Beating London's high costs - United Kingdom - Europe - World - Travel
Beating London's high costs - United Kingdom - Europe - World - TravelLONDON - the cheaper way
The equivalent of more than $5 for a Tube ride, $65 for lunch and $4.50 for a cup of coffee - London's costs can take your breath away.
How can tourists survive? Here are five ways to save:
Give yourself a guided tour around London by spending an afternoon riding the London buses; it's one of the cheap thrills of the city. Ride for a whole day for £3 ($7), getting on and off as much as you'd like.
One suggested route? Take the No 94 bus from Picadilly Circus to Notting Hill Gate. It passes Soho, Oxford Street, Bond Street, Hyde Park Corner, Hyde Park and Notting Hill.
You also can buy a seven-day pass for unlimited access to the tube and buses in central London for £18.50 ($43.55); visit http://www.londontransport.co.uk.
Buy your lunch at Boots, the chemists. Don't laugh. It has a selection of cold sandwiches that cost about $5.90; a soft drinks is about $3.25. That's cheap!
The Tesco supermarket also has food.
Avoid hotel room service or fancy-looking restaurants for lunch; you'll be broke before dinner.
For dinner, think ethnic. Eat your fill for less at street markets or good Indian restaurants, such as Spice of India (12 Bathurst St, Tube stop Lancaster Gate). Dinner is about $39.25.
Get into sold-out shows by waiting in the returns line the night of the performance. You queue up about an hour before the show at the theatre. The box office sells no-show tickets to as many people as possible 15 minutes before curtain time.
You also can get half-price theatre tickets for some shows on the day of performances by going in person to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square.
At any rate, avoid scalpers; buy regular-priced tickets in advance in Australia at http://www.keithprowse.com.au (call 07-3239-5999 or 1300-730-023).
.Access the Internet at a cafe, not in your hotel room unless it's free. Many London hotels charge as much as $26 a day for Web access (they also may charge $6 and up just for using the telephone in your room ).
Find an Internet cafe - London has hundreds - where you can pay as little as $2.60 an hour and mingle with the locals.
. If you want to pay a reasonable price for a hotel - say, not more than $180 a night - you'll have to find small bed-and-breakfast places and sacrifice luxury. In exchange, you avoid feeling ripped off by overpriced hotel rooms you probably won't even spend much time in.
For example, the Garden Court Hotel is a small place near Hyde Park and Paddington Station with modest but clean rooms. For £58 ($136) a night single, you get a plainish tiny room with bath and a mini-TV, breakfast and use of a charming communal library and backyard patio; it's like staying at someone's house.
No air conditioning, but London usually doesn't need it. Visit http://www.gardencourthotel.co.uk
Posted by Spidey at 8:01 AM
Airfares set to take off
Airfares set to take off - Business - Business - smh.com.au: "Airfares set to take off
By Scott Rochfort and AAP
August 10, 2005 - 12:56PM
Air travellers are expected to be slugged with fuel surcharges as the price of oil rises.
Low cost carriers Jetstar and Virgin Blue are considering raising their fuel surcharge as world oil prices rise above $US64 a barrel."
- My question is : would this effect flights not owned by australia prices.. which country is getting their fuel the cheapest?
Posted by Spidey at 12:31 AM
: : VISALINK : :
: : VISALINK : :
Great resource site for getting info on visas L
australian site, but looks after other countries too
can also apply for visas online. great tool
Posted by Spidey at 10:56 PM
Visa Information For Foreigners : Turkey
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Turkiye (Turkey) :
* Visa Information For Foreigners
o Visa Application Form
Posted by Spidey at 10:28 PM
Fly around Europe for as little as twenty bucks one way! (from CouchSurfing - Travel Tips)
CouchSurfing - Travel Tips: "Fly around Europe for as little as twenty bucks one way!
6/13/05 8:56pm written by
CouchSurfing memberIf your planning a low cost trip to Europe look into regional European airlines. Airlines like Easyjet, Ryanair, Germanwings and Snowflake offer deals that are so amazingly cheap it's hard for Americans to believe. For the most part these airlines don't advertise in the U.S and to buy tickets you have to go to their websites. In April I was planning to go from Berlin to Krakow. Train fare was about 160$ roundtrip while a one way ticket on easyjet cost fifteen bucks! I'm planning to go back to Europe in September and recently looked into airfare from London's Stansted airport to Berlin. The price: 8.99 euro. That is about thirteen dollars. The only drawback to flying with these cheapie airlines is that to get these deals you generally have to buy tickets at least a month in advance, which doesn't allow for much flexibiltiy. Also, there are no refunds if you cancel or miss your flight (as I did!) Some of the airports (such as Stansted iin London) are inconveniant. However airports such as Berlin's Schoenfeld, which houses easyjet and Germanwings, are very accessible. There is an S bahn station directly in front of the airport and will get you into the heart of Berlin for two euros. I know trains are romantic and all that, but c'mon, for travellers on a budget, you can't beat twenty six bucks round trip."
Easyjet does not allow more than 20 kilos and Ryan Air more than 15 (but have a 10 kilos handbag plus). So travel as light as you can.
Posted by Spidey at 1:23 PM
Turkey on The Great Outdoors
The fairy chimneys of Turkey on The Great OutdoorsTune into
The Great Outdoors on Channel 7 at 7.30pm on Monday 22nd August and you'll get a glimpse of some of Turkey's most amazing scenery with The Imaginative Traveller. A major highlight of a visit to Turkey, Cappadocia is one of the most surreal places you will ever see. Repeated volcanic eruptions around 40-50 million years ago covered the area with layers of a light rock called tufa creating a natural 'lunar like' landscape. Over time the elements have eroded this surface rock to create unusual valleys and vast rock sculptures or 'fairy chimneys' which have been incorporated into the building of towns, villages and underground settlements. Wandering around Cappadocia, clambering in and out of the buildings and over the rippling tufa deposits it is easy to feel like you have just landed on another planet! And if that's not enough to capture your interest, you can also discover the area on horseback, take to the air in a hot air balloon and have dinner in a 'cave' restaurant. But don't just take our word for the appeal of Cappadocia's rock formations and amazing blend of nature and man, watch the Great Outdoors and you'll be choosing Turkey for your next holiday!
Posted by Spidey at 3:53 PM
