Just Jenney

So Mark and I are finally going to the UK for a two-week visit in May -- we're so excited! Both sets of parents were very kind and gave us money to use for our trip; without it we wouldn't have been able to go, so we are not taking this trip for granted at all. We want to budget wisely and I'm trying to do as much planning for that now as possible. Luckily we'll be staying with Mark's folks so lodging is free; they live in Bishop's Stortford, about 30 mins northeast of London in Hertfordshire.

We're decided to hire a car (we get a 25% discount through USAA), which will cost about $500 for the two-week period. However, I can't seem to find any information about how much petrol costs over there, on average. Anyone have any info on this?

As for entertainment, we're going to try to limit ourselves as much as possible to free activities -- museums and such (which we really enjoy anyway). We're going to also try to get free tickets to attend a taping of a UK TV or radio show if we can, which we think would be really cool.

I'm having a hard time really figuring out how to budget for the day-to-day stuff -- you know, food, gifts, going to the movies, that kind of thing. The dollar-to-pound exchange rate is so horrendous that we really need to try to keep things at a minimum if at all possible. For those who have been in the UK recently, what kind of general daily budget would you suggest is realistic?

Any other travel tips? We're arriving May 3rd and leaving May 17th.

~ Jenney

NC Penguin

I know you're hiring a car but will you spend some time in London? If so, I'm sure you know about cheap day returns and Travelcards.

I don't quite understand why you'd want to go the movies in the UK but if you do, matinees should be cheaper than evening screenings. If you're in central London, the Prince Charles cinema right next to Leicester Square shows cheap movies. Not first run but maybe films that have been released within the 6-8 months prior.

If you eat out, you'll get more bang for your buck if you go for set menus and do your sit down dining at lunchtime rather than dinner time.

Even if museums do charge for special exhibitions, the tix are sometimes cheaper if you purchase them in advance online. I did this for London Zoo last year.

Where do you plan on going? If you have a list of places you plan on visiting, that'd help narrow down the suggestions.

Manc

petrol is approx 1 pound per litre.
4 pounds per gallon roughly.
$8 per gallon US.

you need to budget parking the car too, as well as central london congestion charge..

NC Penguin

You're not planning on driving into central London, are you? If I were you, I'd drive to the northern/north east end of a Tube line (Cockfosters or High Barnet for example) and park there and take the tube or even BR into central London.

Just Jenney

Thanks for the petrol price -- that's about what I expected.

I need to talk to Mark about taking the car into London and parking there. We might just take the train in instead and get around by the tube. Since the most of our time won't be spent in London (only 2-3 days there at most), we'll have to look into this.

~ Jenney

MsElui

before i left the uk in october i was living on border of london at the m25 ring. I would NEVER contemplate driving in to London. The congestion charge is about £8 a day, parking is hard to find and VERY expensive and frankly who wants to sit in a traffic jam.
I used to drive to someplace like Woking or Weybridge - and get the British rail train in. lots of fast trains in, cheap parking and no jams.

Just Jenney

Yes, I've been looking at VisitBritain.com and they have a lot of different passes you can get for buses, etc. As I mentioned in my second post here, we're not going to spend much time in London, only a few days at most, so I doubt we'll actually drive/park in London. Instead we'd probably just take the train from Stortford/Stansted. Mark's brother lives there (not sure what part) so hopefully we'll be able to just crash on his floor for a couple of days. We plan on bringing our Aerobed.

LOL, yeah, I know it sounds kinda funny, but Mark's a borderline film snob and I just know that there will be some film or another that comes out in the UK before it will here and he'll want to see it. Plus that's something his whole family enjoys doing together and it's been almost 5 years since we've been able to do that with them.

We're planning on cooking/preparing most of our meals at home (well, his parents' home, not OUR home, that would be crazy), which should keep costs a bit lower. (I didn't really clarify that in my original post, did I?) We don't know what grocery prices are over there -- are they comparable to here? We'll probably go out to eat a few times but not a lot and will probably limit it to lunchtime meals because they're cheaper.

Yes, I've been looking into this as well. The VisitBritain.com site has tons of info on that. I think we'd be ok if we didn't visit any special exhibitions -- especially in my case, since I've never been to any British museums. On my one other trip to England (five years ago when it was FREEZING!) we did go on the London Eye which was cool, but overpriced in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't really have a list of specific places I'd like us to visit -- more "ideas" than anything. Obviously, in order to keep our budget in check, we need to stay fairly close to Stortford or London, where we have free lodging, and is within easy driving distance if necessary. For instance, on my last visit his parents took me to Cambridge for the day, which was only about a 45-min drive away, and we had a great time (even though it was freezing AND raining!). Something similar would be a lot of fun.

We like gardens and walks, architecture, art and design, music, etc. We don't really do anything activity-wise here at home so anything we do over there will be a huge change of pace for us. I'd like to visit some museums with free admission (British Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery, etc) and maybe do some sightseeing in London (Tower of London, etc). I don't want to be *too* touristy, but I am a tourist after all!

Mark would like to see if it's possible to squeeze in a concert or something -- he really misses the UK music scene over here -- but I'm thinking that's going to be too expensive. He likes all kinds of music, but especially more alternative stuff (which I don't really listen to, frankly) -- Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, etc. He also likes more mainstream bands like Radiohead, Oasis, etc. and some folksy artists whose names I can't recall now.

Since our trip isn't for three more months, we have plenty of time to plan for it, so any ideas people would like to throw our way, you're welcome to!

~ Jenney

Pharrya

Hiring the car ain't gonna be cheap, and I'd definitely get a travelcard from Stortford into London. Parking, Congestion and Petrol all adds up. I'm from the same part of the world, and did it from Stansted just over a year ago.

You mentioned Cambridge, and that has plenty to see and do, even if it's just wandering round the colleges. The Fitzwilliam museum is supposed to be good but I haven't been there in years.

cranners99

Jenney,

Does you Aerobed work on 240volts?

lj2

Obviously all the advice about London driving applies (dont do it!) but I thought I'd add that a bit of a drive down the M4 from London (90 mins) or a cheap train ride if you book off-peak and well in advance (again about 90 mins) from Paddington, is the City of Bath.

I live in Bristol which is next door and I have to say that in all my travels across Europe and the US, there are few cities which touch Bath for pure beauty. It's a gorgeous place and the Americans love it! you can head there for a day and just wander round, have a picnic in the park... low cost and high satisfaction guaranteed.

I promise if you go to Bath and are disappointed with the place, I will refund your train fare!

nethead

Now you've made me homesick.

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

Don't know where you shop, or what you eat so couldn't say whether grocery prices for you would be better or worse. I can feed us for a lot less from Sainsburys/Tescos than Publix/Krogers/Harris Teeters but the xrate has got worse.

You can look for yourself www.tesco.com

cindyabs

I was thinking there was an American musuem in Bath-shall have to check that for sure.

nethead

Yep you're right Cindy there is:
http://www.americanmuseum.org/

augigi

There's a place called "cockfosters"?

*snickers*