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 London, England Author: Diliff (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5) | ||
Explore London on your ownLondon Budget Travel Guide is a guide for people who intend to visit London on a shoestring budget. I created this guide so that people like me, who loves to explore places on their own, can use it to explore London. On the right column you can find a list of sights, tourist attractions and places of interest in London, arranged in alphabetical order. It's more places than most people care to visit. To help you select where to go, I place a star ( * ) against sights I find to be of considerable significance, and two stars ( * * ) for sights of major significance. This being a budget travel guide, I assume you will be relying on public transport. To me, the easiest way to move about in London is to the the subway, which is called the Underground or the Tube in London. For each sight that I describe, I will try to provide you information on which train to take. Taking the Underground trainsThe London Underground is one of the biggest mass rapid transits in the world. It has over 270 stations, each marked with the Underground logo, that looks like this: London Underground logo Author: Dream out loud (public domain) There are eleven Lines on the Underground, and they are all colour coded. To pay for your journeys, the best way to me is to buy a Travelcard. You can use it anywhere, on the Underground, on the Docklands Light Railway, on the suburban national rail services, among others. London is divided into six Travelcard Zones. If you are going to travel within Central London, then get the Travelcard for zones 1 and 2. Determine the number of zones you will be travelling through, and then go buy your Travelcard. For more details, read Taking the Tube. London Local ToursAt times, it is faster and cheaper simply to join a local tour (not to mention, in some cases, it is your only option). Here are some London local tours which you may want to select to add into your London itinerary. The tours are provided by Viator, a reputable tour organisation.Discovering LondonLondon, the capital of the United Kingdom, is a metropolis on the southeast of England. It is located on the banks of the river Thames, at a Latitude of 51°30'26.66"N and Longitude of 0°7'39.35"W (key this location on Google Earth to find it). When people talk about London, they usually mean Greater London, a metropolitan area that covers 609 square miles (1579 square kilometers). Right at the heart of Greater London is the City of London, the original city that traces its history back to Roman times. Today, the City of London, also called the Square Mile, is the financial centre for London. Along with 32 boroughs, it forms part of Greater London.London is the most affluent region in the United Kingdom, enjoying the highest GDP per capita. It is the center for business, financial, politics, entertainment, fashion, education and cultural activities, among others, not only for the United Kingdom, but also has great influence globally. With a population of 7.5 million, Greater London is the most populous municipality in the European Union. It is unclear how the name "London" came about. There are several possibilities. One source, Geoffrey of Monmouth, as documented in Historia Regum Britanniae, the name of the city was attributed to King Lud from the pre-Roman times, who named the place Kaerlud. Over time, the name Kaerlud became Kaerludein, and eventually became London. According to Richard Coates, a lingustics professor, the name London came from the pre-Celtic word "plowonida", which means "a river too wide to ford". The name Plowonida became Lundonjon, then Lundein. It was Latinised into Londinium, and from there, the Anglo-Saxons called in Lundene. Originally located on the north bank of the river Thames, London has grown to encompass both banks of the river. The Thames enters London from the southwest and flows out from the east. It is surrounded by a few hills including Parliament Hill, Addington Hills and Primrose Hill. London was one of the fastest growing city in the world during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was only overtaken by New York in 1925, though its population continued to grow, peaking at 8.6 million people in 1939. Today, there are about 7.5 million people living in Greater London, although the whole metropolitan area has as much as 14 to 15 million inhabitants in total. Not only is London the biggest city in the United Kingdom, it is 8 times bigger than the second largest British city, Birmingham, and 10 times larger than Glasgow, in No.3 spot. Although London comprises 32 boroughs, to most visitors, the major sightseeing places are in Central London. The name Central London refers to a number of places in London including, in alphabetical order, Bloomsbury, (The) City of London, Clerkenwell, Holborn, Marylebone, Mayfair, South Bank, St. James's and West End (which comprises Soho, Covent Garden, Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Chinatown and Trafalgar Square). Together, the aforementioned places are within the boroughs of Westminster, Camden, Islington, Lambert, Southwark and the whole of the City of London. With a history that stretches well before Roman time, London has many historical sites. Four are inscribed as Unesco World Heritage Sites, namely The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church; the Tower of London; the historic settlement of Greenwich; and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. For lovers of history, London has some of the best museums in the world, some of which are admission free. It has plenty of parks and theatres as well as state-of-the-art attractions such as the London Eye. To cater to the number of visitors entering and leaving London, the city is served by at least five major airports of which Heathrow and Gatwick are the largest and second largest in the United Kingdom. One can also get to London by train, taking the Eurostar from Paris and Brussels. The journey takes about two hours and passes through the 22-mile (35-km) Channel Tunnel. A network of international and domestic long-distance bus services connects London with the rest of the United Kingdom and many cities in Europe. Most of these services serve the Victoria Coach Station or the Green Line Coach Station across the street. How to find accommodation: London HotelsOf course, the easiest way is to book online. But before you do that, it would be wise to check out how much the top Hotel Booking sites are offering for the room you have in mind. You will discover that different site actually offer a different price, and some times different room category, from the same hotel. It is therefore prudent to check and compare prices offered by different Hotel Booking sites before you actually do any booking. You can use our Hotel Room Search Engine. It helps you view prices offered by different hotel booking sites, and compare which is the lowest.Budget Travel to London by PlaneIf you are arriving in London by plane, find out which airport you will be landing. London is served by four major international airports namely Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. In addition, the London City Airport received business planes and chartered flights.Information on London Heathrow
Information on London Gatwick
Information on London Stansted
Information on London Luton
Information on London City AirportBudget Travel to London by TrainYou can go to London by train from Brussels and Paris using the Channel Tunnel. Eurostar operates a high-speed train service between Paris, Brussels and the London terminus at St Pancras International station. The trains reach a speed of 300 kph (180 mph) Eurostar takes 2 hours 15 minutes from Paris and 1 hour 50 minutes from Brussels. It is faster to travel between these destinations by train than to take a plane, as the trains take you directly into the heart of London.Paris - LondonThere are 17 services a day on Mondays to Thursdays, 19 on Fridays, of which 7 are non-stop. The fare is £45.00 for Standard Ticket, £67.00 for Leisure Select and £163.50 for Business Premier.Brussels - LondonThe fare is £38.50 for Standard Ticket, £63.50 for Leisure Select and £125.00 for Business Premier.Note for non-Europeran Economic Area citizensIf you are a national of a non-European Economic Area country, you must complete a landing card before arriving at Eurostar check-in. Landing cards are available from dedicated desks in front of the check-in area and from Eurostar staff. This card must then be handed to UK Immigration staff.Check InCheck in 30 minutes before your train leaves the station. To check in, insert your ticket into the ticket machine. Once the ticket comes out, take it, and walk through the gate with your bags.BaggagesThere's no separate check-in for bags - this is not an aircraft - but they expect you to have not more than two bags and one hand luggage. Take everything straight into the train, yourself. If you are traveling with large and bulky items (a bicycle, for example), or weapons (knives, bows and arrows, etc.), register these items when you check in. Your registered baggage will go on the next available departure space permitting, with a guarantee that you can collect it within 24 hours after registration. You can also send your baggage in advance of your journey to collect when you arrive.Seating Arrangements |
Places of Interest in LondonSo much to see, so little time! You are on a budget and your time is limited. To help you choose, I marked with one star ( * ) sights I find of considerable significance, and two stars ( * * ) for sights of major significance.
Sights Farther AfieldThe following are sights located outside Central London, that is to say, at least 5 km from Trafalgar Square. |
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They say their trains are bigger than a jumbo jets - longer perhaps, but not wider. Which isn't so bad, as there'll be more windows to look through. In the Business Premier seciton, the seating is two on the left of the aisle and one on the right. In the Standard section, it is two on the left of the aisle and two on the right. The seats face each other, so some passengers will be sitting backwards from the direction the train is moving.
Budget Travel to London by BusYou can take a bus to London from various cities and town in the United Kingdom as well as in Europe. The three main bus operators are National Express, Eurolines and Megabus.National ExpressThe largest coach operator in the United Kingdom, National Express has services between London and destinations in England, Scotland and Wales. The buses operate from the Victoria Coach Station - be aware that the arrivals and departures use different buildings. You can book your tickets online at the National Express website.EurolinesAn associate company to National Express, Eurolines has services between London and destinations in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe. Most of its buses use the Victoria Coach Station. To book your tickets, go to the Eurolines website, Eurolines.MegabusMegabus is a low-cost coach operator. Its fare structure is staggered, and tickets can be obtained at a very low price if booked well in advance. Megabus operates routes in England, Wales and Scotland. Visit the Megabus website for details, Megabus.Budget Travel to London by CarAll motorways in England lead to London. Having said that, if you are not familiar with London, it is not advisable to drive into the city. The ring roads are often congested and parking place almost non existent. Still, if you must drive to London, here's a list of petrol filling stations in London. | ||
Find lowest price for your Hotel RoomBefore booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
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