LONDON EXPLORER:The DIY Trip to London on a budget
UNEXPECTED! Never in my life did I imagine going to London
in my 20s. When I was 9, I watched a documentary travel episode in the local
channel, featuring London and its neighboring countries in Central Europe,
telling the viewers how wonderful these places are, but are enormously
expensive. So, to cut the story short, I never put London in my bucket list,
but I listed it to my dream destinations. Apparently, my “dream
destinations”.., one by one, moment by moment became a reality.
I was actually asked by my dad, that if I can do a DIY trip
to London for him and my mom’s trip, he will make me their tour guide if i can, instead
of paying for one. So.. I’m up for the challenge.
1.
Getting a UK visa
Compared to other western countries,
getting a UK visa (if a Philippine Passport Holder) is relatively easy. If you
have tried applying for a US, or Schengen (Italy), this is actually bearable
Read http://onmydirtysneakers.blogspot.com/2017/03/want-to-travel-to-london-tourist-visa.html
on how to obtain a UK visa, requirements and all.
2.
Booking a flight
Since we were waiting for our visas to be
approved, we cant book a flight until we are sure we’re leaving for vacation. I
thought since its 1 month away before our scheduled tour, I cant book a cheaper
flight. Roundtrip airfares usually costs around US$1,200- US$1,500. But 3 weeks
before our scheduled getaway, Qatar airlines airfare from MNL-Heathrow dropped
into half of orig. price. We booked a rountrip airfare of US$800 each in a
comfortable premium economy class.
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| inside Qatar airlines seated beside my dad |
3.
Booking a hotel
None of our relatives were living or
working in London, hence the only option we had is to book a hotel. There are
many options for this one. You should first identify what you want. A luxurious
hotel, a budget hotel, airbnb can be an option too. But for a personal opinion,
we booked a not so expensive hotel for the reason of we will just be using the
hotel for sleep and shower because we will be out exploring places during the
day. We also opted for a hotel than an apartment, because of baggage storage,
check-in is usually at 2pm and sometimes
apartments or airbnbs don’t have room for luggages until you checked in.
We stayed at 2 different hotels:
First is Best Western Corona Hotel London.
Click on the link to check for their rates. It is actually cheap, but for a
backpacker adults, this is absolutely fine. Since we are a group of 3 we booked
the family room. The place is relatively small for us thinking we have large
luggages. But for a place to stay, this is absolutely fine with us.
Our second hotel was the Trebovir Hotel
located at 18-20 Trebovir Road, Earl’s court London. Glad we booked for another
hotel. This one is closer to the tube station, closer to fastfoods (KFC,
Mickiedies etc), nearby stalls and most important, close to a Filipino restaurant
(Kamayan sa Earl’s Court).
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| Earl's Court Tube Station is just approx. 1 min. away from Trebovir Hotel |
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| outside the Trebovir Hotel |
Why we booked 2 hotels?
Because our London trip is a DIY trip
sandwiching our Central Europe tour. We have 2 days before an d 2 days after
the Europe tour to spend in London.
4.
Planning the iterinary:
PALACE TOUR
London is much easier to explore, first
thing, because it is an English speaking country. Never be afraid to ask. And
the tube is easy to understand. You will never get lost. And if you do you can
always ask and find the nearest tube. Always remember the station nearest to
your hotel.
Good thing about this place, is the rich
culture, wonderful palaces that can be visited for free. If you will book a
package tour in the city you will pay £££ and then
you’ll realize, the place were actually free of charge.
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| Admiralty arch |
 |
| Palace Grounds |
But brace
yourself the Palace tour requires a lot of walking.
As soon as we
checked-in at the hotel, we rested for a while, took a shower (because of the
19hour flight) then were on the road again. Don’t forget to wear comfortable
shoes and bring your cameras with you.
We started at the
Buckingham palace, walked through the mall,
strolled at St. James Park towards the Admiralty arch, went down to the Horse
Guards Parade, the 10 Downing Street, the Big Ben Clock and the Parliament
building, the Westminster bridge and Finally the Westminster Abbey.
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| Buckingham Palace |
Because we are
amazed of the place and we want to take everything slowly, we rested our feet from
time to time at the park. The air is so fresh, the wind is cold. Hence, the
afternoon stroll took long until around sunset.
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| strolling around St. James Park |
TOWER BRIDGE TOUR
Prepare your feet and wear comfortable shoes again because this is another walking experience.
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Tower of London |
5.
There are NO
taxi cabs waiting at the airport
There are few options for this. You can
booked taxis to central London (prebooked) just state when are you landing and
in which terminal.
You can choose thru the following websites:
these were just examples of websites I
looked into when I was planning for our trip.. but after all the plannings, I
ended up choosing Uber.
Sometimes, your prebooked driver will leave
you if you appear a bit late. Delayed flights can happen at times, the long
lines in immigration and baggage claims. If you booked through the aiport
taxis, make sure you booked 1-2 hours pass your arrival time. Since we don’t
want to wait that long, I decided to use Uber. And by the way, Uber is very
realiable in UK.
6. Finally, explore the city more during free time, take
some time to drink coffee and do people watching and don’t forget to enjoy!
If I’m given the chance to do this over again, I’ll still go
to UK, and explore London. Our stay was kinda short and there are still so many
places to go to. But I’ll still prefer a budget hotel and do walking tours
again, wait for a flight promo and definitely will not spent $$$$ if I can
spend only $.
taxi cabs online co uk
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ReplyDelete