London: Tips for Budget Travellers

London is expensive. No secret there. There's plenty of folks like me who are either unwilling to fork out or simply can't afford to. So how can you make the most of a trip to London without breaking the bank?

Plenty of options there. Here are a few tips from personal experience.

Accommodation

If you're on your own, consider staying in a hostel. As a general rule, this'll work out cheaper. If you're travelling as a group, you can get a hotel room for up to 3 people starting from about £50 a night - which works out as cheap or cheaper per person than a hostel. Think hostelling isn't for you? Check out these tips HERE.

Booking accommodation further from the city centre is cheaper. Just bear in mind that you'll then have to commute into the city to hit the attractions. From experience, the Travelodge at East India Quay balances commute time with cost quite well and my sister would recommend the same at Walthamstow. From both it takes about 30 minutes to get to the centre.

Travel & Transport

Pick up a travelcard or Oyster Card to save on Tube and bus tickets. Fares soon stack up and you can save a fair bit by using a card instead. Alternatively, if you have a contactless card, you can use that - the fares are the same as for an Oyster.

Sometimes it's quicker to switch lines on the Tube instead of running straight through. Transport for London (TfL) website has a journey planner that'll give you the quickest routes.

At Tube stations, move to the end of the platform - end carriages tend to be less busy. You might even manage to grab a seat.

If you're like me and struggle with crowds, avoid the Tube at rush hour - take this to be any time between 7:30-9:30am and about 4:30-7pm.

In central London, skip the Tube/bus altogether. Leicester Square and Covent Garden stations are famously only a few hundred metres apart and likewise, most of the major attractions are within walking distance of each other. You'll see more on foot too.

If you've no fear of heights, take a trip on the Emirates Air Line, the cable car that spans the Thames near the O2 Arena. Fun, if a bit short and only £3.40 if you use Oyster.

For a new view of London, take a trip on a river boat. There's plenty of sight seeing trips, but if you resist the lure of the commentary, you can get the same experience by taking one of the commuter boats and it costs less. It also tends to be less busy than the Tube.

Attractions

Take advantage of the free museums and galleries. Most of the bigger ones - the Natural History Museum, National Gallery, V&A etc - are free entry and also offer free gallery tours.

If you're in a hurry, most of the major museums and galleries have floor plans on their websites. Pick out the bits you really want to see and plan a rough route before you get there. You can easily cover several places in a day doing this if you're in a major rush. You can find mine and my sister's suggestions for London's Highlights in a Day HERE.

Specific to the Natural History Museum - if you want to see the famous Dinosaur Gallery, hit it late in the afternoon to avoid the school groups and the early rush. After 3:30pm during the week seems to be a good time. It's harder at the weekend.

Have a wander around Covent Garden. Assuming you don't go shopping, this is free and it's a great place to people watch - make sure to check out the street entertainment, like this fella up a ladder wearing a kilt while juggling knives. Because, of course.

Take in a bit of theatre. Who cares what you go to see? That said, don't go booking the expensive seats. Sure, your leg room might be a bit compromised, but you usually get just as good a view from the cheaper seats. And if you're really lucky, you might get upgraded for free like my sister and I did when we went to see Henry V at the Barbican.

Take a stroll around one of London's many green spaces. Hyde Park is perhaps the most famous, but why not check out Green Park and St James' Park too? You can go and see Buckingham Palace while you're there.

Speaking of, you can get free entertainment (sort of) by going to see the Changing of the Guard at the Palace. This happens every other day just after 11am. Who wouldn't want to watch a bunch of soldiers in funny hats marching around? Just don't do that typical tourist thing and try to get the sentries to react to you. It's really not funny.

Food

OK, so this applies to most cities, but I'm going to include it anyway: eat your main meal at lunch. Lunch menus tend to be a bit cheaper and some places have daytime discounts. Then you can just grab a sandwich or similar later on in the day while everyone else is forking out to eat.

Eat brunch. Skip breakfast and eat a bit later in the day. If you get a decent enough meal you can then miss lunch as well and just have tea/dinner/whatever the southerners call it... I feel I must point out that I don't usually advocate skipping meals, but this one seems to work. I recommend the lovely Dishoom near Kings Cross for brunch, by the way.

For a quick bite that's no more expensive than, say, any major high street coffee shop, grab something in one of the museum/gallery cafes. You could end up eating in the most amazing surroundings. Check out the cafe at the V&A for example.

Basically, it's not that hard to cut down on costs in London. Get out there and explore!

What would you recommend for folks going to London? Do you know of a cheap place to eat or a great place to stay? Let us know in the comments below.