Jonathan Thomas (00:12)
Welcome to the Anglotopia podcast the podcast for people who love British travel history and culture This week we're gonna talk about we're gonna we're gonna do a kind of a sequel to an episode of the podcast We did before earlier this year. We did a guide on how to do London on a hundred dollars a day So I thought I'd expand that and do a topic on how to travel around Britain on a hundred dollars a day Which is a little bit more of a challenge

and there's a little bit more involved in that, but it's possible. And so if you wanna know about getting around London on a dollar a day, please refer back to that podcast. We will link to it in the show notes. It's back in the archive too. You can download it any time. But this episode will be a guide to travel around Britain in general on $100 a day.

With some careful math and some careful planning, we think you can do it. So, and then a lot of these budget tips will apply to travel in Britain anyway, whether you have a goal to do it on $100 a day, or just to do some things more affordably than you think. And our goal with this episode is to kind of show you that budget travel around Britain is possible, and in these belt-tightening times, it can be necessary. And being able to save money on your travels can make or break

a trip to Britain even be possible. So with that being said,

First, I need to introduce some new guests on the podcast. ⁓ First is Cooper right here. Hi, Cooper. Say hi, Cooper. Say hi. He's gonna lay next to me and keep me company. Off camera is our camera shy cavalier lady who does not ever want to be on camera and has said it many times. And come here, Hudson. And here is our newest addition to the Anglotopia family. His name is Hudson. Come here, come here.

And he is an Irish Setter puppy. He is my dream dog. I've wanted him for 20 years and we finally got him about a month ago. And he is a puppy. And this is my first time trying to record a podcast with him around. So this should be fun because he's a hundred percent puppy. So he's going to be running around while I do this. We'll see how well that works. So if you hear dogs barking or growling, that's him trying to play with the other dogs while they don't want to. So that's Hudson.

He's very cute, he's very adorable, and he's my best bud now. So Hudson, go do what you're gonna do. So, to give a brief overview of what we're gonna talk about.

our hundred dollar a day calculation is based on four different elements. accomodation which would probably be your most expensive daily expense. ⁓ Food, attraction costs, and transport. ⁓ So we've broken and we're gonna go into ways you can save on all of those things in this episode.

We're talking about England, Scotland, and Wales, focusing on popular areas. Northern Ireland is outside the scope of this. I can't give advice on traveling to Northern Ireland on a budget because I haven't been to Northern Ireland. I've been to Ireland, but not to Northern Ireland. We're going to talk about the best times to visit to get a good deal. Shoulder seasons are your friends. This daily calculation does not include the cost of your airfare to get to Britain.

this is the raw cost of for a while you're in Britain. It doesn't include the plane ticket, but there are plenty of budget options to get to Britain right now. ⁓ the transatlantic airlines are kind of desperate for passengers because travel has, ⁓ transatlantic travel has took a decline because of the economic times we live in. ⁓ like you can fly from a major East coast gateway city to Britain for like, depending on the sale.

for around four or $500. If you fly Norse Atlantic, you can get it even cheaper if you wanna fly the budget airlines. So you can get to Britain pretty cheaply these days. For me from Chicago, I've seen here, like I was looking in February recently and looking at next summer, you're looking at five, six, $700 round trip, is pretty good. That's what it's been the last few years really.

And that's what you can expect to spend, but that's not included in our $100 a day calculation. And the $100 a day is a rough estimate. It's not an ironclad amount of money. It's a general guide, and we want you to enjoy yourselves. So you may spend more than $100. But it's a good way to kind of plan roughly how much a trip to Britain is going to cost. So you could say, OK, I want to go for a week.

I don't want to go to London. You can say, okay, well, if I'm going to spend $100 a day, roughly, then you're probably going to spend $700 on the ground while you're there on accommodation, food, and tourist attractions. Add your five or $600 or $700 for airfare. And you're looking at under two grand if you're going on a bumper season for a raw cost there. And so you can do Britain on a couple grand. It can be done. I've done it.

and you can do it even now in these times and everything seems to be so much more expensive. So, ⁓ now before I get on to accommodation and talking about how to strategize, doing that on a budget, I'm first gonna take sip of my tea.

Lovely Cornish tea.

Great.

So here's a few pre-travel talking points and ways to save before you travel. I've already talked about it's pretty easy to get a deal on airfare. If you want to get further deals on airfare, sign up for the airline's ⁓ email list so you get notified of a sale. Be patient for sales, travel midweek. You can usually get a great deal traveling midweek. can stay over a Saturday, like,

Make sure you include a Saturday stayover that usually locks in a lower airfare. ⁓ As far as saving on the actual cost of the plane ticket, you can ⁓ collect your avios miles. You can, in theory, collect enough avios miles to get a free plane ticket, but these days, the avios has been so devalued, it's really hard to get free plane tickets ⁓ through British Airways anymore. ⁓

but you can use those Avios miles to get a discount on your ticket when you book. Usually you can, if you have, you know, five, 10, 15,000 Avios, you can save a couple hundred dollars on your ticket and it'll take it right off the top. You can also, and this is a fun tip that a lot of people don't realize is that, did you know that anybody,

can join AARP. For those who don't know, AARP is the American Association for Retired People. Well, there's no age, lower age limit or upper age limit on joining AARP. And so anybody can join. It's only cost $35 a year to join. And then ⁓ you can get ⁓ exclusive airfare discounts through AARP. I think it's like, ⁓

59 or 69 dollars off an economy ticket more on the higher classes But you can save if you just pay the fees AARP you can save on your plane ticket They give you a special discount code and and you can book through them

Nowadays airlines want to charge for pretty much every aspect of your plane ticket so

⁓ Airlines now like to charge for everything now when you book a plane ticket so you can get an economy standard ticket, but it won't include ⁓ you know a check bag or ⁓ Certain things now being British Airways has fallen victim to this as well all airlines are the same now They you know they don't want you to they want you to pay for everything But it's possible to pay for nothing other than your plane ticket and so if

We've been advocates for years of traveling carry-on only. When you travel carry-on only, you don't have to check a bag, so you don't have to pay to check bag fees. also your travel experience is smoother going through the airport, because literally all you have is your carry-on. And that makes getting in and out of the airport much better. So we recommend flying carry-on only. If not,

You're going to pay 75 some dollars to check a bag now on top of your plane ticket unless you book the plane ticket, the higher tier plane ticket that ⁓ that includes a checked bag. ⁓ But again, I'm not paying that. So I want to get there. I can usually fit everything I need into a carry on. ⁓ You can all the airline will also charge you to choose a seat if you want to play seat lottery. Don't care where you sit on the plane. Don't pay those fees.

Because even if you want a bad seat, you're going to pay $79, $89 just to choose it. But again, if you pick the higher tier ticket, you don't have to pay that. But that's antithetical to the point I'm trying to make here. So if you don't care where you're sitting, don't pay to pick your seat either. Obviously, travel economy, that's the cheapest part of the plane. It's always going to be. Even the economy premium.

cabin or the economy plus cabin is going to be substantially more than the economy. So stick to economy. It's only a few, it's only a few hours if you're flying from a major U S city. It's only at most it's, you know, what 12 hours from LA. It's only seven hours from Chicago. It's only five or six hours from New York. You'll survive. I survive. I'm a 41 year old man who is too tall for modern airplane seats and I can manage.

Besides, you're going to be in England when you get there. ⁓ This is a good tip anytime. Avoid buying anything at the airport as you're going through it on both ends. ⁓ The airport is designed for desperation and to be as expensive as possible. So they want to hit you for everything you forgot. And they're going to charge you through the nose for it. So avoid buying anything in the airport.

Smuggling your own food and eat your own snacks Don't buy airport food. You're gonna overpay and why why pay, you know $100 to have some mediocre Chained food at the airport when you can ride either eat on your way to the airport somewhere much cheaper or eat before you leave home Pack your favorite snacks and just survive on the disgusting airplane food that you're gonna you're gonna get so don't don't buy anything at the airport, know, the only thing that

that maybe has a reasonable cost to the airport would be magazines because they can't charge over the cover costs for those. Bring your own bottle of water. So what you can do now, because of security, although some airports are getting rid of this, you can bring an empty reusable bottle of water and refill it once you get past security. Why pay $7 for a bottle of water in the airport? Don't buy anything in the airport.

It's just designed to fleece you before you get to your destination. Save your money for Britain. ⁓ We're going to talk more about this later on, but don't bother getting British cash, British currency. ⁓ One of the biggest questions we used to be asked ⁓ was, where can I get British pounds in the USA? Where can I buy them?

You know, because you used to be able just to go to your bank and order them or you get them through American Express or you do this or that and you could get British currency before you go. You don't need to do that. You just don't. ⁓ I haven't bought British pounds before a trip in 15 years. ⁓ And my last trip to Britain, when we went last October, I didn't touch any cash at all. ⁓ I didn't even get any out of the ATM.

You don't even need British cash to travel around Britain these days. And it'll actually post pandemic, a lot of places won't even take cash or prefer you not paying cash because money's dirty. so cashless is now king in Britain, just like it is everywhere else. You know, don't need to hold to have cash to tip people because you're not supposed to tip people in Britain. So you don't don't worry about getting cash before you go and don't worry about getting it when you get there. And if you do,

Get it when you get there. Get it from an ATM. You'll get the best interbank daily exchange rate and just pay the ATM fee to get the cash. Don't go to a currency exchange despite the fact that they're completely unnecessary. They still haven't been put out of business and they overcharge and they're not worth it. You don't need British money. Just rely on your credit cards and debit cards. However, I would...

kind of getting into the weeds now and this should be for later, but ⁓ get a great credit card for international travel. Like for example, my British Airways ⁓ chase card is great for international travel because there's no fees on foreign transactions. A lot of smaller banks, their cards will charge you fees on foreign transactions and you don't want that. ⁓ We recommend if you're not gonna, if you, to get a credit card for,

car rentals and stuff and

Anyway, we recommend getting a WISE debit card. So WISE used to be called TransferWISE. They're an international bank where you can hold an account in multiple currencies and you can use their debit card for travel and they don't pay any fees. It's great. We highly recommend the WISE card. I have one. I also have one with our UK.

I also have a Wise This is again, I'm getting so into the weeds here. We started a UK corporation for Anglotopia earlier this year. So we have a UK bank account that the Wise is linked to. We can have our pounds always in Britain. And so we have a Wise card, it's great. Also, another thing that can trip you up with costs is international roaming for your cell phone.

Before you go make sure that your phone plan has some kind of international roaming package If you don't you will get a sticker shock surprise when you get your next phone bill After you've used your phone without thinking about it in the UK AT &T has a international roaming plan day plan that I'm signed up to and I pay I think it's $10 per device used per day

which still adds up, it's substantially less than it would be if ⁓ you don't have the plan. So check with Verizon, check with Singular, see what their international only packages are. ⁓ A lot of people will circumvent this by getting an eSIM for their phone while they're traveling. I can't recommend this because I've not done it yet. And so I'm still quite unsure about.

how that works like when you get a phone call or this or that. ⁓ your mileage will vary. Use eSIMs at your own risk. eSIMs are supposed to solve this problem. They may have. I haven't tried them yet to know. Maybe I'm gonna do an experiment the next time I go to see if that's the case. So pre-travel talking points done. ⁓

first thing we want to talk about is accommodation strategies for how to stay around Britain as cheaply as possible. ⁓ And the quick answer is ⁓ budget chain hotels.

So instead of staying in very nice hotels or historic hotels or cute or quaint hotels, if you want to do it as cheaply as possible, and I'm talking if you book it advance, you can get a room for like 30 pounds a night. ⁓ Between 30 and 60 pounds a night if you book far enough in advance at a Premier Inn, a Travelodge, or the Ibis budget hotels. These hotels are very basic.

They're the equivalent to a La Quinta or a Holiday Inn, but even more basic than that. And these are generally British brands, British chains, and they focus on getting you in as cheaply as possible and getting you back out. Like I said, if you have advanced booking, you can get a great discount on your rates.

Most of them will include free wifi and breakfast, which is a great way to save money. And many of them are in strategic locations near train stations, near airports, near city centers. ⁓ And they're just, they're a fantastic way to save money ⁓ if you want to. All you need is a bed. You're not going to spend any time in the hotel. You want to spend your time exploring. why, you know, why stress about how nice the hotel is and expect the room to be small.

expect the bed to be moderately uncomfortable, the free food to be just okay. Have low expectations, ⁓ but save your high expectations for the rest of your travels. ⁓ Travelodge is great, their rooms can start at 29 pounds a night with advanced booking. ⁓ They're more basic than a Premier Inn, but they're clean, they're safe, and you'll save a lot of money. ⁓ If you want to spend a little more,

and not stay in these chain hotels. Independent B &Bs and guest houses, you usually get a little bit of character and you'll still spend 40 to 70 pounds a night for a room in a place like this, especially if it's off season, you can get a bargain because they're desperate for punters as the British would say. Great value in smaller towns like in the Cotswolds and Lake District of Yorkshire.

you are probably better off, again, back to the chain hotels, book directly through their websites for the best deal. That's the same with the small B &Bs and guest houses. While you may find them on hotels.com or booking.com, you'll probably get a better deal if you book directly with them. And sometimes that means picking up the phone and making an international phone call and calling them directly, and you can probably get a stellar deal on your room.

Another one that I like a lot is ⁓ pubs with rooms. These are all over Britain. Every city, every town, village or city with a pub will have pubs with rooms. ⁓ usually it's the village pub and upstairs are our hotel rooms, usually very basic, ⁓ very small. And you have to deal with the fact that they're either above or next to a pub. So they're going to be very loud if the pub is very boisterous.

I've stayed in quite a few of these places. They're different from coaching inns. That's a bit different. Coaching inns will cost more, but pubs with rooms, you can get a stellar deal. mean, one time I went to an outdoor concert at Blenheim Palace, which is in Woodstock in Oxfordshire, and there was a pub with rooms literally next door to the estate. And I think I paid like 40 or 50 bucks for the night.

and I was perfectly comfortable. Although it was a little cold because it got very cold and the heating wasn't turned on because it was July, which is a story I told a lot. Hudson decided to lay down and he's taking a nap. So he's being a very good boy. So if you're young, ⁓ youth hostels, group accommodation, you'll pay a bargain a night if you're willing to stay with other people and

And that's kind of your thing, not my thing. I wouldn't stay in a hostel. I don't think, I mean, even some hostels have gotten rid of the age, the age limits. Even though I'm 41, I could probably find hostels to stay in, but hostels aren't for me. I want privacy of my own room. ⁓ And last but not least, you can camp. ⁓ If you have camping gear, there are plenty of campgrounds all around Britain.

There's campgrounds near every major tourist attraction, near every major village, town, city, plenty of places to camp. Some people will leave a wild camp, which is technically illegal, ⁓ but you'll have to check local regulations on camping. ⁓ Parks allow camping, there's campgrounds. Again, I wouldn't go camping, but that's me, but if you can...

Bring your own tent and your own sleeping bag and you could just sleep under the stars in Britain if you wanted to. And usually pay only five or 10 pounds a night for a campsite. If you're wild camped, it'd be free, but we're not advocating wild camping unless it's allowed where you are in Britain, which there are some places it's allowed. So some strategies for booking to get the best deal. ⁓ Book accommodations in

in places that aren't tourist hot spots. like if you're gonna go, if you wanna go to, if you wanna visit York, well don't stay in York, stay in another city nearby and stay in a cheap hotel and take the train. Same with villages and the Cotswolds or anywhere else. Stay in the less touristy villages where there's more accommodation and it's much more affordable. ⁓

We're big advocates of the hub and spoke method of staying where you stay in one place and then you venture out where you want to go every day. So like if you would say stay in Bath, well, there's a ton of stuff you could go out and see from Bath if you stay in that one place ⁓ and you can take advantage of local transportation and local discounts on attractions and whatnot. So ⁓ and then ⁓ also check

⁓ Lastminute.com and laterooms.com. These are British websites that you may not have heard of. ⁓ With those, you can get last minute, sometimes same day deals on hotels, and a lot of times nicer hotels than the ones we're advocating in the budget ⁓ area. You can stay in a very, very smart place for a budget price. ⁓ sign up for their emails, keep an eye on their deals. You never know what will come up.

That leaves a lot to chance because you're kind of leaving your accommodation to the day you need it or a few days before you need it. But you never know, you might get a great deal and stay in a wonderful place. ⁓ If not, you want to plan ahead, Premier Inn Travelodge is your friend. So. All right, that's accommodation, which will be your biggest cost. So the next thing I want to talk about is transportation, getting around Britain affordably.

⁓ is actually really easy.

⁓ Now we're big advocates of running a car to see a lot of places that are all kind of off the beaten track But there is plenty to see and do in Britain without running a car and you can get to most major places in Britain without a car ⁓ If anything you can get to every major city and town usually by train If you can't get there by train, you can get to the town next to it by train

and then get a taxi or get a local bus and local buses are usually ridiculously cheap. ⁓

so we're going to talk about the Britrail pass now this this works if

There's like a few caveats to this to the Britrail pass. I've never actually bought one Because we don't we tend to focus on using our car running a car rather than train travel even though I love trains But if you get a Britrail pass you can in theory ⁓ Travel anywhere on Britain's rail network for one price And I have unlimited travel for a set period of time ⁓ These passes actually British people can't buy these passes. They're only available

to foreigners like us and you can only buy them from outside of Britain. They have consecutive day passes which come in three, four, eight, 15, 22 days in one month. They have flex passes which are three, four, eight, 15 days within one or two months and it's for standard second class tickets. They also sell

first class option, obviously we're talking about budget here, so we're not gonna talk about first class options. ⁓ so by buying these, by doing the consecutive day pass, you can travel every day on the train as much as you want. The flex passes are different where you can travel on the set number of days within the amount of time you're gonna be in Britain, so not consecutively. ⁓

So to give you an idea of cost, I just checked this before I started recording. A two day pass is $240. A four day pass is $400 to $500. An eight day pass is $600 to $700. A 15 day pass is $8,900. And a one month pass is $1,100. And you can use them in England, Scotland, and Wales, and on London's rail network, but not the London Underground.

And so with this pass, you get a limited usage. ⁓ You can, if you purchase in advance, usually you get a discount of some kind. Seniors can get discounts. Children can travel free if the adult is a pass holder. then ⁓ children under five travel free. don't need a Britrail pass. So, but it's a great way.

to see Britain by the rails. And then all you have to do is plan your trip by the train schedule. ⁓ And you can get the timetables and all the routes and everything in advance. think they give you a book with the Brit Rail Pass to help you plan your rail journeys. ⁓ The British call it interrailing, where you're traveling around by rail pass. it's, really though, you need to,

to calculate whether it's worth it or not for you. So our recommendation is to make a list of the places you plan to travel to by train and then go to like trainline.com ⁓ and then compare train ticket prices and just make sure that it's worth it for you to buy the pass because it is quite expensive and if you're not gonna utilize it completely then you're gonna be putting, leaving money on the table.

So just check rail fares between places you want to go and if it adds up to less than the past then don't get the pass just buy the train tickets in advance. One thing to remember you can only buy British rail tickets 90 days in advance up to 90 days in advance so it's hard to you know a trip of a year from now when you can't really predict how you can't check how much tickets are going to be.

but the Brit Rail Pass kind of takes all that out of the equation because you're literally just preserving future train travel and you're paying one price. ⁓ Then ⁓ if you don't want to buy the Brit Rail Pass because it is very expensive, there's still plenty of ways to travel around Britain's rails and get a great deal. Like I just said, you can book up to 12 weeks in advance on Britain's rail networks.

So check for the lowest fares. ⁓ Usually if you book at the beginning of that 90 day period, you can get the cheapest the tickets will be. The price will go up the closer you get to when you wanna travel as the trains fill up. And Britain's train network is famously over capacity. So the tickets are not gonna get cheaper than they are when they're released to the public. ⁓

Plan to travel off peak ⁓ and look for super off peak tickets. What does that mean? Well, it means you buy tickets for when the train isn't running commuter hours, so which is like what, 7 a.m. to like 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. and then the corollary in the afternoon from like 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. ⁓ You wanna travel in the periods between those times.

and you'll get a much cheaper train ticket that way. And actually they design ticketing to make people who are not commuters pay less so that they take the trains throughout the rest of the day rather than crowding up commuter lines because those people are just trying to get to work. ⁓

Again, ⁓ you can use the train line to check prices and tickets. A lot of budget ⁓ train people in England would actually discourage you from using the train line app because the train line is independent and sometimes you have to pay a ticket fee. It's actually not the cheapest way to get a ticket. If you want the cheapest way to get tickets, check with each individual train operator. ⁓ I'll put a list in the show notes. I'm not going to rattle them

now but like if you're gonna travel somewhere on the Great Western Rail Network, GWR, check their website, sign up for their email discounts and check their website for timetables and costs and everything and you may be able to save a few pounds ⁓ rather than booking through Trainline. So always check with the train operator and everything. Personally I like the Trainline app it just makes things easy and it lets you

have the ticket right in the app and everything, ⁓ I know a lot of British people actually would never use a train line. ⁓

⁓ Another thing, ⁓ split ticketing, which is now integrated into the TrainLine app, and the rail operators hate this. ⁓ It's similar to traveling with an airline and skipping a leg ⁓ of your trip. ⁓ It's basically, instead of buying a train ticket for your whole journey, you buy a ticket for portions of the journey ⁓ rather than the journey as a whole, and then by splitting the ticket,

you save money because it would have been cheaper to go here versus this. And it's really confusing and I like, I'm doing a really bad job explaining it, but try Train Split or Split My Fare. But again, the Train Line app will do split ticketing as well. ⁓ You just have to be prepared to show your ticket more than if you bought one ticket. Yeah, so check split ticketing. ⁓ For regional transportation.

Check local bus networks. ⁓ If you want to get to lot of tourist attractions and don't want to pay a taxi because a taxi will be the most expensive way to get places, ⁓ check local bus routes and timetables. So you'll want to do that in advance before you travel. You want to get that information before you go. It'll be harder to get while you're there on the ground. And you'll want to be aware of where the buses go, what their routes are. And in a lot of places you can take

You know the local bus it gets all the tourist attractions and have a nice leisurely bus ride It's not like the Greyhound bus and it's no I don't want to put people off taking the the local buses the local buses Are are are usually very nice and there's usually not a lot of people on them and they're not like dangerous usually I mean, it's the world things are dangerous everywhere, but

It's not like riding an inner city bus in the US or riding a Greyhound bus which have a bad reputation here. But local bus routes and those local bus services will also sell day passes, usually an Explorer pass, so that you basically pay one price and you can use the bus all day and it's usually not that much. So it's a great resource. You just have to behold the bus timetable which can

which can not be very accommodating, especially out in the countryside. But again, do this research before you go. ⁓ And then to get between cities, I forgot to mention, if you don't want to ride trains, Britain has a national network of coach services. You can take a bus anywhere. National Express is the big company. Stagecoach is the other big company. You can ride a nice big coach and get between the cities, usually very, very cheaply, sometimes a lot cheaper.

then it will cost to take the train. It will take longer though, usually than a train would take because the roads are slower. There's also like city to city bus links that you should check and see if that's available for where you wanna go. Like for example, the Oxford Tube, it's in the Snowmere, it's on a train, but it runs several hourly buses from Oxford right to central London.

and it runs so often that it's like a tube train and you can be from central Oxford to central London in under an hour. So check and see if there's bus services like that. They're usually really cheap and a great way to get around. ⁓

I said the train line app is a great way for route planning. Also, try Rome to Rio is another great way to help you plan a route. ⁓ And that will help you get around Britain. Attractions and how you can save on tourist attractions. So this is a big one.

One thing I should mention first is that quite a few of Britain's tourist attractions are actually free. ⁓ Most major museums in all the cities, even outside of London, are free. You don't have to pay a dime to go into them. ⁓ Some provincial museums will be free. A lot of smaller museums will charge admission, ⁓ but usually the admission won't be a very high price.

It does add up though if you're a family.

So a lot of these, so you could spend an entire day, let's say in Newcastle or York or ⁓ Manchester just visiting free places. You wouldn't need to pay anything to get in anywhere. So keep that in mind

In addition to that, ⁓ there are two organizations that the tourist needs to know about. ⁓ One is English Heritage, and the other is the National Trust. So, National Trust and English Heritage, they manage or protect between them hundreds of sites of special tourist value or historical value. ⁓

The National Trust is bigger than English Heritage. English Heritage is actually a government-run thing. so both of them are stewards of the countryside and of Britain's built heritage. And they're very important organizations. Both of them have a membership. And so if you're a member, you can get into all of their attractions completely for free.

So English heritage, I'll talk about them first. Now keep in mind this is for overseas visitors. Overseas visitors can buy a visitor pass and it's for nine days or 16 days. And you pay one price, which as of today when I put together these notes, it's 56 pounds for one adult for nine days, it's 66 pounds for 16 days, two adults is 99.

pounds for nine days, 16 days is 109 pounds, family membership is 112 pounds for nine days, or 122 pounds for 16 days. And so ⁓ that will cover the length of most American trips to Britain. We all only get a week, usually a vacation anyway. ⁓ But that one cost will cover your admission to hundreds of tourist attractions.

including Stonehenge, which is very expensive. It's like 30 pounds per person at Stonehenge. So you visit one or two places, like this thing pays for itself and it gets you access to hundreds of places. So definitely get the Overseas Visitors Pass. ⁓ You can buy it directly through English Heritage, but you have to buy it before you go, like the Brit Rail Pass. So remember, you gotta buy these things before you go.

The National Trust is a little different. Americans can't join the National Trust ⁓ directly. ⁓ We have to join the Royal Oak Foundation, is the American affiliate of the National Trust. It costs $80 for an individual or $125 for a couple. And that gives you free access to over 500 National Trust properties. ⁓ I've been a member for almost 10 years now.

It is so worth it. mean, you'll say, again, visit one or two places and this thing will have already paid for itself. ⁓ And the perk of the Royal Oak Foundation membership is you get a lot more perks than just the free edition. get, you support conservation and heritage in Britain. You get invites to, to lectures in the U S and you get the catalog and the magazine and all kinds of great stuff. I highly recommend joining the Royal Oak Foundation.

⁓ Anglotopia followers can usually get a discount from joining. I'll put a link in the show notes. think last time I checked the link, the discount wasn't working, so I need to get on them. I need to ask them to reactivate it. But it's phenomenal value. You even get free parking, which a of the National Trust car parks now charge five or eight pounds to park. It's a great deal. know, you can...

make up the membership costs and parking fees. So ⁓ if you want to go on a budget and you want to see some of the greatest houses in Britain completely for free, get the Royal Oak membership. ⁓ You will not regret it. It works in Scotland as well for Historic Scotland. And there's also some ancillary organizations it also works with. ⁓

I've actually never bought the English heritage overseas as a pass. ⁓

but I have been to a lot of English Heritage properties, ⁓ but ⁓ I do have a membership at the Royal Oak Foundation and it's worth every penny. Even if you only go to Britain once a year, it's worth it just because the free access is so invaluable. ⁓ But like I said earlier, all the major museums in Britain are free usually. They'll charge extra for special exhibitions. ⁓

You can choose whether you want to spend your budget on seeing a special exhibition. ⁓

Usually, cathedrals will charge admission fee. just ask for a donation. Some will charge a fee and ask for donation. mean, your mileage will vary based on that. And it's up to you whether how much you want to support the cathedrals. think I try to give them as much money as I can while I'm visiting just because I want these places to continue to exist. Also,

keep a look out for free city walking tours. are kind of a travel scam in that the tour is free because they expect you to tip the tour guide at the end. ⁓ We're not a big fan of those types of operations. You're better off paying for a walking tour and getting what you pay for rather than relying on something that's quote free. Again, if something's free, you're usually the product. ⁓

⁓ For attractions that aren't covered by English Heritage passes or National Trust passes, know, there's thousands, there's hundreds of private stately homes that aren't in a National Trust, aren't run by English Heritage. You know, Blundom Palace is like, last time I checked it was like 30 pounds for the mission. But if you book online in advance, you can get a discount. So usually with most major tourist attractions, if you book online in advance and set your time,

you will get ⁓ a small discount, so you'll save money there. ⁓

Most places will offer a student or a senior discount. Just ask. In Britain, they call those concessions. Usually, you will have to prove that you are entitled to that concession. You'll have to show your ID, your student ID. And then also, this goes back to train travel. Most of the train operators will run two-for-one rail offers, where if you take the train to get to the attraction,

they'll give free admission, they'll include free admission and ticket to the attraction. So there's actually a website for this, two for one. I'll link to it in the show notes. If you're a canny and plan ahead, you can get the train ticket and then get the free admission to the attraction. So it works out great for everybody.

All right. Food and dining on a budget. ⁓

This one's a lot of fun. There are lots of ways to save on food when you're traveling. If you want really cheap food, go to fast food. I I'm always really surprised at how affordable fast food is in Britain. You can get a whole meal for three or four pounds at a McDonald's in England. Not that I'm advocating going to McDonald's in England.

I'm not, but I'm, you know, if you wanna save and feed the whole family of four for under 20, 30 pounds, go get some fast food. If you want to be a little more choosy in the food you eat, then plan to shop at local grocery stores while you're traveling. If you've managed to snag a good deal on self-catering, which I apologize for not even talking about self-catering accommodation in the budget area, mostly because...

you will spend more than $100 a day on self-catering. But, you know, go to the grocery store, go to Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrison's, all those places will have meal deals where you can get a whole meal for three or four pounds, or you can get, they'll have budget lines where you can get meals really cheaply. You can buy the elements of a picnic lunch and just grab a picnic and...

and ⁓ have a picnic. Picnics are nice, especially when the weather's nice. And then ⁓ since most hotels will offer some kind of breakfast, take advantage of the free food. Even if it's not very good, it's free food. If you have a good breakfast, you may even be able to skip lunch and save your money for dinner. For budget dining, usually ⁓ pub meals are the best value. ⁓

A lot of restaurants too will have, will do like a fixed price menu where for a set price you get a three course meal. don't really get to customize it or choose what comes. But you know, for 15 pounds you can have a whole three course meal which will include an appetizer, the main, and your drink and a dessert. Traditional fish and chippies will be really cheap. They're everywhere.

⁓ Wetherspoons is a famous pub chain that's the equivalent I guess would be to in America would be a Denny's or an Applebee's. You can get reliably affordable food there. It may not taste the greatest, but it will be cheap. Pints will be cheap. ⁓ Go to Gregg's. Gregg's will have a sausage roll. Sausage roll.

One sausage roll can fuel you for an entire day if you plan correctly. ⁓

You know, and also keep in mind when you're when you're traveling, get local specialties. You can usually get those in the budget to like if you're in Yorkshire, you know, do a Sunday Roast Yorkshire pudding. If you're in Cornwall, get a Cornish pasty. It's a whole meal and a pie. It's great. You know, in general, Wales get Welsh where bit, you know, if you're in Scotland, get haggis. All of these things usually you can get affordably and cheaply. Just have to plan ahead.

If your budget hotel isn't providing a very good breakfast, then go to the grocery store and get some quick grab and go things for breakfast. ⁓ Every grocery store will have donuts and pastries and fruit and anything you'd want to have for breakfast. If you're self catering, that's a whole different thing. ⁓ I feel like I should have talked about self catering, but I'll have to save it for another podcast.

So let's see.

All right, so for this final section, ⁓ we're gonna talk about some money saving tips and tricks and kind of review some other elements that we already talked about. ⁓ So like I said earlier, Britain's cashless now. I mean, you can get cash if you really want to. If you're lucky, you may even get King Charles on the bank note, but you don't need cash when you're traveling around Britain. ⁓ Just use your card everywhere.

and ⁓ but make sure you get a credit card that has good foreign exchange fees so check with the major banks or get the wise debit card if i don't count on your local credit union or your local bank to to have a travel card that has good fees they they don't think about those things ⁓ if you really are insistent on getting british pounds to have some cash on hand

⁓ Go to the ATM as soon as you arrive, ⁓ but then you're going to get the day's exchange rate and you'll have to pay whatever fee your bank charges you to use an out-of-network ATM. ⁓ Bonus though, if you bank at a global bank that has branches everywhere, for the longest time we bank with HSBC simply because ⁓ when we used the ATMs when we traveled it was free because we were HSBC customers in the US. So just check. ⁓

You can save a lot of money on fees that way. Avoid currency exchange booths. They're never going to get a good deal there. ⁓ They're for desperation, not for saving any money. ⁓ If you bring your own bottle of water, like I suggested, Britain is very eco-conscious, so you can usually get your bottle refilled for free anywhere. There will be even free public taps that you can refill at.

⁓ Keep an eye out for pub happy hours. It'll be you know, pub happy hours will have a special meal and drink deal ⁓ Shop at Boots super drug for toiletries much cheaper than buying from the little shop in the hotel Our stance is to kind of ⁓ For for splurging strategically is for food ⁓ Plan like one or two really nice dinners on your trip

that somewhere special and then just eat mediocre meals everywhere else. Fill up on free breakfast at the hotel, have something simple and quick and cheap for lunch, and then have a nice dinner. ⁓ Skip touristy afternoon teas. Like, you're gonna spend 30 to 50 pounds for the fancy tea tray with all the cakes and everything and that's nice every once in a while, but I feel like that's overpriced, especially in London where...

like Fortnum & Mason was like 85 pounds per person. It's just absurd. Instead get cream tea. Like a National Trust property or an English Heritage Cafe, you're gonna pay under 10 pounds for a cream tea and that's what it should cost. You'll just get a nice pot of tea, you'll get a scone and you'll get the clotted cream and the jam, it's perfect. And if you're gonna... ⁓

If you're going to rely on the English Heritage Pass or the National Trust Pass, which is harder in the cities, then ⁓ plan to splurge on one or two big ticket-paid attractions instead of the free ones. But again, book those ahead and you can usually save a few quid. ⁓ Remember to take ⁓ late morning trains ⁓ or take afternoon trains to get off those off-peak savings.

⁓ Remember that if you change on longer journeys or split your ticket you can save on your train tickets ⁓ And if you take a self-guided tour and like there's a lot of apps now where you can ⁓ Basically buy a tour and listen with your air pods and it will guide you on the walk and direct you Like do that instead of paint a tour guide, but I find paint a tour guide is a really fun experience because you get that local color so

In closing, ⁓ the kind of sample budget breakdown I have here on my notes is 40 to 50 pounds for accommodation, five to 10 pounds for a lunch, a budget lunch, 12 to 15 pounds for a pub meal dinner. Attractions are 15 to 20 pounds unless you get a pass or go to free attractions.

Train tickets depending on how far you go Can be pretty cheap can be pretty cheap It's hard to give a daily cost unless you buy the pass the Burt Rail Pass and then you to leave room in there for you know cup of tea or some snacks and I think as long with with careful advanced Planning I think Britain is absolutely doable on around $100 a day You just have to plan everything in advance

Get those memberships and advanced bookings. Advanced bookings submit to the attractions that the passes and memberships don't include. Book those train tickets 12 weeks in advance unless you're gonna do the Brit Rail. And really just basically have a command center for your trip. Plan every aspect out in advance and then you will save money in the long run. If you have any...

tips or tricks for saving on travel when you're in Britain, please leave them in the comments. We may do a sequel podcast of this where we take questions. There will be links to everything I've talked about in the show notes. If you have any questions, please reach out to us on social media, me an email. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast. If you found it useful, please like, subscribe, or comment.

⁓ If you like what we're doing at Anglotopia, please join the Friends of Anglotopia Club, where for a small subscription, you can help support great long-form writing about British travel history and culture and keep this podcast going. So thank you so much for your time and we hope you enjoy listening to this.