Our Guide to London on a Budget

Research and Budgeting

I know research is probably not top on your holiday to-do list, but trust me, it can save you a lot of money! Before taking a trip, me and Will search for the cheapest option for each aspect of our holiday. For London, we looked up the cheapest way there, value-for-money accommodation, average food and transport costs in the city and all the activities we might want to do. 

After doing our research we always create a budget so we can see how much our trip is going to cost. This allows us to see if we can afford the trip before booking anything; we don’t want to book accommodation and then find out we can’t afford to eat or do anything whilst we’re there! Our budget per person for a weekend in London was as follows:

Coach £10

Accommodation £35

Activities £24

Food £40

Transport £26

£135

We managed to keep the activities cost low by finding lots of free things to do in London. We also decided to take the coach rather than the train because our research showed us this would be the cheapest option by far. This might not be the case for all departure cities so make sure you check this during your research (I know you can’t wait to get started on this!). Our accommodation cost is just for one night as we were able to get an early coach there and a late coach back the next day, no need to stay 2 nights!

Getting to London

As the number one tourist destination in England, London has become reasonably straightforward to get to from anywhere within the UK or across the globe. We’ve created some general tips on how to get to London quickly and cheaply no matter where you’re coming from. 

For travellers from abroad

• London is typically one of the cheaper places to fly to in the UK. We don’t recommend getting flights to one of the other main UK cities, like Manchester, and commuting the rest of the way to London. You’ll end up paying stupid amounts of money on transport before you’re even in London! The one exception is Southend airport (Will’s local) which is only 40 minutes away from London Liverpool Street and is easy to reach by train.

• There are so many airports in London; it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that all airports are created equal! We recommend trying to fly into Heathrow airport at all costs! All four terminals have access to the underground so getting into London is a breeze. Stansted on the other hand, is a nightmare! It will take you around an hour on a traffic free day to get into London. 

For UK locals

• From a financial perspective, the coach is almost always your best option for getting around the UK. There are coach routes to London from all major UK cities and megabus and thetrainline.com offer some great rates!

• If you’d prefer to spend about half the time travelling and want to enjoy a comfier experience, the train is probably a better option for you. However, the UK is notorious for extortionately priced train travel, especially when the tickets aren’t booked far enough in advance! The sweet spot is typically 10-12 weeks before you are due to depart. Any later than that and you are playing with fire (and the health of your bank account).

Getting Around London

1. Tube

The obvious answer to this is take the tube, one of London’s greatest Civil engineering feats (trust us, we should know!). However, if you’ve grown up somewhere where there is no underground then the tube can be somewhat challenging. Talking from personal experience, it can take a while to get used to the crowded, hot and stuffy tube system. Will, on the other hand, has grown up using the underground as part of daily life and loves it; he honestly thinks it’s one of the best things about London. Navigating using underground is easy; Google maps takes care of most of the work by calculating the fastest route and telling you where to swap lines. The other option is to use the tube map, either download it on your phone or stop to consider your options in front of one of the giant maps covering the tube station walls. 

Once you know which tube station you are going to and how to get there, you will need to get through the barriers and into the underground. The cheapest option is to use an oyster or contactless credit/debit card. These give you half price tickets and you just tap the card straight on the reader and the barriers will open. Ticket machines are also available in every station where you can purchase single journey tickets or a travel card (£13.10 per day). With a paper ticket, instead of tapping, you feed it into the slot at the front of the ticket gate and collect it again when it is returned to you out of the top.

My main tip is to remember to stand on the right-hand side of escalators in tube stations. I know this sounds easy enough to remember but my Dad forgets every time, causing a queue of people to build up behind him. Londoners always seem to be in a rush and don’t take kindly to be halted on their personal mission to get to their destination in record time!

2. Bus

The other public transport option in London is to take the bus. We’ve only done this a couple of times since the underground goes pretty much everywhere you could possibly need to go. The main thing to note when taking the bus is that London busses are cashless, so you need to have already bought a travel card from a tube station ticket office. Alternatively, you can use an oyster or contactless credit/debit card as you would on the underground. You simply tap on when you get on the bus; no need to tap off again (it’s a standard fare of £1.30).

3.  Taxi

London is famous for its black cabs and stereotypically thick accented taxi drivers. A classic tourist activity is to catch a ride in between sightseeing spots. However, you are likely to get bored of the extortionate cost and long travel times. London is no longer a city where taking a taxi is a viable option for the student traveller. Uber is a cheaper taxi option but with the same travel time drawbacks. It does, however, come with less emotional turmoil since you don’t have to physically wave down the vehicle.

To put it simply, there are just quicker, cheaper alternatives that provide much less hassle (in the tube we trust). The only real reason to use a cab is for a longer distance journey to an area of London that is not easily accessible by the tube. 

4. Walking

This is the transport choice of a true traveller (and the brokest of students). A significant proportion of the main tourist attractions in London are grouped together within very walkable distances. If you’re smart with your itinerary you can minimise public transport need (and therefore travel costs). You can easily walk from one place to the next if you plan them in an order that means each activity isn’t far from the previous one. If you combine this with the tube for the longer trips across the city, you can’t go wrong!

Accommodation

Accommodation in London can be expensive, making weekend trips financially daunting. Our two favourite ways of booking accommodation in London ensure you can afford to enjoy more than just a day here. With there being so much on offer in London, trust us you’ll want more time to explore! 

When booking somewhere to stay, consider the cost of getting to and from your accommodation. If you plan to get a Day Travel Card for getting about in London, transport to your accommodation will already be included. This means you can choose the cheapest location to stay without having to worry about the tube zone and how much it will cost to get to get back to the centre.

1.Premier Inn

This has become our favourite place to stay when visiting London. You have guaranteed standards and know exactly what to expect when booking here. You will have a clean, airconditioned room with a private en-suite. If you are staying more than one night then room service will come around and replace your towels and make your bed (an absolute luxury for any student!). 

For under £35 a night (£17.50 each) you can get a double or twin room in the following Premier Inn locations:

• Wandsworth

• Clapham

• Hackney

• Putney Bridge

• Chiswick

• Greenwich

In order to guarantee these prices, we recommend booking at least 2 months in advance. We also suggest that you skip the £10 breakfast they offer and instead start your day by heading out into the city to find a much cheaper option from a café. 

2. Airbnb 

Another of our favourite places to book accommodation will always be Airbnb.The average nightly price in London with two months advance booking is £162 for a double or twin room. We recommend looking outside the centre and if you’re happy to stay in a room in a flat or family home you can bring the price down to £35-£50 for a double room. This is a more basic option than the Premier Inn (usually no room service or en-suite I’m afraid!) but gives you the flexibility to find a location that suits your travel plans and itinerary.

Top Things to Do in London

For our top recommendations of things to do in London, check out our London Things to Do page!

Food in London

We have two go-to places that we always eat at when doing a day trip or weekend in London. In fact, in the days leading up to visiting London, we begin to plan our visits to these restaurants to ensure we can fit them into our busy sightseeing schedule! If you don’t fancy the sound of our top two recommendations, then we also have a money saving trick to get 50% off in lots of the popular chain restaurants using the Tastecard.

1. Leon

Firstly, Will’s favourite: Leon. They serve breakfast and lunch and cater for allergies, vegan/vegetarians and hungry Wills who like to have two lunches for under a tenner! Will described it to me as a healthy fast food chain when first convincing me to go. As I’m not big into healthy food or fast food, I was sceptical I would like it. Having tried a few different dishes from the menu, I have now been persuaded to his way of thinking and love to eat here. The food is delicious and cheap for what it is.

2. Beijing Dumpling 

Our other favourite food place is in Chinatown. It’s a, you guessed it, Chinese restaurant. Located on Lisle Street, Beijing Dumpling is perfect for a budget pre-theatre meal. I love the window at the front where you can watch the chefs creating the dumplings by the hundreds! My cousin first brought me here when I was visiting her in London some years back. Since then I’ve been back almost every time I’ve been on a trip to London and I’m convinced the same woman has been in that front chefs’ area every time I’ve been!

3. Tastecard

This money saving trick gives you the freedom to choose where you want to eat whilst enabling you enjoy your meal for half price! Tastecard is a company that offers 50% off or 2 for 1 meals at many of the popular chain restaurants as well as some independent restaurants. Our favourite restaurants to go to on the card are:

• Frankie and Benny’s

• Pizza Express

• Prezzo

They offer a £1 for a 60 day trial period and you can eat out as many times in those 60 days as you want. £1 for 50% off meals is definitely worth it financially! Don’t forget to cancel your subscription after the 60 days though, otherwise the card will automatically renew at the full annual cost (Will is a sucker for this one). Once you’ve bought a trial card you will need to download the app and activate your card. From the app you can search for restaurants based on a postcode or your current location, just remember to check which days each deal is valid on as some restaurants don’t offer deals on certain days.