Enjoying London on a Budget!

London is my second home. I lived here when I went to university. Tried to go back as often as I could but the British Pound is just waaay too high for a peso earner like me to make that as often as I'd like. The chance to go back came up towards the end of 2016. I went with three girlfriends and we decided we will be on a strict budget. Like, tight budget. Especially me as I've been traveling almost every month of the year. I think we did pretty well. Aside from the air tickets and accommodations, we only had a thousand GBP cash each and we managed to last for two weeks! That is a really budgeted trip if you know how expensive London is! Here I'll share with you how we did it and hopefully, this will help you plan and execute a trip of your own!

First off, watch out for promo tickets! We got our tickets during Qatar's big promo. We only paid around 27,000 Philippine Pesos each for a roundtrip Manila - LHR  ticket. The flying time was perfect, short connection in Doha, arriving in London during the day. Business class was on sale too for less than 2,000 USD but we thought we could save the difference for pocket money!

And we are off!

Next, save on accommodations but not on comfort! I think we are too old to be staying at hostels or any other accommodations that would make us share bathrooms with complete strangers so we decided to do airbnb. We didn't stay at the city center (Zone 1), cause all the flats available then were tiny. I (yes, I) decided to book a Maida Vale flat. It was in Zone 2 but can easily access the sights via bus and tube and uber! The garden flat was huge. About 100-120 sqm, two bedrooms, an enclosed living, dining, kitchen combo area and two bathrooms! Fast wifi, washing machine and dryer, and netflix made our stay really enjoyable. 

One of the two bedrooms 

Full bath

Shower

Living and Dining area

Compact kitchen with dishwasher, washing machine 

Budget pasyal! Yes, I lived here and yes, I still love seeing the sights and going to  all the museums. So much to see, one, two or even three visits are not enough! I toured the three girls in the city using our trusty Oyster Card. Yes, you have to get an Oyster Card. It is the easiest, most convenient, cheapest and safest way to get around. Meaning, you don't have to keep on wondering how much the fare is, or if the bus takes coins. Top up if you have less than 6 GBP just to be safe. For six days, I don't think we spent more than 50 GBP for fares (we walked a lot and took some ubers, but still). 

Trafalgar Square at night

Crown Jewels/ Tower of London

Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the National Gallery

Parliament

Biscuit and donut love at Harrod's Food Hall

For out of town daytrips (we took two tours, full day each), to see Windsor, Stonehenge and Oxford; and Stratford and Cotswold we joined an organised bus tour. It was easier and more efficient that way instead of us taking public transportation and visiting the same places on our own. It was cheaper, too, than renting a car and stressing about parking and tolls - and traffic!

Stonehenge

Cotswold

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Windsor Castle

We used https://www.goldentours.com/ for these tours. Both tours were packed but they were ok. A bit hurried but that is to be expected because of the full itinerary. The guides were friendly and knowledgeable. The buses were OK with functioning loos so that was a plus when traffic hit.

I shall continue with our Edinburgh adventure later on. For now, why don't you start planning your own trip to lovely London! Cheerio!