Questions for Brits and other worldly folk

[A Desert Rose]

I'm planning my adventures in England trip and I need some questions answered.

I know there be Brits (and other worldy folks) here who can answer for me.

Someone suggested that I will need around $500/day, which includes hotel expenses. That seems a bit high to me. Is $500/day accurate?

I was also told that Brits don't wear levis. I find that hard to believe since shy's male friend bought like 5 pairs of 501's while he was here and both he and shy wore jeans during the entire time I spent with them. I live in my levis. Will my attire be "wrong"? Do you have any suggestions that won't make me look too tourist-y? Of course I know that all I have to do is open my mouth and speak... that's a dead give-away. (Remember that American voice that John Cleese did in A Fish Called Wanda? That's how I'm sure I'd sound to you. However, buckaroo is not part of my normal, daily vocabulary. LOL)

I might be renting a car, at some point during this trip. (After driving with me, this information will probably terrify shy.) I know that will add to the expense. I don't want to do the group tour bus thing, if I can avoid it, though.

I'm planning this trip for August. I've not googled the temps for that time of year, yet. I've not had a chance to speak to shy lately, either. I will be in the south of England: London, Salsbury and the area where shy lives.

And yes, I've got lots of time to plan, I know. I know how weak the dollar is now, too. But I want a target price to work towards and I loooove making plans.

I will be out of town for the next several days and therefore, not posting or reading. But if anyone can advise me or suggest to me, I'll be back to check again in a few days and I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks a whole lot in advance to any one who advises me.

And in case you didn't know: I love all things British!!! ;-)

 

[ShyVixen]

I'm planning my adventures in England trip and I need some questions answered.

I know there be Brits (and other worldy folks) here who can answer for me.

Someone suggested that I will need around $500/day, which includes hotel expenses. That seems a bit high to me. Is $500/day accurate?

I was also told that Brits don't wear levis. I find that hard to believe since shy's male friend bought like 5 pairs of 501's while he was here and both he and shy wore jeans during the entire time I spent with them. I live in my levis. Will my attire be "wrong"? Do you have any suggestions that won't make me look too tourist-y? Of course I know that all I have to do is open my mouth and speak... that's a dead give-away. (Remember that American voice that John Cleese did in A Fish Called Wanda? That's how I'm sure I'd sound to you. However, buckaroo is not part of my normal, daily vocabulary. LOL)

I might be renting a car, at some point during this trip. (After driving with me, this information will probably terrify shy.) I know that will add to the expense. I don't want to do the group tour bus thing, if I can avoid it, though.

I'm planning this trip for August. I've not googled the temps for that time of year, yet. I've not had a chance to speak to shy lately, either. I will be in the south of England: London, Salsbury and the area where shy lives.

And yes, I've got lots of time to plan, I know. I know how weak the dollar is now, too. But I want a target price to work towards and I loooove making plans.

I will be out of town for the next several days and therefore, not posting or reading. But if anyone can advise me or suggest to me, I'll be back to check again in a few days and I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks a whole lot in advance to any one who advises me.

And in case you didn't know: I love all things British!!! ;-)

With the dollar against the pound, $500 works out at around £250 a day. It all really depends on where you stay, and what you want to do each day. Compared to the US, tourist atrractions here in the UK are pretty steep prices. if you could give me and of what kind of touristy things you'd be doing, I'd be able to help with a better esitmate. Of course if your hotel is £180 a night...then you might need the £250 a day, but otherwise, I would say that's a little too high!

As for Levis/ jeans, lol, no your attire wouldn't be 'wrong' - unless you are planning to attend a really fancy meal, or the theater in London's West End. For anything else, jeans are perfectly fine.

Hope that helps a little

 

[bandelero]

Hi ADR...as you love all things Brit, I'll happily leap into that love

As to your worries about daily expenses, I agree with ShyVixen that $500 a day seems high, but it really depends on what you are going to be doing. Tourist things in London tend to be around £15 - £30 per person..(London Eye = £15, Madame Tussaud = £20)..your biggest costs are going to be hotel, food and transport. If you are going everywhere by taxi and eating "upmarket" every day then $500 a day is possible.
If you are happy to get around by tube/train/bus, not staying in an expensive hotel and eat at reasonably priced places, I would reckon $200 - $300 per day would be more reasonable.

Levis are fine, I wear jeans most days. Every nationality has streotypes and the Brit in his pin stripe suit with bowler hat and rolled umbrella DOES exist, but unless you are going to hang around the "City" (The central square mile of London where all the high finance takes place) then you won't see many of them.

Most of the large museums are free admission,(http://www.londontourist.org/museums.html)
and well worth allowing half a day each to visit.
Covent Garden is a must just to browse and wander round, also there is a cafe there called Coffee, cake and Kink that some of the UK Lit people are going to visit, I haven't been there yet but it is on my list of places to go

IMO there are quite a few "must see" things in London for anybody, but the real magic of Britain lies outside the cities and in the countryside, so I hope that you get a chance to see some of that too.

August temperatures in Britain are usually in the range 65 - 75 degrees F, this is a site with a lot of useful info:
http://projectbritain.com/

 

[minx1]

I'm planning my adventures in England trip and I need some questions answered.

I know there be Brits (and other worldy folks) here who can answer for me.

Someone suggested that I will need around $500/day, which includes hotel expenses. That seems a bit high to me. Is $500/day accurate?

I was also told that Brits don't wear levis. I find that hard to believe since shy's male friend bought like 5 pairs of 501's while he was here and both he and shy wore jeans during the entire time I spent with them. I live in my levis. Will my attire be "wrong"? Do you have any suggestions that won't make me look too tourist-y? Of course I know that all I have to do is open my mouth and speak... that's a dead give-away. (Remember that American voice that John Cleese did in A Fish Called Wanda? That's how I'm sure I'd sound to you. However, buckaroo is not part of my normal, daily vocabulary. LOL)

I might be renting a car, at some point during this trip. (After driving with me, this information will probably terrify shy.) I know that will add to the expense. I don't want to do the group tour bus thing, if I can avoid it, though.

I'm planning this trip for August. I've not googled the temps for that time of year, yet. I've not had a chance to speak to shy lately, either. I will be in the south of England: London, Salsbury and the area where shy lives.

And yes, I've got lots of time to plan, I know. I know how weak the dollar is now, too. But I want a target price to work towards and I loooove making plans.

I will be out of town for the next several days and therefore, not posting or reading. But if anyone can advise me or suggest to me, I'll be back to check again in a few days and I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks a whole lot in advance to any one who advises me.

And in case you didn't know: I love all things British!!! ;-)

ooh how exciting ADR

You will definitely need to budget more when you are staying in central london as the prices are really inflated. You could probably get a midrange hotel for around £80-£150 per night. Eating out in the tourist spots is expensive and often poor quality food...if you steer clear of the main tourist areas there are some great places and bargains to be had.
I will have a think and post you some links later. You will probably want to budget around £30 per head though to eat out a restaurant (couple of courses and a couple of glasses of wine), though there are cheaper options such as pub grub and Indian food....probably £15-£20 per head.
When I was living in London, about 6 months ago a days travel card cost about £9 - for that you can travel on the tube and buses as much as you like.
Don't get a black cab - they are really pricey and don't drive in central London when you can help it; it will take you hours to get around, you will have to pay congestion charge and you won't see anything either!
Covent garden is a great place to go. Try Summerset House and Regents Park Outdoor theatres for outdoor plays and concerts. Take a boat trip up the Thames...get on at Richmond or Twickenham and take it back into the city...my friends used to do that and take a bottle of wine to share.
Definitely take in a show or two. Blood brothers is good.

Try the free things to do at http://golondon.about.com/od/thingstodoinlondon/tp/free_London.htm

and also http://www.timeout.com/london/

Levis are fine. Infact anything is just about fine. London is so varied and cosmopolitan that you will see all different types of dress, from suits, to jeans, to goth or jilbab. You name it, you will see it.

How not to look touristy? Don't have your camera around you neck for starters! Though on a serious note, be aware of valuables...there are a fair amount of pickpockets. Having said that I have lived there 7 years and never had anything taken.
When you are travelling on the tube, stand to the right side of the escalators. People tend to run up and down the left of them to catch their tube. People are always running late lol.

If you can see other places, I would recommend Brighton; an hour by train....its by the sea and has some cool shops and restaurants.
There are plenty of places in Southern England and some lovely countryside too.
The Norfolk Broads are about an hour and halfs drive NE; very different lanscape but worth a visit. If You can go further a field, quaint villages and cream teas can be found in Devon and Cornwall, as well as some stunning scenery and the Lake District is a must too.
My favourite place ever I think, is at Lands End -

http://www.minack.com/

 

[ShyGuy68]

If you didn't know it already, I London!! I've been there several times, and just never grow tired of it.

If you feel up for walking in London, you can get some great guided walkes at www.walks.com. I discovered them some year ago, and have been on quite a few walks by now, and almost all of them have been great. The Jack the Ripper walk is very popular.

As for booking rooms in London, try these places:

www.visitlondon.com
www.londontown.com
www.baholidays.com

The first two links are good for info about London as well

and for seeing other peoples review of hotels around the world you can use this site www.tripadvisor.com.

 

[naxalite0906]

Hey ADR... London is a brilliant place and you will have a wonderful time..

As for the budget of $500 a day.... this all depends on where you stay and what kind of transport you use - like many people have already said. To stay in a reasonable hotel in the centre you are probably looking at around $200 a night I would say. One option that may be worth exploring is staying just outside of the city centre. This may be a bit cheaper, esp if you find a bed and breakfast somewhere. Transport into London is brilliant, so as long as you are near a tube stop, thats all you need (and definitely by the travel passes for each day you want to get around as they cover busses, tubes, and overground trains too). However, the only problems when staying outside the centre is it may be difficult to get home if you plan on staying out past midnight which is when the tubes stop as then you might have to stump up a more expensive taxi ride back to where you are staying. I would only reccommend hiring a car if you plan to drive outside of London to other towns/cities as driving into the centre is a nightmare and its easer by tube.

As for places to see in London.. well it all depends on the kind of things you want to see. One thing I always like to do is get the train/tube to waterloo and then walk around London from there.. Along the south Bank to westminster, or across the bridge and into town. Tis a nice way to explore. Some museums and exhibitions on the south bank are worth a look. If you are a big kid too, i'd definitely reccommend going to Hamley's which is on Bond St i think. Tis quite possible my fave shop ever (although FAO schwartz in New York came close)!

Have fun anyway.

 

[m wisdom]

$500 is a bit much but as people have said it depends on what you want to do. I would say about $200-$300 for a hotel, $100-$150 for food and $50-$100 for tourist stuff. You can of course go cheaper, especially outside of London. But if you want a car that will cost you as well. In all I would say around $400 a day staying at a decent quality hotel and eating out most off the time.

I have had great vacations in the UK for about $200 a day including a rental car but then I was not in London and I was living pretty cheap (for a turist).

I hope you have a great trip and do let us know when you are over here, you never know who you might run into

 

[ChilliJam]

London can be very pricy but there are lots of cheaper places to eat that are very good. If you plan on eating out, look for places that have more local customers than tourists and for food like Indian, Chinese or Thai, choose places that people from those countries actually go to.

Golden rule in London is don't look lost. Carry a map but check it sporadically rather than walk with it in your hand. Walk with purpose and keep valuables out of sight. Thieves see a tourist and they instantly see a digital camera, cell phone, passport and likely a fair amount of currency.

British cash is well designed as all the notes are different sizes and colours so they're easy to identify by value. Coins even have numbers on them! (hate that about US dollars, the number of time's I've nearly handed over $100 instead of $10 when I've been there.)

Try the roughguides website for cheaper hotels and restaurants. It's a kind of backpacker's guide to London.

I'd say that £80 ($160) will get you a reasonable hotel outside the city. Travelodge is a good, basic hotel chain. £8-10 ($16-20) will get you lunch and £20 ($40) will get you dinner (excl wine etc) if you shop around. Tourist attractions vary a lot. Also, tax is included in any prices you see here, so what you see is what you pay.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[Betticus]

Darnit, with so many people on lit living in London you'd think someone would say to themselves, wow, August is a ways off. ADR, screw the hotel and come stay at my place over the weekend and I'll show you all the naughty underground stuff that you'd never find on your own.

Now, if anyone wants to come visit the northern part of the Great Chihuahuan Desert in super sunny Las Cruces with enough warning I could probably put them up for a while.

Don't mind the cage, it's for the puppy as he's not housetrained yet. He's currently training to be a champion nappytime dog.

 

[VelvetDarkness]

Hi ADR

You can save a lot of money on hotels by booking online just a few days before you travel. It's a bit of a gamble but if you're savvy it can really pay off.

Some useful links:

Lastminute Hotels
London Toolkit
Theatre Tickets
Salisbury/Stonehenge

If you fancy tea with a native, drop me a PM. I'd offer you houseroom but you can't swing a kitten in our place. We're also quite a way from London.

And please don't worry about your Levis. They are the most popular denim brand in the UK and you'll see jeans wearers all over the place.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[shy slave]

I would agree with everyone who has said that $500.00 is too high.

Hotels in London are expensive but we have 100's of cheap hotels and bed/breakfast places.

There is a chain which if you book some weeks in advance are as cheap as motel 6 and are ok.

Minx said about the Norfolk braods, well hopefully you will see those as I live about 20 minutes from them.

I am so loking forward to your visit, are you bring Jane?

We need to talk about hotel options and find the best way to make this happen.

Perhaps when you have dates some others who live in the UK can meet you too, we could do an ADR London Lit Gettogether

 

[A Desert Rose]

I've been looking and bookmarking all these websites!!!

Thank you all so much. This is going to be way cool.

Yes, I know that August is a long way off but, I love planning and I love setting goals and I love the most, having things to look forward to. I need things to look forward to. So, indulge me this, please. ;-)

And I would meet anyone who wanted to meet me.

I hope shy can tour me around (I don't know if Jane's coming with me or not) and I especially look forward to some "girl time" with her. We didn't get much of that when she was here.

Watch out Betticus! I might take you up on that and show up some weekend with my sleeping bag in hand. We aren't that far away from each other. ;-D

 

[Pleasureableguy]

About the best accommodation listing I've used lots is this one, you'll see that I've set it to show you Salisbury:

http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/salisbur.html

Here's a really good journey planner, works with all kinds of public transport and for driving (mihgt be best to get the train to Sal;isbury and start your driving on the left in Wiltshire, not in London!)

http://www.transportdirect.info

Yopu could stay in good accomodation, eat well and travel about for a lot less than $500 a day, more like $150 and you could do it for less than that.

As for English summers - anything's possible!

 

[A Desert Rose]

To anyone who's interested: Jane is coming with me and we set a date.

We'll be leaving for London on July 15th. We'll have 7 full days of vacation (minus travel days) in London and south England.

I read someplace that lots of people are now shipping their luggage ahead to their destination. Has anyone else heard of or done this?

 

[00Syd]

I went to England for two and a half weeks a few summers ago with family and I don't know what your plans are, but what we did was stay in London for a week, and then take the train around to everywhere else we wanted to go, thus, avoiding the need to rent a car. That would be my suggestion. All the train tickets may be too expensive, I don't know what your budget is looking like, but it was VERY convenient and much much easier than trying to drive in a foreign country on the wrong side of the road. We even took the train to Scotland for a few days!

And I don't know how into this you would be, but The New Untouchables put on some GREAT events all around England. http://www.newuntouchables.com/ We went to their Mod Weekender in Brighton which was amazing! That was the most fun time we had the whole trip. I'm pretty sure thats in August sometime... maybe you could check it out.

 

[A Desert Rose]

I went to England for two and a half weeks a few summers ago with family and I don't know what your plans are, but what we did was stay in London for a week, and then take the train around to everywhere else we wanted to go, thus, avoiding the need to rent a car. That would be my suggestion. All the train tickets may be too expensive, I don't know what your budget is looking like, but it was VERY convenient and much much easier than trying to drive in a foreign country on the wrong side of the road. We even took the train to Scotland for a few days!

And I don't know how into this you would be, but The New Untouchables put on some GREAT events all around England. http://www.newuntouchables.com/ We went to their Mod Weekender in Brighton which was amazing! That was the most fun time we had the whole trip. I'm pretty sure thats in August sometime... maybe you could check it out.

This is going to sound really strange, but after pleasureableguy's post, I can't see any others in this thread... my last one or yours. I had to click on your name, go to find all posts by you and then click there to see this post. It's like this thread has gone dead after his post on January 23rd.

But as to your advice and suggestions: thank you! Shy suggested the same thing... don't drive LOL but then again, she's driven with me here so take that into account.

I'll also look at that website with Jane. Thanks a lot for your input here!

Now if i could just see this thread again...

 

[catalina_francisco]

To anyone who's interested: Jane is coming with me and we set a date.

We'll be leaving for London on July 15th. We'll have 7 full days of vacation (minus travel days) in London and south England.

I read someplace that lots of people are now shipping their luggage ahead to their destination. Has anyone else heard of or done this?

I will keep this in mind and see if I am able to somehow meet up with you while you are so close. The shipping luggage ahead thing might be due to the huge problems they seem to be having co-ordinating people getting their luggage after flying into Heathrow. At one point I heard it wass a British Airways problem..lots of missing and backlogged luggage...but a couple of days ago there was another story on the news of how basically very few people had received theit luggage that day due to the 3 teams responsible not being properly co-ordinated, the end result being people were being told their luggage would be sent to their address once it was found and cleared etc., and in the meantime they were without luggage and having to buy clothing etc., to get by. Not nice.

Catalina

 

[catalina_francisco]

Just found this story on today's problems.

Catalina

 

[A Desert Rose]

Just found this story on today's problems.

Catalina

Thank you catalina. I'll read this.

But can you tell me why that after post 15, I can't see any posts here when I click into this thread? I had to do the same thing with your post that I did with 00Syd's... click the user name, click on find all posts and then click on the post to this particular thread. I refreshed this page and even left Lit and came back in. What's wrong with this thread? I'm not having this problem on any others.

As much bullshit as is going on with the airlines, I think I will ship my stuff ahead to Shy's house. Well, I'm thinking so right now.

If you can come see me while I'm there... that would be totally awesome!!!

 

[catalina_francisco]

Thank you catalina. I'll read this.

But can you tell me why that after post 15, I can't see any posts here when I click into this thread? I had to do the same thing with your post that I did with 00Syd's... click the user name, click on find all posts and then click on the post to this particular thread. I refreshed this page and even left Lit and came back in. What's wrong with this thread? I'm not having this problem on any others.

As much bullshit as is going on with the airlines, I think I will ship my stuff ahead to Shy's house. Well, I'm thinking so right now.

If you can come see me while I'm there... that would be totally awesome!!!

Have you tried logging out and back in? I know I have been having problems for over a week now with anything I go back to edit for typos etc., taking an age to reload..maybe this is another glitch they are having.

Catalina

 

[A Desert Rose]

Have you tried logging out and back in? I know I have been having problems for over a week now with anything I go back to edit for typos etc., taking an age to reload..maybe this is another glitch they are having.

Catalina

I thought of that but I can't remember my password for sure LOL and I'm afraid if I log out ... I'll be out for a while. aaaaahahahahhaa which might not be a bad thing...

 

[catalina_francisco]

I thought of that but I can't remember my password for sure LOL and I'm afraid if I log out ... I'll be out for a while. aaaaahahahahhaa which might not be a bad thing...

Oh damn, then don't log out!!

Catalina

 

[A Desert Rose]

Oh damn, then don't log out!!

Catalina

Yea no kidding... what would I do if I couldn't get back in? Clean house, finish laundry and actually do constructive stuff...

It's just this one thread that is doing this too... how strange is that?

 

[callinectes]

Wow ADR, I hope you have a fabulous time!!

I have heard wearing tennis shoes is a huge faux pas in Europe. Is that true? What do locals wear when doing a lot of walking??

 

[ShyGuy68]

Wow ADR, I hope you have a fabulous time!!

I have heard wearing tennis shoes is a huge faux pas in Europe. Is that true? What do locals wear when doing a lot of walking??

I don't know if it's a huge faux pas, but it something that I often notice when I'm out travling, and it's often a way that you can recognize Americans

Personally I have some good walking shoes that I wear when I explore the places I visit, or as when it's hot, a good pair of sandals.