British Rail Weekend Breaks
How to solve a problem like a 25th wedding anniversary
In January of this year, I organized a weekend in London for my husband and myself on the occasion of our twenty-five year wedding anniversary. (Wow, I'm getting old!) Not having been to the capital since our honeymoon every year, it seemed the perfect time to visit again. But with a modest budget of £ 300 and want to spend the nights in a hotel rather than a hostel, I decided it was finally time to become familiar with our laptop in the newly formed family and unearth the best deals I could find on the interweb for travel and theater tickets 
The following article is a detailed account of my progress and what I discovered while you might see some other technophobes shortcuts when planning your next trip to the capital.
During the search of my first stop was usually Google, plus some sites suggested by some of my friends more geekish computer. These are the four main research areas:
- Transport
- Accommodation
- Site seeing and Attractions
- Theatre tickets
=> Tip 1 – Get advice from real travelers First things first – I'm on Trip Advisor and is a great list of all the things there are to do in London. (Soooooooo many!) Trip Advisor is a great site because you are able to enter details of your next trip and then read the opinions and points five real people who have been there and brought the t-shirt. Opinions on the right is typical of the site.Hopefully this list will give you some inspiration as links I have also some comments, descriptions and reviews of each.
A long list of attractions in London
They say if you make a big decision you must first choose, then be a little anal, I advise a trip to find all the attractions possible that sounded vaguely interesting. Without further ADO is what I came up with:
Dungeons Tower of London / National Gallery Tussauds London Eye / / Exhibition Ms. Tower Bridge / London / Kensington Palace / London Zoo / / Hampton Court Globe / Shakespeare / Dali Universe Buckingham Palace / / Cabinet War Rooms / Chinatown Trafalgar Square / / Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain Diana / Aquarium Speakers' Corner in London / / Sherlock Holmes Museum / Nelson's Column / Oxford Street / Museum Natural History Museum of Science / / V & A market / Portobello Road / Abbey National Gallery House Markek Cathedral St. Paul / de / Tower of London Westminster / Borough / Apsley / / British Museum / St Pancras Station / Covent Garden / Abbey Road / Camden Market / Houses of Parliament / Imperial War Museum.
Now, obviously if we had tried to bypass all these attractions in one day we would have more keel of exhaustion and spent our life savings. So the next step was to get on the Internet and find the best prices and deals you can. We also need to make serious priorities to make the most of the day.
Tip> = 2 – Travel gear for London
It There were two aspects of a travel plan and the first was to find a return ticket cheap Train down to London. After the travel around London, which will come later.
We decided to book train tickets through the online provider train discount that we found we could save £ 30.00 compared with the main site from National Rail. National Express Coach is cheaper still, but we could not cope travel seven hours by car crashed into a small seat.
- National Rail Enquiries £ 104 - This site is the most expensive way to travel to London.
- Trainline £ 70.00 – The Trainline website is very friendly and they have a great trip planner feature.
- National Express Coach £ 50.00 - (Time travel 7am ….. NO WAY!)
Tip 3 – separate booking or reservation booking separate package 1) HotelWe found our hotel by using the Web site LateRooms. The hotel of choice was "Jury's Inn Islington" as it gave us good access to the west end without having to travel too far to the end of the day. You can see beautiful pictures of room for research and the price was very affordable. (See below.)
- Hotel website £ 129.00 per night
- LateRooms £ 99.00 per night.
2) Theatre – My husband Jeff is a big fan of the Queen if I really wanted taken to see the musical "We Will Rock You" as part of our birthday treat. After some research I found there are two ways main booking theater tickets West End:
- Booking via the website Web main show £ 89.00 – If you click on "Tickets" on the main We Will Rock You website you are redirected to where you Tickemaster pay the full price and a small booking fee:
- Discount Theatre website 50.00 - After typed "London Theatre Tickets" in Google and many shots unwanted Web sites to research I finally came across DiscountTheatre.com. They really have a professional approach and offer secure online booking for musicals in London at discounted prices. As you can see, they offer great discounts on loads of shows in London and I was able to book in real time through the system Booking the West End.
- Taken at the time of writing:
We Will Rock You – WAS £ 39.50 £ 25.00 NOW
Billy Elliot – WAS £ 60.00 NOW £ 45.00
Sound Of Music – WAS £ 55.00 NOW £ 37.50
The Lord of the Rings – WAS £ 44.00 NOW £ 27.50
Avenue Q – WAS £ 35.00 £ 28.50
Spamalot – WAS £ 55.00 NOW £ 37.50
The Les Miserables – WAS £ 50.00 NOW £ 37.50
Buddy – WAS £ 55.00 NOW £ 25.00
Chicago – WAS £ 52.50 NOW £ 35.00
Grease – WAS £ 55.00 NOW £ 37.50
- West End Ticket Booth £ 50.00 – Another option is to book your arrival from a window at Leicester Square. But this can be risky because often the shows are sold out.
3) RestaurantDinner in London can be an expensive undertaking with a meal three dishes easily cost £ 50.00 a head. You must do your homework here and sniff all the options if you want to save a few pennies. I suggest you begin a site called Top table where once again you can easily input the details of your trip and find user ratings and comments an extraordinary number of restaurants. Using the above table, we decided to book a restaurant nearby called Dominion Theatre Bertorelli. Example review below:
- Option 1: Install and order £ 50.00 – This is the way more expensive to eat in the capital, you can usually choose between a le basket "menu" and you'd be happy to pay less than £ 25.00 per head.
- Option 2: Book in advance on the website Restaurant 39.00 – £ Numerous restaurants London have their own website where you can book ahead and choose from a menu at reduced prices. Bertorelli offer a meal of two courses for € € 19.50 per head.
Separate Booking – Prices
- Hall London – Two nights £ 198.00
- target = "_new"> London Theatre Tickets – Best price £ 50.00
- Dinner – Best price £ 39.00
Total £ 287.00 £ 13.00 left to travel and attractions – Our budget is in tatters!
Package Booking Before making my final purchase, I also wanted to consider another option, I noticed on the website Discount scene of a special offer. As you will read below, I'm glad I did because it turned out to be better than any other offers I found:
- FREE hotel package deal,! – It provides a running throughout January and February of this year and that the title suggests when you book tickets to the theater you get the first night at the hotel FREE! Fortunately we were able to choose Jury's Inn from the list and add an extra night for only £ 55.00.
- The Shows available at the time were:
- We Will Rock You, The Blood Brothers, Buddy, Cabaret, Chicago, The Lord of the Rings, Stomp, 39 Steps, Stomp, The Importance of Being Earnest, Sound of Music, Wicked Elliot, Billy, Les Miserables, Spamalot, The History Boys, Choice Dealers, rent, absurd person singular, Showdowlands, Fiddler on the Roof.
- Additional Night only € 55,00 – I know what you think "is the catch, they offer the first night free, then triple burden for the rest of the time!" Well think again my slightly cynical friend, I was able to book an extra night for only € 55.00 for two of us, recording a massive £ 44.00 compared to the usual hotel rates.
- Add a restaurant for £ 14.50 – The icing on the cake! – In addition, there was also an "opt-in to add a dinner before or after the theater and add it to the reservation. This was the largest Bertorelli I could find savings from £ 14.50 per head.
> Offer – Package Total Price =
- London Hotel – free of the first night and second night £ 55.00
- London Theatre Tickets – Best price £ 100.00
- Dinner – Best price £ 29.00
Total £ 184.00A massive savings £ 118.00 leaving us a lot of money to cover transportation costs and a bonus flight on the London Eye!
Tip> = 4 – Attractions Book online before travel
Houses of Parliament I was surprised by this: It's a little known fact that in London you can actually sit in the public gallery and watch the Prime Minister's questions for free! All you have to go around on a Wednesday before 11:00 and register.
London Aquarium save 25% on the line
This comes immediately after the Houses of Parliament as the Aquarium it is a little over Westminster Bridge and the entrance is half price with Oyster cards. Plus I like turtles.
* Bonus * The London Eye save 10% Online
After saving the £ 118.00 the hotel, we decided to go a little wild and enjoy a ride on the London Eye. The most money I could come with only 10% saving on main website London Eye.
Free Museums
The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and V & A are all within five minutes walk of each other, and once it is free entry so it will be a helping hand with our tight budget.
Borough Market Free
We are both massive fans of Jamie Oliver and his cooking recipe books, each night, obviously we were planning the trip Borough Market is a must. (This is where Jamie gets all its fruits, vegetables and fish.) The more you can go around and sample all foodstuffs which meant we could skip lunch and save a little cash. (Cheapskates!)
* Council Security Internet payment *
Jeff is always reluctant to give their credit card details online, then one thing I did to feel a little more comfortable was to open another bank account separate from our main only for Internet transactions. We keep a small money there for things eBay in children and trips to London.
=> Tip 5 – Travel around London
Oyster Card – Friends who have recently returned to the capital with horror stories of astronomical prices travel tube if you do touch an Oyster card. I decided to take the initiative on this and Sign before hand even if we do not live in London. There is no rule against this, and once registered, you can also visit London's many attractions at discounted prices.
Google Maps – Create your own City Guide
The other thing I did was go to Google Maps where you can create a custom map with all the places you plan to visit so you do not lose. (I always get lost!)
=> The Final Expenditure
What can we learn from this rather surprising and compare prices expertly done well? ,-P
Well in the words of a Chav, you be "a bit of a Muppet" not realizing that I could totally eclipse any registration of a separate booking could offer, after stumbling happily in this package. I would say there are many more savings on the web like this, and also that this kind of thing would be much more frequent in the festive seasons when the fat cat money men try to take advantage of your generous heart! (I think I'm getting paranoid!) Easter, Valentine, Christmas and school holidays should be a home to save money MADENESS …… So keep your eyes open and your credit card handy for the next great offer, and make your plans flexible, you can skip A when economies are at their best.
Finally, we can see if it is possible to spend a weekend in London for 300 pounds, even with all the discounts that I found? (Bearing drum please.)
- Trip to London – £ 70.00
- Aquarium – £ 13.50
- London Eye – £ 30.00
- Theatre + Hotel + Dinner – £ 184.00
Total = € 297.50 – In the budget of the skin of our teeth and absolutely fabulous weekend ahead!
About the Author
It is so nice to have a page where you can tell the world how wonderful you think you are! No, I am not going to read the comments of those who disagree… I am a granny, 54 years old, pretending to be the accountant in a family business. I am a friendly, getting along with everybody, witty old girl. Love to dance, to stroll on the beach, drink coffee in coffee shops, listen to bands in pubs. You can pretty much take me anywhere.
Man Breaks Nuts On Rail