Visiting UK
 

Hi,
I last visited this forum about the end of 2008 and at that time I was planning on possibly moving back to the UK. Then the currency collapsed so I stayed put in Australia.
Now time for a rethink. I have been in Australia for 43 years and I tend to agree with the advice I got at that time that maybe such a huge change maybe not what I want after all I am 67 now. Health is reasonable for my age.
I want to visit the place of my birth, Burbage in Leicestershire but I think once I have had a look around and seen all the changes I think I will want to move on.
After mother died the family broke up fighting about the will, that's when I left and moved to Australia.
What is going in my mind is to visit places I have not seen and also Have a look at Europe.
I am looking at a budget of AUD25000 that's about £14,000 to include air fares.
The question is, what should I budget for per week. I am getting confused with hotel prices.
Thanks
Bob...

Re: Visiting UK
 

Depends a lot on which countries you want to travel to/how many, what standard of hotel/accomodation you want.

You also don't say how long you plan to visit for. If its a month, your choices/costs will be very different than if it is 6 months.

How much of your tour will be in UK/how much in Europe?

Do you want to travel on a shoestring or would you rather pay for comfort?

I usually return to UK for 2 months each summer so have an idea of the things to consider and the costs involved. If you could give more details, I can try to give you some ideas.

Another consideration - how long is it since you last returned 'home' to Burbage? If it is a long time, be prepared for it possibly being unsettling in some ways. British culture will have changed a lot, and going back to home ground may churn up some difficult/confusing feelings. Just a thought.

I did a mini tour last summer, as part of tracing my family tree, going round old haunts, and although it was very heartwarming in some ways, it was also very unsettling in others as lots of water has passed etc etc.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Hi Victor Meldrew nice meeting the original old grump!!!

I will answer your questions one by one and I really appreciate your help.
I plan to travel on a British Passport for convenience. It will also alow me to travel and enter the UK on a one way ticket. I am retired so stay is open. That is why I posted my budget as that will be the only criteria.

I would like to travel north through Scotland to the Highlands. Train preferred.
Then Ferry to Norway possibly via Shetland. I would like to go to Tromsø and experience the midnight sun.

It's been 43 years since I was in the UK and yes I am aware that there will have been massive changes so I am expecting my liking for Burbage may only be a few days. Best make it a holiday and visit places I have never been before.

Does that give you something we can work on. ie. time no constraint but budget is.
OH I hate big cities small towns will be to my liking.

Bob...

Re: Visiting UK
 

Sorry forgot to answer quention on accommodation. I guess a B & B would suite me. From what I remember they were good value. In Australia though a B & B can be more expensive than hotels.

Re: Visiting UK
 

I will try to answer as much as I can. I can't really give any specific information regards your plans for Scotland and Norway, but can give some general things to consider when you are planning, based on the 2 month 'stints' I have done in UK.
General:
Try to decide and plan for specific places and dates rather than 'playing it by ear' once you are in UK. The earlier you plan, and the more specific you can be, the cheaper it will be on the whole. Doing things 'on the day' or day by day will be much more expensive.

Transport:
I presume you do not want to drive. Book train journeys well in advance as this will be much cheaper. A journey planned 3 months in advance, costing £50 will cost up to 4 times as much on the day.

www.thetrainline.com is one site which you can use. They do charge a credit card fee. There is another one which doesnt charge the CC fee, but I cant recall it at the moment. You dont have to have the tickets sent to you as you can pick these up at the station/s as you go along your journey.

Remember to have the CC you made the booking with, with you when you collect your train tickets.

Accomodation:
The cheapest 'hotel' accomodation is probably the travelodge. They are clean and fairly basic, but comfortable. Again, the earlier you book, the cheaper it is. They often have £19 deals if you are flexible about where you want to travel. I wouldnt pay more than £40 a night with them.

If you know the towns/areas you want to visit, google 'accomodation in X' and this should come up with suitable results. Smaller Bn B's will probably be negotiable, particularly if you are staying for longer periods. If you want to stay in small towns/villages travelodge may not be in these places.

However, transport to and within these smaller places may be difficult.

If you wanted to stay for a month or so anywhere, there are a couple of sites which advertise rooms for rent in peoples houses. These charge as little as £300 per month.

http://www.spareroom.co.uk/

http://www.roombuddies.com/

We did this a couple of years ago and it worked OK. The websites are fairly easy to negotiate and often give information regards preferences for applicants. You can email the people who are renting out, directly.

I am sure you have thought of this anyway, but definitely buy yourself travel/holiday insurance.

On another note, make sure your luggage is easily transportable (lightweight and with wheels) as lugging stuff around over a couple of months can be a bind.

I am sure others will be able to give your more specific information, but hope this gets you underway to start with.

Good luck with your adventure! :thumbsup:

Re: Visiting UK
 

..... and another thought, look into getting some kind of season ticket for the train (3 month season ticket, over 65's ticket) which may give you further reductions for on your travel costs.

http://www.railcard.co.uk/

It's probably going to be a fairly complicated process making decisions and booking all this stuff. I would ask a mate/family member to help me to plan and check I had covered all the bases.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Very practical info on UK and European train travel here:

http://www.seat61.com/

If visiting a number of countries check into (cheaper) train passes available to non-residents.

Re: Visiting UK
 

For planning purposes budget on £100 a day for everything.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Thank you again for great information. One of my problems is I don't like to plan too much as I prefer to go where the whim takes me. It seems that this may cost a little more from what you said. I am thinking of June/July and probably out of the UK in August. That's if August holidays is still the madness they used to be.
Your accommodation budget of £40 got me looking deeper and yes have found some in Hinckley. I certainly need some where to stay all booked up when I get there.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Train passes are the way to go I agree. I understand they become active on the first journey so they are pretty flexible.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Yes great site with good links. I have been looking at this, Thats where I got the Scananavian idea from.
I like Trains and boats and hate Air and Bus use them only when I have to.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Thanks that is one important thing I need to know. Is this figure tight or flexible. I mean like I budget £1000 for 10 days will this be comfortable or should I allow more?

Re: Visiting UK
 

It's so difficult to generalize about these things as costs are so flexible. It all depends on one's own personal standards and what you will or will not do.

For example my (now wife) and I went traveling for a year back in 2001/2. We were living in the UK at the time and spent our year, divided roughly into thirds, between Asia, Aus/NZ, and US/Canada. We agonized for ages how much that would cost and in the end realized we had no clue and needed to create a budget anyway.

We budgeted GBP15K each, and broke that down into a daily target figure and then broke that down again to a budget for accommodation, meals, transportation and "other". We made it work by writing down the totals of what we'd spent in these categories each day and calculating what the daily average had been so far against these areas. We then flexed our spending so that we maintained the averages against the budget and therefore managed the whole year without running out of money.

You can get by in the UK on a lot less than GBP100 per day if you try. On the other hand it's not difficult to blow that amount or more if you're not careful. If you're traveling round Europe Scandinavia in general (and Norway in particular) is expensive, central Europe is about the same as the UK and southern a and eastern Europe can be a little bit cheaper. Go to a good bookshop and look at travel guides. Lonely Planet and Rough Guides are both good for budget tips as their audience includes backpackers and the like (but does cater for others too). They sometimes have titles such as 'Europe on a shoestring' and the like which will give you ideas on the minimum you'll be able to get away with spending in various countries and cities.

I know none of this solves your problem for you - it's up to you to come up with your own target and then work with it.

Re: Visiting UK
 

Have you also got an Australian passport? If not, you need a Resident Return Visa, otherwise you will not be able to return (and even if you have this visa, it will have an expiry date).

Re: Visiting UK
 

you might want to check out the YOuth Hostel Association as well. I think you pay a join up fee but they now do rooms as well as dorms I am led to believe - its not all dodgy students anymore. try to avoid uk school holiday periods (july in scotland and august in england) as everything is busier and more expensive. its a good time to go - with the recession, prices are very competative and the exchange rate is fab at the moment. enjoy your trip.