taking a small wheeled suitcase and fill that with your groceries. As long as you can get it (full) up the stairs on the tube, you'll be OK.

Trains or the bus (National Express) are the best ways to reach other cities or towns within the UK. If you book ahead it is cheaper but if you want to go for a weekend, and leave on a Saturday morning and come back on Sunday, it's likely you won't find any cheap deals at all. We find the trains quite expensive. If you want to use the Eurostar to travel to Brussels or Paris, tickets become available online 3 months before date of travel. If you book as soon as your dates become available you'll get the cheapest price - 59 pounds return. Price rise steadily as it gets closer to the date of travel.

There are lots of fantastic museums and galleries in London and most are free so an excellent option if you are on a budget.

Kay

Welcome to London, let me see if I can help!

--tube versus bus--safety (I'm female), cost, etc...there's a tube station right near my flat...not too sure where the bus stations are but I've heard the bus is way cheaper. What do you sacrifice for the decreased cost?

The buses and tubes are safe I am a woman and use them daily! Just use caution as you would in any big city. You can check out prices of passes here http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresa...ets/10628.aspx
You will want to get an Oyster (see link above) and likely put a monthly travel pass on each month for unlimited travel zone 1-2. This allows you to ride the buses and the tube and the some overland trains.

--grocery shopping--I love to cook, and plan on making the majority of meals at home and not going out to eat as much as other students may...but I looked at a few markets online and was a bit astounded at the prices. Can anyone give me a rough breakdown of what items are comparable in price to America, and what ones will be much more expensive (I saw 1 doz eggs for 4 pounds and couldn't believe it! I've never payed over $2!)...just general categories like meats/produce/dairy etc would be fine, or if anyone has any recommendations on savings. Are the open-air markets better deals/quality than what's stocked in stores?

I actually think grocery shopping is cheaper here! A generalized thought is Tesco is cheaper, Sainsbury's a bit more, and Waitrose the more expensive. M&S is good for premade meals and pre cut fruit but pricey as well. There are also cheaper stores like Iceland and Lidl for prepacked stuff. Eggs usually run is a pound and a bit for 6.

Also try the markets - Borough market at London Bridge is a high end farmers market and wonderful if you are a foodie. Blackheath also has a nice organic market on Sundays 10- 12.

--faux pas--so I've already learned that people are English, not British as we so often say, and a few other nuances that I might not have known until getting myself in trouble (underwear=pants=trousers!), but are there any other majors ones that could cause someone to take offense?

Hahahaha - I still cant say trousers! I say pants!

--traveling between cities--there are so many excellent areas of the UK outside of just London that I'd really like to be able to take some weekend trips (Stratford-upon-Avon, York, etc), but I certainly can't afford hiring a cab...are the trains the best way to see the country? any recommendations out there?

Trains are fantastic - and cheaper generally if you book in advance. Coaches are frequent as well especially to places like Oxford. Check out National Express www.nationalexpress.com for coaches and National Rail www.nationalrail.com for trains

Also check out www.walks.com for some great walking tours in London and they have really good day trips called Explorer Days to Stratford upon Avon, Cantebury etc. We love them and go all the time!

Hope this helps! Enjoy your time in London, it will fly by!

i mostly agree with flanner except...

students, no matter how poor, are usually the worst at saving money and shopping smartly. don't bother trying to get advice from other students.

and store brands are extremely popular in america as well as britain. anyway, whoever considers store brands to be non-brands clearly has little knowledge of the grocery industry (despite spending a wasted career in it). store brands don't advertise and market, flanny?!?! and britons aren't obsessed by what store brands we buy? tesco finest, sainsbury select, certainly waitrose spends a mint building their own brand! i would say that we are much more obsessed with the stores we shop in and the associated store brands than the americans are. culturally americans of all wealth levels often pride themselves on finding a bargain while we britons look down upon the poor sods that shop in aldi, morrisons or even tesco or sainsbury. we are far more segregated by the stores in which we shop. it's a national obsession!

additionally, the credit crunch has created an explosion in small discount stores that spring up and disappear at alarming rates in our increasingly vacant retail space that had formerly a higher value use. these stores generally sell everything but often will specialise in a particular type of item (e.g. food, tools, etc.) they are all over the place and go by various names. workers often look a bit dodgy and the products are often meant for other countries but if you don't mind turkish language on your toothpaste, you could save a lot of money. obviously they are not the answer for everything (e.g. no fresh products) but can be good for bits and pieces for your flat and certain kinds of foods.

you are quite right to be sensitive to offending britons. despite how we like to portray ourselves, we are often quite sensitive. for example, even here on fodors, innocent and well meaning americans have gotten quite an earful from britons thrown into a tizzy by the use of the word, 'quaint' to describe anything british. when you hear we britons drone on about how thick skinned we are, don't believe it!

Thanks for all the info. I apologize for my misinformation on the eggs--Tesco doesn't let you view prices online w/o a membership so I was looking at Sainsbury's, and I still can't find the doz basic online there (although the half doz is indeed much cheaper, thanks!)...maybe they only have some of their offerings on there. Indeed I was surprised to see so much in the way of organic and free-range...it's not worth the cost to me so I don't buy it here but hadn't seen the basic items--thanks!

I'm staying in a flat near Russel Square, so there's a Tesco express pretty close, but alas, no non-suffixed markets. I actually live in a midsize city back in the U.S., so thanks, I'm used to most of those differences!

If anyone has any more advice I'd love to hear it, otherwise, take care and thanks for all the help!

walkinaround, you will never pass for British.
There are too many of the real thing on this forum.
You may manage the main stuff, but not the finer points.
Shopping smartly means shopping while reasonably well dressed.
The phrase you need is something like "shopping sensibly" or "shopping intelligently"

Walkinaround has a good point about the prudence of students: pizza delivery has lured many a US dorm dweller into deep credit card debt.

I've walked around the Russell Sq. area late at night by my alone female self and done just fine.

Do take advantage of walks.com. My twenty something daughter spent only a week on her own in London recently and went on several of their "walks", as well as an Explorer Day to Oxford.

One word usage difference I noticed last time was "subway".
We were looking for the nearest tube stop and followed a sign that said Subway, like you might see in the U.S. The path only led us under the main road to the other side...an actual "sub" way!

Mazilora,
This is a link for prices at Asda stores, don't know if there's one near where you'll be staying though:

http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estor...=1214921923736

Regards.