I'm taking the RS London in 7 Days tour, so the hotel and a good portion of the museums and meals are covered. I also purchased an Oyster card already and am bringing a credit card.
How much cash would you recommend bringing for uncovered meals, etc.? I'm thinking maybe £150-200? Any tips would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
How many meals are uncovered? And which ones? Breakfasts cost less than lunches, etc so that would influence my recommendations.
I think the tour material usually recommends about $50/day. I usually spend less per day than that but I have not done the London tour. I would probably bring 150£ but would have the option of a debit card with me to draw out more Pounds if needed.
See this info about money matters on this website. Oft-repeated advice on this board is not to exchange dollars for pounds before your trip, your bank will give you a bad exchange rate. Maybe just a few pounds to get you from airport to city when you arrive. Instead, bring the debit card from your checking account. Notify your bank of your plans, so they won't cancel the card when they see a foreign transaction, and find out what your daily limit is for ATM withdrawals. Then use the card at an ATM ("cashpoint" in British) to get your pounds as needed. Each transaction will involve a fee, so fewer bigger withdrawals are better than more little ones. Safest and cheapest to use an ATM in front of, or inside, a staffed branch of a major bank. That will allow you to change big bills into smaller ones, and give you help if by chance the machine swallows your card.
I'm with Dick on the "don't exchange money in advance" tip. I don't even take any with me to get from airport to city - I use an ATM at the airport to get my first local currency infusion.
We took this tour in February. All breakfasts are covered, and about half your dinners or big lunches. We ended up spending less than $50 a day for the two of us, while on the tour itself. So yeah, 150 GBP would probably be just fine for one person. It is possible to eat cheaply in London if you're careful, but a couple of the dinners we had were pricey. So bring a debit card, in addition to your credit card. Let your bank know when and where you'll be so they can unblock it, and you can replenish your cash reserves at the cash points (ATMs). And pay attention to the post suggesting you wait until you get to England before getting pounds. Since you have a Oyster card, you don't even need cab fare to the hotel.
There is plenty to do in London that doesn't cost much. Walking is free, the parks are great, and most of the museums are free. But, as always, YMMV.
And by the way, this is a wonderful tour. We loved every minute of it. It is one of the busier tours, though. We had less free time than we would have liked, but that's okay; all the more reason to plan a return trip!
I think £200 is right.
Too bad you bought the Oyster card already because a transit pass is included with the tour. I guess you can use it before the tour starts to get to the hotel.
£200 should be plenty. This tour provides most everything you need including daily transit passes during the tour. So unless you like to shop or have very expensive tastes in food and drink there really isn't much to pay for out of pocket.
When I took this tour, we stayed at the Lime Tree which is around the corner from Victoria Station in the Belgravia area. So the tube ride from Heathrow was a very easy ride with only one transfer (didn't do the express train, costs too much when compared to the £5 total cost Oyster card tube ride). And when you are done with your trip, you can cash out your Oyster at the airport tube station (provided you have less than £10 on it). I kept mine with the few pence remaining and it has come in handy for my repeat trips to London and will be using it again when I take the Southern England tour next year. :-)
As the others suggested, bring a couple credit cards in case one doesn't work. Bring an ATM/Debit card and use that to get your £ at the airport when you arrive, plenty of ATMs and they don't charge fees at their end and you get the best rate possible. Don't forget to tell your card issuers and banks that you are going to be out of the country so they don't block your cards.
Hope your trip goes well and you have fun. London is a great city to explore!
We had no trouble cashing in our Oyster cards when we left; I don't remember how much we had on them. Mark, if I had known we'd be returning to London so soon, we would have held on to ours as well! Although it seems like someone told us they were going to be phased out. Doesn't seem to have been true.
I just wanted to add something. I just spent 3 nights in London (at the Lime Tree, lol). I usually picked up a takeaway sandwich for lunch which was in the neighborhood of 3-3.25£. Dinners were more expensive than I remembered and I don't do fine dining. The first 2nights in the Lime Tree neighborhood it ran arount 22£ for either starter and entree or entree and dessert. I had a glass of house wine each night. Last night I went to a restaurant I knew was more expensive and without wine it was 33£ for spring rolls and veggie stir fry!
So on the days you have a group dinner you will spend a lot less but on the nights you are on your own you may spend quite a bit more.
Emma, it was at Mango Tree near the Visitor Exit from Buckingham Palace. It was listed on Happy Cow.com as being vegan friendly and was not too far from my hotel on Ebury St. I looked at the menu and knew the prices going in, then when I got inside realized it is probably more "trendy" than I normally choose. Mostly very well-dressed 20 and 30-something's plus a few older groups. Not mainstream tourist when I was there.
Price also included bottled water and white rice, lol!
Great idea Emma! I actually like the Italian place around the corner from my hotel better. The gal at Reception recommended it as authentic and I found it to be so.
Just wanted to add another perspective. We are in London right now. We are using credit cards everywhere, really no need for cash. Just get a no fee foreign transaction credit card. However, If you do need cash, there are ATMs everywhere that don't tack on a fee - also banks offer favorable rates if you wanted to have some £. and not use an ATM. Our hotel also had a surprisingy good exchange rate too. It's easy to check online what the daily exchange rates are. By the way, we still have most of the cash from our first and likely only cash exchange. For us, using credit cards is easy because you have a record of every transaction.
Anyway, just a suggestion.
Thanks so much for the tips, everyone! They helped me make a good decision.
