The Great Hunt: What are your tips for doing London on a budget?

Comping_Queen

We recently stayed at the Wembley Central Travelodge, drove down and parked the car in their designated car park. Parking is £3 for the duration (if you leave and re-enter you have to pay the charge each time) The hotel is situated directly adjacent to Wembley Central tube station, and takes you directly into central London. Rooms cost £47 a night when we stayed, or for an extra £10 can sleep another adult, so for £60 you have accommodation and parking for 3 adults. No brainer!

tain

Download the YPlan app. Not cheap or money saving very often, but sometimes they have free events or last minute stuff that hasn't sold and is discounted. I also find it a good starting place for ideas.

tain

Huge money saving tip: don't bother driving at all in London. Congestion charges and parking charges make it financially unviable, some of the most aggressive drivers in the country make it emotionally unviable, and the traffic makes it time unviable.

If you have to drive, park outside zone 3 for cheap (or free if you're lucky/brave), and train it in.

rallywidow

For a family with young children, caravanning was our best option to have a two week holiday in the Capital.

We stayed in Abbey Wood Caravan Club site, it was only a 10 minute walk to the nearest train station and in half an hour you reached central London.

I collected my Tesco vouchers, got 4 times their value for restaurant deals, sight seeing vouchers and saved over £400.

I was able to save the caravan park's address into my 'favourites' on the Tesco web site, enabling me to order on line and get a delivery to the caravan, so we didn't have to travel from Northern Ireland with an over laden van. :rotfl:

Northernstaras

For reasonable hotel prices, try the Tune hotel group. There are about 4 of them in London, near main line train stations. You get what you pay for and add on what you want. So, for example, a room (double bed & en suite) might be £60/night - you pay extra for a window, extra for towels, extra for TV or safe etc. I've stayed 5 mins walk from Kings Cross for £60 but the second night I paid extra for a window! Rooms are clean & comfy but small - no room to open a large case and little wardrobe space (4 hangers) but for somewhere reliable to rest your head, well worth investigating. And cheaper than Travelodge & Premier Inn, always.

Jake_027

I always book in a travelodge on the outskirts and train in to save on accomodation, Croydon/Feltham/Houslow and probably others are much cheaper (I've just paid £78 for a weekend stay so £39 each) in Croydon, £6 each day to get the train in and out but still far cheaper than the £150 prices you'll pay for Central London.

NRTurner

Bit of a blatent plug here, but I wrote a blog post about this some years ago: https://www.neilturner.me.uk/2011/06/17/how-to-do-london-without-spending-too-much-money.html

Most of the above posts cover what I wrote, but I can't emphasise enough how much cheaper London buses are than the Tube. Each journey is £1.50 when paid with an Oyster card, and there's a daily cap of £4.50. So one journey is £1.50, two journeys are £3, three journeys are £4.50 and then any subsequent journeys on the same day are effectively free! Plus, the bus can be quicker than the Tube, as it can take a good 5 minutes to get from the tube station entrance to the platform and back out again. Have a look at TfL's online journey planner to see if there's a bus that'll get you where you need to be.

You can also save money on accommodation by staying with friends or family, if you know people in or near London. If not, as others have mentioned it's worth looking for a hotel that's further out, but near a tube or rail station. I've stayed at Premier Inns at Putney Bridge and South Wimbledon before - they're comfortable, and significantly cheaper than the central London hotels.

There's also LastMinute.com's Secret Hotels which can offer some great prices, although the one time I used them we found the hotel (Copthorne Millennium at Chelsea FC) to be a bit run-down. That was a few years ago so hopefully it's improved.

Suzzy_Blue

For a cheep lunch and great views across the river of the Houses of Parliament, pop into the cafe in St Thomas' Hospital, it is right by the London Eye too.

loocyloo

We usually stay at the Central YHA hostel ( just up a bit from BBC ) family room for 4 with ensuite about £240 but only a short bus ride or not that much of a walk from the middle of town!


Covent garden always has acts to watch and enjoy.


We also try out all the museums and art galleries, plus tkts at Leicester square for shows that day; be flexible and open to ideas and you can see some amazing shows.
the Parks are great, and for children, the Princess Diana memorial playground ( Kensington gardens ) is amazing.


We've also stayed at the YHA hostel near Southwark - not so convenient to get to from the centre, but good if you are doing stuff on the south side of the Thames.

eadieb

We always have done travelodge and in years past got £10 night family rooms in covent garden and city road, but now seem to be more like £30 to £40.

We take our own plastic bowls, portable caffetiere for fresh coffee and buy cereal and milk and crossants in the tesco express. Have a big breakfast. take away lunch and picnic tea (again from tesco).

Did the tesco clubcard points on a boat down the river to Greenwich and went to the free maritime museum and playground there.

last time we walked along the canal from Islington to Hackney and went to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal green for free and it had a free show.

the National Theatre at Southbank has special deals on many performances and we got a backrow seat for £12 each, by queing at 8.30am. Can only get them by going in person. Their website tells you which shows have the cheap ones.

Check 'time out' for kids in summer as there is so much stuff on for free. We went to a free hour long performance of a theatre company in the Sloop which is the open air theater outside city hall.

If you have younger kids, regents park has 3 fantastic playgrounds, ducks to feed, long walks, the gardens etc. and the zoo if you have the 2 for 1 rail deals.

Some of the local central west london swimming pools used to be good value