Are you visiting London soon and you want to save money?
Well, I spent all morning looking at exactly this option. London is a very expensive city not only when it comes to hotels but also sightseeing and attractions. Some of the most popular attractions can be costly, especially for a large family and this can add up.
My sister is coming with my nieces soon so we are heading, where else, to London.
Now being me I always want to make sure I get the best deal, after all, I need to live up to my name and travel without breaking the bank. I made a Facebook live video explaining how this works but basically, I will write it up shortly here as well.
This works great if you are driving into London which sometimes can be cheaper than coming down by train. If you are not driving it can still be cheaper. Here is how you can save money when visiting London.
Hotels
Many of the hotels in London are super expensive especially in the city centre, but going 30min out can save you a tonne of money. You can find very cheap hotels for weekend stays with the “Happy Monday” from Accor offer, with properties starting from £25 per night. I was looking at these options but they also need to include cheap parking for the car because I have no intention of paying £50 for 24-hour car parking in London.
Some hotels in the Watford area, Croydon, Brentford, Docklands are costing £25 a night or £50 if you don’t use an offer but they come with cheap parking and also a decent price tag. I use Hotelscombined for an overview of cheap hotels. Now you might say it is 30min to get into London on the train why would you want to do this.
Read this:
Transportation
If you are driving and on a restricted budget you might want to save money. If you are not driving and you need only underground then look for the cheaper option. For me, this is great because parking is an extra added cost. A day card on the London underground costs £12 per person, a train ticket which includes London underground (make sure you buy the appropriate one) costs the same price depending on the station you start from. So it will be the same whether you are staying in Wembley or Watford. The train can be faster than the tube. Make sure you book an open return to see the prices including the underground.
Another thing also is that if you are visiting London you can register for a visitor Oyster card. This is much cheaper than on single journeys. You can read more infromation here.
Attractions
One thing I didn’t want to miss out on was the discounts on attractions. Many people might not be familiar with this but if travelling by train you can get 2for1 on London’s top attractions such as London Eye, London Zoo, Aquarium and more. Since we are a large group just by taking the 30min train from Watford we qualify for 2for1 ticket saving us on average £200 for three attractions. Man, London Zoo is expensive.
The website where you can find more information about this is called Days Out Guide here.
Do you have any more tips? I would love to hear them, so do share below.
If you want to watch the Facebok Live video here it is. 🙂
