Budget question

How many transportation segments are you doing? You can easily go to the www.nationalrail.co.uk and figure out what the train segments would be if you were traveling soon. If your schedule is set then you can easily buy tickets ahead of time on the rail lines that give a price break for early ticketing. Ditto with the National Express buses. If you are planning for next year, then I'd add 10% or more price differential.

My food budget might be way different than yours. I'm not a foodie and I don't eat high end. I would probably figure 30-50GBP a day and not really spend that much.

I think part of what would figure into any budget is what will you be doing at your locations? Will you be hiking around and visiting free museums only? Do you have some day trips planned? Are there some special sites that charge admission?

Part of how I deal with the budget issue is to prepay some expenses. There is an obvious risk to this strategy, but the plus side is that it reduces the costs during the trip and spreads the cost out over time without ever going into debt. (debt being one of the worst four letter words in my house)

I'm leaving for a month in Europe at the end of August. I have some independent travel planned as well as 2 back to back RS tours. This means a great deal of the expenses are prepaid (RS tours) as well as some day tours when traveling independently. I recently determined that the amount of money I usually spend in a month at home (not counting fixed bills such as utilities, insurance, etc) should be just about right for any expenses that I still have to pay on this trip. Groceries, gas, entertainment, clothing, etc., that money will be trip money. When I return, it should have been just a "normal" month as far as expenses go.

Spending depends on your circumstances. Are you someone who eats out every meal or buys food from a supermarket? A coffee and a danish in a coffee shop will cost around £5. A breakfast in a hotel will probably cost £15+.

Lunch (sandwich, drink tin and a bag of crisps) from a supermarket will cost £4, a medium Big Mac meal will cost £6 and a sandwich and coffee in a cafe will set you back £10. A fancy restaurant could cost you £50 with wine.

Dinner - anywhere between £20 for a one course pub meal or curry with one alcoholic drink to £100 for fancy restaurants.

Train and bus ticket costs can easily be ascertained in advance once you know where you are heading.

Budget? What's that?

We are budget travelers, and somehow always find flights at 50% or less than the going airfare at any time. We are not foodies, and really don't go for the high line restaurants. And we try to avoid spending much time in the large U.K. cities because rooms are now very, very expensive. We prefer to stay Off the Beaten Path and find car rentals to be the best way to see more in less time. Without a car, we find ourselves walking and towing luggage too far.

Your budget for travel excluding hotels would probably be $100 a day.

When the Visa bill comes in upon our return, we just pay it. Thankfully we live conservatively and the money's not really an issue.

I’ll give you some general budget advice. London is really expensive but Sunday nights often have inexpensive lodging so use that to your advantage when you get sticker shock for the Saturday night stay.

The cheapest train tickets are called advance but they limit you to that particular train so make sure you can make that train.

The north of England is far less expensive than London and has plenty to offer.