A cheap day out in London
Keeping the costs down to see our Capital City
When anyone thinks of London, they think expensive, but this is not the case. If you enjoy Museums, Art Galleries and window shopping, there is a vast amount of places to go and things to see without spending anything!
Travelling to London
Obviously it is much cheaper not to drive and it also avoids the inevitable queues and delays on the way. If you go by train, most Train Operating Companies do special deals like the one-day Travelcard with London Transport included, if you can link up with a few friends you can get Group discounts and if you have any of the numerous
Railcards
, there is much saving to be made.
The other alternative is Bus or Coach. Most go to Victoria Coach Station, so you're starting off just a stones throw from
Buckingham Palace
!
Food
For maximum saving, take your own! You can enjoy a pleasant Picnic in St. James Park, Hyde or Regents Park and one of the many pleasant Squares you find around almost every corner. On a good day, the Embankment offers you some very nice Picnic spots.
Free to enter London Museums
Many of the Museums are completely free to enter, after all we own them!
The British Museum is undergoing constant improvement, the centre piece being the newly glass roofed area around the Library, surely one of the most spectacular designs of the 20th. Century.
The Imperial War Museum
is a little harder to get to being on the south side of the Thames. There you can see all our Military History with some really good mock ups of WW1. They have PC's around and about to trace the whereabouts of your relations during those troubled times.
The Natural History and Science Museums are right next door to each other and a must for the Kids, loads of inter-activity; the boys will love the Sci-Fi and the Girls will love the Monsters!
Some other Museums with no entry charge include Bank of England Museum, Kenwood House (Hampstead), Livesay Museum for Children, Museum of London and for us Garden types, there's the Museum of Garden History in Lambeth .
Major Art Galleries with free admission
No trip would be complete without a trip to see the
National Art Gallery
where you can browse around the Da Vinci's, Michelangelo, Van Gogh's, Van Eykes and hundreds of other world famous Artists.
Just around the corner in Charing Cross Road is the
National Portrait Gallery
with paintings of well known people from all walks of life going back hundreds of years.
Then there's Tate Britain on the Embankment (great if you like pre-raphellites) and it's sister Gallery, the famous Modern Tate designed within an old Power Station and reached by walking over the new Millennium Foot Bridge.
General Sightseeing in London
Well, you don't have to pay to look! the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, The London Eye, Oxford, Regent and Carnaby Street , the list is endless and all can be reached on foot, if you're fit that is!
Carnaby St. at Xmas
Window Shopping
It's nice to pretend isn't it and there's no end of great Stores to walk round where you can mingle in with the crowd and not feel guilty in the slightest for not buying anything.
Favourites are Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, Burlington Arcade, Selfridges and Liberty's . I have to say though that most people will search for a very cheap item at any of these Stores simply to be seen carrying the bag back on to the Train or Coach!
Discounted London Theatre Tickets
I go by a rule here. If I'm booking in advance I'll use an Agency who are usually cheaper than the Theatre itself, but if you're in London and go to any Theatre after about 4.30pm., you'll find they are discounting the tickets to fill their venues up. Vast savings can be made here.
So you can get to London and see it on a shoestring. Our Capital City is a buzz, you usually see somebody famous as you're strolling around and will have a story to tell.
By planning out a day using Websites and Maps, it's amazing how much you can cram in and it really does go to prove that having a great day out doesn't always mean going bankrupt doing it!!
