London Questions Answered & Budgeting Tips

Viewing the gardens through Kensington Palace

When people learn that I traveled to London, I get many questions.  Here are answers to the most asked questions along with some budgeting ideas.

Was it hard to get around?  No, the Tube is super easy and affordable.  For the the 2 of us, on average we spent a little less than $10 a day.  The maps were easy to navigate and the tapping of your credit or debit card to go on and off saved the hassle of buying tickets.  We never got on the wrong train and the travel was quick.

Did we ride on a Double decker bus?  We did not.  We thought about it, but the buses were often crowded and the traffic heavy.  We thought we would get to our destination faster avoiding the traffic and traveling underground on the Tube or walking.

Did we go to Liverpool’s or see anything about the Beatles?  We did not.  It held my interest, but not Bruce’s.  It was a long way to travel for one person.  Maybe if we had any free time, but our schedule was packed.

Did the London 3 Day Go Pass save you any money? Here are the costs per person USD

The cost of each pass was $160.55 (includes tax)

Kensington Palace $32.77

Tower of London $52.40

Tour Bridge Tour $21.22

The Shard $42.45

Boat Ride down the Thames River $14.33

West Minster Abbey Tour $39.80

London Eye $55.72

Total - $258.69     A savings of $98.14 per person

Reflection on the London Go Pass - It was very easy to use at each of our stops.  The only place we had to wait in line was Westminster Abbey.  

If I didn’t have the pass, what places would I not have paid to experience?  For me, I would have not done The Shard and the London Eye, if I had been able to get free tickets to the Sky Garden, I would have opted for a free bird’s eye view from there. As I was unsuccessful of obtaining the elusive free tickets, I would have only done The Shard.  

What do you wish you would have seen that you didn’t? I had thought of going to the Churchill War Rooms, but we didn’t have enough time and to be honest we hit a wall of information with the places we did see, we just couldn’t take anymore information in.  Also a trip to Liverpool would have been fun for me to retrace the steps of the Beatles, but a stated above it was a farther distance to see a few places and Bruce wasn’t interested.  It was a better choice to see things that we both wanted to see.

What surprised you about London?  I had several surprises on this trip. I was surprised by how fast and easy it was to get around town. Also, I was surprised that the Tower Bridge tour was one of my favorites and that Westminster Abbey was one of my least.  I think I just had different expectations for Westminster Abbey.  I know it from the the televised Royal events.  I did not understand that it is a mausoleum with engravings, crypts and statues through out.  It was also our most crowded location. 

Money Saving Tips - London is expensive, but I didn’t find the prices of food and travel any different than a big U.S. city like Chicago or New York. Though the hotels were more expensive than any place I have traveled before.  We tried to save money in a round about way, by getting a new Sapphire credit card that we will use exclusively for travel and vacations.  There are the standard money back, but also when going through the Chase website we were able to save $80 a night on our hotel.  Hotels in London are more expensive than the hotels in the U.S. so every bit helped.  Also the London Go City Pass saved us almost $200 rather than paying for tours outright.

Our Budget - $4000

Flight - $1,200

Hotel - $2,100 (upgraded to a suite)

Food - $600

Travel  - $60

Site Seeing - $660 (included a day trip to Stonehenge and tour of Windsor Castle)

Souvenirs - $30

Our decision to upgrade our hotel room to a suite and our tag on day trip to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle exceeded our budget of $4,000.  We appreciated have the extra space after a long day of site seeing. The two televisions also helped since Bruce and I’s sleep patterns are very different.  The Stonehenge and Windsor trip was expensive at $340 when we booked it and I really hesitated.  There were other tours that were less expensive, but did not allow us the amount of time at each stop and the inside Windsor Castle tour, as the tour included another stop either at Bath or Oxford.  I would have not wanted anyless time at either location.  It was the right tour for us. We agreed on the benefits of upgrading our hotel room to a suite and taking the site seeing tour that best fit our interests. We sacrificed a week long trip to Red Gorge in Kentucky that we had planned in the summer to cover the added expenses. When we returned home we were also presented a week’s trip to Croatia in November, but declined because.. well money doesn’t grow on trees and our London trip spent the majority of our travel budget for 2025. 

Is this the end of our travels for 2025?  No, we still have 10 camping trips scheduled between April and September to all new locations except 2.  We also have Traventure 2 planned with our friends for a week in October to cover the northern United States Cleveland to Washington State.

Still have questions?  Leave a comment.