How much can I expect to spend during 5 days in London?

Question

I am trying to get a feel for how much currency to exchange. How expensive is the tube, and are there multi-day tourist passes? How much can I expect to spend on an average meal out? Is it true that prices in London are exactly double those in the US? Any other helpful tips?

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

I believe it is a little under double. It is crazy though. As a hamburger at a nice restuarant here is maybe 7-$8. There it is 8 EURO so you are paying around $14 which is the amount of a steak here. But think when you add in the drink and appetizer and if you want a pair of jeans!! its crazyy. Id bring 300 more than you expected to spend. Its a great trip and youll have tons of fun but itll cost you.

Answer 2

All of your money i would expect and yeah english currency is double that of amercian currency, good for us brits, means we get everything in your country half price!

Answer 3

Just adding to the other answers, the Tube, DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and London Buses are ridiculously expensive unless you get yourself a Pre-Pay OysterCard when you arrive in the UK. It gives you unlimited travel on London's tube and buses and 33% discount on the river bus services which run along the Thames.

A one week pass costs £24.20 for zones 1 & 2 (plus a £3 refundable deposit). London actually has six zones but most of the popular tourist locations are within zones 1 & 2. You can buy the cards on arrival at Heathrow or even Gatwick airport, but both airports are way outside zones 1 & 2 so you'd need to pay to travel into the city.

Downsides? It's a seven day pass, not five, but even then a single tube fare is £3 to £4 so it's still worth it. With very few exceptions, prepay OysterCards are not valid on regular trains which are not part of the Underground network. The £3 deposit is refundable but you need to claim it; most busy underground stations will ask you to fill in a form and then give an address to send the refund to. A UK cheque for £3 wouldn't be worth trying to pay into a non-UK bank a/c... If you try a less busy station at a quieter time then you can get your refund straight away, but it's the last thing on your mind when you're planning to go home. OTOH, if you return to London with your expired OysterCard, you can recharge the card with more credit and not have to pay any additional deposit.

Dining out in London can be horribly expensive but if you look behind the tourist areas things get cheaper. There are a chain of pubs with various individual names but they'll always say "J.D. Wetherspoons" on the outside somewhere and they do good food at fair prices. Many other pubs do similarly fair-priced, good quality food as well. Whatever you do, DO NOT eat at an Aberdeen Steak House! It's poor quality, awful service, ridiculous prices and only unwary foreign tourists ever enter them. None of the staff ever seem to be British either.  London's China Town (north of Leicester Square) has some good cheap food if you shop around and Brick Lane (to the north-east of Tower Bridge) has loads of cheap Indian restaurants and a couple of excellent, cheap and filling 24hr bagel bakeries at the northern end of the road. My faves are the chopped herring bagels and the hot salt beef ones. Both bakeries are rivals and are next door to each other, I prefer the northernmost one.

Answer 4

aloght!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

A LOT.

London is expensive, but its worth it, I love the city!

Yes, prices in the UK are double that in the United States.

Answer 6

There are a number of ways to structure your trip - you can manage on a relatively small amount or you can spluge.  If you're looking for a glamourous vacation, you can expect to spend quite bit, but if you're willing to stay in student hostels or inexpensive boarding houses, you can save quite a bit.

For the low end hotels and boarding houses, expect to pay between £35 and £60 per night (that's priced for a single room with a bathroom).  For a youth hostel which is a shared dorm-style room with a shared bathroom, you would pay between £10 and £20 a night.

Your best option for travel is to buy a week-long travel card for £24 which gives you unlimited bus and tube travel in zones 1 and 2.  In the end, even though your don't use it for the full 7 days, you'll save money.

It depends what sort of food you're eating, but you can get an inexpensive sandwich at take-away shops all over the city for around £3 for lunch, so after including a drink and a snack, figure lunches will cost you about £5-6.  Breakfast is often included in your accommodation so take advantage of that!  Dinners often have entrees of £7-9 with drinks and sides additional.  Remember to ask for tap water if you don't want to pay, because if you ask for water, they will bring you bottled water by default.

Entertainment is also an additional cost and something to keep in mind - if you want to see a show, go to a pub, or enter some of the very touristy locations, that can be upwards of £40! Many of the best museums in the city are free, however, including the National Gallery, Tate Modern and British Museum so make sure to include those in your travel plans.  You can also visit http://www.spoonfed.co.uk which is an event listings site that has everything going on in London including many free events.

Overall, you should expect to spend between £600-750 which is $1200-1500, and that doesn't include the airfare.  If you don't feel comfortable carrying that much money, take out traveler's cheques.  These can be changed at many money exchanges throughout the city at good rates and are easier to resell back home if you have money left over (and don't want to deal with changing £ back into $).  Good luck and have a great trip!