Being a tourist in London is one of the toughest challenges anyone committed to the frugal life will endure. Even for locals, it’s easy to fritter away cash in a city that seems to go out of its way to empty your pockets at every opportunity.
As always, planning is key. Otherwise you risk losing control of your spending. With a little inside knowledge and an internet connection, you could save up to 50% at top restaurants, get cheap theater tickets, save on takeout pizza and ride the tube for half price.
Before eating out, take the time to search for restaurant vouchers. Download a coupon for the eatery that most whets your appetite, print it out then hand it over when you get there.
A quick look online shows that typical offers include two main meals for the price of one; half price food bills and kids eat free. As you can see, the potential savings are huge, particularly for families.
A family of four dining at Pizza Express, a stylish and family-friendly pizza restaurant chain, could easily spend $125. With a two-for-one printable voucher, this could be slashed by almost $35. An even better deal can be had at La Tasca, a popular Spanish restaurant chain. La Tasca’s 50% off food voucher would save the same family almost $50 on a typical bill of $125 that included drinks.
Even if you don’t have an internet connection in your hotel, you can always nip into one of London’s many internet cafes and print out your coupon. The cost of doing so will only be a fraction of what you save.
Another great way to avoid being stung at the end of a meal is to log on to the Time Out London restaurant guide. An online bible for food-loving Londoners, this site has all the latest independent reviews and even lists all restaurants where you can dine for under $15 a head.
Less well-known but equally useful is Top Table, which features restaurant reviews and special offers for London eateries and across the UK. Restaurants are grouped together by neighborhood and you can even book online.
Taking in a show in London’s West End is likely to be high on your to-do list but it is very expensive. Avoiding paying full price usually means running the gauntlet of ticket touts or wasting an afternoon queuing up for hours for a cut-price ticket.
But there is an alternative. Check out lastminute.com for some amazing deals. Originally a highly successful online travel agent, lastminute.com has branched out to offer cheap deals on just about every form of entertainment. It’s a double whammy, but in a good way – save money on tickets and have more time to enjoy yourself.
There will be nights, particularly after a hard day on the tourist trail, when you just want to hang out at the hotel. You might even be sick of British food and fancy an American classic. If you hop online and use Pizza Hut vouchers for instance, you can get a 2 for 1 pizza either delivered to your room.
One final tip for visitors to London: get an Oyster travel card at the tube station at the airport. Costing less than $5, this pay-as-you-go travel card will save you 50% on all underground and bus travel.
Given that a single tube ticket for just central London stations costs more than $6, getting an Oyster card just makes a lot of cents. Just top it up with cash or credit card at tube stations or newsagents then swipe it as you pass the tube turnstiles or hop on a bus, happy in the knowledge you’re not being robbed blind like all the other tourists.
This is a guest post by Simon Migliano of VoucherCodes.co.uk, a website that provides many of the coupons he’s talked about in the article. While they mostly cater to merchants in London, the idea actually works everywhere. Nowadays, you can really search for coupons and save on just about anything.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
There are tons of ways to save in London. Hotels, restaurants, travel, the list is almost endless. Most of them are voucher-based, but also can be as simple as “doing it online”, such as paying any congestion zone fee. Us Brit’s love to save where we can, and coupon hunting is a bit of a national pass-time!
This is useful because I was planning to go to London, but it is all for business. I was thinking of going to the famous food markets of London. I have heard so much about them. but these pointers are nonetheless really helpful.
saving is really A good piece think to learn….http://bit.ly/nIvKT
Honestly, I’ve been to London several times. Most of the time, I mostly stayed in the motels, as it helped me to save up to 50 percent of money. You know what? Some of the motels in London have better service quality than the hotel that rated with stars!
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I use voucher codes all the time when shopping online. Sometimes you can get really good discounts because of them. One of my favorite websites for finding voucher codes is Voucher Codes They seem to have at least one voucher code available for almost every popular UK online store.