That’s going to massively depend on where you eat. A one-course meal in a pub with a drink shouldn’t run to more than £15 per head. A nice restaurant, however…
I wouldn’t get cabs in London anyway - too expensive, you’ll get stuck in traffic, and the tube is much faster.
I rented a car at the Dublin airport and didn’t get extra insurance. It was no problem. No extra hoops. Likewise, on a previous trip I rented a car in London. Same experience.
As far as the cost of food, we found plenty of good lower cost places, even in the touristy areas. Sometimes it helped to step just a little bit off the main drag, like only a block or so. Those kind of places are also more likely to have the standard traditional food you’re looking for. I found that the food in London supermarkets was very reasonable. A pleasant surprise was Waitrose store brand hard cider in two liter plastic bottles. You could import that over here and sell it to hipsters for 20-25 bucks. Over there it was about 5 dollars. Good stuff.
True about pubs welcoming kids. We went to a pub in Waterford one evening. Got there a little earlyish and good thing we did. While we were having our predinner pints the place started filling up, and by the time our food came the atmosphere could’ve rivaled Chuckie Cheese , kids running all over the place, the waitstaff dodging and weaving, while their parents sat and had pints and drinks on the rocks.
I hear this a lot and I have to say that I’ve not found it to be the case. I visit London for work and leisure often and you can eat very well and very cheaply in London without spending a fortune.
Staying in London is expensive, drinking is relatively expensive, eating and transport is cheap, museums are mostly free.
If you’re in Ireland, go to Iceland. It’s only one sea away.
London can be startlingly cheap for food… if you know where to go.
I almost never go, so wind up in the obvious places and everything’s horrendously expensive there. But when I went with a friend who used to live there we got one of the best and cheapest curries I’ve had in the UK. So… my advice is kidnap a local, I guess?
I guess my mistake was eating at the hotel restaurant. I did get some fish & chips from a place down the street for a more reasonable price.
I was amazed at seeing Starbucks at practically every street corner, amid the centuries old architecture.
London eats.
Find the Cheshire Cheese pub on the Strand. It’s a (refounded) 1667 Sam Smiths pub Dr. Johnson (the dictionary guy) used to frequent. It’s like being inside the Prancing Pony and the food and drink is absolutely excellent.
Across the street is the Tipperary pub that does decent pies.
Bucket of Nails pub near Buckingham Palace/Victoria does a decent fish and chips I seem to recall.
Borough Market is also outstanding for picnic food, and there’s some amazing parks in London.
Go to Shakespeare’s Globe. Don’t ask why, or what to see. JUST GO. Don’t get seats. Get the £5 standing seats, get sore feet but have a fantastic time.
If you’re interested in a tour of Parliament, PM me and I’ll see what I can do.
You may already know about Cotswold Farm Park, 5 miles northwest of Bourton-on-the-Water. You can learn about, pet, and feed all sorts of livestock there - cows, sheep, goats, rabbits. It’s a surefire hit for a family with kids. (Read the reviews on Tripadvisor.)
Hotels, in general, will take your teeth out. Filbert was right with gathering a bit of local knowledge and also finding out which of the chains are worth it for a no frills meal on the run.
Itsu is always a decent bet, plenty of stuff on there for less than a fiver. You could pop into the nearest tesco for 2 litres of tramp-champers (white lightning cider) and for a couple you can end up full and rat-arsed for less than a tenner each. Happy days.
After 7pm Itsu also slash their prices to get rid of the days stock. Good for a cheap evening meal.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
If you can, get a car with the steering wheel on the left like it is here in the U.S… I’ve found that it’s less taxing on the brain than having the wheel on the right and keep ones wits about you to drive on the left. It just made it easier. You’re just driving on the wrong side that way, not driving on the wrong side AND sitting on the wrong side.
www.londoncheapeats.com
Sorted
No no no, terrible idea - you won’t be able to hire one anyway, but it gives you poor visibility at junctions. Seriously not a good idea. It also makes road positioning much harder.
For Norway: You don’t need cash, visa works everywhere. Maybe withdraw a little bit just in case, but it shouldn’t be necessary. In that area, my bet for local delicacies would be various fish dishes. You might be able to find reindeer, but it’ll cost you and I don’t think it’s especially traditional for vestlandet. You should try out raspeball, a ball made out of potato and potato flour, boiled in broth. I don’t drive, but as far as I know the roads along the fjords are thin, windy and in terrible condition, so be careful when driving there.
Absolute Nonsense. I got cars in Ireland, England, and the Caymans with the wheel on the left. It was much easier for me as an American driver then when I was in those places with right wheel cars.
And I had no problem getting a left wheel car. I requested one and got it.
This baffles me, It is either a new development or an old policy or a very niche company. Last year we looked at the practicalities of hiring a LHD car from one of the major companies as we were considering switching to a smaller family car but still need to travel long distances on the continent heavily loaded.
Two things were apparent. None of the major companies we approached provided LHD cars, e.g. for AVIS in their information it states…
And most wouldn’t let us take it from the UK to France, the ones that did charged a fortune.
I don’t recall the company we used in Grand Cayman in 2017. It wasn’t one of the known major ones. The vehicle was a Jeep Wrangler. I believe the company we used in England was Sixt or Europe car. This was in 2012.
I’d have to go back through my credit card records to see what we used in Ireland in 2016. In the beginning they gave me a right wheel stick shift. I thought my brain was going to explode. I drive stick but am used to the gear shifter on the right not left. It was like that game where you pat your head and rub your tummy. I requested a left wheel car and after a brief wait got one.
Good to know, the need for us has now passed but I don’t think either of those were companies we approached last year (after the first four or five companies said “no” we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle). I shall tuck that snippet away for future reference.
Mahalo everyone for the advice… and the warnings! It looks like a different animal than my Poland-Prague-Austria trip last summer.
I checked the rental car company’s policies up and down and there were no restrictions for Ireland. I got the letter from our Chase Sapphire and it specifically says CDW now includes Republic of Ireland. Thanks for helping me double-check that.
London is actually a small part of the trip, just two days at the end. We’re returning the car to the airport, staying by the airport, then taking the 15 minute train in, until we leave from the airport for a couple days. It seemed reasonable. I do not expect to do a comprehensive tour of London’s attractions. Even if we “only” make it to Hamilton and the British Museum, we will have had more than a terrific time in London.
Nervous about driving on the other side of the road, but the first few days I’ll be taking it pretty easy. Just a 1 hour drive to Oxford, explore the campus, then another hour to our Cotwolds B&B. That next day is hiking through the fields and towns (Bourton and the Slaughters). At any rate, we’ll stick the regular drive-right car. I’ll just have to remember to switch back when I start driving in Norway.
For Bergen to Alesund, I’m devoting a whole day to the drive. A bunch of my pals only take smartphone cameras, but I’m lugging the monster Nikon D5. This seems like the perfect opportunity for photos.
I’m not even bothering with Krone in Norway. Using my Credit Cards exclusively, so thanks for the tips. I got Euros as rural Dingle Ireland strikes me as place that takes cash for certain things. For “tips”, rather than cash, we’re bringing over a bunch of Hawaiian chocolate macadamia nuts packs for B&B staff and guides.
I read you can get “L” stickers to put on your car to let people know “dumb American student driver”, but if you get the wrong color, they keep you off expressways. Is this true?
Our family has iPhones from AT&T, but we got a Mi-Fi hotspot for Europe. It comes out to $8 a day, vs $40a day international for all four phones. Can we still get texts in airplane mode? Calls if using “Wi-Fi Calling” (I admit I haven’t tried that)? Or would we need to use something like Whatsapp? Can I make calls to my hotel using that app or Wifi Calling?
On a funny note, last year when we said we were Americans, we got a lot of Trump comments. Then we started saying “We’re from Hawaii”… that got a lot more attention!
Anya put a countdown on her phone for Hamilton. Which is our second-to-the-last day. I hope she remembers to enjoy the rest of the trip!
Can you get texts in WiFi mode? Maybe. I have an iPhone and I can get Apple messages and Facebook messages on WiFi but won’t get android texts.
Most of the time in the UK and Ireland, WiFi doesn’t work with just a password at restaurants, coffeehouses and pubs. You’ll have to register and give an email or phone number to get online. It can be a bit annoying. I went with Verizon’s international plan my last few trips, but I’m a very heavy user of my phone and have plenty of UK friends that I am in contact with while I’m there, making plans and getting their advice.
Trump, Brexit, the European Union may all come up. Just approach it as a thread in GD not like you’re in the BBQ pit.
I still hope you’re not driving on arrival day after a transatlantic flight. I’d never recommend that.