The British Museum should be the core of your plans if you want to save money on a trip to London…
Boasting all sorts of historic attractions of global significance, and a culture that is difficult to match elsewhere, London is certainly on the bucket lists of many travelers. Unfortunately for many these days, the capital of the United Kingdom is also a very expensive place to visit (much like the rest of Western Europe), with restaurant meals, hotels, and transport coming in as much more pricey than other destinations around the globe.
However, there are ways to save money on a trip to London so that you won’t end up on a one-way track to bankruptcy by coming here on holiday. To help you maintain the health of your bank account, here are three tips that will keep more of your cash where it belongs: in your pocket.
1) Get an oyster card
Whether it is a trip to museums, the Tower of London, or a trip to one of the most salivating food markets in the city, it is practically unavoidable that you will be depending on the Tube or the double-decker buses to get where you need to go. While public transit costs can add up quickly, getting an oyster card will mitigate this expense, as fares for this paperless payment method are discounted.
2) Rent a local loft
Prices of hotels and even hostels have you tearing your hair out? Welcome to the priciest aspect of a trip to London. While many resign themselves to biting the bullet in this respect, a better value option has emerged in recent years, as many have begun to turn their backs on pricey accommodations in favor of rental lofts.
Services like Housetrip allow you to track down an apartment that fits your tastes and your budget, while inserting you within a local neighborhood in London, rather than in some highly impersonal hotel zone. This accommodation option also allows you to cook in instead eating all your meals out, compounding the value and savings realized by staying in an apartment rather than a hotel or hostel.
3) Take full advantage of its museums
While it’s easy to fixate on all the cash that you will be forking over to eat respectable meals out and the costs of many tourist attractions, one thing that is incredible about London is the fact that many of its museums are free or charge to attend.
The best known of these is the British Museum, which is one of the world’s foremost authority on the artifacts in human history, containing over 8 million pieces in its collection from civilizations all over the world.
Others that are free or have free days also include the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and the V&A, all of which are world class institutions in their own right.