Tourist expenses in the UK?

I plan to spend about two and a bit weeks in the UK in the spring. Pick up
car in Dover, leave it at Heathrow. I need an idea of how much money to
plan - a few days in London, a couple days in the Midlands, and several days
in northern Scotland. Probably hotel in London ( I have rented flats in the
past but don't think I have the time or money for a full week in Town), and
B&B's elsewhere.

I don't cry poverty, but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now.
What kind of per diem do you suggest - lodging, food, petrol, misc.? Can I
manage, without sleeping in ditches and eating gruel, on 200 pounds a day
overall? 250? Perhaps a London per diem and a rest of it per diem?

rjf

On Nov 30, 4:23 pm, "Bob Fusillo" wrote:
I plan to spend about two and a bit weeks in the UK in the spring. Pick up
car in Dover, leave it at Heathrow. I need an idea of how much money to
plan - a few days in London, a couple days in the Midlands, and several days
in northern Scotland. Probably hotel in London ( I have rented flats in the
past but don't think I have the time or money for a full week in Town), and
B&B's elsewhere.

I don't cry poverty, but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now.
What kind of per diem do you suggest - lodging, food, petrol, misc.? Can I
manage, without sleeping in ditches and eating gruel, on 200 pounds a day
overall? 250? Perhaps a London per diem and a rest of it per diem?

Accommodation is going to be the big variable, and might eat up quite
a bit of your budget in London, but 200-250 a day should still be more
than adequate. You could do it on 150 without feeling the pinch too
much.

(I'm excluding the car rental here - I imagine you know already how
much that will cost.)

Bob Fusillo wrote:

I plan to spend about two and a bit weeks in the UK in the spring. Pick up
car in Dover, leave it at Heathrow. I need an idea of how much money to
plan - a few days in London, a couple days in the Midlands, and several days
in northern Scotland. Probably hotel in London ( I have rented flats in the
past but don't think I have the time or money for a full week in Town), and
B&B's elsewhere.

I don't cry poverty, but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now.

If your principle currency is USD, it will seem even worse...

What kind of per diem do you suggest - lodging, food, petrol, misc.? Can I
manage, without sleeping in ditches and eating gruel, on 200 pounds a day
overall?

Yes, easily. The UK is more expensive than most other European countries
in my experience, but accomodation varies in price enormously. If you're
booking now and staying in travelodges, then you'll be able to get cheap
accomodation. Even if you leave it to the last minute, you can get
decent accomodation from around £50-70. If you can plan in advance at
all, you'll get the cheapest prices.

250? Perhaps a London per diem and a rest of it per diem?

It's hard to say, really. Plenty of young people visit London and manage
fine on low budgets.

However, I can give you a very rough figure...

Sandwiches, snacks- around £1-5

Light meals, lunch specials- £5-10

Full meals- from £10-20 then up. (If you can eat from 5-7pm, you can
take advantage of 'early bird' specials and the like.)

I recommend trying to do whatever you can to keep the hotel prices down,
as there is a huge variable here. A £150 a night hotel will _quickly_
eat into your budget, and I'd argue that even in London, it's not
necessary for the average traveller to pay that.

As for London, the food prices above are pretty accurate, but you can
obviously quickly go higher at a fancy restaurant, drinks etc. If you
order a drink in a pub, you'll usually spend quite a but less than in a
wine bar. I paid almost £8 for a double G&T this week in Bar Soho.
That's double what you'd expect to pay for such a drink- and cheaper
chain pubs would probably go a bit cheaper than that.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

"Bob Fusillo" wrote in message
. ..
I plan to spend about two and a bit weeks in the UK in the spring. Pick up
car in Dover, leave it at Heathrow. I need an idea of how much money to
plan - a few days in London, a couple days in the Midlands, and several
days in northern Scotland. Probably hotel in London ( I have rented flats
in the past but don't think I have the time or money for a full week in
Town), and B&B's elsewhere.

I don't cry poverty,

Obviously not. A sample hirer wanted 80 pounds more for pick up in Dover,
drop off at Heathrow over picking up and returning to Central London. Plus
the fact that you won't be using the car in London so you will pay for (how
many) days of not using the car and probably have to pay 20 pounds (or more)
per day to park it whilst you are not using it.

but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now. What kind of per
diem do you suggest - lodging, food, petrol, misc.? Can I manage, without
sleeping in ditches and eating gruel, on 200 pounds a day

Outside of London, staying in B&Bs you might get change from 80 pounds a
day. On some days petrol will probably be your largest expense.

HTH

tim

Following up to "tim \(not at home\)"
wrote:

Obviously not. A sample hirer wanted 80 pounds more for pick up in Dover,
drop off at Heathrow over picking up and returning to Central London. Plus
the fact that you won't be using the car in London so you will pay for (how
many) days of not using the car and probably have to pay 20 pounds (or more)
per day to park it whilst you are not using it.

im assuming bob is arriving from France by boat and flying out of
Heathrow, so if doing London at the end appeals he could drop the car
at London (and avoid paying the weekday congestion charge) and use PT
in central london and out to heathrow. Of course if hes staying
further out he probalby wont pay for parking or CC. Theres a curry
house in Bromley with rooms and a car park and station nearbye! But
travelling in to the centre in the rush hours is zero fun.
--
Mike
Remove clothing to email

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:27:45 +0000, (David Horne,
_the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:

Bob Fusillo wrote:

I don't cry poverty, but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now.

If your principle currency is USD, it will seem even worse...

Here's my "in" for something I wanted to vent about:

The pathetic state of the U$D has finally slapped me upside the head
in a way I hadn't anticipated: my beloved bottles of San Pellegrino
have hit $2.45!!! I was lucky that this dramatic increase in price was
softened by a limited time sale price of...$2.19! This is up from
$1.50 - $1.80, where the price seemed stable for years.

For most of my life, I was ambivalent about mineral water. I thought
Evian was "eh", Volvic was "meh" and Gerolsteiner was "beh". Fizzy
water...big deal! Then I started dating this wealthy woman. She had an
expansive wine cellar and always had case upon case of San Pellegrino.
Every lunch and dinner at her house meant cracking a bottle of the
fizzy. Dinners also included aperitif, dinner wine and dessert wine,
followed by decanting and sex.

This litany of sensations eventually endeared me to San Pellegrino. I
became accustomed to its bold fizz and its rather chalky nature.
Unlike lightweight waters, SP is not afraid to deliver buckets of
bitter solids best left undocumented. It is as complex and
sophisticated as a Gevrey-Chambertin Pinot Noir. Well, it's more
watery, has less flavor and gives you no buzz, but you get what I'm
driving at.

Even though I've long departed my well-heeled cougar, I still have an
affinity for San Pellegrino. But even this - my simplest pleasure -
has been tainted by the failure that is the US government. I implore
every American reading this: get the right-wing Xian retards out of
office and keep them out! If this madness continues, who knows what
we'll be paying for Jaguars and Toblerone!

- TR
- I shudder to think.

On 1 Dec, 06:03, VainGlorious wrote:
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:27:45 +0000, (David Horne,

_the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
Bob Fusillo wrote:
I don't cry poverty, but I have heard that the UK is hellish expensive now.

If your principle currency is USD, it will seem even worse...

Here's my "in" for something I wanted to vent about:

The pathetic state of the U$D has finally slapped me upside the head
in a way I hadn't anticipated: my beloved bottles of San Pellegrino
have hit $2.45!!! I was lucky that this dramatic increase in price was
softened by a limited time sale price of...$2.19! This is up from
$1.50 - $1.80, where the price seemed stable for years.

For most of my life, I was ambivalent about mineral water. I thought
Evian was "eh", Volvic was "meh" and Gerolsteiner was "beh". Fizzy
water...big deal! Then I started dating this wealthy woman. She had an
expansive wine cellar and always had case upon case of San Pellegrino.
Every lunch and dinner at her house meant cracking a bottle of the
fizzy. Dinners also included aperitif, dinner wine and dessert wine,
followed by decanting and sex.

This litany of sensations eventually endeared me to San Pellegrino. I
became accustomed to its bold fizz and its rather chalky nature.
Unlike lightweight waters, SP is not afraid to deliver buckets of
bitter solids best left undocumented. It is as complex and
sophisticated as a Gevrey-Chambertin Pinot Noir. Well, it's more
watery, has less flavor and gives you no buzz, but you get what I'm
driving at.

Even though I've long departed my well-heeled cougar, I still have an
affinity for San Pellegrino. But even this - my simplest pleasure -
has been tainted by the failure that is the US government. I implore
every American reading this: get the right-wing Xian retards out of
office and keep them out! If this madness continues, who knows what
we'll be paying for Jaguars and Toblerone!

- TR
- I shudder to think.

moving water around the world, what a waste of time and energy.....

Following up to VainGlorious wrote:

affinity for San Pellegrino

Vichy Catalan is the one im addicted to. Its either that or Tescos
value, cant see the point of paying for in between. I suppose I should
get some machine that makes fizzy water.
--
Mike
Remove clothing to email

"
Obviously not. A sample hirer wanted 80 pounds more for pick up in Dover,
drop off at Heathrow over picking up and returning to Central London.
Plus the fact that you won't be using the car in London so you will pay
for (how many) days of not using the car and probably have to pay 20
pounds (or more) per day to park it whilst you are not using it.

I have considered that, but the fare for two from Dover to London is almost
the price of a car rental for a week---. Parking fees are a problem, tho.
(If parking is 20 ( or more) a night, how much is the fine for illegal
parking? If they towed me away, I could at least assume the car is safe for
a few days.)
The London-at-the-end idea is worth brooding about. Back to the drawing
board!
Thanks to Barney, David, Mike, and you for the help.
rjf

"Bob Fusillo" wrote in message
. ..

I have considered that, but the fare for two from Dover to London is
almost the price of a car rental for a week

Only if you get in a taxi.

Rail is much cheaper.

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.