Cost per day

Travel within London, all of England, where? The daily cap for the London tube is £7.40. For food it depends on where and what you eat, and for entertainment, it depends on what entertainment you’re referring to. We’ve been to all the main tourist sights, won’t attend a play right now, and don’t hang out in clubs or bars, so our entertainment expenses for our upcoming trip will essentially be zero.

Whatever estimate you were looking at it is worth adding a fair amount more as the UK has suddenly developed significantly high inflation, including residential utility bills which will be 400 percent higher from April than they were 6 months ago, and much higher than that for businesses, all of which will be passed through to us. Official inflation for all items is running between 5 and 10 percent.

What that will mean to a tourist just visiting us I don't know...

HI Sharon, I believe that Rick's England guide book recommends $185.00 a day for non-London and $200.00 a day for London. He includes hotel room, food, & tourist attraction expenses in his calculations. Jan

PS - I just moved so my book is packed up so this is based on my memory.

I was asked to state the following for our (hopefully) upcoming trip. It will be sometime in June. We are looking at finalizing tickets today. We are not part of a tour. It will be in London, Edinburgh and a couple of smaller towns. We typically have a small breakfast, small lunch and sit down meal - thought not an expensive one. Who knows, but we're hopeful Covid will look better in June???
Thanks. Sharon

HI Sharon, I found another website called budget your trip said this about London:
How much money will you need for your trip to London? You should plan to spend around £145 ($199) per day on your vacation in London, which is the average daily price based on the expenses of other visitors. Past travelers have spent, on average, £29 ($39) on meals for one day and £20 ($28) on local transportation. Also, the average hotel price in London for a couple is £182 ($249). So, a trip to London for two people for one week costs on average £2,034 ($2,782).

Hope this helps.
Jan

Sharon this amount is different for a solo traveler vs a couple due to Lodging costs not being shared with another. You didn’t mention whether you were traveling solo or not.

I would plan $250 a day for a solo traveler.

Past travelers have spent, on average, £29 ($39) on meals for one day and £20 ($28) on local transportation.

Jan's source - and most others - may or may not as accurate as you'd like.

Anybody who can have 3 meals in London for £29 is doing very very well. Many simple chain restaurants will run £20 to £25 per person for main and drinks let alone any sweet.

On the other hand £20 is an awful lot for tube and bus which caps out at £7.40 in the centre. Must be cabs every day too. Do most people use cabs every day?

This isn't a knock on Jan (nwnews2), just that websites purporting to show averages may or may not be accurate....

Thank you all for your input! We booked our tickets yesterday. We'll be gone 14 days - I'm thinking half of the time in Edinburgh, (we've normally driven but the last couple of times we've only taken the train as we will be this time), and we're taking our son for the first time. I thought of taking a day trip out of Edinburgh to Berwick on Tweed. We would like to see it and it would give our son a chance to see a smaller town. Out of London I thought about a day trip to Brighton. Never been there. Do these look like good day trip options? Perhaps I need to start a new post with these questions, but thought I would ask you. Thanks!

Brighton wouldn’t be bad but why not overnight in Whitsable? Only an 1.5 hour train ride from Victoria Station.

And as far as food costs look for sign boards outside pubs. Often a substantial meal deal. Remember you don’t have to drink alcohol in a pub. Its a family gathering place. Some will restrict children after 8 or 9 at night.

You can also look for good deals at Nando’s, Wagamama, Five Guys pizza.

Also many relatively inexpensive ethnic food offerings in the UK.

I always look on line as well. Food blogs like ….The London Eater, Eat like a Girl, London Cheap Eats….

Marks and Spencer, Tescos, Waitrose, Pret A Managers, all have food to go items as well…