London - a budget-break blog

If you read my last blog (Sick of holidays?), you'll know my short break in London wasn't exactly a roaring success. To be fair, this was more to do with whingeing, tired, sicky children than anything else. If you want a cheap break in winter, London is actually a pretty good bet. Yes, you can stay in plenty of other places for cheaper (although London accommodation is surprisingly reasonable if you do your research). And in the summer, or even spring or Autumn, these other places might be a great option - country walks, lounging on the beach, picnics in the park and general wandering are all lovely ways to spend the day when the weather is good. But in winter, when you don't really want to be outside, cheap options are pretty limited - which is where London comes into its own. London has plenty to offer on a sunny day too, of course - wanders along the South Bank, around Camden, up Shooter's Hill or around Highgate Cemetery are all nice ways to spend an afternoon. And there are plenty of places, such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, that are worth seeing from the outside - we popped past the Monument, the ruins of St Dunstan in the East and St Paul's Cathedral during this particular break. But the museums are what really make London the perfect winter budget destination.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London

St Paul's Cathedral

Entertainment

The beauty of London is the large amount of free museums. If I'm feeling flush, I will happily put some money in the visitor donation boxes, but it's good to know there are plenty of free options for leaner times. There are many well-known museums that you can visit for free, such as the Natural History Museum, the V&A, the Science Museum and the Tate Modern (a comprehensive list can be found here). As anyone who's visited any of these will know, we're not talking amateur museums that you wouldn't even pay 50p for - these are large, historical buildings, holding impressive collections, interactive displays and everything you need to keep you interested for a day or more. There are also many lesser-known free museums in London, so you can keep coming back and there will always be something new to see - although, to be fair, you could visit the Natural History Museum alone a hundred times and still not see everything.

Another such museum, holding over 3.5 million objects in its collection, is the British Museum. This is a museum we have visited several times, and decided to go back to on this trip because Finn has been studying the Saxons and wanted to see the Sutton Hoo hoard. The museum is so vast that it is a little overwhelming, and although it has plenty for children to see, it is not as family-friendly as, say, the Science or Natural History Museums. It reminds me of the Louvre in Paris, both in terms of its size and its collections, and I find it is best to visit with an idea of what you want to see and leave the rest for another day.

Inside the British Museum

Imitating art

Imitating art

Helmet from Sutton Hoo burial

Shield from Sutton Hoo burial

The British Museum tired the children out, having travelled up that morning, and we spent the rest of the day wandering and checking into the hotel. The following day, we visited the Museum of London, a rather different type of museum. It's much smaller than the British Museum and in a modern building, but I'm still surprised that it is not more well-known. It basically takes you on a walk through history, with a particular - though not exclusive - focus on London. There are lots of artefacts to see but also lots of information boards and interactive displays. It appeals to the same part of me that likes Ikea, because there is a logical route and progression through the museum. It is more family-friendly, and the scale means that it is actually possible to see everything - having said that, we only got as far as 1666 and the Great Fire of London before the children were ready to leave and move on to something else.

Great Fire of London exhibit

Dylan being a 17th century fireman

We finished our second day with a visit to the Tate Britain. I first discovered this by accident, embarrassingly enough, when I was aiming to go to the Tate Modern and walked in the wrong direction along the South Bank (I should probably add that it isn't actually on the south bank at all - I really was very lost). As you might imagine, the Tate Britain is a smaller, more manageable version of the Tate Modern. There are plenty of interesting paintings, sculptures and installations, from the well-known (Tracey Emin's Unmade Bed was a highlight, if not necessarily for the right reasons!) to the unknown. I find art galleries are actually a surprisingly good destination for my children, as art can be appreciated (or not) on any level - they are quick to give their opinions on what they see, and enjoy interpreting some of the less obvious works. An hour or two here rounded off our day nicely - although, as always, I found myself wishing I could spend a bit longer without 'Can we go now?' in my ear.

Tracey Emin's Unmade Bed

Travel

In terms of getting to London, the more people you are, the cheaper it is to go by car. The train fare for one person may not be too much different from the fuel costs (or possibly cheaper, depending on where you live - train fares from Kent, however, are sadly not good value). However, once you start adding fares for a family of four - children don't go free on Southeastern Trains - driving becomes a far cheaper option. Of course, driving to London is one thing, but driving around London is another - not to mention the exorbitant parking. A frequent option for us on day trips is to drive to the O2 and park at the train station there (NOT the O2 car park, which also has exorbitant prices!). It's right next to North Greenwich tube station and costs £11 to park all day (and only £6 on Sundays!). This is not such a good option for an overnighter, so this time we drove to Eltham and parked for free on the street nearish Eltham train station. The only downside is that, although children are free on the Underground, they are not free on the train, so we had to pay for tickets for them to travel into London and back - this was still slightly cheaper than a day's parking, though! Once you're in London, travel is easy. As I mentioned already, children travel free on the tube, which is brilliant. We used our contactless bank cards as the equivalent of Oyster cards - much less hassle and slightly cheaper than buying travelcards. If you only want to make one small journey in London, the tube prices aren't so good but if, like us, you're travelling around, one price for all your travel makes lots of sense and works out pretty reasonable - our journey from Eltham was included in this too.

Food

Let's be honest, eating out is rarely cheap, and a large chunk of any holiday spending usually goes on meals. This is another time when you're at a disadvantage going somewhere in winter, as summer picnics are a cheap option, whether bringing along a packed lunch or buying a sandwich or a pasty form a bakery or supermarket once you're there. Another great option for London in dry/not-cold weather is to grab some street food from Camden Lock market - there are loads of little kiosks selling a variety of different cuisines for not much money. On this break, to keep costs down, we did stop at a supermarket to buy lunch, which we ate while walking. Not the most luxurious lunch, and a bit chilly, but it did the job. We also made sure we filled up at breakfast so that we weren't too hungry. Breakfast turned out to be a very good deal - for just £9 on top of our hotel price, all four of us ate as much breakfast as we wanted. It has to be the best budget hotel breakfast I've ever had, with a big selection of hot and cold food, so none of us were feeling too hungry at lunchtime.

Dinner was probably the most expensive part of the weekend, as we decided we deserved to treat ourselves a little. That said, we still made sure we saved where possible. There are no doubt plenty of cheap and delicious one-off restaurants in London, but I'm not a 'regular' enough to know about them! Plus sometimes, when you're dining with children, it is just easier to go for the chains, where you know they're family-friendly, have kids' menus and provide some sort of activity sheet. We opted for TGI Fridays. The main reason for this was because it had been my birthday a few days before, and I got an email from TGIs, offering me free desserts for my birthday. Sadly, the offer only extended to adults - however, a couple of days later, I got an email with a half-term children's offer for free dessert if they could name ten famous bears (having spent ages thinking up at least 20, in case they needed ten each, no one ever actually asked us!). As we haven't got a local TGIs, there was pulled pork on the menu and the free desserts were huge, we were happy with this. I would recommend signing up to all the chain restaurants, if you can cope with the emails, as there are often offers for money off, two for one or something free. It's also worth checking Facebook pages in advance, especially for smaller/non-chain restaurants. I would also recommend getting hold of a Tastecard or similar if you eat out regularly - we have a Gourmet Society card, which has various offers for various restaurants. They're often not valid for evenings or weekends, and you usually have to book in advance, but you can still get some good deals, and we've more than saved on the cost. Cafe Rouge is one restaurant using the scheme where offers are valid every day and you don't need to book in advance, so we stopped there for dinner at Bluewater on our way home, and got 25% off our bill.

Accommodation

When it comes to staying in London on the cheap, my hotel preference matches my choice of family restaurant - chains are safer. I've stayed in many cheap-but-still-lovely hotels and B&Bs around the country and outside of it, but I've learned that, in London, cheap is usually cheap for a reason. Again, it matters slightly less when you don't have children, but when you're travelling with your family it's extra important that your room is clean and not too small and that your hotel isn't in an undesirable area - or, worse, full of undesirable guests. At least with a chain, you know what you're getting. It may not be cute or quaint, it won't surprise you, but you know you're getting a certain standard. You know it will be clean and comfortable, you know you'll have a TV and a kettle, you know your breakfast is unlikely to give you food-poisoning. I've often stayed in Travelodges in London for reasonable prices, but over the last year or so, I've noticed Holiday Inns are also pricing competitively. It's worth doing lots of research with Travelodge, Holiday Inn and Premier Inn to see what you can find for a reasonable price. The other advantage of the afore-mentioned chains is that all rooms accommodate up to two children for no extra cost, so they're particularly good options for families. The beauty of London is that most places are easy to get to on the tube, so it is worth staying slightly out of the centre for the sake of saving a small fortune. On this occasion, we stayed at the Holiday Inn: London - West, near North Acton tube station, for just £54 for the night (plus our £9 breakfast!). To illustrate what a bargain our room was, I've included my Trip Advisor review below. Of course, I've left out the bit about Finn throwing up all over the bathroom and me having to spend the night on the kids' sofa bed!

Rather grey view from our hotel room - spot The Shard!

We stayed here for a night in February and were very pleased. The check-in was straightforward and friendly. The room was a reasonable size, with a comfy bed and pillows. We stayed as a family, so the sofa bed was made up into a double for the children - not quite so comfy but good enough! There was a flat-screen TV with all the usual Freeview channels (and a little welcome message!) and tea/coffee-making facilities. The bathroom was clean with a large walk-in shower rather than a bath. We couldn't fault breakfast at all - a hot and cold buffet with a large selection including pancakes (always a winner!). It is a little on the outskirts of London but just a couple of minutes walk from North Acton station, which is only 15 minutes from Oxford Circus on the central line. There is also a Tesco Express, a Subway and a couple of other places between the station and the hotel, which is handy. And the hotel's still close enough to central London to get some good views from the higher floors! I've bumped my rating up to 5/5 because of the bargain price we paid - just £63 including breakfast, and the children stayed and ate free. You'd struggle to get a better deal than that in London!